10 Quotes Salespeople Should Memorize

For about a decade, I've been keeping a notebook of quotes about selling, partly for use in articles and blog posts but also to inspire me.

Since I've now gathered more than a hundred quotes, I decided to comb through them and select the best nuggets of wisdom. Here they are:

1. "Begin by always expecting good things to happen."
   --Tom Hopkins
2. "For every sale you miss because you're too enthusiastic, you will miss a hundred because you're not enthusiastic enough."
   --Zig Ziglar
3. "All things being equal, people will do business with, and refer business to, those people they know, like, and trust."
   --Bob Burg
4. "Treat objections as requests for further information."
   --Brian Tracy
5. "The best way to sell yourself to others is first to sell the others to yourself."
   --Napoleon Hill
6. "Ninety percent of selling is conviction and 10 percent is persuasion."
   --Shiv Khera
7. "Obstacles are necessary for success because in selling, as in all careers of importance, victory comes only after many struggles and countless defeats."
   --Og Mandino
8. "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
9. "If you are not taking care of your customer, your competitor will."
   --Bob Hooey
10. "To build a long-term, successful enterprise, when you don't close a sale, open a relationship."
    --Patricia Fripp

Those are my Top 10, but I'm willing to bet that you have one or more quotes that you find meaningful and helpful. If so, leave a comment below.