Hey everyone, Lorraine here from Drift’s SDR team 👋
Let’s talk about one of the hardest parts of sales: staying motivated and positive after you’ve been rejected.
Sales reps everywhere are being hung up on, having their emails ignored, and being told “No.” It happens to me at least five times a day.
But guess what? If you’re not getting out of your comfort zone (and getting told “No” more times in a day than “Yes”), then you’re not growing.
Here’s some wisdom from Drift CEO David Cancel on why comfort is the enemy of growth 👇
One of the best ways to keep going when rejection hits? Hearing (or reading) the right inspirational quote.
We’re breaking down our favorite sales quotes into three sections:
Ready to get inspired?
Motivational & Inspirational Sales Quotes
1. “The biggest challenge in business is not the competition, it’s what goes on inside your own head.” – Barbara Corcoran
2. “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” – Wayne Gretzky
3. “I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took an excuse.” – Florence Nightingale
4. “You just can’t beat the person who never gives up.” – Babe Ruth
5. “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
6.“Before LinkedIn and other social networks, in the sales world, ABC stood for Always Be Closing. Now it means Always Be Connecting.” – Jill Rowley
7. “How you sell matters. What your process is matters. But how your customers feel when they engage with you matters more.” – Tiffani Bova
8. “Keep your sales pipeline full by prospecting continuously. Always have more people to see than you have time to see them.” – Brian Tracy
9. “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” – Mark Twain
10. “Motivation will almost always beat mere talent.” – Norman Ralph Augustin
11. “The most unprofitable item ever manufactured is an excuse.” – John Mason
12. “The man who will use his skill and constructive imagination to see how much he can give for a dollar, instead of how little he can give for a dollar, is bound to succeed.” – Henry Ford
13. “If you keep on doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep on getting what you’ve always got.” – W. L. Bateman
14. “Ninety percent of selling is conviction, and 10 percent is persuasion.” – Shiv Khera
15. “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
16. “An effective process has the reps thinking in terms of ‘them’ as opposed to ‘us.’“ – Trish Bertuzzi
17. “One of the best predictors of ultimate success … isn’t natural talent or even industry expertise, but how you explain your failures and rejections.” – Daniel H. Pink
18. “It is not your customer’s job to remember you. It is your obligation and responsibility to make sure they don’t have the chance to forget you.” – Patricia Fripp
19. “We must focus on purposes instead of just setting goals, for long-term vision is what keeps us from being frustrated by short-term failure.” – Dan Clark
20. “Dreams don’t work unless you do.” – John C. Maxwell
21. ‘Without hustle, your talent will only get you so far.” – Gary Vaynerchuck
22. “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
23. “I hated every minute of training, but I thought to myself, ‘Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.'” – Muhammad Ali
24. “Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.” – Jim Ryun
25. “If you aren’t going all the way, why go at all?” – Joe Namath
26. “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
27. “Work until your bank account looks like a phone number.” – Unknown
28. “Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it’s always your choice.” – Wayne Dyer
29. “Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” – Thomas Edison
30. “There will be obstacles. There will be doubters. There will be mistakes. But with hard work, there are no limits.” – Michael Phelps
31. “Value the relationship more than your quota.” – Jeffrey Gitomer
32. “Nothing will work unless you do.” – Maya Angelou
33. “Action is the foundational key to all success.” – Pablo Picasso
34. “Great things are done by a series of small things done together.” – Vincent van Gogh
35. “Leaders foster collaboration by building trust and facilitating relationships. They strengthen others by increasing self-determination and developing competence.” – Deb Calvert
36. “Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day-in, and day-out.” – Robert Collier
37. “There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.” – Beverly Sills
38. “Prospecting – find the man with the problem.” – Ben Friedman
Positive & Funny Sales Quotes
39. “You have to drop your sales mentality and start working with your prospects as if they’ve already hired you.” – Jill Konrath
40. “Business opportunities are like buses; there’s always another one coming.” – Richard Branson
41. “Sales success comes after you stretch yourself past your limits on a daily basis.” – Omar Periu
42. “Don’t sell life insurance. Sell what life insurance can do.” – Ben Feldman
43. “Nobody likes to be sold to, but everybody likes to buy.” – Earl Taylor
44. “It is the cold that is dead – not the calling… I agree that no one should be “cold” calling anymore – meaning having a name & number, but lacking a compelling reason to call.” – Trish Bertuzzi
45. “Success is a science; if you have the conditions, you get the result.” – Oscar Wilde
46. “When I hear somebody sigh, “Life is hard”, I am always tempted to ask, “Compared to what?” – Sydney J. Harris
47. “A fool with a (sales) tool is still a fool” – Jill Rowley
48. “Fall down seven times and stand up eight.” – Proverb
49. “I design, manufacture, distribute, and sell elevator buttons. I specialize in the fourth floor. And I don’t mean to brag, but I’m such a good salesman that I could sell one of my fourth-floor elevator buttons to the owner of a three-story building.” – Jarod Kintz
50. “The difference between try and triumph is just a little umph!” – Marvin Phillips
51. “I am who I am today because of the choices I made yesterday.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
52. “Set your goals high, and don’t stop till you get there.” – Bo Jackson
53. “[Sales and marketing] have to start talking to each other. They’ve got to stop spilling each other’s beers.” – Ann Handley
54. “I’ve worked too hard and too long to let anything stand in the way of my goals. I will not let my teammates down and I will not let myself down.” – Mia Hamm
55. “Hey, here’s a gourd!’ is not so different as, ‘Hey, here’s enterprise sales software!’ The language changes, but the humans are the same.” – Chris Pen
56. “A mediocre person tells. A good person explains. A superior person demonstrates. A great person inspires others to see for themselves.” – Harvey Mackay
57. “The only thing that’s keeping you from getting what you want is the story you keep telling yourself.” – Tony Robbins
58. “I think the biggest mistake that salespeople make today is that they try to pretend they’re not salespeople.” – Irreverent Sales Girl
59. “Don’t with it was easier, wish you were better. Don’t wish for fewer problems, wish for more skills. Don’t wish for fewer challenges, wish for more wisdom. For things to change, you have to change.” – Jim Rohn
Closing Sales Quotes
60. “People don’t just buy your products that they can see; they buy your attitude that they can sense.” – Roxanne Emmerich
61. “Buyers do business with YOU, not with your company and not with technology.” – Joanne Black
62. “Get closer than ever to your customers. So close that you tell them what they need well before they realize it themselves.” – Steve Jobs
63. “The best sales questions have your expertise wrapped into them.” – Jill Konrath
64. “Sales are contingent upon the attitude of the salesman – not the attitude of the prospect.” – W. Clement Stone
65. “Merely satisfying customers will not be enough to earn their loyalty. Instead, they must experience exceptional service worthy of their repeat business and referral. Understand the factors that drive this customer revolution.” – Rick Tate
66. “If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.” – Milton Berle
67. “Fear is the destroyer of dreams and the killer of ambitions.” – Jeffrey Benjamin
68. “Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is.” – Vince Lombardi
69. “No amount of pre-call planning is going to help close business if you aren’t able to ask for what you need in order to conduct business. It’s a classic case of working on the wrong end of the problem.” – Colleen Stanley
70. “Most people think ‘selling’ is the same as ‘talking’. But the most effective salespeople know that listening is the most important part of their job.” – Roy Bartell
71. “Every sale has five obstacles: no need, no money, no hurry, no desire, no trust.” – Zig Ziglar
72. “Champions keep playing until they get it right.” – Billie Jean King
73. “On any given Monday I am one sale closer and one idea away from being a millionaire.” – Larry D. Turner
74. “High-level buyers want to talk to people who know more than they do. They hunger not for information but insight.” – Barbara Weaver Smith
75. “Companies should be selling ideas more than benefits. Sell Ideas. Not stuff.” – Aaron Ross
76. “Failure is not the falling down, but the staying down.” – Mary Pickford
77. “Selling is really about having conversations with people and helping improve their company or their life.” – Lori Richardson
78. “If you don’t believe in what you’re selling, neither will your prospect.” – Frank Bettger
79. “In sales, a referral is the key to the door of resistance.” – Bo Bennett
80. “Chase the vision, not the money; the money will end up following you.” – Tony Hsieh
81. “Make a customer, not a sale.” – Katherine Barchetti
82. “If you are not taking care of your customer, your competitor will.” – Bob Hooey
83. “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
84.”Your expertise has tremendous value. You are offering your expertise, not asking to be hired.” – Leah Neaderthal
85. “People trust more, listen more, buy more when they learn about you from someone they respect and trust.” – Jennifer Gluckow
86. “It ain’t over ’til it’s over.” – Yogi Berra
87. “People don’t buy because what you do is awesome. People buy because it makes them feel awesome.” – Tara Gentile
88. “You don’t need a big close, as many sales reps believe. You risk losing your customer when you save all the good stuff for the end. Keep the customer actively involved throughout your presentation and watch your results improve.” – Harvey Mackay
89. “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
90. “Never say more than is necessary.” – Richard Brinsley Sheridan
91. “I have never worked a day in my life without selling. If I believe in something, I sell it, and I sell it hard.” – Estée Lauder
92. “Yes is the destination – No is how you get there.” – Andrea Waltz
93. “In the world of Internet Customer Service, it’s important to remember your competitor is only one mouse click away.” – Doug Warner
94. “The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.” – Thomas Paine
95. “The one thing you’re putting off or dreading? That’s your brain telling you it’s the thing you need to do most and next. Get it done. Stop dreading. Do.“ – Nancy Nardin
96. “The trust that a customer has in your company and in you strongly outweighs the techniques you use to sell. Establishing trust is better than any sales technique.” – Mike Puglia
97. “Sometimes, the most influential thing we can do is listen.” – Bob Burg
98. “I never see failure as failure, but only as the game I must play and win.” – Tom Hopkins
99. “Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.” – Conrad Hilton
What are you still doing here?
Bookmark these quotes. Email them around to your sales team. Whatever it takes to keep you inspired.
Like any job, some days in your sales role will be tough. As Michael Phelps says, there will be obstacles. There will be doubters. There will be mistakes. But with hard work, there are no limits.
That’s all I’ve got. Keep your head up – and keep selling 💰
Editor’s Note: This article was published in December 2019 and has been updated to reflect new information.
