Business English Pod / Intermediate English / Page 10

BEP 92 – English for Sales: Features, Advantages, Benefits (or FAB Presentation)

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

For today’s Business English Podcast lesson, we’re going to focus on the “classic sales” approach to selling products and services. This approach is based on explaining the features, attributes and benefits of your products using the “FAB” technique.

The FAB technique is useful for people working in the manufacturing and retail trade – anyone who has to present products. In particular, we’ll look at how this approach can be applied in the Merchandizing business. Merchandizing is the trade name for businesses involved in the design and manufacture of clothing and household items.

In the dialog, we rejoin Marco and Francesca on their trip to a fashion trade show in the U.S. Their company, Viva, has just created an exciting new line of clothes. With the help of their American partner, Foxtrot, they are hoping to get a couple big sales contracts with U.S. department stores.

The listening takes place in the Foxtrot showroom. We’ll hear Francesca speak to a potential customer, Bill, who is a buyer for Bancroft’s, a retail chain store that targets professional women.

Listening Questions

1. What is the key feature of Viva’s fall colors this year? Can you name some of the colors?
2. Why is the Viva Professional line more expensive?
3. As described in the dialog, what are the main benefits of Viva’s clothing line?

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BEP 89 – Telephoning: Making Arrangements

A2, Business English, ESL Podcast, Intermediate English, Telephone English, Travel /

In this Business English Podcast lesson we’re going to look at useful language for handling the practical details of a business visit, such as airport pickup and restaurant or hotel booking. And we’ll also practice ways to create and maintain goodwill by demonstrating flexibility and responding politely on the phone.

Viva is an Italian fashion company. Viva representatives Marco and Francesca are preparing to attend a fashion expo in Las Vegas with their American distributor, Foxtrot. A fashion expo, or exposition, is a kind of trade show or conference in which potential buyers look at manufacturers’ goods.

In the dialog Marco is calling his contact Adriana at Foxtrot to discuss the details of the visit. As you listen try to answer the following questions.

Listening Questions

1) What information does Adriana get from Marco?
2) What does Marco need help with?
3) Does Marco have any special requirements for the hotel?
4) What kind of food does Marco hope to eat?

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BEP 88 – Telephoning: Booking a Travel Ticket

A2, Business English, Customer Service, Intermediate English, Telephone English, Travel /

Booking tickets on the phone is a basic part of business travel. In this intermediate Business English Podcast, we will practice useful phrases and language for making travel arrangements on the telephone.

Viva is an Italian manufacturer of ladies’ apparel, or clothing. Marco and Francesca, Viva employees, are on a business trip. After visiting customers in the UK, they are now heading to Las Vegas in the United States to meet with their American distributor – the company that sells their product there. Marco calls a travel agent to book tickets for them.

Listening Questions

1) When does Marco want to leave and when does he want to return? Will he and Francesca be flying first class, business class or economy?
2) Does Marco ask the travel agent to “hold the fare” or does he pay for it immediately?
3) Does Marco need to pick up his and Francesca’s tickets at the travel agent’s office?

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BEP 85 – English for Sales: Informal Product Presentation

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

In this Business English Podcast, we’re going to look at the language of presenting your products and services to potential clients in informal situations.

Following on from our episode on hosting a site visit, we return to our friends at the railway tunnel. Stanley Wang is a site agent for a railway construction project in western China. He has just taken Matt and Paul, sales engineers from a small American company, on a tour of the tunnel. Now, in the evening, Stanley and his boss Bill Zhang are hosting a dinner for Matt and Paula. The group is discussing possibilities for future cooperation.

In many countries and cultures around the world, informal occasions – such as a friendly meal or a game of a golf – are more important to the sales process than a formal presentation in the boardroom. And so in this episode, we’ll be studying language for presenting our products in such casual situations. In particular, we’ll see how you can sell your products in relation to your customers’ needs with a few soft-sell techniques.

Listening Questions

1) Were Matt and Paula able to go to the tunnel face, that is, the end of the tunnel?
2) What is the main point of interest that Matt and Paula pursue in the discussion?
3) What are the advantages that Matt and Paula’s device have over traditional surveying methods?

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BEP 84 – English for Sales: Site Visit

Business English, ESL Podcast, Intermediate English, Sales English /

There are many different kinds of sites. We often speak of construction sites, a site where something is being built – such as buildings, roads, bridges, airports, and so on. But a site can also be a completed structure, like a factory or even sometimes an office. In a site visit, visitors come on site to have a look around. Someone in your company will usually play host and give them a tour. This is often part of the sales process: Sometimes it’s the visitors who are selling something to the host, and sometimes it’s other way around.

The language we’re going to study in this episode will be useful for anyone who needs to host visitors. No matter whether we are giving journalists a demonstration of a factory, or introducing potential customers to our work site, or giving government officials a tour of a construction project, we need to show people around and point out areas of interest.

In the listening, Stanley Wang works for China Western Railroad Construction Company. Stanley is the site agent – that is, the person in charge of a construction site – for a railway tunnel that is being built. Matt and Paula – who work for a small engineering company called TunnelTech – are visiting potential customers in China. As the dialog begins, Stanley is getting ready to take them into the tunnel for a look around.

Listening Questions:

1) What does Stanley point out in the tunnel? What language does he use to draw everyone’s attention to it?
2) What are the advantages of the machine that Stanley describes?
3) Stanley mentions two safety hazards. What are they?
4) What is the question that Paula asks Stanley about the hazards?

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