55 Sales Quotes

“The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude.” -Quote by Oprah Winfrey
An overlooked and underutilized tool for salespeople is the use of quotes. Sales quotes can serve two main purposes.
 
First, quotes can motivate and inspire to do your own introspection for your committed self-development. They can be the catalyst needed to commit to professionalism.
 
Second, sales quotes can serve as selling tools to provide additional logic and emotion for your clients. A well-stated and well-timed quote from an acknowledged and respected thinker can be just the thing to heighten the prospect’s insights and emotions to bring them to a level of urgency needed for them to act.

Sales Quotes for Career Development

Attitude- “Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.” —Lou Holtz

Attitude– “Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.” —Albert Einstein

Communication- “We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.” — Epictetus

Communication- “Communication is a skill that you can learn. It’s like riding a bicycle or typing. If you’re willing to work at it, you can rapidly improve the quality of evry part of your life.” —Brian Tracy

Experience- “Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely.” —Auguste Rodin

Experience- “Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.” —Rita Mae Brown

Failure- “A man can fail many times, but he isn’t a failure until he begins to blame somebody else.” —John Burroughs

Failure- “For every failure, there’s an alternative course of action. You just have to find it. When you come to a roadblock, take a detour.” —Mary Kay Ash

Hope- “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” —Martin Luther King, Jr.

Hope- “Things start out as hopes and end up as habits.” —Lillian Hellman

Independence- “True independence and freedom can only exist in doing what’s right.” —Brigham Young

Independence- “If money is your hope for independence, you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability.” —Henry Ford

Intelligence- “Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.” —Salvador Dali

Intelligence- “It is better to have a fair intellect that is well used than a powerful one that is idle.” —Bryant H. McGill

Knowledge- “The best advice I ever got was that knowledge is power and to keep reading.” —David Bailey

Knowledge- “It is harder to conceal ignorance than to acquire knowledge.” —Arnold H. Glasow

Learning- “It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.” —John Wooden

Learning- “They may forget what you said – but they will never forget how you made them feel.” —Carl W. Buehner
Money- “Greed is not a financial issue. It’s a heart issue.” —Andy Stanley
Money- “You aren’t wealthy until you have something money can’t buy.” —Garth Brooks
Patience- “Have patience. All things are difficult before they become easy.” —Saadi
Patience- “How many a man has thrown up his hands at a time when a little more effort, a little more patience would have achieved success.” —Elbert Hubbard
Persistence- “Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don’t recognize them.” —Ann Landers
Persistence- “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.” — Albert Einstein
Positive Thinking- “Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.” —Lyndon B. Johnson
Positive Thinking- “Positive thinking will let you do everything better than negative thinking will.” —Zig Ziglar
Problems- “Every problem is a gift — without problems we would not grow.” —Anthony Robbins
Problems- “Problems are not stop signs, they are guidelines.” —Robert H. Schuller
Quality- “Quality is not an act; it’s a habit.” —Aristotle
Quality- “Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction, and skillful execution.” —Birmingham, Castleman, and Pierce
Success- “Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” —Winston Churchill
Success- “Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go.” —William Feather
Self-Worth- “Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent.” —Eleanor Roosevelt
Self-Worth- “Your value doesn’t decrease based on someone’s inability to see your worth.” —Zig Ziglar
Trust- “I believe fundamental honesty is the keystone of business.” —Harvey S. Firestone
Trust- “Don’t ever break someone’s trust. Once you do, then nobody wants to do business with you.” —Robert Budi Hartono
Time Management- “Your greatest asset is your earning ability. Your greatest resource is your time.” —Brian Tracy
Time Management- “You can only manage time if you track it right.” —Peter Drucker
Wisdom- “Commitment is an act, not a word.” —Jean-Paul Sartre
Wisdom- “Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you’d have preferred to talk.” —Doug Larson

Sales Quotes for Presentations or Business

Change

“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old but on building the new.” —Socrates (Greek philosopher)
 
Who would dispute the wisdom of an immortal philosopher. Attempt a close around it like, “Do you see how those wise words would free you of trying to make the best of a bad situation and allow you to build on a good solution our (program/process/whatever) will give you?
“Your life does not get better by chance; it gets better by change.” —Jim Rohn (Businessman and author)
 
Prospects have the life experience to know that positive outcomes usually are not the result of luck; instead, we need to be proactive.
“The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude.” —Oprah Winfrey (Television celebrity)
 
Simple but thought provoking, this quote reminds the prospect that if they decide they don’t want to continue with their current situation, they are in control of improving it.

Customer Satisfaction

There is only one boss: the customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.” —Sam Walton (Founder of Walmart)
 
The idea that a customer has the power to fire a CEO is a somewhat shocking statement, but it makes the salient point to emphasize the importance of customer service. In B2B or B2C, it let’s the prospect know that good customer service is very important to you and your company.
Customer satisfaction is worthless. Customer loyalty is priceless.” —Jeffrey Gitomer (Author and sales trainer)
 
This quote is for salespeople to focus on customer needs and wants. Go beyond expected satisfactory service.
Your customer doesn’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” —Damon Richards (Customer care expert)
 
This quote speaks to the rapport and trust you must build during your sales presentation.

Finances

“When it comes to money, getting smart old may not matter.” —H. Stuart Kotler (Sales coach and trainer)
 
If individuals finally understand the value of time horizon and investing when they are well into adulthood, unless they win a lottery, they probably won’t have enough time to build financial security. This would be good advice for salespeople in the financial services industry.
“Live like no one else, so later you can live like no one else.” —Dave Ramsey (Radio personality and personal finance guru)
 
This quote serves to motivate people to show financial discipline by delaying gratification. Another useful quote for people in the financial services industry.

Simplicity

“The letter I have written today is longer than usual because I lacked the time to make it shorter.” —Blaise Pascal (17th century mathematician)
 
This quote’s point is that it takes time and creativity to simplify the complex. Therefore, if your product or service in not complicated, then it has greater value. Simplification is a desirable characteristic for business in training.
“One should aim not at being possible to understand, but at being impossible to misunderstand.” —Quintillian (Roman educator)
 
A point associated with this quote, for prospects, is that for thousands of years, people recognize the value of simplifying the complex.

Simplicity

“None of us is as smart as all of us.’’ —Ken Blanchard (Author of The One Minute Manager)
 
This quote can be explained to the customer as a quality control matter. Also, this is motivating for a sales team to buy into teamwork.
“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” —Henry Ford (Auto maker)
 
This quote can help individuals to understand that teamwork is a process that takes some time.
“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.” —Michael Jordan (Basketball player)
 
The idea here is for individuals to appreciate the efforts and skills of their team members.

Value

“Price is what you pay; value is what you get.” —Warren Buffet (Well-known investor)
 
In justifying cost, you could mention Buffet’s insight and ask, “So, what do you see as the most valuable part of our solution?” Then, “What other aspects of the program do you see as helpful?” Then, “In what way?
“The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.” —Ben Franklin (Founding father)
 
This quote is thought provoking, and it is a commonsense rebuttal to price objections. Although cost may seem high, value makes the cost of the product or service reasonable or even well worth the price.