Sales is a brilliant but tough job. It constantly reminds you how hard it is. Whether it's the prospect who ghosts you, the candidate who takes the counter-offer after you’ve sunk hours into them or the buyer who pulls out a week before completion. Even the deal that was "basically signed" until procurement got involved.
On more difficult days, the right words at the right moment can genuinely help. So we've pulled together 60 encouraging sales quotes, sorted by the moment you're most likely to need them, whether you're a rep having a tough week or a manager looking for something to share with the team.
Each one comes with a quick note on when to use it and who said it.
7 encouraging sales quotes for when you've been knocked back
Rejection comes with the territory. These are for the afternoons when the no's are stacking up and being on the phone feels heavy.
1. "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." Wayne Gretzky. Share it when someone's quietly avoiding the call list after a run of rejections.
2. "I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." Michael Jordan. For anyone taking a lost deal personally. Even the greatest miss a lot.
3. "Fall seven times, stand up eight." Japanese proverb. Short enough for a Slack message, true enough to mean it.
4. "Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall." Oliver Goldsmith (often wrongly credited to Confucius). For the day after a bad day.
5. "Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning." Bill Gates. Use it when a prospect gives feedback that stings but is worth hearing.
6. "A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor." English proverb. Ideal for new starters hitting their first properly tough month.
7. "Every sale has five basic obstacles: no need, no money, no hurry, no desire, no trust." Commonly attributed to Zig Ziglar. Turns a no into a question worth asking: which one was it?
8 encouraging quotes for a slow week or an empty pipeline
Some weeks nothing lands, however hard you work. The trick is trusting that the activity you put in now shows up later.
1. "Don't watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going." Sam Levenson. A good one for the long Thursday afternoon.
2. "It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop." Commonly attributed to Confucius. For the rep whose pipeline is building, just not quickly.
3. "Great things are done by a series of small things brought together." Vincent van Gogh, in a letter to his brother Theo. A reminder that every call, viewing and demo counts towards something.
4. "Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going." Commonly attributed to Jim Ryun. Share it when enthusiasm has worn off but the routine still matters.
5. "Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can." Commonly attributed to Arthur Ashe. For anyone overwhelmed by how far they are from target.
6. "Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard." Tim Notke, a US high school basketball coach. Perfect for the grafter quietly outworking the room.
7. "Eighty percent of success is showing up." Woody Allen. On a slow week, simply showing up and doing the basics well is the job.
8. "Energy and persistence conquer all things." Commonly attributed to Benjamin Franklin. Short, punchy and ideal for a Monday huddle slide.
8 motivational sales quotes to start the week
Monday morning sets the tone and these motivational sales quotes are made for the huddle, the team email or the first message in the group chat.
1. "You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great." Commonly attributed to Zig Ziglar. For the first call of the week that nobody wants to make.
2. "Well begun is half done." Old proverb, quoted by Aristotle. A nudge to plan the week properly before diving in.
3. "Eat that frog." Brian Tracy. His rule for productivity: do the hardest task first. In sales, that's usually the call you've been putting off.
4. "Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves." Commonly attributed to Dale Carnegie. Pairs nicely with the frog.
5. "The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now." Proverb. For the rep who wishes they'd started prospecting last month.
6. "Don't count the days, make the days count." Commonly attributed to Muhammad Ali. A good one for the last full week of the month.
7. "Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible." Tony Robbins. Share it when the team is setting weekly activity targets.
8. "If you don't know where you are going, you'll end up someplace else." Yogi Berra. A gentle, slightly daft reminder to have a plan.
7 quotes for when a deal falls through
It never stops stinging, but it doesn't have to derail the month.
1. "It's fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure." Bill Gates. Use it in the post-mortem, once the dust has settled.
2. "I really think a champion is defined not by their wins but by how they can recover when they fall." Commonly attributed to Serena Williams. For the morning after the big one got away.
3. "Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal." Commonly attributed to Henry Ford. Helps shift the focus from what's gone to what's next.
4. "Champions keep playing until they get it right." Billie Jean King. A reminder that one lost deal isn't the final score.
5. "If you are not taking care of your customer, your competitor will." Bob Hooey. Honest rather than cosy, and worth sharing after a lost renewal.
6. "You don't close a sale, you open a relationship if you want to build a long-term, successful enterprise." Patricia Fripp. The client who said no today might come back next year, so leave the door open.
7. "Be so good they can't ignore you." Steve Martin. For when you've lost out to a competitor and want to make sure it doesn't happen twice.
8 motivational sales quotes on resilience and mindset
The best salespeople aren't the ones who never have a bad day. They're the ones who don't let a bad day turn into a bad month.
1. "Pressure is a privilege." Billie Jean King. Four words that reframe a high-stakes pitch rather nicely.
2. "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." Will Durant, summarising Aristotle. Widely credited to Aristotle himself, but the wording is Durant's. Ideal for teams building better daily routines.
3. "Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude." Commonly attributed to Zig Ziglar. Classic sales-floor wisdom, and it still holds up.
4. "Quality performance starts with a positive attitude." Jeffrey Gitomer. Short and simple, for the start of a big week.
5. "I hated every minute of training, but I said, 'Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.'" Commonly attributed to Muhammad Ali. For anyone grinding through a tough ramp-up period.
6. "Thinking Correctly Under Pressure." Sir Clive Woodward. The "T-CUP" principle behind England's 2003 Rugby World Cup win. Handy before a negotiation or a big close.
7. "Opportunities don't happen. You create them." Chris Grosser. For the rep waiting for inbound to rescue their month.
8. "Stay hungry, stay foolish." Steve Jobs, quoting the Whole Earth Catalog. A reminder to keep learning, however long you've been selling.
7 quotes about hitting targets
Whether it's placements, completions or closed-won revenue, the number matters. These are for the final push of the month or quarter.
1. "It ain't over till it's over." Yogi Berra. The unofficial motto of every last week of the quarter.
2. "The aggregation of marginal gains." Sir Dave Brailsford. The philosophy behind British Cycling's success: improve lots of small things by 1% and the results add up. Works just as well for call rates and conversion.
3. "Skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been." Wayne Gretzky, crediting his father Walter. For planning next quarter's pipeline while still closing this one.
4. "Plans are worthless, but planning is everything." Dwight D. Eisenhower. A fair summary of any forecasting meeting.
5. "The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph." Thomas Paine. For the rep who's still in with a chance on the last day.
6. "Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out." Commonly attributed to Robert Collier. Share it when a target feels too big to face in one go.
7. "Approach each customer with the idea of helping him or her solve a problem or achieve a goal, not of selling a product or service." Brian Tracy. A useful reset for anyone chasing the number so hard they've forgotten the customer.
7 quotes to celebrate wins and teamwork
Sales can feel like a solo sport, but the best results usually come from a team pulling in the same direction. Use these for shout-outs, end-of-month wrap-ups and the moment the bell gets rung.
1. "Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships." Commonly attributed to Michael Jordan. For the month the whole team hits target, not just the top biller.
2. "Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much." Commonly attributed to Helen Keller. A nice fit for deals that took sales, support and ops to get over the line.
3. "Individual commitment to a group effort: that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilisation work." Vince Lombardi. Worth sharing when someone helped a colleague close.
4. "The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team." Phil Jackson. For team competitions where everyone's contribution counts.
5. "Celebrate what you want to see more of." Tom Peters. Less a quote to share, more a rule for managers. Recognise the behaviour, not just the result.
6. "None of us is as smart as all of us." Ken Blanchard. A good opener for a deal review or team brainstorm.
7. "Teamwork makes the dream work." John C. Maxwell. Yes, it's a bit cheesy. It's also true.
8 motivational quotes for sales leaders and managers
Managing a sales team is a different job from selling. These are for the people whose success now depends on everyone else's.
1. "Leadership is not about being in charge. It is about taking care of those in your charge." Simon Sinek. A useful check-in for any manager having a pressured month.
2. "Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others." Jack Welch. Perfect for newly promoted team leads.
3. "Coaching is unlocking a person's potential to maximise their own performance." Sir John Whitmore. From the British pioneer of performance coaching, and a good definition to hold yourself to.
4. "Feedback is the breakfast of champions." Commonly attributed to Ken Blanchard. Share it before one-to-ones, then actually give the feedback.
5. "A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way." John C. Maxwell. For the manager who still picks up the phone alongside the team.
6. "Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around his or her neck that says, 'Make me feel important.'" Mary Kay Ash. Works for customers and your own team alike.
7. "Good management consists in showing average people how to do the work of superior people." Commonly attributed to John D. Rockefeller. The case for coaching the middle of the leaderboard, not just the top.
8. "The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things." Commonly attributed to Ronald Reagan. A reminder that your team's results are now your results.
Want to see which behaviours are really driving your team's results? See how sales leaders use OneUp to recognise the right activity, not just the final number.
