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Skills 360 – Tips for Successful Presentations 2

Advanced, Business English, Business Skills 360, Presentation in English /

Welcome back Business Skills 360 – the podcast that looks at the other side of Business English.

This is the second part of our series on effective English presentations. Last week, we talked about keeping it short, simple, engaging, and real. Much of that happens in the preparation. Today, we’re going to talk about what happens when you stand up in front of that audience and have to start speaking.

Your first goal should be to make a connection with each and every listener. That connection is the pathway along which your message travels. If you have a good connection, there’s a good chance your message will sink in. To make this connection, you have to do two things: you need to control the audience’s attention and you need to engage their minds. And to do these two things, you have three tools: your voice, your props such as PowerPoint – and your body or movement.

Discussion Questions

1. What is the most difficult part of speaking in front of a group of people?
2. What different types of visual aids are commonly used in presentations?
3. When you give a presentation, do you usually stand in one place or move around?

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Skills 360 – Tips for Successful Presentations 1

Business English, Business Skills 360, Presentation in English /

Welcome back Business Skills 360. We’re going to kick off the New Year with some tips for making your English presentations more effective and relevant.

A good presentation in English is one that connects to your audience with a clear, organized message that can be easily understood. So, what can we do to make an impact? How can we connect our message to the audience? What do we need to think about when preparing our presentation? And how do we work to our strengths and minimize the challenges of presenting in English? Tim’s got some ideas, so let’s hear what he has to say.

Discussion Questions

1. Do you think PowerPoint is used effectively?
2. How long can you keep an audience focused during a presentation?
3. Think about the good presentations you’ve seen. What qualities did the speaker have?

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BEP 69 B – Telephoning: Taking a Message

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

Welcome back to Business English Pod. This is the second part of our look at answering the phone and taking a message. In this lesson, we’ll focus on taking a message.

Today’s lesson is also featured in our new eBook: Business English for Telephoning. This eBook covers essential language for many different types of business calls, including dealing with customers and complaints, making arrangements and checking on orders.

In our last lesson (BEP 69 A – Answering a Call), we looked at answering a call effectively. We heard an example of poor telephone skills and started in on a dialog that demonstrated good telephone skills. Today, we’re going to continue with that dialog and look at how to take a message. Have you ever missed a telephone message? Or have you received a message that didn’t contain the necessary information? If so, then you understand how important it is not just to take a message, but to do it right.

We’ll look at ways to ask someone to leave a message, information that should be included in a message, and how to offer help. You will also learn how to acknowledge, check back and confirm information that a caller gives you.

Now, let’s rejoin Mark, who works for a company called Trivesco. He is calling a shipping company, Daneline, hoping to speak with someone named Sylvie Petersen. Sylvie is not there, so Mark has to leave a message with Amy, the receptionist.

Listening Questions

1. How does the tone of Amy’s voice sound?
2. What information does Mark include in his message?
3. How does Amy make sure she has Mark’s phone number correct?

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BEP 69 A – Telephoning: Answering a Call

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

In this Business English Pod episode, we’re going to take another look at one of our most popular and important podcasts. Today we’re talking about using the telephone in English. This is something we all do, but we don’t all do well.

Today’s lesson is also featured in our new eBook: Business English for Telephoning. This eBook covers essential language for many different types of business calls, including dealing with customers and complaints, making arrangements and checking on orders.

Talking on the telephone has become an extremely important part of business. You need to be able to answer a call professionally and create a good image of yourself and your company with only your voice. Having effective telephone skills leaves a good impression on your customers, clients, and colleagues. People are busy, so you want to be very clear, polite and organized.

In this lesson, we’ll begin by looking at a bad example of answering a call and taking message. We’ll discuss why it’s a bad example, and then we’ll go into a good example of answering a call. I’m sure you’ll see a clear difference.

For our bad example, we’ll listen as Justin, an employee with Trivesco, calls a shipping company called Daneline. Justin is hoping to speak with Sylvie Petersen, but it is a receptionist named Amy who answers the phone.

Listening Questions – Bad Example
1. How would you describe Amy’s attitude?
2. Does Justin seem prepared?

Listening Questions – Good Example
1. What information does Amy include in her first sentence?
2. How does Mark Rand introduce himself?

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Skills 360 – Achieving Your Goals (Part 2)

Business English, Business Skills 360, Management English /

Welcome back Business English Skills 360 for the second part of our series on achieving your goals.

In this episode, we’re going to talk about how to maintain your focus and motivation while you work toward achieving your goals. Remember that achieving your goals is a process, not an event. It takes time, energy, motivation, and the ability to deal with adversity. It doesn’t happen all at once. But if you set SMART goals, manage them well, find the right time and resources, and maintain motivation, you’ll get there.

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