No matter how good you are at selling, at some stage you are going to come under massive pressure to increase revenues. 

The problem with stress is that it’s difficult to  hide from the people we sell to. And who wants to buy from a stressed individual?

We all like to buy from someone that is relaxed and in tune with our needs  

So the challenge is being able to manage that pressure to increase your selling intensity, while minimising the symptoms of stress.  

Stress can cause problems in the following ways: 

1. When under stress, the intellectual side of your brain can shut down, causing you to rely more on your reptile or “croc” brain. This part of our brain is good at keeping us alive when we are in physical danger, but performs poorly in the work environment! A symptom of this is not being able to remember details or poor analysis skills. 
2. When under stress you naturally focus more on your targets and less on the people around you (customers and co-workers). This makes you less empathetic, which can reduce your selling ability.  

Ways is to better manage your stress:

1. Most stress comes from short term worries, so write down your plan for getting out of your sales hole. It will help you and your backers (investors or bosses) to see what you are doing and offer feedback. 
2. When your own fears and worries do manifest themselves, ask yourself what you are doing to manage that. Then run through your plan in your head all the things you are doing and what your future plan is. Daniel Pink (author) has taught this approach is proven to help build genuine confidence- not the fake kind when we try to psyche ourselves up... 
3. Time-box your work and personal life. Make sure your job is getting everything it needs done. However at the same time make sure you allow time for your family and personal relationships. Allow yourself to forget about your work worries for at least one day over the weekend. The break will make you better at you job! 
4. Don’t cut back on exercise. In fact when there is increased stress you should increase it. Your mind and body will thank you for it! 

There is no silver bullet to stop the impact of stress on your effectiveness. But you can better manage it, and lessen its impact so that you can be as effective as possible.