Sales comes with its daily challenges. Whether it’s looking for quality leads, getting stuck at the gatekeeper’s desk, or tackling quota, every day has its unique obstacles to conquer.
Sales can be rough, but if you’re looking for some motivation to get through the day, you picked the perfect blog.
We don’t have Oprah Winfrey or Rihanna on speed dial for you, but we have words of wisdom from amazing businesswomen like them. Keep reading to get energized, inspired, and motivated!
1. “Challenges are gifts that force us to search for a new center of gravity. Don’t fight them. Just find a new way to stand.”
- Oprah Winfrey, First black female billionaire and Founder & Owner of Harpo Productions
We’re coming in strong with words from the GOAT herself. Instead of avoiding challenges, embrace them.
2. “Every game is won with patience.”
- Mellody Hobson, Chairperson of Starbucks
3. “Have a vision and passion. Be courageous, focused, and disciplined. Lastly, persist…it’s definitely not easy.”
- Monica Musonda, CEO of Java Foods Limited
4. “Success for me isn’t a destination. It’s a journey.”
- Rihanna, Founder & CEO of Fenty Beauty
5. "Don't solicit feedback on your product, idea, or your business just for validation purposes. You want to tell the people who can help move your idea forward, but if you're just looking to your friend, co-worker, husband or wife for validation, be careful. It can stop a lot of multimillion-dollar ideas in their tracks in the beginning."
- Sara Blakely, Former CEO of Spanx
Don’t surround yourself with “Yes” people. The best feedback is honest and unbiased.
6. “The only way you survive is you continuously transform into something else. It's this idea of continuous transformation that makes you an innovation company.”
- Ginni Rometty, Former CEO of IBM
7. "Luck? I don’t know anything about luck. I’ve never banked on it, and I’m afraid of people who do. Luck to me is something else: Hard work and realizing what is opportunity and what isn’t.”
- Lucille Ball, CEO of Desilu Productions
8. “The art of failure for me, is not limited to athletes or entrepreneurs or even seasoned executives, it’s open to everyone in life, and part of the journey for me is taking the fall and dusting yourself off.”
- Serena Williams, Tennis Icon and Businesswoman
9. "In business, you're the chief salesman. Create a sense of demand, rather than waiting to have demand."
- Barbara Corcoran, Founder of the Corcoran Group
If time is money, don’t wait for people to figure out how badly they need your solution. Start building the urgency now.
10. “My advice to everyone expecting to go into business is to hit often and hit hard; in other words, strike with all your might.”
- Madam C.J. Walker, first female self-made millionaire in America
11. “I've never felt like I was in the cookie business. I've always been in a feel-good feeling business. My job is to sell joy. My job is to sell happiness. My job is to sell an experience.”
- Debbi Fields, Founder of Mrs. Fields Bakeries
12. “No economy, no company, in fact no individual can develop its full potential today without embracing two fundamental trends - globalization and digitalization. They will dominate for quite some time to come.”
- Zhang Xin, Co-Founder and former CEO of SOHO China
13. "Focus on small successes along the way to help you achieve your goal sooner."
- Joy Mangano, Founder and CEO of Clean Boss
14. “Fearlessness is not the absence of fear. It’s the mastery of fear. It’s about getting up one more time than we fall down.”
- Arianna Huffington, Co-Founder of Huffington Post and Founder & CEO of Thrive Global
15. “When you wake up each morning, you can choose to be happy or choose to be sad. Unless some terrible catastrophe has occurred the night before, it is pretty much up to you. Tomorrow morning, when the sun shines through your window, choose to make it a happy day.”
- Lynda Resnick, Owner of several businesses including Fiji Water, Teleflora, POM Wonderful, etc.
If you choose to be positive today, we think you’re already
16. “If you have a vision, no matter how difficult things are, everything just becomes a process.”
- Cher Wang, Co-Founder and Chairperson of HTC Corporation
17. “If you are working 24/7, you’re not going to have any interesting ideas.”
- Susan Wojcicki, Former CEO of YouTube
18. “Always see challenges as opportunities in disguise. It’s not really about how much we possess, but rather how well we manage and use what we are entrusted with.”
- Folorunso Alakija, Executive Vice Chairperson of Famfa Oil Limited
19. “You gotta keep trying to find your niche and trying to fit into whatever slot that's left for you or to make one of your own.”
- Dolly Parton, Co-Owner of The Dollywood Company
20. “If it doesn’t scare you, you’re probably not dreaming big enough.”
- Tory Burch, CEO of Tory Burch
Whatever your goals are, 10x them! Go big…and then go bigger!
21. “There is no perfect fit when you’re looking for the next big thing to do. You have to take opportunities and make an opportunity fit for you, rather than the other way around. The ability to learn is the most important quality a leader can have.”
- Sheryl Sandberg, former CEO of Meta Platforms
22. “You can be very, very competent..but if you’re not willing to speak out [and] have the confidence based on your knowledge..what’s the point?”
- Indra Nooyi, Former CEO of PepsiCo
23. “I embrace mistakes. They make you who you are.”
- Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, Singer and Businesswoman
24. “Perfect' is the enemy of 'good enough.”
- Meg Whitman, CEO of Quibi
25. “Trust yourself. You probably know more than you think you do… Trust that you can learn anything.”
- Melinda French Gates, Former multimedia product developer and manager at Microsoft
Have trust in your abilities, skills, and talents.
26. “The world is full of opportunities - every day there's something new that you can do.”
- Ursula Burns, Former CEO of Xerox
27. “My definition of 'innovative' is providing value to the customer.”
- Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors
28. “You were born an original, don't become a copy!”
- Coco Chanel, Founder of Chanel
29. “You can and should set your own limits and clearly articulate them. This takes courage, but it is also liberating and empowering, and often earns you new respect.”
- Rosalind Brewer, CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance
30. “…keep your head down and focus on your brand and your service or your product and what makes it unique and special. Don’t take too much time obsessing over what somebody else is, versus what you really saw and started, because nobody can copy your vision.”
- Katia Beauchamp, CEO of Birchbox
31. “Don't limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe, remember, you can achieve.”
- Mary Kay Ash, Founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics, Inc.
When you become limitless, you become unstoppable.
32. “Creativity comes from a conflict of ideas.”
- Donatella Versace, Creative Director of Versace
33. “You have to drop your sales mentality and start working with your prospects as if they've already hired you.”
- Jill Konrath, Sales Strategist, Speaker, and Author
34. “You have to believe in what you sell and you have to care about your industry.”
- Trish Bertruzzi, President and Chief Strategist of The Bridge Group, Inc.
35. “Selling is really about having conversations with people and helping improve their company or their life.”
- Lori Richardson, Sales Advisor, Speaker, and Author
36. “When you think you've made it, you need to keep pushing because the person next to you or your competitor is also getting better, and you need to be able to stay ahead.”
- Huda Kattan, Founder of Huda Beauty
Consistent and persistent growth is the name of the game.
37. “The more you adapt, the more interesting you are.”
- Martha Stewart, Founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia
38. “The more time goes by, the more things will happen to you in your life. And the ability to be positive throughout and look for the good in people, look for the good in situations - it's so important.”
- Jennifer Hyman, Co-Founder and CEO of Rent the Runway
39. “The ship anchored in the harbor rots faster than the ship crossing the ocean; a still pool of water stagnates more rapidly than a running stream.”
- Brownie Wise, Saleswoman and Marketer
40. “In business, it is most often all about getting your foot in the door and once you do, everything opens up and things start to naturally progress into bigger and more opportunities.”
- Lori Greiner, Entrepreneur and Investor
41. “Ultimately, my belief is that the best marketing is creating a product that people are excited to talk about. Period.”
- Katrina Lake, Former CEO of Stitch Fix
42. “Sellers who listen to buyers carefully and then give them the missing ingredients – those are the ones who stand out.”
- Deb Calvert, Sales Author
Active listening is the key to sales success.
43. “You can make a million excuses for why something didn't go well, but ultimately, just fix it and get on with it. Be a solutions person.”
- Emily Weiss, CEO of Glossier
44. “It’s our differences that make us incredibly exceptional. We should never want to blend into each other.”
- Payal Kadakia, Founder of ClassPass
45. “I believe in never giving up, no matter what the odds. My mantra is, 'Failure is temporary. Giving up is permanent.”
- Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Executive Chairperson and Founder of Biocon Limited and Biocon Biologics Limited
46. “How you sell matters. What your process is matters. But how your customers feel when they engage w/ you matters more.”
- Tiffani Bova, Business Author
47. “The new marketing: Marketing needs to know more about sales, sales needs to know more about marketing, and we all need to know more about our customers.”
- Jill Rowley, Investor and Advisor
48. “Follow your passion in order to succeed. Most of the time, at best, I find that people follow their enthusiasm—until they run out. To me, following your passion means a willingness to give everything you have every day. Anything you aren’t truly committed to—night and day—is not really your passion, so don’t do it.”
- Weili Dai, Former president of Marvell Technology Group
Your passion is your greatest guide.
49. “I never dreamed about success. I worked for it.”
- Estée Lauder, Co-Founder of Estée Lauder
50. “Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another stepping stone to greatness.”
- Oprah Winfrey
We know we already have one piece of advice from Oprah, but we had to sneak in an extra quote because we couldn’t think of a better way to close out this article. Look at every setback and mistake as a step forward on your journey to your greatest success!
We hope these quotes were the boost you needed to tackle your goals head-on with confidence and faith in your talents and abilities. Crush It! Whatever It Takes!
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