Prep work is key to conducting good phone interviews

An interview is only as good as the prep work you put into it.

Have you ever picked up the phone without having done any background research on your source, thought of questions or figured out how the person will fit into your story? Sometimes it happens, especially if you’re covering breaking news. But more often than not, you’ve planned the date and time well in advance, so there’s no excuse for coming in cold.

There are lots of reasons to prepare for interviews, with the no. 1 being that you’ll ask better questions and as a result, get a better story.

Preparation is especially important when you only get 15 minutes with a CEO, celebrity or university professor. When time’s short, you need to make every question count and the only way to do that is by doing your homework.

What should you do to prep for an interview?

Work out logistics. Time, phone number, who’s calling whom. You’ll be a lot more comfortable and confident if you’ve got everything on your calendar. One freelancer I know uses a call sheet to map out these logistics as well as other essentials of each assignment, including word count, deadline and sources.

Do background research – This sounds like a lot of work, and sometimes it can be, such as when you need to read through a quarterly financial statement to find out how much money a company is losing and why before interviewing the CFO. But that’s not always the case. Spending just 5 or 10 minutes to scan the Website of the individual, company or agency you’ll be talking to can give you enough perspective to shape the questions you need to ask.

Read other stories on the source – If you’re interviewing a public figure chances are they’ve been written about before. Brush up on what they’ve been up to lately so you can ask timely questions. Even if you’re not interviewing celebrities or government officials, a little background reading can help you avoid using precious interview minutes to ask about details you could have found elsewhere.

Plan questions -Some writers are so good at this they ask questions in the order they want the information to appear in a story, so when they’re transcribing the interview or looking through their notes, the information is already laid out exactly the way they want it.

Do other interviews – If you’re writing about something controversial or are doing a lengthy profile, conduct other interviews before talking to your primary subject. If it’s an adversarial interview, you’ll be armed with information to question claims or denials the subject makes during the interview. If it’s a profile, you’ll have a better sense of who the person is by talking to their friends, family, co-workers or fans, and will be able to ask more probing questions as a result.

Talk to your editor – Most of the time, you’ve hammered out your story angle in a query or story conference, and that should shape the questions you ask in an interview. But if you have any doubts or just want additional input, email or call your editor. The more in sync you are with your editor about the direction of a story before an interview, the better the chances your story will be on the money.

Give yourself time – There’s nothing worse than hanging up on one interview and immediately jumping onto another. Give yourself at least a few minutes between calls to switch gears. Get up from your desk, get a cup of coffee, walk around a little, review your notes and questions. Then dive in.