How Zig Ziglar’s Words Still Shape the Way We Sell (Top 40 Quotes Below)
What You’ll Learn
- How Zig Ziglar’s timeless sales principles still drive success in today’s world.
- The mindset shifts that separate top producers from average performers.
- Why integrity, optimism, and service remain the foundation of every great salesperson.
- How to apply Zig’s practical advice to build confidence and close more deals.
- Memorable Zig Ziglar quotes that motivate, inspire, and help you sell with purpose.
I never met Zig Ziglar, but I’ve felt his impact firsthand. Early in my twenties, I worked with a young guy named Julio Malara, my very first podcast guest back when the show was called Absolutely Mindset. That podcast eventually evolved into Close The Deal Podcast, but the spark started there.
Before I ever sat down with Julio behind a microphone, I’d already heard his name at work. Everyone kept saying, “Julio’s coming back.” By the third or fourth time, I finally asked, “Who is this Julio cat?”
The next day, he burst into the office like a tornado. We had about 90 employees, and he called everyone to the front to hear him speak about his new book, Do You Have Time for Success? That was the first time I ever heard a motivational speaker of any kind, and it changed me.
Top 40 Zig Ziglar Quotes To Close More Deals
Sales & Persuasion
- Stop selling. Start helping.
- Every sale has five basic obstacles: no need, no money, no hurry, no desire, no trust.
- You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.
- Selling is essentially a transfer of feelings.
- If people like you, they’ll listen to you. If they trust you, they’ll do business with you.
- Timid salespeople have skinny kids.
- Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.
- You don’t build a business; you build people, and people build the business.
Mindset & Motivation
9. People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing- that’s
why we recommend it daily.
10. Failure is an event, not a person.
11. Expect the best. Prepare for the worst. Capitalize on what comes.
12. You were born to win, but to be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win,
and expect to win.
13. Positive thinking will let you do everything better than negative thinking will.
14. You cannot tailor-make the situations in life, but you can tailor-make the
attitudes to fit those situations.
15. The greatest of all mistakes is to do nothing because you think you can only do
a little.
16. Repetition is the mother of learning, the father of action, which makes it the
architect of accomplishment.
Leadership & Legacy
17. When you catch a glimpse of your potential, that’s when passion is born.
18. A lot of people have gone further than they thought they could because
someone else thought they could.
19. You never know when a moment and a few sincere words can have an impact
on a life forever.
20. Duty makes us do things well, but love makes us do them beautifully.
21. You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other
people get what they want.
22. People don’t buy for logical reasons. They buy for emotional reasons.
23. If standard of living is your number one objective, quality of life almost never
improves. But if quality of life is your number one objective, your standard of
living almost always improves.
Resilience & Purpose
24. Success means doing the best we can with what we have.
25. Make today worth remembering.
26. You don’t drown by falling in water; you drown by staying there.
27. Outstanding people have one thing in common: an absolute sense of mission.
28. When obstacles arise, you change your direction to reach your goal; you do
not change your decision to get there.
29. Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four-
hour days.
30. When you do more than you’re paid to do, you’ll soon be paid for more
than you do.
Consistency & Growth
31. Motivation gets you going, and habit gets you there.
32. You don’t have to be sick to get better.
33. When you do the things you need to do, when you need to do them, the day will
come when you can do the things you want to do, when you want to do them.
34. Don’t count the things you do; do the things that count.
35. There are no traffic jams on the extra mile.
36. If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.
37. Success occurs when opportunity meets preparation.
38. The chief cause of failure and unhappiness is trading what you want most
for what you want right now.
39. You are the only person on earth who can use your ability.
40. If you can dream it, you can achieve it.
All quotes in this post have been cross-verified with trusted sources, including Ziglar.com, Wikiquote, and Zig Ziglar’s published works such as See You at the Top and Secrets of Closing the Sale. Each quote reflects Zig’s authentic voice and timeless message about selling with integrity, purpose, and passion.
Frequently Asked Questions - Zig Ziglar
