Can You Hear Me by Nick Morgan

Author:Nick Morgan [Morgan, Nick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781633694446
Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
Published: 2018-08-15T13:53:21+00:00

7.

THE CONFERENCE CALL

In all the lore of online business life, the stories of what your colleagues actually do when they’re on conference calls (instead of participating) are legion, lusty, and legend. Put on the mute button, and those virtual people go to real-life town. Partly it’s because conference calls are ubiquitous—the low-hanging, rot-ten fruit of the digital world. And partly it’s because they are so boring.

Of course, there are tales of embarrassing rants and even more embarrassing noises. And I read recently of a man who was fired for making an obscene gesture at the phone, not realizing that the video camera was on as he walked in to join the meeting.1

But my favorite story—and the Golden Ear Award—belongs to the two people that experienced an earthquake while speaking (they were in different places)—and kept going on the call.2

Probably because everyone was on mute and thus no one was actually there.

Let’s look into what needs to happen to the audioconference to make it better.

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150 Specific Techniques for Specific Digital Channels Just because a technology exists

is no reason to embrace it

We begin with a taxonomy. There are, broadly speaking, three kinds of conference calls that merit independent dissection.

First, there’s the public conference call. Your chief financial officer (CFO) might run such a call quarterly when he or she is updating the investor community about the company financials. The format on that one is for the CFO and possibly one or two other executives to speak from a prepared text of some sort for ten minutes or longer, followed by an open Q and A session for listeners to ask follow-up questions and kick the financial tires. Because these calls are public, they will be recorded, placed in an archive, saved, and forgotten. But their immediate results can be financially significant for the company or can even make national or international news if the company is routinely in the headlines. The stakes are thus high.

I once worked with a chief executive whose voice was so jar-ring on the ear that every time he spoke at one of the quarterly conference calls, the stock price would go down a point or two.

His voice literally cost the company millions. I’m delighted to tell you that we were able to improve his voice and help the company financials at the same time.

Second, there are conference calls between organizations and their clients or customers, or between various members of a project team that has assembled for a specific period or to accomplish a specific task. It’s not a public call, but there are often contrac-tual agreements, sales situations, or other sorts of business issues at stake or being discussed. Here, embarrassing gaffes can have companywide implications if a sale fails because of someone’s mis-behavior, incompetence, or simple inability to deliver the goods.

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The Conference Call 151

The stakes range from high, if a big sale is at stake, to low if the call is more routine.

Third, there are the weekly staff calls. These are

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