65 Motivational Sales Quotes to Inspire Your Team in 2024

Motivational sales quotes may seem unnecessary, but the truth is, you need them…

First, it’s not easy being a salesperson today.

Negativity can run rampant when you deal with exponentially more Nos than Yeses

And cold calling?

It’s no secret that you have to go through a lot of cold calling (eight touches, in fact), to reach a prospect. Not to mention, there’s no guarantee the prospect will even say yes to a meeting.

Second, opportunities are abundant today more than ever. With more than 4.02 billion users on the Internet today, leads and prospects are plentiful. You just have to go out and sell to them. 

If you don’t have the right mindset, you won’t capitalize on all these opportunities. You must be able to stay positive and motivated.

To help with that, here are 36 motivational sales quotes that will inspire you, encourage your team, and help you rise to the occasion.

Motivational Quotes on Failure and Perseverance

“Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill

“The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.” – Thomas Paine

“Hard work is about risk. It begins when you deal with the things that you’d rather not deal with: fear of failure, fear of standing out, fear of rejection. Hard work is about training yourself to leap over this barrier, drive through the other barrier. And after you’ve done that, to do it again the next day.” – Seth Godin

“Don’t take it personally.” – Grant Olsen

“I got lucky because I never gave up the search. Are you quitting too soon? Or are you willing to pursue luck with a vengeance?” – Jill Konrath

“Hard work may not always result in success but it will never result in regret.” – Michael Lewis, Moneyball. 

“Never wish that life were easier, wish that you were better” – Jim Rohn

“Rome wasn’t built in a day, but they were laying bricks every hour.” – John Heywood

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

RELATED: 15 Non-Financial Sales Incentives to Motivate Your Sales Team

Inspirational Quotes on Attitude

inspirational quotes on attitude

“Sales are contingent upon the attitude of the salesman — not the attitude of the prospect.” – W Clement Strong.

“You don’t have to be an expert… As long as you know significantly more than the person you are teaching or providing value to, then your level of knowledge is probably sufficient.” – MyWifeQuitHerJob

“For every sale you miss because you were too enthusiastic, you’ll miss a hundred because you weren’t enthusiastic enough.” – Zig Ziglar

“Grit, in a word, is stamina. But it’s not just stamina in your effort. It’s also stamina in your direction, stamina in your interests. If you are working on different things but all of them very hard, you’re not really going to get anywhere. You’ll never become an expert.” – Angela Duckworth

“Find the top 10% salesman in my field and find out what they do differently.” – Brian Tracy, The Psychology of Selling” 

“Work like someone is actively trying to take everything away from you. Like someone else is using there 24 hours in a day to take away everything you are working for.” – Mark Cuban

Empowering Quotes For Every Sales Team

How to Prospect Better 

“There is no easy button in sales. Prospecting is hard, emotionally draining work, and it is the price you have to pay to earn a high income.” – Jeb Blount

“Start working with your prospects as if they’ve already hired you.” – Jill Konrath

“The key is not to call the decision-maker. The key is to have the decision-maker call you.” – Jeffrey Gitomer

“It’s 2019 and the days of people being susceptible to cheesy, sleazy, sales ads are long gone.” – Hailey Lucas

“Train your prospects to pay attention and to open and read emails that you send. Don’t encourage them to ignore or delete your messages because they are of inconsistent or no value to them.” – Bridget Gleason

“Content is the fuel for your lead generation efforts.” – Dayna Rothman

“Keep your sales pipeline full by prospecting continuously. Always have more people to see than you have time to see them.” – Brian Tracy

“Being busy is a form of laziness — lazy thinking and indiscriminate action. Being busy is most often used as a guise for avoiding the few critically important but uncomfortable actions.” – Tim Ferriss

“Companies should be selling ideas more than benefits. Sell Ideas. Not stuff.” –Aaron Ross

Begin New Relationships With Your Customers

inspirational sales quotes

“Good customer service is the key to success in our modern business landscape.” – GetVOIP 

“You don’t close a sale; you open a relationship if you want to build a long-term, successful enterprise.” – Patricia Fripp

“In 2021, over 3 billion people will use social media. Your social strategy should complement your on-site sales rather than stand-alone. In short, you need effective on-site integration of various social media platforms to seal the deal with social customers.” – Brent Barnhart

“Selling is really about having conversations with people and helping improve their company or their life.” – Lori Richardson

“Humanize the sales process or perish.” – Steli Efti

“Customers don’t care at all whether you close the deal or not. They care about improving their business. It’s easy to forget this in the heat of a sales cycle.” – Aaron Ross

“Remember to send your clients reminder emails before the jobs have started or even thank you emails after.” – Housecall Pro

“The first impression is the last impression. The way you show them yourself that you are in the moment. That you are present with them will dictate how the relationship goes. The way you dress, the way you shake their hand or hug them, the way you make them feel is all more important than you think.” – Ryan Serhant

“All things being equal – people will do business with and refer business to those people they know, like, and trust.” – Bo Burg, The Go-Giver

RELATED: Relationship Selling: Definition, Techniques, and Examples

Construct Powerful Sales Strategies

“Buyers do business with you, not with your company and not with your technology.” – Joanne Black

“Indulge your customers through engaging storytelling” – Ecom Academy

“After a positive experience, 83% of customers would be happy to provide a referral” – MyRoofingPal

“Success is where preparation and opportunity meet.” – Bobby Unser

“Every dollar makes sense.” – Lyfe Accounting

“If you do not have a defined process that moves your people forward so they can achieve greater results, then what is it you are managing?” – Keith Rosen

“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

“Treat objections as requests for further information.” – Brian Tracy

“The new reality is that sales and marketing are continuously and increasingly integrated. Marketing needs to know more about sales, sales needs to know more about marketing, and we all need to know more about our customers.” – Jill Rowley

“An empowered buyer is exactly what a sales and marketing organization should be targeting. Sales and marketing should unite to determine who their ideal customer is and how to reveal their latent pain and to move the customer to a place where they are more successful because of the product or service being offered.” – Claudine Bianchi

“Win by a nose, most sales aren’t won because of some huge difference in product, sales pitch, etc; it is usually won by some marginal difference.” – Brian Tracy, The Psychology of Selling

“Remember, people don’t believe it when WE say it, they believe it when THEY say it,” – Shari Levitin

RELATED: The Top 8 Sales Methodologies to Consider for Your Business

Quotes on Daily Improvement

quotes on daily improvement

“It comes down to executing well — actually improving upon what you already have — to see the clear return on investment.” – Brad Smith

“Let the improvement of yourself keep you so busy that you have no time to criticize others.” – Roy T. Bennett

“The barrier during self-improvement is not so much that we hate learning, rather we hate being taught. To learn entails that the knowledge was achieved on one’s own accord — it feels great — but to be taught often leaves a feeling of inferiority. Thus it takes a bit of determination and a lot of humility in order for one to fully develop.” –  Criss Jami

“Repainting your house the same color it already was feels like a waste. It’s a lot of effort merely to keep things as they are. But if you don’t do it, time and entropy kick in, and the house starts to fade. The same can be said for 1,000 elements of your organization, including your relationships with customers, staff, suppliers, and technology. The way you approach your market, the skill you bring to your craft, the culture in your organization—it constantly needs another coat of paint. Rust never sleeps.”- Seth Godin

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

RELATED: 15 Sales Skills Anyone Can Learn to Be a Great Salesperson

Motivational Sales Quotes for New Sales Reps

The harder you work for something, the greater you’ll feel when you achieve it.” – Unknown

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” – Albert Schweitzer

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

“Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.” – Zig Ziglar

“Every sale has five basic obstacles: no need, no money, no hurry, no desire, no trust.” – Zig Ziglar

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” – Mark Twain

“The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack in will.” – Vince Lombardi

“Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill

“Success is not in what you have, but who you are.” – Bo Bennett

“Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.” – John D. Rockefeller

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

“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” – Peter Drucker

“Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.” – Henry David Thoreau

“The more you engage with customers, the clearer things become and the easier it is to determine what you should be doing.” – John Russell

“Success is not just about making money. It’s about making a difference.” – Unknown

How to Use Motivational Sales Quotes

If your sales team feels stuck in a rut, we recommend reading these quotes before starting the day. 

RELATED: Sales Meeting Ideas to Keep Your Team Motivated and Focused

Motivational quotes are great ways to help your team move forward despite the difficulties that lay ahead.

Humans are naturally aspirational. When times get tough, many of us turn to motivational quotes for a bit of inspiration. However, collecting quotes in a Google doc and sharing them with your team will rarely prompt the action you desire.

The secret is in the delivery. If you share the right quote under the right context, then you’re more likely to inspire others. Here are a few ways you can use motivational sales quotes:

Team Meeting Slides – Make it a recurring segment in your team meetings or stand-ups to share a single quote that’s relevant to your current goals or dilemma. Lead with it and prompt some group discussion or end on an inspiring quote to add a final boost to the team’s morale.

Slack Shoutouts – Your team needs motivation throughout their day. Chances are they’re slogging through some cold calls or just got rejected for the fifth time today and could use a pick me up. A well-placed quote can make all the difference.

Coaching – People rarely remember numbers, but stories are a different story. If you can provide a story to build the background for a quote, you’re providing more weight. It’s hard to forget a good story, and sometimes a simple quote from the story is all it takes to provide fuel for the next call.

Performance Reviews – Annual and quarterly reviews often come with a combination of praise and criticism. Thread quotes into your talk track or slides to drive the point home and remind them that greatness is attainable.

Physical reminders – Engraved items for their desk, posters hanging around the office, whiteboards, TV screens, and computer wallpapers are all ripe for posting motivational sales quotes. For many of those options, you can change them up on a regular basis, so they don’t begin to blend in and lose their meaning.

Social Media – Your team is already on social media most of the day finding prospects and posting their own content to attract potential buyers, so why not pop into their feed with a little motivation? You can even design posters with a motivational quote to share on social media, and brighten up someones day. If you’re not familiar with poster design, then use the online poster maker tool where you will find a motivational poster template to create professional posters in minutes.

As you can see, there’s a wide variety of ways you can thread motivational sales quotes into the day-to-day. Ultimately, it’s about striking the right balance between inspiring your team and not coming across as cheesy or overly optimistic. Strive to inspire but also be real with your team and bring light to challenging situations.

Remember, the greatest leaders in history had to overcome rejections, failures, and setbacks. In fact, it was their perseverance that helped them reach unimaginable successes.

Start by turning rejection and difficulties into your advantage today.

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