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10 tips for successful phone consultations

Business
Consulting
Freelance
Phone Consultation
Tips

28 Apr 2022

In the “new normal” economy, traditional face-to-face business meetings are becoming a luxury rather than an intrinsic part of the daily work routine. The Covid-19 pandemic has painfully shown those who weren’t convinced by the virtual world that modern companies cannot rely solely on traditional forms of communication anymore. This is why phone and video calls have become the go-to solution when quick consultations and professional expertise are needed. Many companies are likely to fully transition towards these new forms of communication as they eliminate (expensive) carbon footprints from travels, and reduce the onboarding costs associated with project placements. 

EonD is at the forefront of this transformation and offers the support to our partners and experts in remote and instant insight delivery.  To ease the whole process, EonD oversees the contracting and payments and allows professionals to concentrate on what is key: knowledge transfer. We will connect you with our partners through a web-conferencing platform for a call to discuss market insights, best practices or industry-specific questions. 

To learn more about the EonD Phone Consultations, check our FAQs

In order to be better prepared for an EonD phone consultation, we have prepared 10 proven tips for a successful online call: 

1. Initial Research – Before every interview and consultation, it is highly recommended to conduct research about your future partner’s company. It’s crucial to know the company’s market position, their products and possible expectations relating to your expertise. In short, you need to come prepared to your talk. 

Don’t forget to review all existing materials provided by your client.  Local company registers and annual reports will tell you all about the overall company strategy, key business results and future focus initiatives. 

2. Confirm the Agenda –This remains one of the most important steps of any successful consultation. If not given beforehand, you can ask for a possible set of questions or prepare and share key bullet points you think are worth being discussed based on the topic and the characteristics of the business partner. 
 

3. Proper Time Schedule – It is important to set up a call in a proper manner while not forgetting that your counterpart could be in a different time zone. Keep in mind to always double check in which time zone the meeting will be held! 
 

4. Proper Set Up – It is crucial to always prepare the surroundings for the meeting. This means not only having a professional background for video calls but also a good Wi-Fi connection to eliminate any unwanted noise. 

Inanimate objects have the unfortunate habit of letting us down during important meetings and you are more than likely to encounter unexpected technical issues. In order to avoid any trouble before the meeting, be sure to check your audio settings, mic, headphones etc. 

5. Show your professionalism by being on time – It is common knowledge that you should always be on time to a meeting. 

By showing respect for other people’s time you are helping to give a positive image of  yourself. Additionally, by arriving early you also get some extra time to prepare and focus. 

6. Proper Communication – During the meeting, you will be in the spotlight. But even the highest professional expertise can be ruined by poor-quality public speaking habits such as an inappropriate tone of voice or a high-paced delivery. 

Of course, we are not all natural-born speakers but you can certainly help yourself by eliminating some of the potential difficulties. It’s time to use the memory cues and prompts you made while preparing. Ample preparation will help to avoid any trouble during the consultancy. 

7. Proper Focus on your Goal – Time is precious. You should be specific and driven by data to stay in  control of the topic during the consultancy. If you feel that the conversation is drifting away from the agreed-upon agenda feel free to gently redirect it to where you need it to be. 

You should always be your own moderator. 

8. Proper Time Management –Remember that a phone consultation is not a pitch. You need to give your partners time to ask some questions too and to explore topics as a conversation rather than a lecture. 

While creating the agenda for the meeting, include time for questions. 

9. Make Notes – During the meeting, you may be handling a lot of general and specific questions. To keep track of them all, make notes. This will allow you to come back to specific points in a later part of the call. 

Writing down all the questions and highlighting the most pressing ones could help you better manage the meeting and focus on the most important parts. 

10. Proper Consultation Outline – It is always advised to sum up all the information, questions and topics from the meeting. The previous step should help you refer to the topics that were discussed on the day and which could be postponed until the next consultation. 

There is no such a thing as an absolute recipe for success, but we at EonD will always be more than happy to offer help and answer all of your questions before your phone or video consultation.

Though we can’t predict everything that will happen in a meeting, by following these simple steps we can at the very least put the chances on our side for a succesful consultation. 

Should you have any doubts, please feel free to reach out to us! 

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