Quotes on Sales

"The difference between a salesperson and an order taker is the salesperson has passion – a salesperson works with their heart, the motor of life. Considering people don’t buy ideas (they buy feelings), selling is essentially a transfer of feelings."
~ Jean Marc Chaput, speaking at Professional Selling ’99.

"Tell me, I'll forget. Show me and I may remember. But involve me and I'll understand."
~ Chinese Proverb

"Every sale has five basic obstacles: no need, no money, no hurry, no desire, no trust."
~ Zig Ziglar

"If you put good people in bad systems you get bad results. You have to water the flowers you want to grow."
~ Stephen R. Covey

"If you work just for money, you'll never make it. But if you love what you are doing, and always put the customer first, success will be yours."
~ Ray Kroc

"The sale most often goes to the most interested party."
~ Steve Chandler, 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself.

"In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative original thinker unless you can also sell what you create. Management cannot be expected to recognize a good idea unless it is presented to them by a good salesman."
~ David M. Ogilvy

"What I knew yesterday is not enough for today. I'm not responding fast enough for my customer."
~ Feargal Quinn, Superquinn

"The new breed of salespeople is totally professional and focused… People with sales or marketing in their background have a much better chance of reaching a senior position in a company."
~ Don Unger, Recruiter, Harcourt & Associates, Edmonton, AB

"They (leaders) know that it would be absurd and unfair to treat an unprofitable customer the same as a highly profitable and loyal one. It would be equally absurd and unfair to invest the same resources in an unproductive employee as in a highly productive one."
~ Frederick Reichheld

"One of the most important tasks of a manager is to eliminate his people's excuses for failure."
~ Robert Townsend, business executive

"There is hardly anything in the world that cannot be made a little worse and sold a little cheaper. And the people who consider price only are this salesperson's lawful prey"-John Ruskin

“A salesperson without enthusiasm is a clerk.”
~ Submitted by a CPSA member.

"In business, the competition will bite you if you keep running; if you stand still, they will swallow you."
~ William Knudsen

"Sales is synonymous with leadership - being a great salesperson is about being a great leader. All the world’s great leaders throughout time, Ronald Reagan and Winston Churchill come to mind, were able to sell their vision and rally people around them."
~ John Risley, 2003 Sales Hall of Fame Inductee

"Think of yourself as a resource to your clients; an advisor, counselor, mentor and friend."
~ Brian Tracy

“If you’re going to win the order, your customer will be sharing information with you that you will need for implementation. If they’re not actively sharing that kind of information with you, you’re going to lose.”
~ Don Linder on how to tell in advance if you’re losing a big order

“As we all know, satisfied clients tell an average of 3 to 5 people. Unsatisfied clients don't return, and they tell approximately 10 people and then those people tell other people. A successful business attributes approximately 85% of their clients to word of mouth…all we have to do is just exceed a client’s expectations by a little and we will be far ahead of the competition.”
~ Anne M. Bachrach, AM Enterprises

class="bodyCopy">“The salesperson is not going to fade away (with the advent of the Internet). We are very far away from a world in which complex technical selling can be done without the human touch.”
~ Das Narayandas, associate professor of business administration at Harvard Business School