How to prepare for a Third Bridge expert call?
By @gregg
I'm having an expert call with a client through Third Bridge next week. I was told that they want to know more about the regulatory environment in the industry I work in. The client is paying quite a lot of money for this call so I want to be useful. How should I prepare? Should I make some slides or something?
- DDavid Rosén @David_Rosen
Hi Gregg, I guess it’s too late for you now but maybe others in a similar situation will find my answer useful. Usually, the clients won’t expect you to have anything prepared in advance, unless the expert network recruiter told you so. In my experience, there are two big things you should think about before taking the call:
- The screening questions. Often, expert network clients will provide the recruiter with a list of questions that they want experts to be able to cover. It’s quite likely that the recruiter went through them with you on the phone when first talking to you. You can always ask your recruiter at Third Bridge (or GLG, or AlphaSights) to share those questions with you over email, so you would know what the main conversation topics are likely to be.
- The compliance rules. A good idea is to carefully re-read the Terms & Conditions you signed when you agreed to take on the engagement. They contain the guidelines about which things you are allowed and not allowed to talk about. Probably the worst thing that can happen during an expert call is the expert sharing some confidential piece of information, which can endanger the whole investment idea. Most of the compliance rules are quite common sense: you shouldn’t give away any of your company’s secrets or financial information that is not yet publicly available. But some compliance rules are less obvious. For instance, you are not allowed to provide any investment advice or (if you are a healthcare expert) to talk about any ongoing clinical trials.
Checking these two aspects before the call will already be a good enough preparation.
