• A positive outlook is essential for successful sales.
• These quotes can allow you to learn from business and thought leaders.
• Insights from experienced professionals can inspire you and your sales team.

Everyone needs a little inspiration from time to time. However, in the dog-eat-dog world of sales, maintaining a positive outlook is essential.

You can keep your salespeople focused with a little inspiration from some of the most influential business men and women of our time. Here’s a list of 12 motivational quotes you can share with your team. 

1. "Nobody likes to be sold to, but everyone likes to buy." 

– Earl Taylor, trainer in leadership, sales, and interpersonal and communication skills

Whichever way you look at it, we’re all consumers. However, we all like to feel that we are in control of every buying decision we make. For this reason, the moment people feel like they are being sold to, many will immediately become less receptive. As a result, pushy sales tactics rarely work.

2. "90% of selling is conviction and 10% is persuasion."

– Shiv Khera, author and self-help expert

If you don’t personally believe in the product or service you’re selling, how can you expect your prospects to? More than possessing top-notch powers of persuasion, selling is about having faith that what you’re selling can do what you say it can.

3. "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, online business and sales thought leader 

At one point or another, we have all encountered a motormouth salesperson. You know the type that thinks anyone can be talked into a sale if they somehow manage to find the right combination of words. What they don’t realize is that selling is more about listening to what people want and how you can help them.

4. "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, author of six books about business, work and management

Rejection is part and parcel of being a salesperson, so you’ll have to learn to deal with it if you want to be good at your job. Better still, you will have to learn how to turn rejection into a positive. What did you learn from the failure? What can you take from that lesson to help you succeed in the future?

5. "To build a long-term, successful enterprise, when you don’t close a sale, open a relationship." 

– Patricia Fripp, executive speech coach and sales presentation skills trainer

It’s easy to fixate solely on making sales, but it can make you a worse salesperson. On the surface, this might sound counterintuitive. However, if you start to see missed sales as the opportunity to start new relationships, there’s every chance for later success.

6. "As marketing converges with customer service and sales, marketing today is more about helping and less about hyping." 

– Joel Book, award-winning podcaster and speaker on digital marketing and customer experience

Segmentation is becoming rarer in the modern workplace, as the line between different departments continues to blur. Consequently, you need to ensure that your team understands exactly what is expected of them to avoid mixed messages across departments.

7. "Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit." 

– Conrad Hilton, American hotelier and founder of the Hilton Hotels chain

One thing that all successful entrepreneurs have in common is that they didn’t give up when faced with adversity. The same applies to many successful salespeople. If things don’t go your way, don’t get discouraged; simply try something else.