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BEP 64 – 銷售英語: 提問技巧 (1)

商務英語, 溝通, ESL 播客, 銷售英語 / 九月 1, 2007

Questions are an important part of almost every conversation. So being able to ask good questions is critical to communication. How can we make our questioning more effective and efficient? In this two-part Business English Podcast series we’ll be looking at some answers.

The communication skills we’ll be learning can be used in any situation, but we’ll be focusing in on an area where questioning techniques are particularly important: needs analysis. This refers to analyzing the needs of a customer as part of the sales process. We’ll study a series of questioning techniques that can be used to “drill down to” – 那是, get to or uncover – the information you want.

In today’s Business English listening Brad is a sales manager for Forrest and Brown, a producer of innovative industrial coatings and glues. Coating refers to a chemical that is applied to the outside of something to protect it. 例如, paint is a type of coating. Forrest and Brown produces “conformal coatings”; this type of coating is used to protect printed circuit boards, or PCBs. PCBs are small flat boards covered with wiring and electronic parts. Almost all electronic devices – TVs, CD players, phones – have them.

Today Brad is visiting Andy, who is a production manager for Stratos, an assembler of PCBs that are used in household items. We can say that Andy is Brad’s “prospect” – the person he wants to sell to.

Let’s listen to how Brad asks Andy questions to analyze Stratos’ 需要.

聽力問題

1) What does Brad think of the Stratos facility?
2) How long has Stratos been located in its current location?
3) What kind of devices does Stratos produce circuit boards for?

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BEP 63 – 社會背景下的間接說服

商務英語, ESL 播客, 勸說 / 八月 26, 2007

Life is actually a constant exercise in persuasion, wouldn’t you say? What I mean is we don’t just need to persuade people in the meeting room; actually, we are constantly using the tools of persuasion across a wide variety of situations ranging from serious to casual. In addition to formal situations, everyday persuasions include when to meet, whether to extend a deadline, and even such common things as where to have lunch or which movie to see.

So the persuasive process we learned in BEP 59 , 60 & 62 is useful not just for formal business situations, but across all sorts of contexts that come up many times every day. You don’t always want to use the indirect approach to persuasion, but it’s often very useful.

Here’s an example of the persuasive process at work in an everyday situation: Julie is persuading her husband, 史蒂夫, to try a new vacation spot.

當你聽, see if you can identify the five steps of the Monroe sequence:

1) Getting attention
2) Establishing need
3) Satisfying that need
4) Visualizing the future
5) Asking for action

Because this is an informal situation, the language Julie uses is obviously quite casual and she doesn’t include any numbers or statistical data; 但, as always, a convincing description of the problem in the need step is the key to successful persuasion. And it’s important to state the problem from the perspective of the audience, which in this case is Julie’s husband.

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BEP 62 – 勸說 3: 滿意, 可視化和操作步驟

先進的, 商務英語, ESL 播客, 勸說, 英文演講, 銷售英語 / 八月 19, 2007

在前兩堂 ESL 課程中 (BEP 59 & BEP 60) 在這個關於說服的三部分系列中, 我們看到瞭如何吸引觀眾的注意力和展示明確的需求對於說服過程至關重要. 我們了解到，在間接說服方法中，您應該在提供解決方案之前先演示問題. 這反映了決策的心理過程: 首先我們感到有需要, 然後我們尋找一種方法來滿足這種需求.

當你確定了需求之後, 然後你描述如果你的建議被接受的話未來的好處. 這是可視化步驟: 談論接受你的建議將如何產生積極的未來結果，或不接受它將如何產生消極的結果. 最後, 你需要做一個具體的, 具體的行動號召 – 觀眾現在可以做些什麼來實施你的建議.

讓我們聽完 Steve 向 Swift 管理階層提出的建議. 看看你是否能確定滿意度, 演講中的視覺化與行動步驟.

聽力問題

1. 斯威夫特需要多長時間才能收回空調投資?
2. 採用尼克的提議，斯威夫特每年可以額外賺取多少利潤?
3. 史蒂夫要求他的經理採取什麼具體行動?

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BEP 61 – 商務會議中的美國體育習語

商務英語, 商務習慣用語, 文化, 會議英語, ESL 播客 / 八月 12, 2007

This is the first in a series of Business English Practice Pods that review and extend the language that is covered in the regular podcast. Practice pod dialogs will revise key language but in different situations. 也, they give you more opportunities to practice what you’ve learned.

We’ll hear several idioms from 體育慣用語 1 (BEP 57) 和 2 (BEP 58) being used in a new context in today’s dialog:

– to play ball
– to stall for time
– to keep/have one’s eye on the ball
– to step up to the plate

We’ll see how these idioms are useful in a different context, a business meeting. After the dialog, we’ll hear some further example phrases and then have a chance to practice using these idioms. 仁, Ken and Ryan of Ambient are in a marketing meeting discussing Accent’s recent buyout of Telstar.

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