"Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.

George Washington Carver

Allow this quote to sink in for a moment. The time is now for no more excuses, just results.

Plain and simple, excuses are the language of the average.

Every time you say, “The client ghosted me.”, or “The product isn’t priced right.” or “Marketing didn’t deliver enough leads.”, you’re handing your power away. You’re saying, “I’m not in control.”

If you’re not in control of your sales career, you’re not in sales, you’re just along for the ride.

I believe top salespeople don’t complain, they compete.

They don’t wait for perfect conditions. They don’t need motivation. They don’t need someone to hold their hand.

They create. They adapt. They win.

Here’s the stone-cold truth, if you didn’t hit your number last month, last quarter or even for the year, it wasn’t the market. It wasn’t your CRM. It wasn’t your manager.

You know what? It was you.

This is not an insult, please see this as your greatest advantage. Because if it’s your fault, then it’s also your fix.

The real battle is all inside of you as:

• You don’t need more training. You need more discipline.

• You don’t need better leads. You need better follow-up.

• You don’t need a new script. You need to stop hiding behind one.

The time is now to kill the excuse habit.

Every time you feel one coming, replace it with massive action:

• “The lead was cold.” → “I’ll do what I can to warm it up.”

• “They didn’t respond.” → “I’ll follow up with meaningful value until they do.”

• “They said no.” → “I’ll find out why and get better.”

Excuses are easy. Sales is not. But if you want to be elite, you must choose - excuses or excellence, you can’t have both.

Sales Professionals Get it Done, Sales Reps Just Talk About It

Can we all just cut through the nonsense, the BS and the charades? There are two kinds of people in sales, the professionals who consistently create winning habits and the reps who find endless excuses.

Sales professionals exceed their targets, fill their pipelines, and invest in themselves.

Sales reps? They’re the ones whining, “I would have called that prospect, but the CRM was down,” or “The client wasn’t ready,” or “My dog ate my prospect list.”

Excuses are like belly buttons, everyone in sales has one.

Sales professionals don’t need an excuse, they’ve got habits.

As the legendary Jim Rohn said,

"If you really want to do something, you'll find a way. If you don't, you'll find an excuse."

In our time together, I'm not going to hold back. It's going to be direct and straightforward.

Question for all of you... Why do sales professionals get it done while sales reps just talk about it? And more importantly, how can the sales world raise the bar?

The Mental Game, Excuses vs. Execution

Let’s start with the most dangerous thing in sales, your brain.

Sales reps will say, “I’ll call after lunch… maybe.” “I just need one more coffee before I start.” “I’ll try tomorrow.”

Sales professionals will say, “I’ll do it right now.”

Excuses are a protective layer for your ego. They shield you from rejection, discomfort, and failure.

Habits are sales body armor. They make you strong, focused, and resilient.

Your brain is a master negotiator, against your own success.

Sales reps will say to themselves silly things, “It’s raining, so prospects are probably in a bad mood.” “It’s sunny, so they’re probably outside.” “It’s Friday, so… you know, they're preparing for the weekend.”

Sales professionals are out there treating every excuse like spam mail, delete without reading.

Professionals don’t wait for perfect conditions. They sell in the rain, under fluorescent lights, with a half-dead laptop and 12% battery left on their sanity.

Imagine a sales rep saying, “I didn’t prospect because my horoscope said avoid confrontation.”

Your action item - Start no-excuse sprints. Set a 15-minute timer and do only the thing you've been avoiding, things like making calls, follow-ups, outreach, or whatever. This is pure focused action.

Disciplined Habits Eat Excuses for Breakfast

Aristotle nailed it centuries ago,

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."

Excuses are for amateurs.

Sales professionals don’t wing it, wish for it, or whine about it, they work for it. They build habits that crush resistance and make discipline look easy.

Sales reps are busy blaming the market, the leads, or the moon’s gravitational pull.

Sales professionals are stacking wins with boring, repeatable actions.

Want to level up your sales game? Kill the drama, kill the fluff, and start doing the damn work, every single day.

Here’s what sales professionals do daily that sales reps just pretend to do:

1. Schedule blocks of time for prospecting. They don’t wait for inspiration. They block time for calls and stick to it like a baby to a pacifier. Every day, they guard their calendar, as they time block uninterrupted prospecting.

2. Show up armed and business ready, not alarmed. Sales reps get blindsided by objections or directness. Sales professionals develop their business acumen and conversational competence to engage in meaningful business outcomes.

3. Track numbers like a CFO. Sales reps guess, sales professionals know. They treat metrics like mission-critical data. Every dial, email, and meeting are accounted for. If it moves the pipeline, they’re tracking it.

Sales professionals know their ratios - calls to connects, connects to meetings, meetings to next steps, next steps to winning outcomes.

Excuses Feel Safe but Cost You Big

Excuses feel good in the moment, but they bankrupt your future.

Excuses feel comforting but they quietly kill your potential.

Excuses trick you into believing you’re protecting yourself, when really, you're just pressing pause on your future.

Excuse-makers stay stuck in mediocrity, sales professionals stack small wins into big results.

Here’s the hard truth behind every excuse:

• “I don’t believe my goals are worth the discomfort.”

• “I’d rather play small than risk failing big.”

• “I’m more comfortable being average than risking greatness.”

This isn't about judgment, it's about awareness. And awareness is power.

“An excuse is worse and more terrible than a lie, for an excuse is a lie guarded.”

Pope John Paul II

Your action item - For the next week, do a “No excuses challenge.” Every time you catch yourself making an excuse, stop and do the thing you were avoiding. It may feel uncomfortable and that is good. It's called, growth.

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Mindset Shift From “I’ll Try” to “I’ll Do”

Let’s be real, “I’ll try” is just “I’m not really committed” dressed up in polite words.

When you say, “I’ll try,” what you often mean is “I’m not fully in.” It’s a way to keep one foot in and one foot out, just in case things don’t work out. If you’re serious about growth, results, and real success, that mindset must go.

Sales reps try; sales professional do.

Sales professionals have an ownership mindset; sales reps have a victimhood mindset.

Owning the outcome is powerful. Sales professionals take full responsibility. They understand that success isn’t something they stumble into, it’s something they commit to, day after day, even when it’s hard, even when it’s inconvenient, and especially when no one’s watching.

This isn’t about toxic positivity. It’s not about pretending things are easy. It’s about choosing to show up differently, with purpose, with a plan, and with zero excuses.

You don’t need more motivation. You need a decision.

Shout out loud, "I will do this, I will make it happen."

You need to say: “I will.”

Your action item - Grab a sticky note. Write this down and stick it somewhere you’ll see it daily:

• “I will hit my targets this week.”

• “I will win that deal.”

• “I will prospect every day, no matter what.”

Then follow through. It may not be perfect, but consistently do it. This what separates the amateurs from the professionals.

Practice Like A Professional

You don’t build trust by talking about authenticity, you build it by practicing it every day.

If you want to be a sales professional, then do the things professionals do. This all starts with a no excuse daily routine.

In the morning:

• Wake up by (insert target time, 5:00 AM). No snooze.

• Review your quarterly and daily sales goals. Visualize specific wins. Self-reflection. Bring gratitude to the forefront.

• Complete a 20–30 minute workout to activate energy and focus.

Execute the day with precision:

• Block 60 minutes for outbound prospecting. No multitasking.

• Schedule time for structured follow-ups. Track every touchpoint in your CRM.

• Spend 15 minutes daily practicing and refining your business conversations.

Warp up the day:

• Review the day: wins, misses, lessons. Learning moments. Be honest.

• Write down tomorrow’s top 3 sales activities. Get them into your calendar.

• Disconnect and self-reflect.

Your action item - Print your developed routine as a checklist and post it above your desk. Carry it with you in your car. Pay attention to it. Your consistency is your edge.

The Choice is Yours

By now, you’re either, nodding and planning your next revenue generating activity, or you're rolling your eyes and reaching for another excuse, as you tell yourself, “This doesn’t apply to me.”

Success in sales isn’t about talent. It’s about disciplined habits and a refusal to let yourself off the hook.

You don’t see top sales professionals complaining on Slack about how hard things are.

“Discipline equals freedom.”

Jocko Willink

This is all about showing up when it’s boring. It’s about doing the uncomfortable thing again and again. It’s about having the guts to push through when no one’s watching and nothing feels easy.

Want to know what top reps aren’t doing? They’re not complaining about how hard prospecting is. They’re not overanalyzing whether it’s the perfect time to call. They’re not waiting for motivation.

Sales reps like to talk the talk; sales professionals simply execute.

Here’s the deal, you can either keep telling yourself the same old story, keeping you stuck right where you're at, or you can decide to level up, today, not tomorrow, not next week but right now.

No More Excuses, Only Results

Want to be a sales professional instead of a sales rep stuck in excuse-land?

If so, here’s your plan:

• Kill the excuses.

• Install disciplined habits that make you unstoppable.

• Own your mindset.

• Do the work every single day.

I'll end our time together with this challenge:

Write this down and say it to yourself every morning...

I am a sales professional. I don’t make excuses. I make things happen.

Originally published on Larry Levine's LinkedIn.