This is a remastered edition of BEP 21 released in commemoration of Clayton Lee, who wrote and hosted this series.
In this is Business English Podcast lesson, we look at essential language for making telephone calls in English. Some of the key language we cover in this lesson include, identifying yourself and the caller, stating the purpose of your call and leaving a message.
In the dialog, we’ll hear a telephone call about a contract between an aircraft manufacture and one of its suppliers, called Airtronics. Nathan Beale from the contracts department of the client is calling to ask about a proposal he is expecting from Airtronics. Time is very short for all the proposals to be received, and so far, the aircraft company hasn’t received anything from this supplier.
Have you ever delivered a presentation to a quiet and happy audience that accepts everything you say and applauds at the end? Probably not. It doesn’t matter whether you’re presenting to a possible client, at a staff meeting, to a group of senior executives, or during a professional development event. Your audience will likely ask you questions throughout your presentation.
No matter how well you prepare, you’re going to have to think on your feet. That means you’ll have to step outside what you’ve rehearsed and deal with the questions as they come. You might know the answer, but then again you might not. The question might be about something you planned to talk about, but it might not. Your presentation will succeed or fail not just on how pretty your PowerPoint slides are, but on how well you handle the audience and their questions. And that’s what we’re looking at in this lesson.
The techniques we’ll hear today include clarifying a question, using a question to jump ahead in your presentation, and evading a difficult question. We’ll also learn how to separate multiple questions into parts as well as how to admit we don’t know the answer to a question.
In the dialog, we rejoin the publishing company where Amy is giving a presentation to senior executives, including Brenda and Dennis. Amy is explaining a potential overseas partnership with two Korean companies. Brenda and Dennis are asking her plenty of tough questions.
Listening Questions
1. What exactly is Brenda worried about at the start of the dialog?
2. How does Amy respond to Dennis’s question about licensing rights and terms?
3. Which question does Amy say she doesn’t have enough information to answer?
So you’ve planned your presentation carefully and you’ve rehearsed it in front of the mirror. You walk into the room, you bring up your first slide, and you begin. But you’ve hardly finished your introduction when someone throws out a question. How do you deal with it?
You’d better be ready for this situation, because you know it’s coming. How often do people actually wait for you to finish before politely raising their hands and asking you questions? It just doesn’t happen. So you need to learn how to respond on the fly. You need to read the situation and react accordingly. Your presentation isn’t ruined if you know the right things to say and do.
Today we’ll look at some of the techniques we can use to handle questions and keep our presentation flowing. These techniques include anticipating questions before they’re asked, using a question to transition to another point, and buying time. We’ll also learn about dismissing a question that you’ve already answered and redirecting a question to the entire group.
In the dialog, we’ll hear part of a meeting in a publishing company. Amy is giving a presentation about a potential overseas partnership. Brenda and Dennis, two senior managers, are asking Amy some tough questions along the way.
Listening Questions
1. What does Amy anticipate that the audience might be wondering about?
2. Which topic does Amy have to ”˜buy time’ for before talking about it?
3. When Brenda asks about priorities, how does Amy deal with the question?
In this business English vocabulary lesson, we’ll look at some key macroeconomic terms related to consumers and prices. This includes ideas such as the income gap, the cost of living, and the consumer price index (CPI). We will also explore concepts such as inflation and purchasing power, as well as disposable income, household debt, and consumer spending.
In this business English vocabulary lesson, we’ll look at some key macroeconomic terms, such GDP and GNP. We’ll explore the natural business cycle, which includes periods of expansion, recession and sometimes even depression. We’ll also look at the idea of trade balance between countries, which can be described as either a trade surplus or a trade deficit.
Welcome back to Business English Pod for the second part of our lesson on making sales calls.
Being successful in sales begins with getting your foot in the door. If you can sit down with someone in their workplace and show your product, or talk about your service, you’re more than halfway to making a sale. But if you don’t get the chance to sit down face to face, making the sale will be a lot harder.
There’s lots of advice out there about making cold calls in English. But usually you’ve got more to work with than just a phone number. A good lead might be someone you’ve talked to at an event, or someone you’ve been referred to by another customer or friend. So, you’ve got a name and number and perhaps a previous conversation or mutual acquaintance.
You call the person, you use your best professional greeting, you make a connection and you try to get them to talk about their company and their needs. Now comes the hard part. You need to make the next step and actually ask them to agree to meet with you. Today we’ll learn some great techniques that will help you get to that point. We’ll start with showing the value of your product or company, then we’ll cover asking for a meeting, dealing with a refusal, emphasizing the need to meet, and expressing gratitude.
In the dialog, we will hear the second part of a telephone conversation between Kate and Tina. Kate is a salesperson with a company called Thompson Medical. And Tina works at a dental office. Kate’s company sells machines called “autoclaves,” which are used to sterilize tools in medical clinics.
Listening Questions
1. Why does Kate mention ‘flexibility in the setup’?
2. How does Kate respond when Tina says that it’s hard to schedule a meeting?
3. What does Kate offer to do if Tina agrees to sit down and talk?
Many people hate making sales calls in English. They pick up the telephone and instantly feel a pit in their stomach. They might be afraid of rejection. Or they might know that most people hate receiving sales calls. But fear not! When you pick up the telephone, you’ve got an opportunity. If you approach it positively, you’ll have more positive results.
You start with a list of leads. This might just be names and numbers. They might be people you’ve met at a networking event or a trade show. Now it’s time to work those leads. In the first call, you’re not going to give them a hard sell or a pitch. You can save the real selling for a face to face meeting. And that’s your short-term goal: getting someone to agree to sit down with you.
You’re not the first person who has ever called someone to arrange a meeting. And there are some tried and true techniques that you can rely on. Today, we focus on the first part of a sales call. We’ll look at using a friendly professional greeting, showing respect for time, and referencing other clients. We’ll also look at both asking about a client’s needs and summarizing those needs.
In the dialog, we’ll hear Kate, a salesperson with a company called Thompson Medical. She’s calling Tina, who works at a dental office. Kate’s company sells “autoclaves.” An autoclave is a machine that sterilizes, or cleans, tools and equipment. It’s an important piece of equipment in any medical office.
Listening Questions
1. Why do you think Kate mentions that Tina must be very busy?
2. What does Kate say about another clinic that she visited?
3. What are the basic problems that Tina’s office has with their current system?
In this Business English News lesson, we look at trends in the workplace, particularly changing attitudes to telecommuting.
The question of “live to work or work to live” has been around for decades, with many employees trying to strike that perfect work-life balance. Employees around the world benefit from the use of modern technology to do their work in the comfort of their own homes.
Recently though, Yahoo’s CEO, Marissa Mayer, made some waves with her decision that all employees must work their 9 to 5s in the office.
Welcome back to the Skills 360 podcast. In today’s lesson, we’re going to look at how to get good customer service. More specifically, we’re going to learn how to complain properly and get a good solution.
It all starts with a problem. You buy a product and it doesn’t work right. You get frustrated. You paid good money but you’re not getting what you expected. It’s time to complain. So you go back to the store or you ring up a customer service line. This interaction could end with more frustration or it could end with satisfaction, depending on the outcome. So how can you get a good outcome?
Welcome back to Skills 360 for today’s lesson on how to get good customer service.
You probably know what bad customer service looks like. We’ve all been there. Maybe you’ve stood in line at a computer store to return a defective piece of equipment and the clerk asks you rudely “Well, how do you know it’s broken? Did you plug it in?” Or you’ve called your phone company to change your service and when you finally make it through the voice menus to a real person, you get put on hold for 10 minutes. It’s crazy, right? We are paying customers, and we get treated like this? So if you’ve ever felt your blood boil in situations like these, listen up. Let’s talk about how to get good customer service.
