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BEP 141 – Presentations: SWOT Analysis 1

Advanced, Business English, Management English, Presentation in English /

In this Business English Pod lesson, we start the first in a 2-part series on presenting a SWOT analysis.

A SWOT analysis is a simple but powerful framework for analyzing your company’s strengths and weaknesses – these are internal to the company – as well as the opportunities and threats you face outside the company. This analysis helps you focus on your strengths, minimize threats, and take the greatest possible advantage of opportunities available to you.

In today’s lesson, we’ll focus on the first two stages of a SWOT: strengths and weaknesses. We’ll practice language for providing an overview, introducing your main strength, maximizing positive aspects, and acknowledging and introducing a weakness.

We’ll be listening to Terry, a partner at a growing firm of accountants, talking to Susan, the company’s newly hired marketing manager. Terry needs to brief Susan about the company and SWOT is a quick and easy-to-understand framework for giving a quick overview of a company and its position.

Listening Questions

1) What is the main source of business for the company?
2) What is the main strength identified by Terry?
3) What weaknesses does Terry mention?

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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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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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