Are you hitting your numbers? How many follow-up calls did you make today? How much high-quality volume did you book this month? How many leads did you run this week?

These questions are relentlessly driven into our heads, and for good reason. For many sales professionals, there is often pressure to reach quota or attain a certain level of performance. While having a monthly sales goal keeps your eye on the prize and your focus on the end result, it may actually do more harm than good.

I often hear salespeople say, “Results aren’t showing up fast enough.” At the end of each selling month, frustration and stress overwhelm as salespeople scramble to do their best to close sales and meet their numbers.

If selling is, in part, a transference of feeling, imagine the feelings that you’re transferring to your prospects. The stress and anxiety of having to close more sales inadvertently puts undue pressure on your prospects and fosters an unhealthy relationship from the start.