Hi All - I just sat through a client's conference call and wow - I have never wanted to push my pen through my ears as much as I had listening in on his call.

He does these once a month and I never really bothered to listen in, I simply work his sites and handle his affs. Anyhow - after listening in to this dribble, stumble and ultimate crap-fest I think I should list a few probs here so that none of you fall into the same craptraps.

1. Find a reliable conference call firm making sure you can mute morons or the whole group if need be. I was once on a call with "He who's name willnot be mentioned" and some guy and his buddy were in the background, line not muted, listening to a baseball game talking about womens anatomy, whether they knew they were live or not - this client "who's name will never be mentioned" could not shut them off - it was funny to see this idiot crash and burn.

2. Have "very good" recording equipment and software - and recorder.exe does not, nor never should, count.

3. TEST your recording equipment and what all lines sound like - to test it may take 2 or more people. Remember, this is your money and your product - these recordings should always be thought of as 3 separate products -a. Recorded call used as a bonus, b. recorded call transcirbed into a PDF for a bonus, c. Your training guide so you can hear yourself to make sure the next one you do is even better.

B is important - as the transcriber will either cancel or never work with you again knowing you churn out shiite.

4. Listen to your test recording - if it sounds like garble or one of the lines is in a fishbowl - make the company fix it or find another firm -

5. WRITE A SCRIPT - I cant stress this part enough - know what the hell you are talking about - do not say "UM, UH, AH or anything else that might prove you're a mouthbreather (no offense to the mouthbreathers... I just hate listening to you take gulps of air as gobs of drool hits the floor while you talk)

Writing a script is imperative as it will keep the action going and works much like your lander - you should have your CTA stuffed in there somewhere regardless of what it is. Dont let the CTA come up and surprise you - everyone can tell when a namedrop happens and it sounds sad. Lead up to it and then bring it -

6. WRITE OUT SOME QUESTIONS - think of any questions someone would ask based on this topic - you can probably think of 100 questions someone would ask about your product or service - answer them, write them out and keep them on a large sheet of paper in front of you - or technically better - write them all out as an FAQ in html so you can simply click on the question and drop down to it - this type of html page may take only 20 miinutes to type up. You can always use this page as an FAQ for your site -

7. DO NOT go off topic - some moron will ask a stoopid question to either be an a-hole or they are just plain stoopid. If they are that stoopid, direct them to the payment portion... where all their questions will be answered. You must find a way to politely let them know that their question will be answered at the end of the conference (please hold your questions) - or simply give them an email address to post this question as "You would like to stay on topic".

Thats about it - I hope this helps someone.... and again, mouthbreathers... no offense but you sound like breathy pervs on conference calls....




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