5 Elements of a Great Conference Call

Conference calls are a critical element to businesses today. As companies move further away from having an in-house staff and more toward a mobile and BYOD-friendly workforce, conference calls are becoming the new face of meetings. But how do you make your conference calls as close to interpersonal communication as possible?

1. Evaluate Your Invite List

Most professionals who sit in a lot of business meetings would agree that there’s nothing worse than being forced to attend a meeting that doesn’t require your presence. Time is a valuable resource for busy professionals, especially high-level employees, so carefully evaluate who should be involved as well as who should be excluded before sending out that invite. The most productive conference calls typically only have about 4-5 people in attendance.

2. Create an Agenda and Stick to It

A quality conference call begins with the circulation of an agenda prior to the meeting. This helps provide structure to the call as well as a guidebook for call attendees to use in preparing themselves ahead of time. An agenda also helps to avoid getting sidetracked into another issue or concern that is better to be dealt with at a different meeting. Review the agenda at the start of the call so everyone is reminded of the sequence of discussions.

3. Delegate Roles

Because you carefully evaluated your invite list, everyone involved in a conference call should play a designated role. Delegate an attendee who is in charge of the time and continuous flow of the call, keeping everything moving and on-task. Use the agenda as a guide for indicating who should be presenting their information and at what time. This provides structure and flow to the call.

4. Keep it Short and Sweet

Attention spans get shorter and shorter as technology advances and more becomes expected from employees. Additionally, each participant knows exactly what they are committing to and aren’t distracted during the call about how long the meeting is taking. The first 20 minutes of a person speaking is the most important time for retention, so make sure that remains the case during your meeting. Try to get as much in as quickly and effectively as possible.

5. Provide Quality Conferencing Tools

Outside of being invited to attend a meeting you have no business being involved in, having tools that make conferencing difficult is also extremely frustrating. Voice solutions that seamlessly connect employees from wherever they are is essential to conducting a successful and productive meeting.

At Millennia Technologies, we have the voice solutions that can help your conference calls become the next best thing to interpersonal communication. Contact us today to see how we can help you implement a system that makes conference calls not only easy but affordable as well.