Many sales people dread the telephone. It’s often seen as impersonal and ineffective in sales. Though it used to be more prevalent in the past, many companies are now opting to focus their efforts on inbound selling instead. However, using the telephone for sales calls is still a vital part of business. Sometimes, it’s a way to open doors. Making a good first impression is vital. Having a bad sales call can cause you to lose the sale and damage the relationship you are trying to build with the client. In order to avoid a bad sales call, use these five steps.

1. Do Your Research

You don’t want to waste several minutes of your call asking the client questions that you should already know the answers to. Before you even pick up the phone, you should know who you want to talk to, what his position is within the company, what his business needs are, and how you can help him. If you’re asking your client for any of this information, it shows that you’re unprepared and you haven’t done your research. This is a waste of the client’s time, which will lead to a bad sales call. When you have this information ahead of time, you can impress the client, avoid wasting time, and get down to business faster.

2. A Great Value Statement

Once you get the client on the phone, you only have a few seconds to get his attention and pique his interest. You shouldn’t ramble on—get straight to the point or you’re risking a bad sales call. Tell him who you are and what your company does—briefly—and then go right into telling him how you can help him get what he wants. This should be easy since you’ve already researched what he needs. Remember, these prospects are only interested in their own needs, so you have to be, too. You shouldn’t spend a full two minutes talking about yourself but you also can’t forget to properly introduce yourself. This will lead to a bad sales call.

3. Have an Agenda

When you start talking about unrelated subjects, you’re getting off track and the person on the other end of the phone will start wondering why he’s wasting his time listening to you. To avoid a bad sales call, have an agenda and stick to it. Before you pick up the phone, write down exactly what you’re going to say in bullet points, and stick to the agenda throughout the call to ensure you’re not getting off track.

4. Arrange a Meeting

Your phone call should only be the first step. If you’ve gotten the client interested in what you’re selling, it’s time to arrange a face-to-face meeting or teleconference to discuss the opportunity further. This will be your chance to give a more thorough presentation and talk details. If you’ve gotten him to agree to a meeting, then you know you haven’t had a bad sales call. Alternatively, he might want to buy from you right then, which is also a great result of your call. If you did get confirmation for a face-to-face meeting, offer the client two different times that he can choose from so you can take control of the appointment. Reconfirm the date, location, and time, and give him your contact information.

5. Follow Up

Once you’ve gotten off the phone and you feel great that you successfully avoided a bad sales call, don’t just go back to your other business activities. Send an email letter of confirmation immediately so the client has all the pertinent information in case he needs to reference it or reschedule. Keep this email short, to the point, and upbeat.

When you use these five steps, you can avoid having a bad sales call and successfully close deals.