skills/earnings-preview/references/CALL_QUESTION_BANK.md

# Call Question Bank

Select 5-12 questions tied to the quarter's stock debate. Each question needs why it matters, thesis-validating answer, thesis-breaking answer, and listen-fors.

## Universal Buckets

- Demand: order trends, usage, retention, backlog, traffic, conversion, pipeline quality.
- Pricing: price realization, discounting, mix, promo intensity, contract duration.
- Margins: gross margin drivers, utilization, input costs, cloud/infra, labor, freight, one-time items.
- Guidance: assumptions, conservatism, macro sensitivity, FX, seasonality, visibility.
- GTM/customer: enterprise/SMB mix, channel health, sales productivity, churn, cohort behavior.
- Competition: win rates, share shifts, pricing pressure, substitute products.
- Ops/capital allocation: inventory, working capital, capex, buybacks, M&A, debt, restructuring.

## Sector Add-ons

- SaaS: ARR/RPO conversion, NRR/GRR, churn, seat expansion, sales cycles, AI/cloud cost impact.
- Internet/ads/marketplaces: engagement, monetization, take rate, advertiser demand, seller/merchant health.
- Consumer/retail: traffic vs ticket, promo/markdowns, inventory, shrink, loyalty, channel mix.
- Semis/hardware: backlog, lead times, channel inventory, utilization, capacity, ASP, mix, customer digestion.
- Banks/financials: deposit beta, NIM path, credit migration, charge-offs, capital return, regulatory constraints.
- Industrials: orders, book-to-bill, backlog conversion, price/cost, labor, end-market mix.
- Energy: production, realized price, capex discipline, hedges, decline rates, return of capital.