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BEP 133 – Sales and Interviews: Elevator Pitch in English

Advanced, Business English, ESL Podcast, Presentation in English, Sales English /

In this Business English Podcast, we’re going to look at delivering an elevator pitch.

A sales pitch is a presentation designed to introduce a product or service in order to convince people to buy it. An elevator pitch is a very short presentation designed to do the same thing in 60-seconds or less and often the “product” being presented is you. An elevator pitch should be short enough that you could complete it during an elevator ride. A key point being that you’re not asking the person to do something for you, you’re telling them what you can do for them.

In today’s lesson, we’ll be listening to two pitches. First up is Jonathan, a university student visiting a job fair in search of his first job. Then we’ll hear Dominic, a manager for a logistics company, make his pitch to a potential customer while attending a local Chamber of Commerce meeting.

Listening Questions

1) What does Jonathan highlight as his key strengths in the first dialog?
2) In the second dialog, how does Dominic get Graham’s attention?
3) What’s the key advantage of Dominic’s company?

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BEP 132 – Job Interviews: Telephone Screening Interview

Advanced, Business English, ESL Podcast, Job Interview in English, Telephone English /

In this Business English Pod episode we’ll be looking at how to handle a telephone interview for a new job. If you’re joining us here, you may want to check out BEP 82 and BEP 83 first to see how to talk about your experience in a face-to-face interview. Unit 301 from our Interviews e-book also gives a good overview of all our previous lessons on job interviews.

We’ll be listening to James, who has lots of experience in his field, but has nevertheless recently lost his job due to downsizing at his company. He has been applying for jobs and has completed a series of aptitude and attitudinal tests at an agency that is representing Xeon IT, a multinational IT company.

Angie, who works in Human Resources at Xeon’s head office, calls James at home in the evening to do a screening interview. She needs to ask him some preliminary questions to decide if he will be invited for a face-to-face interview at Xeon.

Listening Questions

1) Why does James want to call Angie back?
2) Why did James leave his previous job?
3) How long does James have to wait to find out if he has a second interview with Xeon?

Premium Members: PDF Transcript | Online Practice | PhraseCast

Download: Podcast MP3

BEP 131 – Presentations: Pitching an Idea (3)

Advanced, Business English, English for Meetings, ESL Podcast, Presentation in English /

This is the final episode in our three-part Business English Podcast series on pitching an idea to your colleagues.

In the last episode, we saw how a manager presented an idea to her colleagues and persuaded them to take it seriously. She then defended and supported her argument in front of her peers, who were not sure of the feasibility of the proposal at the start of the meeting.

In today’s lesson, we’ll introduce language for connecting your ideas to company strategy, emphasizing points, setting an action plan, and assigning tasks at the end of your presentation. Once you have convinced your colleagues, you need to provide a plan for getting the work done. We will show you how to use language effectively to follow through on your outstanding idea.
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BEP 130 – Presentations: Pitching an Idea (2)

Advanced, Business English, English for Meetings, ESL Podcast, Presentation in English /

In the last Business English Podcast lesson, we saw how a manager pitched an idea during a meeting. She explained how the company website could be revamped so that customers could order off-the-shelf products directly, instead of having to contacting a sales representative.

In today’s lesson, we’ll introduce language for dealing with unexpected objections, signposting your presentation, supporting your points and persuading other people. Once you’ve pitched an idea, your colleagues will try to find weak points in your argument and you will have to give evidence that your idea is worth supporting. We will show you how to make coherent, persuasive arguments, and use language effectively to support your points.
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BEP 129 – Presentations: Pitching an Idea (1)

Advanced, Business English, English for Meetings, ESL Podcast, Presentation in English /

This is the first in a three-part Business English Podcast series on pitching, or presenting, your ideas persuasively and convincingly.

Business people often come up with ideas about how to do things better, or how something can be changed to provide greater cost benefits to the company. Being able to present an idea to your peers and persuade them to support your proposal is a crucial skill for all business managers.

So in today’s lesson, we’ll introduce phrases for organizing and structuring your ideas, supporting your points and using other people’s comments to lead into the next part of your presentation. We will show you how to make coherent, persuasive arguments, and use language effectively to support your arguments. It is your colleagues’ task to find the weak points in your argument and you will have to predict their objections and deal with them before or when they come up.
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