As Warren Miller describes them, on-site interviews are "the most underappreciated, underutilized, and overlooked phase of the valuation process." As fundamental as interviews are to the valuation process, it's hard to argue with either their importance or their relative obscurity when compared to more "glamorous" or "cutting edge" valuation techniques. Indeed, Miller describes the information gathered from metrics, ratios, and other valuation tools as "effects" whose "causes" can most easily be obtained from on-site interviews: "If we can't explain [aberrant metrics], we don't really understand what we're valuing, and we will get the valuation right purely by chance."

In "Using Onsite Interviews to Uncover What Really Matters" Miller will lead an in-depth discussion of what every appraiser must know to make their on-site interviews as efficient and informative as possible. From properly timing the interview to asking the right questions of the right personnel, this teleconference is a necessary examination of one of the most essential parts of the valuation process. You may think you know how to conduct an interview, but now it's time to find out for sure.

• Introduction and overview
• Why on-site interviews are the most underutilized, underappreciated, and under executed phase of the valuation process
  • Preparation for on-site interviews
  • Pre-visit analysis
  • Selection of whom to interview and when
• Objectives of interviews
  • The "Whys" about the "Whats"
  • The Causes of the Effects
    • Effects: uncovering the drivers of ratios and related metrics
    • Causes: a five-facet framework called SPARC (Strategy, People, Architecture, Routines, Culture)
• Conducting interviews strategically
  • Ask the right questions of the right people in the right order
  • Objective outcomes of interviews
• Bolster valuation conclusions
  • Ensure that values are arrived at by more than chance alone
• Follow-up consulting engagement opportunities

• Learn how to get the most out of your on-site interviews -Clarify your process to ensure you're getting the most out of your interview opportunities
• Ask the right questions in the right wording to get the information you need
• Understand how to better position yourself during interviews to get the information you need
• Improve the integration of interviews into your valuation process: use them as a tool to verify and enforce your conclusion of value