A spectre is haunting earnings calls — the spectre of double-clicking.
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If you haven’t encountered this phrase previously, you might — naive, tiny baby that you are — think it’s just about interfacing with software.
And, of course, a search for “double click” on analytics platform AlphaSense also throws up a few tech demonstrations (though not very many, based on Alphaville’s half-arsed QA process).
But the truth is far more sinister.
On cloud verticalisation:
“Satya, in your prepared remarks, you spoke about an increase in verticalisation of Azure. Can we double-click on that a bit more?” Gregg Moskowitz, Mizuho, on the Microsoft April 2023 call
On the exceptional growth in Europe:
“[C]urious to hear or maybe if you can double-click on what’s driving the exceptional growth here in Europe.” Samik Chatterjee, of JPMorgan, on the Apple April 2023 call.
On new customers:
“Just double-click on what customers are coming to Salesforce and engaging with you around some of the new things that we’ll hear about it sounds like in June.” Brent Bracelin, of Piper Sandler, on the Salesforce May 2023 call.
On the retention commentary:
“I just want to double-click on that retention commentary you said.” Jack Roberge, of William Blair, on the Adobe March 2023 call.
On security:
“And then, just secondly, if I could just double-click on security.” Matthew Nikman, of Deutsche Bank, on the Cisco May 2023 call.
On deals:
“Maybe just elaborate on some of the comments that you just made, especially in the enterprise about deals and longevity of deals or being pushed out or new deal momentum, just double-click on that?” Erik Woodring, of Morgan Stanley, on HP March 2023 call.
On the speaker’s own questions:
“Hey, guys, thank you so much for taking my questions. So, a couple that I want to double-click into.” Stan Zlotsky, of Morgan Stanley, on Zendesk October 2020 call.
On scrutiny and sales cycles:
“In the prepared remarks, you mentioned that in the quarter you saw increased deal scrutiny and longer sales cycles, can you just double-click on that comment?” Patrick Colville, of Scotiabank, on the CrowdStrike May 2023 call.
On the integration of that business:
“Maybe if we can just double-click on where we’re at in terms of the integration of that business?” Matt Stotler, of William Blair, on the Ooma March 2023 call.
On gross margin:
“George, I guess I wanted to double-click on gross margin.” Timothy Arcuri, of UBS, on Intel October 2020 call.
On cloud infrastructure:
“I guess Larry, can you sort of double-click on OCI . .. ” Stewart Kirk Materne III, of Evercore, on the Oracle September 2021 call.
On Software and Services margins:
“So I’m hoping that maybe you could just touch on that dynamic, that changing composition of profit dollar growth and leverage, and double-click on where you see Software and Services margins moving to in 2020.” Adam Tindle, of Raymond James, on Motorola February 2020 call.
Took the words right out of my mouth
Drilling down more specifically: have analysts acquired a new favoured visual tic in “just wanting [want/wanted] to double-click”. But can it dethrone the king of call clichés?
On that April comp:
“I just wanted to double-click on that April 3 per cent comp.” George Doumet, pf Scotiabank, on the Canadian Tire May 2023 call.
On guidance:
“I just wanted to double-click on guidance.” Kevin Kumar, of Goldman Sachs, on the Paycor HCM May 2023 call.
On the fundraising:
“Maybe I just wanted to double-click on the fundraising and really the mix this quarter.” Alexander Bernstein, of JPMorgan, on the GCM Grosvenor May 2023 call.
On security:
“Just want to double-click maybe on security.” Rudy Kessinger, of D.A. Davidson & Co, on the Akamai May 2023 call.
On momentum with partners:
“I just wanted to double-click on maybe where you’re seeing momentum with partners in terms of reaching more customers” Connor Passarella, of Truist, on the SolarWinds April 2023 call.
On inorganic growth:
“And then just wanted to double-click on inorganic growth opportunities as well.” Michael Falco, of JMP Securities, on the Marketwise March 2023 call.
On the product bundles:
“And then I just wanted to double-click on the product bundles performing better than expected during the quarter.” Jacob Roberge, of William Blair, on the DocuSign March 2023 call.
On the enterprise strategy:
“Just wanted to double-click on some of the investments you’re making around the enterprise strategy.” Ari Terjanian, of Cleveland Research, on the Atlassian February 2023 call.
On the competitive environment:
“I just want to double-click on the competitive environment.” Kamil Mielczarek, of William Blair, on the Elastic November 2022 call.
On the revenue growth factors:
“So I just wanted to double-click on the factors that we saw influenced revenue growth this quarter.” Mauro Molina, of Piper Sandler, on the Expensify November 2022 call.
On the cancellation trends:
“So I just wanted to double-click on the cancellation trends.” Brendan Luecke, of Sanford C Bernstein, on the Rockwell Automation November 2022 call.
On that efficiency component:
“I just wanted to double-click on that efficiency component.” Jason Michael Kreyer, Craig-Hallum, on the LiveRamp August 2022 call.
On Europe:
“Just want to double-lick on Europe.” Devin Au, KeyBanc, on the HireRight August 2022 call.
On inventory:
“Just wanted to double-click on inventory a little bit more.” Lauren Cassel Schenk, Morgan Stanley, on the Revolve August 2022 call.
On verification in China:
“Just want to double-click on verification in China.” Devin Au (again), KeyBanc, on the Cadence April 2022 call.
On the opportunity to improve mix:
“I just wanted to double-click on the opportunity to improve mix with the shift to on-premise.” Andrea Teixeira, JPMorgan, on the Constellation Brands April 2022 call.
Further reading
— How I lost my 25-year battle against corporate claptrap (FT)
— How to Clean Up Vomit: 12 Steps (WikiHow)
