Welcome back to the Skills 360 for today’s lesson on how you can sound more credible or believable.
In the last lesson, we looked at what you should say to sound credible. In this lesson, we’re going to take a look at what not to say. In other words, there are some things that can damage your credibility. These are habits or expressions that will make people trust you less, not more.
Welcome back to the Skills 360 for today’s lesson on how to sound credible, or believable.
It’s election year in the USA, and you’ve probably been hearing some pretty big talk from the candidates. One of the most glaring problems with so much of these candidates’ statements is that of credibility.
Sounding credible means that people can trust you, and trust what you say. And not just because you tell them to. Sounding credible also means people will respect you and believe you have the competence to get the job done. So, how do you make people believe that? What exactly should you say to sound credible?
Everyone knows that you have to plan for the future. But many “plans” are only that: they are just plans. But a plan is only useful if it leads to action. Or, as a wise man once said: a plan without action is a dream wasted. In order to not waste that dream, we need to implement the plans we create.
In today’s lesson, we’ll hear a discussion about how to implement a marketing plan. And you’ll hear lots of common expressions we use when talking about implementation. These expressions are called “collocations,” which just means a set of words that usually go together. For example, have you heard the expression “put something into action?” That’s a common collocation that means “to implement.” We don’t say “make something into action” or “activate something.” It’s always “put something into action.”
You can learn these natural combinations of words used by native speakers. Studying English collocations will help you sound more natural and expand your active vocabulary. As you listen to today’s dialog, try to catch some of these collocations, and we’ll go over them later in the debrief.
In the dialog, we’ll rejoin Carlos, Viv, Byron, and Marion, who are discussing how to implement a marketing plan. In the last lesson, they talked about some of their online marketing activities. Today, they’re going to talk about some other parts of the plan, including the timeline.
Listening Questions
1. Why does Carlos mention that Marion is a strong writer?
2. What does Carlos say about the importance of the CRM?
3. What does Viv think about the timeline on the CRM activities?
Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on English collocations related to implementing a plan.
In business, good planning is important, whether you’re talking about a long-term strategy or a short-term project. But a plan itself means nothing without action. It’s not what you decide to do that matters, but what you actually do. And what you actually do with a plan is called “implementation.” Implementing a plan is all about deciding who will do what, and when they will do it.
In this lesson, we’ll listen in on a meeting about how to implement a marketing plan. During the discussion, you’ll hear lots of useful expressions that we call “collocations.” A collocation is a natural combination or group of words. For example, I’ve already used the collocation “to implement a plan.” We don’t say “do a plan” or “activate a plan.” The natural expression is “to implement a plan.”
Native speakers use collocations like this automatically, and you can learn to use them as well. By studying English collocations, you’ll improve your vocabulary and sound more fluent. As you listen to the dialog, try to pick out some of these collocations and we’ll discuss them later in the debrief.
In the dialog, we’ll hear Carlos, Viv, Byron, and Marion. The small company they work for has just had a new marketing plan developed by a consulting company. Now they are meeting to figure out how to implement the plan.
Listening Questions
1. Carlos asks for volunteers on one aspect of the plan. What exactly does he want the volunteers to do?
2. As there’s lot to do on the website, what does Byron need to do as the lead?
3. What is Carlos going to do in three weeks time?
In today’s 925 English lesson, we’re going to learn how to talk about your work.
There are lots of situations where you meet someone new and you want to tell them about your job. Maybe they ask you about it, or you just want to introduce yourself. So how do you do that? Do you just say “I am a salesman” and that’s it? No, you need to say a bit more than that.
925 English is a new series of English video lessons for beginners. 925 English lessons focus on chunks of language and English expressions that you can use in work and business. Each 925 English lesson features English phrases you can use in different situations and advice on why and how we use them in Business English.
