How to ace telephonic interviews

Before a call

i. Plan and circulate the agenda and rules

"Making a powerpoint slide with the points of discussion and circulating it in advance is?effective," says Vivek Furtado, sales manager, GEMS Financial. "It ensures that everyone starts on the same page," he adds.

Also, set the ground rules. This starts with specifying the attendance method at the conference call. "A simple roll call is usually used, though sometimes the system is automated to announce user entry and exits," says Roy of Webex.

Pre-determine?other areas like order of discussing topics, the amount of time on each issue, the order of speakers etc.

ii. Choose a?representative and the moderator

Rather than everyone joining in, it makes sense for one speaker from your team to communicate with the other parties during?the call, while the others listen in on the speaker.

If the representative is not clear about a point, the phone can be put on mute and the issue quickly discussed.

"The moderator, ideally, is someone senior and must be well-known to all participants. This helps maintain an orderly flow," says Rukmini Iyer, a corporate trainer and instructional designer.

From: http://www.rediff.com/cms/print.jsp?docpath=//getahead/2006/feb/14etiq.htm