Professionalism should underscore all phone conversations and being clearly spoken and concise will ensure that your phone communication is always successful and understood by the people or party on the other end of the call. Remember that on the phone, as with email, you do not have the benefit of body language or facial expressions, and what began as a well-intentioned joke could end lost in translation, or worse, be offensive. If you are on a conference call with multiple listeners, always introduce yourself before you speak, allow pauses for others to finish, and thank people for their time and contributions at the end of the call.