If you are not a seasoned salesperson making sales calls can cause a lot of anxiety. No one wants to be a bother, and they certainly don’t want to get yelled at just for trying to reach their goals.

When you look at how essential these calls are to growing businesses and moving towards goals, we see it’s worth getting through the anxiety. If it’s something that makes our business grow or our career successful, it can’t be that bad.

So how can someone who’s just starting their business or career make sales calls less stressful?

1. Research

Learn about the client. You want to gain a solid understanding of the person, company, and industry you are going to be talking to. Make a note of details that would stand out to the client to show you put in the effort before the call. You want to fully understand your prospect’s market or industry before the first call. Also, make a note of information that would make the call more personal, things you have in common.

2. Have a plan

There’s a lot of back and forth on whether salespeople should stick to a script or not. No one ever said though that you have to read it word for word or not have one at all. It’s more so there as a guide or a plan.

Having a plan will almost always guarantee to take the nerves down. When you’re nervous, it always seems your brain won’t work quickly, already having a functioning plan written out that you can fall back on will help tremendously. It’s hard to think on the spot so just avoid it altogether.

Having your notes from your research and a plan mapped out will give you a lot more confidence and give the person on the other line more confidence in you.

3. Get comfortable

Don’t sound rushed to make a quick sale and move on, you need to settle into the call and know you are going to be on the line for a little while. Try to make the conversation comfortable for your prospect by adding in personal touches (this is where part of your research comes in handy).

While you want to explain who you are and what you have to offer, don’t dominate the conversion, listen to the prospect’s needs and wants. After your opening statement, let your prospect do most of the talking. By allowing them to do most of the talking, you can gather information on them and their needs to which you can turn around and use to your advantage later in the conversation.

4. Don’t be too hard on yourself

No matter how nice and respectful you are, some people just won’t care or will act rudely towards you. It’s nothing you did, so don’t blame yourself, and especially don’t let it carry into your next call. Those people aren’t worth your worry, so chalk them off as rude and move on.