How to conquer conference calls

You may take conference calls for granted, but you shouldn’t. Each one, at best, is an opportunity to forge new relationships and build new business. At worst—if you do take them for granted—they have the opposite effect, making you look uninformed or ill-prepared, damaging your personal and business brands. 
 
In this article, we’ll walk through the essential pre-call checklist. We’ll review proper call etiquette. And we’ll point out some flubs that we’ve witnessed, or committed ourselves, so you can laugh and learn from the missteps of others. 
 
It’s all in the prep
 
A conference call is a lot like an oral report you had to do in high school. The bulk of the work takes place before the event... if you’re going to succeed. If you can think you can just show up and wing it, think again. 
 
Rock the roster. See who else has been invited to participate on the call. Are they the usual suspects, or is there a newcomer? Depending on the context, this could help you build new connections or find good vendor resources; at best, it’s an opportunity to make a connection for entirely new business. If that doesn’t motivate you to properly prep, then nothing will. 
 
And don’t just settle for names. If there are to be people on the call you’ve never met, do some digging in advance. Check out their LinkedIn pages. Read up on their companies. Jot some notes, and questions. Look for common connections: Where they grew up, where they went to school, military service, trade groups they belong to, and so on. 
 
Prep for content. There is a purpose for this call you’ll be joining. So understand it. What were the materials you were sent, in advance? Re-read them. Highlight key portions. Any websites you’ll be discussing on the call? Bring them up on screen. Give them a quick review, especially if they’ve been updated with news, blog entries, social-media feedback, etc. 
 
Set up your screen. We’re talking “phone conference” here, but with platforms like Zoom, Skype for Business, and GoToMeeting, there’s a good chance you’ll be sharing someone’s screen during the call. You might not plan on it, but there’s also a chance that, during the call, you’ll be asked to suddenly share your screen. So scrub it of anything you don’t want others to see, including desktop items, visible browser tabs, sensitive emails, etc. 
 
Be prepared for a quick change. Just as you may not expect to be sharing your screen, you may not expect to be firing up your camera during the call. But it happens! It can happen inadvertently, if, say, you click the wrong box or ignore a “Share my camera” default when you join. But it can also happen spontaneously, for the most mundane and unpredictable reasons (“What’s the weather like there? Is it sunny by you?”). Don’t get caught off-guard. This doesn’t mean you need to dress up for every call, but you should have, say, a blazer hanging right nearby, so you can quickly slip it on when you’re asked to share your camera. 
 
Heed the background. Speaking of cameras, be sure to fire yours up before the call starts. Look at what it reveals. Is there junk on that coffee table? Did your kids (or dog) leave a toy on the floor that you wouldn’t otherwise have noticed? Tidy everything up, bearing in mind the quick-and-dirty cheat: You can literally toss all the junk to the side of the room that’s behind the computer, since it will be off-camera. 
 
And look at yourself, too. Computer/webcam cameras are notoriously low quality, so play around with the lighting in your office to make it as flattering as possible. Does your face wash out to a bright blur when those blinds are open? Then close them. Do the fluorescents make you look green? Opt for a different light source. Here’s a tip: Your computer screen itself can provide a very flattering front-light. Simply 1) crank the brightness on the screen all the way up, even though it’s much more than you’d usually use or tolerate; 2) make sure your screen features lots of white items on it, such as a Word doc and a neutral desktop background, and no glaring colors that would reflect poorly on your complexion; and 3) move your chair so your face is much closer to the screen, closer than you’re accustomed to. You’ll be pleasantly surprised by how nice you look!
 
Calling in
 
Dial right.  You’ve been issued a dial-in number and passcode; use them carefully! We were once invited to a big conference call with lots of people from a company that was new to us, so we sat and quietly listened when we first dialed in and waited for the meeting to officially start. 
 
What we heard was, well, quite surprising. People on the call were discussing things we can’t even mention in a family-friendly blog like this. Turns out we had mis-typed our passcode by just one digit—and thus logged into a conference call being hosted by the porn industry! Adding insult to injury, it took us a little while to figure this out, making us late to the actual call. 
 
Don’t trust the audio. Whenever we’re introduced on a call, say, for a subject-matter expert (SME) interview, the very first thing we say is, “Hi, can everyone hear me okay?” Never assume that they can. The connections vary, the mics and speakers vary, even the services (such as GoToMeeting) can get wonky. Asking the group if they can hear you gives them a nice polite opportunity to say “No” if that’s the case. 
 
Ever been on a call where one caller has tons of annoying background noise, such as traffic, or a Starbucks crowd? Have you ever learned, to your dismay, that that was you? Mute your mic if you plan to listen for a while. And don’t forget to un-mute it when you go to speak again! We can’t count how many times a caller interrupts someone else, saying, “I was talking and talking, and didn’t realize I was still on ‘Mute.’ Sorry!” Don’t be that person. 
 
Remember the flubs we said we’d mention? Dialing into the porn call was one. Here’s another: During one conference call, in the midst of someone’s important presentation, we distinctly heard someone else flush the toilet. Call quality varies, but this one came through like Dolby stereo. It silenced the “room,” followed by nervous giggles. No one admitted to it. All we know is, it wasn’t us, and probably not the presenter. (If it was the presenter, that conjures up some imagery we’d rather not picture.) Lesson learned/reinforced: Use that mute button!
 
Take notes. This may seem like a no-brainer, but not everyone does it. Good notes—jotted in Word, for us—are invaluable after the call for reviewing what was discussed and agreed upon. They’re also especially useful during the call: When someone is making, say, several points, and you have a question about the first of ten, you can quickly type your question into your notes when they make that point. After their big spiel, you’ll look quite impressive for “recalling”" what they said, and having a ready and cogent question to pose. You’ll look extra smart, but all you’re doing is reading your notes. Since no one can see, they won’t know. 
 
Clear your screen. We mentioned the hazards of not clearing your screen (or office background) prior to sharing, visually, with the group. But here’s what can happen after the call has started. We were once on a call in which one participant shared his screen just long enough to show the others one thing of interest, after which the moderator (in this case, a respected thought-leader) took the “floor.” But that one participant forgot that, after he was done speaking, he was still sharing his screen! So everyone else on the call, moderator included, watched in embarrassed horror and fascination as that one participant blithely ignored what was being discussed, and started shopping on Amazon, filling his cart for everyone else to see. 
 
While this article should hopefully arm you for your next conference call, we, by necessity, couldn’t, and thus didn’t, discuss the business matters that will be covered in that next call of yours. What will be the deliverables? What’s the marketing strategy? If you need help with these concerns, call us. We’d be happy to help—and oh-so-prepared for that call. 

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