When even the smallest of businesses can have offices around the world these days, plus the inconvenience of air travel, teleconferencing and virtual meetings become increasingly popular and easy.
Well, maybe not easy. It’s still hard to hold someone’s attention by telephone, especially if you are not on a one-on-one phone call. If you are going to conduct a teleconference or virtual meeting over the phone with colleagues around the world, please keep these tips in mind:
- Chances are, no one is writing down everything you say, so don’t outline the meeting as if you were a high school teacher.
- Stories, examples and visual words are even more important than ever since you are not able to send any non-verbal communication.
- Email participants in advance an agenda and any content you plan on going over.
- Be alert to people tuning out!
- Come prepared to ask specific questions of specific people, “Hey Jim in Chicago, can you share with the group how your branding campaign was successful last quarter?â€
- Try to use several voices from other people. Don’t plan on giving the only report yourself.
- Have other people present from other cities—more people will feel included that way.
- Try to limit your phone conference to 20 minutes or less—it’s easy to get distracted during a phone conference.
- Never use a speaker phone, even if multiple people are speaking from the same location (it’s annoying to listen to and it flattens out your voice).
- Never read a script on a phone conference.
Originally published as Teleconferencing Tips: Making the Most Out of Virtual Meetings by TJ Walker for SpeakingChannel.TV
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