Unit 1 (BEP 101) – Making your Introduction To starting a meeting/presentation:
Well, why don’t we all get started.
Let’s all take our seats, if we could.
Is everybody ready to start?
Ok, let’s kick this meeting off.
Greetings:
Good morning, everybody.
Good afternoon, and welcome to the North American division.
Welcome, all of you, to the Smith Center.
I thank you all for coming this evening, to our first employee benefits review.
Names and titles:
My name is Alison Wright, and I’m the HR manager for our UK operation.
I’m Chuck Yeager, and I’m a test engineer for the Quality Department.
Stating your responsibilities and area of knowledge:
I’m responsible for new employee training…
I’m in charge of test data collection…
I’m responsible for designing new electrical switches…
I manage regional sales promotions in South America…
Unit 2 (BEP 102) – Signposting To move on (to go to the next subject):
Let’s move on to the situation in our overseas markets.
To expand on (to give more information on a point):
Could you expand on the issue of pricing?
To digress (to change to another subject):
If I can digress for just a moment, what about the plans for our new office?
To go back (to go to a point earlier in the presentations):
Lets go back to the first part of the agenda.
To recap (to repeat/summarize an previous part of the presentation):
So, to recap, our sales for the third quarter have been strong in all regions.
To conclude (to bring to an end):
I’d like to conclude by discussing the future of our company To summarize (to give the main points):
Next, Peter is going to summarize our marketing strategy To turn to (to move on):
I’d like to turn to the question of hiring new staff To elaborate on (to give detailed information on):
The next presentation will elaborate on our sales plans for next year.
Unit 3 (BEP 103) - Describing Charts and Trends 1 Introducing a point
We’ll kick off the discussion today with an analysis of our revenue figures over the past three years.
First, we’ll be focusing on return on investment in the real estate area.
I’d like to begin by going over some of the key concerns that the marketing department has voiced on this plan.
Let’s start off with a quick look at our sales.
Calling attention to a slide / graphic
Have a look at this. As you can see.
Take a look at this.
Okay, well first here are our total profits in 2006.
Respecting audience knowledge
As you are all aware, we are facing some difficult choices over the next six months.
The past year has obviously seen some tough challenges from our competitors.
Most of you are familiar with our productivity figures, but for the benefit of those who aren’t, let me briefly bring them up on screen.
Highlighting a point
One thing you’ll immediately notice is a marked increase in Q4.
I’d particularly like to draw your attention to the sharp fall in investment here in Q2 of 2007.
I’d also like to point out the strong growth in the luxury sector.
And perhaps I should mention the slight drop in customer satisfaction reported in Western Europe.
Foreshadowing
…And that indicates reasonable growth in this sector, which we’ll come back to in a moment.
As I’ll point out later, we’ve only seen limited success with this strategy. For now, let’s keep talking about marketing channels.
This is a key issue, which we’ll be dealing with a little later in the presentation when I go over departmental structure.
Calling attention to the next slide / graphic
That’s all for sales growth, now let’s have a look at profit margins.
And that brings us to the next point I’d like to make.
Great, that’s all for 2006. Let’s now turn to the figures for 2007.
Referring to a previous point
As I mentioned earlier, we really need to keep coming back to our defect rate as a key quality indicator.
Returning to what I said earlier, this is definitely an area of concern for us in the future.
To go back to what I was saying about our overall growth, I don’t really think we have much reason to be worried.
Unit 4 (BEP 104) - Describing Charts and Trends 2 Introducing the theme of a chart
This graph presents a general picture of recent developments in the high-strength steel market during the last five years.
This chart gives you a general overview of the organizational structure in our department.
Here we see a chart analyzing the relationship between investment and profitability.
Drawing attention to one part of the graph
Examining the developments at the beginning of the year, we can see an interesting trend.
Let’s focus in on Q2.
As we break down the numbers in the automobile sector, a startling trend emerges.
Notice the strong relationship between price per unit and revenue.
Trends: Remaining unchanged
Our growth essentially remained steady throughout 2003.
You can see that the stock price really flattened out in April and May.
The price of oil has stayed level for the past two weeks.
Trading volume stagnated near the end of the day.
Trends: Fluctuating
The year 2000 was a period of intense fluctuation.
This is a period of flux.
Hits on our webpage have fluctuated a lot in March.
Over the last few weeks, our share price has being going up and down.
New orders have experienced serious fluctuations in the last few months, with the results ranging from a low of 15 in February to a high of 27 in June.
Trend: Go down / shrinkage
Turnover went down slightly in August.
Overall, prices have decreased sharply over the last year.
Activity fell off dramatically in May from 3000 hits per day to 1900 hits by the end of the month.
After 2000, stock prices plummeted by 30%.
Calls per day have plunged recently.
Production capacity has contracted by 30%, hitting a low of one million units in March.
Share has shrunk 5.5% in the last six months, bottoming out in May at 18.5%
Trends: Go up / growth.
Then turnover went up a little in September.
Activity has increased dramatically in the last 30 days.
Sales posted strong growth throughout 2005, rising from 30 million in Q1 to 45 million in Q4.
Stock prices soared to a new high of $157 per share on news of the merger.
Customer satisfaction is on the increase.
Consumer confidence took off in 2005 on the news that lending rates would be lowered, reaching a peak of 69% in June.
Maximizing or minimizing a point with vague language.
This could mean as much as a 20% drop in sales.
Layoffs will result in no more than about a 20% drop in productivity.
I’m afraid that the new policy could result in employee turnover of as high as 12% if we don’t act now.
We’re probably only looking at a 2 or 3% drop at most, if not a lot less.
I’d expect at least a 20% increase in price or something in that neighborhood.
Unit 5 (BEP 105) - Describing Charts and Trends 3 Emphasizing with comparison and contrast
What I’d like everyone to see here is that not only are we increasing our sales – yes, that’s important, but it’s not everything. In addition, by following this plan, we are reducing, even eliminating, some of our major costs.
As all of you know, success in this market is not only about who has a larger sales force or more outlets. No, in fact, that’s not even the most important factor, far from it. Success in this market comes down to this: Who has better information and who acts on it first.
Momentum
After Sarah got most of the workers to agree, support for her proposal really picked up momentum among the management team.
In the ‘80s, momentum gathered behind the upward trend in CEO salaries until in 90s they reached truly spectacular levels.
After the merger we had sudden access to much better IT resources, so the proposal to conduct a new round of IT training really lost momentum.
Talking about likely future developments
Share prices are almost certain to continue rising rapidly at least to the end of the year.
There is great likelihood of more mergers in the auto business.
As you can see, we are very probably going to see continued expansion of production capacity as demand increases.
We can certainly expect this tendency to continue in the future.
This trend is almost sure to change.
Unlikely developments
It’s quite unlikely that we will see this kind of growth continue into 2009.
The fall in the price of gold will not last long.
I don’t believe we can count on any more increases in the price of real estate.
Nine times out of 10, when we see this kind of trend, we know that it is going to be short-lived.
Making a comparison
Actually, when you compare the sales orders of these two companies, you’ll see that those of Company A far exceed Company B, even though Company B has high revenue.
Once again, ScienceTech’s profit fell far short of the industry average.
Demand has not caught up with supply all year.
Really, we are neck and neck with our main competitor going into 2008.
Making a general prediction
We predict steady increases throughout 2008.
All signs point towards a large drop in consumer confidence.
The fall in demand does not augur well for the market.
Experts forecast a healthy economic climate in the high-tech area.
Looking out for future developments
We need definitely need to keep our eyes peeled for more activity in this sector.
Raw materials are going to continue to be an area of strong growth, so looking forward, it’s something that we can’t afford to ignore.
I advise everyone to stay on guard against hostile takeovers.
In our price negotiations, we need to keep an eye towards other areas where we can get more value, such as delivery time.
Collocations for saying something is very important:
It’s essential to our success to reach our earnings targets.
It’s absolutely fundamental to our continuing viability that we keep reducing costs.
I can’t emphasize enough how critical innovation is to our business growth.
The crux of the matter is that we have to keep expanding our search for new markets.
Unit 6 (BEP 106) – Using Your Voice Intensifiers:
There is absolutely no room for compromise on this issue.
This is a terribly important problem to tackle.
As far as I can see, we have completely failed in implementing this marketing plan.
In the past six months, we have totally succeeded in meeting our targets.
We really need to reinvent our whole branding strategy.
This market is highly competitive.
Using emphasis to change meaning:
1. Our sales have improved in Western Europe.
2. Our sales have improved in Western Europe.
Emphasizing with words and phrases:
In particular, improving quality is very important.
Above all, we need to think of more ways to improve sales.
Without a doubt, opening up new markets is our greatest challenge.
I’d like to emphasize our complete dedication to this project.
What’s especially important is that we consider this challenge from all angles and take into account different perspectives.
Unit 7 (BEP 107) – Closing Down and Summarizing To signal the end of a topic or section of a presentation:
Okay, that’s all I have to say on this topic for the moment.
Right, that ends the last section of my talk.
That's all I want to say for now on the third part of my presentation.
To introduce the summary:
So, to sum up
To conclude,...
In conclusion,...
Now, to sum up...
So let me summarize what I've said.
Finally, may I remind you of some of the main points we've considered.
During my talk today, I’ve described the results of our investigation.
To make a concluding recommendation:
In conclusion, my recommendations are...
I therefore propose the following strategy.
I'd like to finish with...some observations based on what I've said.
There are two conclusions to be made from this, namely,...
I think we have to...
I think we have seen that we should...
What we need to do is...
So, let me get straight to the point. We need action and we need it now.
To finish off a presentation and invite questions:
Many thanks for your attention. So now I’m very interested in hearing your comments.
Thank you for your attention. And now if you have any questions, I’d be glad to answer them.
Thank you for listening. Now, I’d be glad to try and answer any questions.
I thank you all for being such an attentive audience and now I’m sure you must have some questions, so I’ll be happy to answer them…. Yes, Simon ..
So, let’s throw it open to questions.
Any questions?
Unit 8 (BEP 108) – Question and Answer 1 Refer to an earlier point:
What exactly did you mean when you were talking about?
I was interested in your comments about timing. Could you say a little more about that.
Could I just go back to the point you made about branding. Well, in my experience....
Clarify a question:
Let me check I understand. Are you asking why our market share has increased?
Well, it all depends on what you mean by “in the near future.” Are you talking about next week? Or are we talking about the next 2-4 months?
Could you be a little more specific?
Using a buffer for hostile questions:
Thank you for your question.
That’s a very interesting question.
I’m glad you asked that.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to comment on that.
Thank you for raising this point. You know, I really appreciate all your hard work.
Very good question.
To correct a misunderstanding:
Actually, let’s go back to that point for a second. From what your saying, I’m not sure that I made myself totally clear.
Oops, hold on a moment. I think there might be a slight misunderstanding about the scope of this project.
Sorry, but that’s not quite right. Instead of 70—seven-zero—I meant 17—17.
To concede a point: To check whether your answer is sufficient:
Is that okay?
Have I answered your question?
To deal with an irrelevant question:
I’m afraid I don’t see the connection.
To be honest, I think that brings up another point, and I’d rather not cover that for now.
I’m afraid that’s outside the scope of my discussion.
If the point is relevant, but you simply can’t or don’t wish to answer:
I’m afraid I’m not in a position to comment on that.
I don’t know that off the top of my head.
Can I get back to you on that?
If the question is something you think you already covered earlier, you can say
I think I answered that earlier
Well, as I said...
Well, as I mentioned earlier...
I think I addressed that point earlier on, but I’d be happy to discuss this with you after the meeting.
To defer answering a question to later:
I’ll be happy to answer that later when we talk about product awareness.
Can we come back to that issue in a bit when we go through the targets for 2007?
Let’s put off that topic for now. I’d like to deal with that in more detail during the sales meeting tomorrow when the whole team is present.
To control the timing:
Let’s try to keep the discussion on track. Can we get back to the main point?
As we’re short of time, I’ll have to come to that later, perhaps during the break
I’m afraid that’s all we have time for. Thank you very much for your attention.
redirecting the question to another person:
That’s a good question, but I’m afraid it’s not really my field. Ms. Smith, can you help to answer that?
George, I think you know more about this. What do you think?
Great question. It’s a little outside of my job scope, though. Maybe Simon—
do you want to answer that?
Redirecting to the whole group
Would anyone like to comment on that?
Has anyone else had a similar problem?
Great question. What do others think?
That’s a good question. Let’s go around the table and get some other views on this.
To redirect to the questioner, you can say:
I think that’s a very interesting question. I’d be really interested to hear what you have to say on that issue.
You must have though quite a lot about this. What do you think?
That’s a very interesting question. Could I ask you what your own view is?