Ideal Features to Have When Hosting an Earnings Call
As the CEO or a member of the management team of a publicly-traded company, there are a lot of things to take care of when hosting an earnings call. From writing the press release to choosing the time and date, and to scrutinizing the financial report you’ll be presenting, these are all crucial details. Of course, there’s also the matter of making sure your large conference call provider can handle such an affair.
Making sure that your conference call provider has the right features in an earnings call is a must. This will ensure that the earnings conference call will go trouble-free as you deliver your earnings report. Additionally, if you learn to maximize these conference call features, you can be certain that you and your participants will have a painless live session.
Ideal Conference Call Features in an Earnings Call
Full Operator-Assistance
Having a full operator-assistance in an earnings call is a wise move. Not only can they help keep the live session smooth, they’ll also be able to keep things organized and professional.
Conference call operators can start your earnings conference call with a branded greeting, introduce the management team that will be presenting, count and manage the participants, manage the Q&A portion of the earnings report, and more importantly, offer assistance in case of any technical problems.
Q&A Session
The Q&A session is perhaps the most important part of the earnings call. Because of this, you’ll need to make sure that your conference call service provides an excellent live Q&A session as well.
The Q&A session can be managed by the professional operator from the conference call provider. With this, you can go through the call with little to no problem. You can choose to accept great questions or reject irrelevant ones so that you can set the direction of your earnings report.
International Access
It’s vital that you make your live earnings conference call accessible in every way possible, including the international participants. Your conference call provider should be able to provide international long-distance numbers for participants outside the US and Canada, so it’s easier for them to join in the call.
Having international access also helps you reach a wider audience which can contribute to the success of your earnings call. The more people that will listen to your earnings report, the more chances that various investors, partners, and clients will participate in the call and get the message you’re trying to deliver.
Recording and Replay
The Record and Replay feature is definitely a must for publicly-traded companies doing their quarterly earnings call. This is because earnings calls are to be distributed and made accessible to the public after the live session. This can come in the form of transcripts or audio recordings. Companies can publish these on their websites so that people can easily find them and read or listen to the earnings calls at any time.
Meeting Summary Service or Transcription Service
Not many conference call providers offer a meeting summary service or a transcription service for your conference calls. If you do manage to find one, it will definitely give you an advantage like no other.
For one, you won’t have to tap into third-party transcription companies or freelancers and outsource their services for a meeting summary or the official transcription of your earnings call. You can just easily send the recording to your large conference call provider and they’ll be able to meet your needs, whether it be outlined summaries or full transcriptions.
Bonus: Web Presentation
You can always go beyond the usual earnings call and do better at presenting the raw data to your participants. By integrating a web presentation to the call, you’re making the report clearer all the while making the participants more engaged. If your large conference call provider has a web presentation feature, feel free to utilize it.