Whether it’s ridesharing with Uber, lending your power drill to a neighbor with Peerby, taking advantage of a home exchange with Airbnb, or dozens of other examples, the so-called “sharing economy” is firmly established in our daily life. While the concept has been in place for some time, numerous enterprising groups have found a way to make the most of the current economic environment.
Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on wrapping up a presentation in English.
Some people say that the start of a presentation is the most important part. That’s where you grab people’s attention and give them a reason to listen. But the end of your presentation is just as important. If you do a great job of engaging your audience but then have a weak finish, they’ll walk away with a bad last impression. And you want to avoid that at all costs.
So what exactly is involved in a good conclusion to a presentation? What do you need to do to make sure people walk away feeling that they learned something, they want to buy something, or they agree with you?
Today, we’ll learn some great ways to do just that. We’ll look at a variety of English presentation techniques such as summarizing key ideas, closing inspirationally, and opening up for questions. We’ll also learn how to connect your ideas with the big picture and wrap up at the end of the presentation.
In this lesson, we’ll hear how two different speakers finish their presentations. The first speaker is Nick, a recruiter for a medical supplies company. He’s been trying to convince potential recruits that his company is great to work for. In the second dialog we’ll hear Diane, who’s finishing up a report about her company’s third quarter financial statements.
Listening Questions
1. In his summary, Nick mentions several topics that he covered. What are they?
2. To inspire his listeners, what does Nick ask them to think about?
3. What does Diane say is the company’s larger vision?
Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on delivering an engaging and organized presentation.
Getting up in front of a room full of people to give a presentation in English can be a difficult task. Whether you’re reporting information or trying to convince people to buy something, you need to catch their attention. Then you need to keep it. And at the end of it all, you want them to walk away feeling like they learned something, or they agree with you, or they want to buy what you’re trying to sell them.
Sure, it might seem difficult, but there are skills you can learn to make it much easier. Several techniques in both presentation and delivery can help ensure an engaging English presentation that will wow your listeners.
In today’s lesson, we’ll take a closer look at some of these techniques, including asking people to imagine a situation in order to persuade them, and focusing on the “why” behind your ideas rather than the “what.” We’ll also learn how you can use a single thread throughout your presentation and how you can transition between ideas. And finally we’ll cover how to check in with your listeners and add emphasis.
Today we’ll hear two short dialogs from different presentations. In the first, we’ll rejoin a recruiter called Nick who is presenting to some potential recruits for a medical supplies company. In the second, we’ll hear finance manager Diane continue with a report about her company’s quarterly financial results.
Listening Questions
1. What does Nick ask his listeners to imagine?
2. What is the key idea that Nick keeps coming back to?
3. After talking about fuel savings, what does Diane do before moving on to her next idea?
Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on getting your English presentation off to a good start.
We all know a skilled presenter when we see one. It’s a person who catches our interest right away and connects with the audience. He gives us the information we need without droning on and putting us to sleep. He’s clear about his purpose, he’s organized, and he answers our questions.
But most skilled presenters weren’t born with those skills. They learned to be good presenters. And you can learn the same skills in order to inform, persuade, or motivate any audience. In today’s English presentation lesson, we’ll take a closer look at some great techniques you can use at the start of a presentation. We’ll learn how to get started, build rapport with the audience, and introduce a single key idea that can run throughout your presentation. We’ll also cover how to state your purpose and headline your key ideas.
Of course, your approach to a presentation might be different depending on your audience. So today we will hear two short dialogs from the start of two different presentations in English. In the first, we’ll hear a recruiter named Nick, who works for a medical supplies company. He’s giving a presentation to a group of potential recruits at a university. In the second dialog, we’ll hear a finance manager named Diane giving an internal presentation about her company’s third quarter financial statements.
Listening Questions
1. What question does Nick ask his audience at the start of his presentation?
2. What is the key idea that Nick says his company is all about?
3. What does Diane say is the purpose of her presentation?
Welcome back to the Skills 360 for today’s lesson on more great tips for improving your business English skills.
You’ve probably heard that one of the traits of a great business leader is the ability to communicate. So, what does it mean to be a good communicator? What does a good communicator actually do? Well, there are a few things that every good communicator does. In our last lesson I covered a few of these special techniques, and today I want to add to that list.
Welcome back to the Skills 360 for today’s lesson on some quick and easy hacks you can use to improve your business English.
Business is all about relationships, and relationships are founded on good communication. And while English may seem like a difficult language, being a great communicator and connecting with people isn’t rocket science. You can learn just a few techniques that will take your business English skills to the next level. And I’m not talking about learning a thousand new words or some obscure rules of grammar. The tips I want to give you are fully within your grasp right now.
This lesson is the second part of a two-part series on making, rejecting and accepting suggestions. In this lesson, we’ll learn appropriate ways to reject and accept suggestions. You can access the original lesson here – BEP 31 – Accepting or Rejecting Suggestions in English
The Business English Kickstart Course covers the 3 main Business English Skills of meetings, presentations and talking on the phone with 20 lessons appropriate for intermediate English Speakers.
The lesson looks at language for making suggestions in a business meeting. You can check out the original lesson here – BEP 30 – Making Suggestions in English
The Business English Kickstart Course covers the 3 main Business English Skills of meetings, presentations and talking on the phone with 20 lessons appropriate for intermediate English Speakers. The course is available on the Udemy platform which provides desktop and mobile access for Android and iOS devices.
Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on how to ask for help on the telephone in English.
Asking someone for help with a problem is hard enough to begin with. But on the telephone it can be even more difficult! You can’t see the other person and how they are reacting, and they can’t see you. You can’t rely on a smile and friendly body language. So how can you get the help you need?
Well, don’t worry. In this lesson we’ll look at some simple steps to making an effective call. If we’re talking to someone we know, it might start with a bit of friendly small talk about things like sports or the weather. That helps makes people feel relaxed and positive, which is important if you want to talk about a problem. After you’ve created a relaxed atmosphere, you can introduce the problem. You don’t want to just blurt out “I have a problem, please help me.” You need to do it gently, or carefully. At this point, the other person may ask some questions to clarify the situation. If they’re going to help you, they’ll need a clear idea of what you need.
Next, you can suggest a solution or explain how the other person can help. Again, you don’t want to just tell the person directly what they should do. You need to be friendly and polite so that the other person actually wants to help you. And hopefully the result of all this is that you have some agreement about what will happen next and who will do what. It’s a great idea to summarize this agreement near the end of the call just so both of you are perfectly clear. So, that sounds like a pretty good way to ask for help, doesn’t it?
We’ll hear all of these steps in today’s dialog between Eric and Brenda. Brenda works for a manufacturing company that buys parts from Eric’s company. She is calling because there is an important part that hasn’t been delivered. But Brenda doesn’t just want to complain about her problem. She needs to get Eric to agree to help her.
Listening Questions
1. After introducing themselves, what do Eric and Brenda talk about first?
2. What solution does Brenda suggest for her problem?
3. What does Eric say he will do for Brenda to help solve her problem?
Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on business English collocations for talking about strategy.
Think about the future of your company. How will it remain competitive? What are the long-term goals of your company? What does your company want to achieve? And how will it do that? These are just some of the questions that you might consider when you discuss business strategy. You need to think about what your business does well, how you can use your resources wisely, and what you need to do to grow the company. And when you discuss these ideas, you can use some common expressions, or combinations, which we call “collocations.”
But what is a collocation? A collocation is a group of words that sound natural together. They sound natural because native speakers commonly use them. And you can sound natural too if you learn these collocations. For example, you can say “implement a plan.” That sounds natural. But how about “do a plan?” Well, that’s not a common collocation and so it doesn’t sound natural.
As you listen to the conversation in this lesson, try to pick out some of these collocations and we’ll discuss them later in the debrief.
In the dialog, we’ll hear Anne, Jenny, and Max, three executives at a food company called Healthy Organics. They are discussing their strategy for developing the company into the future. They’ll talk about some important strategic decisions, and they’ll use lots of useful expressions.
Listening Questions
1. According to Anne, why do they need to broaden their product offerings?
2. What does Jenny think they need to build on?
3. What specifically does Anne want to figure out for the next three to five years?
