68 inspiring sales quotes to motivate you and your sales team

Sales is a hard job (and running a sales team is even harder), so tough days are inevitable.

Salespeople often face difficult clients, an array of objections and missed quotas that can lead to a lack of motivation.

All you can do is pick yourself up off the ground and begin each day with a fresh perspective and a positive attitude. We think this motivational sales quote from Zig Ziglar perfectly captures that spirit:

Sometimes, all you need is an inspirational sales quote to refocus your energy and tackle your sales pipeline.

Whether you don’t have it in you to make another sales call out of fear of rejection, or you’re feeling inadequate about your abilities and performance metrics, there’s a quote to help you to hop back into your sales cycle and generate a quality performance.

Here are 68 motivational sales quotes any sales professional or sales manager should keep in their back pocket for those days when you're feeling uninspired in your profession or business.

Motivational sales quotes

1. “If you are not taking care of your customer, your competitor will.” – Bob Hooey

2. "Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is." – Vince Lombardi

3. “Chase the vision, not the money; the money will end up following you.” – Tony Hsieh

4. “Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around his or her neck that says, ‘Make me feel important.’ Not only will you succeed in sales, you will succeed in life.” – Mary Kay Ash

5. "Ninety percent of selling is conviction and 10 percent is persuasion." – Shiv Khera

6. “I like to think of sales as the ability to gracefully persuade, not manipulate, a person or persons into a win-win situation.” – Bo Bennett

7. “Don’t find customers for your products, find products for your customers.” – Seth Godin

8. “Make a customer, not a sale.” – Katherine Barchetti

9. “In sales, a referral is the key to the door of resistance.” – Bo Bennett

10. “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” – Bill Gates

11. “A-B-C. Always Be Closing.” – Blake in Glengarry Glen Ross

12. “You're only as good as your last sale, so you put your all into something and just hope that from that you can get your next job." – Josh Peck

13. “Turn up the volume of your computer speakers before making calls. You may hear money talk.” – Pipedrive

Motivational business quotes

1. “Either you run the day, or the day runs you.” – Jim Rohn

2. “Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn't matter whether you're the lion or a gazelle – when the sun comes up, you'd better be running.” – Christopher McDougall

3. “Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” – Will Rogers

4. “Trouble is only opportunity in work clothes.” – Henry J. Kaiser

5. “80% of success is showing up.” – Woody Allen

6. “You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.” – Wayne Gretzky

7. “Don’t wish it were easier, wish you were better.” – Jim Rohn

8. “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” – Anais Nin

9. “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” – Napoleon Hill

10. “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” – Winston Churchill

11. “Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don’t recognize them.” – Ann Landers

12. “Focus on being productive instead of being busy.” – Tim Ferriss

13. "We're not here to take part, we're here to take over." – Conor McGregor

14. “By working faithfully eight hours a day, you may eventually get to be boss and work twelve hours a day.” – Robert Frost

15. “Time is the friend of the wonderful business, the enemy of the mediocre.” – Warren Buffett

16. “Don't watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going.” – Sam Levenson

17. “Timing, perseverance, and ten years of trying will eventually make you look like an overnight success.” – Biz Stone

18. “Goals allow you to control the direction of change in your favour.” – Brian Tracy

19. "Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great." – John D. Rockefeller

20. “If you're offered a seat on a rocket ship, don't ask what seat! Just get on.” – Sheryl Sandberg

21. “The expert in anything was once a beginner.” – Helen Hayes

22. “Be so good, they can’t ignore you.” – Steve Martin

General motivational quotes

1. “The best revenge is massive success.” – Frank Sinatra
2. "Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do." – John R. Wooden
3. "The secret of getting ahead is getting started." – Mark Twain
4. “A goal is a dream with a deadline.” – Napoleon Hill
5. "Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible." – Tony Robbins
6. "Well done is better than well said." – Benjamin Franklin
7. “Some men see things as they are and ask why … I dream of things that never were and ask why not?” – Robert Kennedy
8. "The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus." – Bruce Lee
9. “If you were happy every day of your life, you wouldn't be human, you'd be a game show host.” – Gabriel Heather
10. “If you're going through hell, keep going.” – Winston Churchill
11. “Tough times never last, but tough people do.” – Robert Schuller
12. “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I – I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” – Robert Frost
13. “Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill
14. “Success is the culmination of failures, mistakes, false starts, confusion, and the determination to keep going anyway.” – Nick Gleason
15. “You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing and falling over.” – Richard Branson
16. “Fall seven times, stand up eight.” – Japanese Proverb
17. “You just can't beat the person who never gives up.” – Babe Ruth
18. “The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.” – Vince Lombardi
19. “Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.” – Babe Ruth
20. “A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.” – David Brinkley
21. “Success is never final, failure is never fatal. It's courage that counts.” – John Wooden
22. “Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” – Dale Carnegie
23. “Today is always the most productive day of your week.” – Mark Hunter

Top 10 inspirational sales quotes from Zig Ziglar, the king of sales quotes

You’ve probably heard of a lot of these sales quotes already – they’re just that good! These selling quotations come from Zig Ziglar, who was an American author, salesman and motivational speaker.

1. “People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.”
2. “If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.”
3. “For every sale you miss because you're too enthusiastic, you will miss a hundred because you're not enthusiastic enough.”
4. “Every choice you make has an end result.”
5. "Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude."
6. “It’s easier to explain price once than to apologize for quality forever.”
7. “Remember that failure is an event, not a person. Yesterday ended last night.”
8. “Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days.”
9. “If people like you, they’ll listen to you, but if they trust you, they’ll do business with you.”
10. “If you are not willing to learn, no one can help you. If you are determined to learn, no one can stop you.”

You’ve got this

Whether you’re a manager looking to inspire your sales team and help them get to the other side of fear, or looking for inspiration from great salespeople for yourself, there are endless outlets to find it. Sales reps should learn how to self-motivate throughout the sales process and trust their sales skills. An important part of their job is learning how to get to the other side of fear and overcoming their perceived greatest weaknesses by facing challenges head on.

They can’t do it alone, however. An effective sales strategy requires great sales management, and motivating your team members and encouraging them to break out of their comfort zone is a huge part of that.

Use some of the inspirational sales quotes we listed here in your daily or weekly check-in emails, or look through social media platforms like Linkedin for inspiring stories, sales tips and more motivational sales quotes.

Then, find a way to memorize your favorite selling quotations to encourage you throughout the day and drive towards sales success.

If these help you, they’ll likely help someone else! Feel free to pass these along to a sales team member who may need a little pick-me-up, or leave your favorite motivational quote in the comments below.

Remember, confidence is half the battle.