Learning Conversation English | Business | Episode 12
Summary
TLDRIn this English learning video, hosts Marco and Erica present an intermediate business lesson focused on sales strategies. They introduce key vocabulary such as 'drive sales' and 'promotion' with examples, and guide learners through a dialogue from a sales meeting. The dialogue, initially challenging due to speed, is broken down for clarity. Language takeaways include phrases like 'match the competitors' and 'it'll never fly,' illustrating their meanings with context. Fluency Builders enhance natural speech with phrases like 'be here any minute.' The lesson concludes with a re-listen of the dialogue at normal speed, aiming to improve learners' understanding and fluency in real-world business English scenarios.
Takeaways
- đ The lesson focuses on intermediate English, specifically business English used in sales strategies.
- đ Vocabulary words 'drive sales' and 'promotion' are introduced, with 'drive sales' meaning to increase sales and 'promotion' referring to marketing strategies.
- đ The dialogue in the lesson is a sales meeting where employees discuss strategies to improve sales, including price reduction and promotions.
- đĄ Suggested sales strategies include lowering prices to match competitors and offering promotions like 'two for one' deals.
- đ ââïž Negative feedback to ideas is portrayed, showing how not to respond to suggestions in a business setting.
- đ Positive reinforcement is shown when the CEO agrees with the 'two for one' promotion idea, highlighting the importance of creative and approved strategies.
- đŁïž Language takeaways include phrases like 'match the competitors', 'in the market', and 'it'll never fly', which are explained with examples.
- đïž Fluency Builder section aims to improve natural English speech by providing more native-like expressions for common phrases.
- đ€ The importance of a supportive and encouraging manager in a business environment is discussed, contrasting with the negative example given.
- đ The lesson concludes with a call to action for listeners to share their experiences with good or bad managers and to apply the English phrases learned.
Q & A
What is the main topic of the lesson discussed in the script?
-The main topic of the lesson is learning English for sales strategies, focusing on vocabulary and phrases used in a sales meeting.
What are the two vocabulary words introduced in the vocabulary preview section?
-The two vocabulary words introduced are 'Drive Sales' and 'Promotion'.
What does the term 'Drive Sales' mean in the context of the lesson?
-In the context of the lesson, 'Drive Sales' means to increase sales or to sell more products or services.
Can you provide an example of a 'Promotion' as described in the script?
-An example of a 'Promotion' given in the script is a 'two for one' offer, where customers get two items for the price of one.
What is the language takeaway section of the lesson designed to do?
-The language takeaway section is designed to teach the most important words from the dialogue, helping learners understand and use them effectively.
What does the phrase 'match the competitors' mean as used in the dialogue?
-The phrase 'match the competitors' means to be as good as or better than other companies in the same industry, often in terms of price or quality.
What is the meaning of the phrase 'it'll never fly' in the context of the dialogue?
-In the context of the dialogue, 'it'll never fly' means that an idea or plan is not feasible, will not work, or will not be approved.
What is the purpose of the fluency builder section in the lesson?
-The purpose of the fluency builder section is to help learners increase their fluency by teaching them how to use words and phrases more naturally, like a native English speaker.
How does the script suggest a manager should interact with their employees?
-The script suggests that a manager should be encouraging and motivating, supporting employees to grow and perform better in their jobs.
What is the final activity suggested for learners at the end of the script?
-The final activity suggested is for learners to log on to the website and share their experiences with good or bad managers, or how they handle things if they are managers themselves.
Outlines
đ Introduction to the English Lesson
The script opens with hosts Marco and Erica introducing an intermediate-level English lesson focused on business English, specifically sales strategies. They express excitement about the lesson and emphasize the practicality of the English that will be taught, which is used by native speakers daily. The lesson includes a vocabulary preview to aid understanding of the dialogue, which involves a sales meeting.
đ Vocabulary Focus: Drive Sales and Promotion
The hosts introduce two key vocabulary words: 'Drive Sales', which means to increase sales volume, and 'Promotion', referring to marketing strategies like discounts or special offers to boost sales. Erica provides examples to clarify the terms. The lesson aims to equip learners with the language necessary for discussing sales strategies effectively.
đŻ Listening to a Sales Meeting Dialogue
The script presents a dialogue from a sales meeting where employees discuss strategies to improve sales. The CEO, Mr. Swan, favors a 'two for one' promotion over a price reduction. The dialogue is played at different speeds to help learners grasp the language used in a business context, with a focus on understanding the vocabulary and phrases introduced earlier.
đĄ Language Takeaway and Fluency Building
This section reviews the key phrases from the dialogue, such as 'match the competitors', 'in the market', and 'it'll never fly', providing examples to illustrate their meanings. The hosts also introduce 'fluency builders' to help learners use these phrases more naturally. Phrases like 'be here any minute', 'it sounds like something we should consider', and 'that's a brilliant idea' are highlighted to enhance learners' conversational English.
đŁïž Reflecting on Managerial Styles
The hosts discuss the importance of a manager's role in motivating employees, using the dialogue's CEO as an example of a less-than-ideal manager. They encourage listeners to share their experiences with good or bad managers on their website. The script ends with a list of vocabulary and phrases for learners to practice, emphasizing the importance of a supportive and encouraging management style.
đ Conclusion and Farewell
The script concludes with the hosts thanking listeners for joining the lesson and signing off until the next session. They reiterate the importance of the vocabulary and phrases covered, encouraging practice and application in real-life scenarios.
Mindmap
Keywords
đĄDrive Sales
đĄPromotion
đĄMatch the Competitors
đĄIn the Market
đĄConcrete Solutions
đĄIt'll Never Fly
đĄBe Here Any Minute
đĄTo Consider
đĄBrilliant
đĄCustomer Loyalty
Highlights
Introduction to an intermediate English lesson focused on business vocabulary.
Emphasis on learning real English used by native speakers in a sales context.
Vocabulary preview featuring 'Drive Sales' and 'Promotion' with explanations.
Example of a 'Promotion' given, illustrating a two-for-one offer in a supermarket.
Dialogue from a sales meeting showcasing a discussion on sales strategies.
Language takeaway highlighting 'match the competitors' and its usage.
Explanation of the phrase 'in the market' in the context of industry.
Discussion on the idiomatic expression 'it'll never fly' and its meaning.
Fluency Builder section aiming to improve natural English speech.
Natural phrasing practice with 'be here any minute' versus 'will arrive soon'.
Enhancing the expression 'I'm thinking about something' to sound more professional.
British English alternative 'brilliant' to describe a great idea.
Reflection on the dialogue to discuss the qualities of a good manager.
Encouragement for listeners to share their experiences with managers on the website.
Audio review exercise to practice the newly learned vocabulary.
Final thoughts and sign-off from the hosts, encouraging continued learning.
Transcripts
welcome back English Learners my name is
Marco and I am joined by Erica how are
you Erica I'm doing great Marco and you
excellent I'm doing really well and I'm
really excited about our lesson for
today that's right we've got an
intermediate lesson today and we're
going to study some real English English
that you use every day right that's
right English that native speakers
really use exactly and today as Erica
mentioned we have an intermediate lesson
and not only is it intermediate but it's
a business lesson yes so today we're
listening into a sales meeting and we're
going to learn some great useful English
to talk about sales strategies so we're
going to learn English for sales
strategies for making suggestions and
for responding to suggestions great so
why don't we take a look at our
vocabulary preview for today vocabulary
preview so our vocabulary preview is a
part of our lesson when we teach you
some really important words that will
help you to understand the dialogue
better okay great so that is what
vocabulary preview is we have two words
for you today and we can start off by
looking at the first one our first word
today is Drive Sales Drive Sales Drive
sales to drive sales and that means to
increase sales right to sell more
exactly so to drive sales
okay so now let's look at our second
word and it's an interesting one it's
promotion promotion promotion promotion
so Erica what is a promotion exactly
okay so here we're not really talking
about getting a better job right okay
yeah not like a job promotion no we're
talking about a marketing strategy okay
so I can give you an example suppose
that I want to buy shampoo uhhuh and if
I go to the supermarket and I see buy
one and get one free so that's a two for
one that's a two for one promotion yeah
that's a sales promotion or perhaps the
shampoo in the supermarket is less
expensive than usual maybe yeah usually
maybe it costs $5 but today it costs $4
that's a sales promotion great so that's
a really good marketing strategy exactly
and we'll hear this word in our dialogue
today great so we are ready to listen to
our dialogue it's going to be pretty
fast so it might be a little bit
difficult to understand but don't worry
if you don't understand everything
because later in this lesson we're going
to explain all the important words and
[Music]
phrases all right people we're holding
this meeting today because we've got to
do something about our sales and we need
to do it now I want Concrete Solutions
how do you plan to drive sales
Roger well um in fact we're the most
expensive in the market so maybe we need
to lower our prices to match the
competitors lower our prices not very
creative it'll never fly with Swan what
kind of thinking is that jeez anyone
have a better plan Natalie um perhaps um
a promotion maybe a two for one offer or
or something like that what that's the
same thing idea really bad idea damn it
people come on think the CEO will be
here any
minute hello Mr Swan oh Mr Swan hello Mr
Swan do we have any ideas yet yes Mr
Swan we were kind of considering a two
for one offer to get more competitive a
two for one promotion H I kind of like
the sound of that it sounds like
something we should consider yeah
exactly that's just what I was thinking
in fact it's a brilliant idea I'm glad
we thought of that very creative
okay so an interesting manager right I
don't know about interesting maybe I
would think bad manager we're going to
talk about him later on in the show but
now let's take a look at our language
takeaway language
takeaway okay so language takeaway is
the part of our lesson where we teach
you the most important words from the
dialogue all these words that we are
going to focus on can be found in
today's dialogue exactly so we have
three words for you today let's look at
the first one match the competitors
match the competitors match the
competitors match the competitors great
so we have some examples for you so you
can listen and try and see if you can
figure out what match the competitors
really
means example
one we guarantee that we can match the
competitor's lowest
price example
two it's impossible for us to match the
competitors our costs are just too high
example
three do you think we can match our
competitors's prices and still keep our
quality
High ah okay so I see that match the
competitors means to be as good as or
better than other companies in the same
industry exactly match the compe editors
all right so let's move to our second
word today for language takeaways and it
is in the market in the market in the
market in the market we heard this
phrase in the dialogue and it means in
the industry exactly I can say for
example English pod is the best language
pod in the market so of all the podcasts
that teach English English pod is the
best of course no doubt about it I
totally agree right or I can give you
another example iPods are the most
popular MP3 players in the market so of
all the MP3 players in the world iPods
are the most popular so let's move to
our final word for today and it is it'll
never fly it'll never fly it'll never
fly it will never fly so this phrase
sounds a little bit strange I know fly
are we talking about an airplane here
what's going on exactly but we're not so
so we're going to give you some examples
and try and guess what it'll never fly
really
means example
one this marketing plan will never fly
it's just too
expensive example
two what what you want to sell bikinis
in Alaska that'll never
fly example
three Brad told me his idea for a film
script but the story will never fly it's
not interesting
enough so it means it won't work it
won't work it's not a good idea they'll
never agree exactly great so now we've
seen a lot of useful phrases and we are
ready to listen to our dialogue a second
time but this time it's going to be slow
so you'll be able to understand a little
bit better and you'll be able to hear
the words and phrases we were just
talking
about all right people we're holding
this meeting today because we've got to
do something about our sales and we need
to do it now I want Concrete Solutions
how do you plan to drive sales
Roger well um in fact we're the most
expensive in the market so maybe we need
to lower our prices to match the
competitors lower our prices not very
creative it'll never fly with Swan what
kind of thinking is that jeez anybody
else have a better plan Natalie um
perhaps um a promotion maybe a two for
one offer or something like that what
that's the same thing bad idea really
bad idea damn it people come on think
the CEO will be here any
minute hello Mr Swan oh Mr Swan hello Mr
Swan do we have any ideas yet yes Mr
Swan we were kind of considering a two
for one offer to get more competitive a
two for one
promotion H I kind of like the sound of
that it sounds like something we should
consider yeah exactly that's just what I
was thinking in fact that's a brilliant
idea I'm glad we thought of that very
creative
okay great I hope everyone understands a
lot better now and I hope everyone could
listen out for some of those key words
right so now it's time for us to take a
look at fluency
Builder fluency Builder so with fluency
Builder we try to help you increase your
fluency we take a word or phrase that
you already know and show you how to say
it a little bit more naturally a little
bit more like a native English speaker
right and we have three of these words
for you today yeah let's start with the
first one okay so often students will
say something like I'll be here soon or
I will arrive soon right and these
sentences are correct they're totally
fine but I think there's a better way to
say this right and we heard it in the
dialogue so let's listen to what the
person in the dialogue
said the CEO will be here any minute
the CEO will be here any
minute okay so be here any minute he'll
be here any minute it just sounds a
little bit more natural yeah I think I
use this phrase quite often he'll be
here any minute he'll be here soon yeah
great okay so let's move on to our
second phrase for fluency Builder so
this phrase will help you to learn how
to say I'm thinking about something in a
better sounding way right so you can say
something like we are thinking about a
sales strategy or that sounds like
something we should think about right
and it's perfectly correct yeah there's
no problem with this but in the dialogue
we heard something a little bit
different so let's listen to it it
sounds like something we should
consider it sounds like something we
should
consider so consider sounds like a
pretty natural way of saying it right
yeah and you know I think it sounds
really kind of smart yeah it sounds more
formal even a little more professional
yeah it's a good word y okay brilliant
so let's move on to our third word Marco
you already said our third word oh yeah
I actually did brilliant um that's a
great word right there yeah a lot of
people might say that's a great idea or
great but in the dialogue we heard
another way of saying the same
idea that's a brilliant
idea that's a brilliant
idea okay so this is great but I would
have to say that it's a little bit more
British English yeah I'd agree with you
there but I also think it sort of gives
more power to this idea that it's a good
idea brilliant idea that it's a really
really good idea yeah yeah I like that
word yeah okay so we're ready to listen
to our dialogue again a third time but
at its normal speed
the
N all right people we're holding this
meeting today because we've got to do
something about our sales and we need to
do it now I want Concrete Solutions how
do you plan to drive sales
Roger well um in fact we're the most
expensive in the market so maybe we need
to lower our prices to match the
competitors lower our prices not very
creative it'll never fly with Swan what
can I thinking is that jeez anyone have
a better plan Natalie um perhaps um a
promotion maybe a two for one offer or
or something like that what it's the
same thing bad idea really bad idea damn
it people come on think the CEO will be
here any
minute hello Mr Swan H Mr Swan hello Mr
Swan do we have any ideas yet yes Mr
Swan we were kind of considering a two
for one offer to get more competitive a
two for one promotion H I kind of like
the sound of that it sounds like
something we should consider yeah
exactly that's just what I was thinking
in fact it's a brilliant idea I'm glad
we thought of that very
creative all right so listening to this
dialogue makes you think about this boss
I'm pretty sure everyone has had a
manager or a supervisor that's similar
to this guy yeah this boss uh Clark I
would have to say he sounds like a
terrible person to work for yeah that's
true if you're a manager you want to
motivate your employees I think it's the
most important thing a manager does is
to encourage his or her employees and to
help support them to grow and to be
better people in the job and this guy is
totally not doing this and you can tell
because they are a little bit scared of
talking and he cuts them off with saying
oh it's a bad idea give me a better idea
and stuff like that yeah I could never
work for a guy like this you know my my
first boss that I had when I first
entered the workforce um I was in a very
Junior position and I was working for a
large company and the general manager of
the company he was amazing he was so
encouraging he knew every single
employees name first name and he would
you know make an effort to stop and say
hello and ask them how things were going
and you know what this left me with such
a good feeling about the company that I
really wanted to work hard for this
company and try my best and I think that
I've never never met such a great boss
as this guy no I think that's true
definitely if you have a boss that's
encouraging and motivating like that it
makes you work harder and makes you feel
part of a really special team and that's
something we can all agree on and I'm
sure all our managers out there do the
same well you know what I hope some of
our listeners log on to our website and
maybe they can tell us some experiences
with bad managers or good managers or if
they are managers how they handle things
yeah and hopefully they can use some of
these great phrases that we talked about
today the English pod audio
review listen to the meaning then say
the vocabulary
word a real or specific solution to a
problem Concrete
[Music]
Solutions increase
sales Drive
sales in the
industry in the
market be as good as or better than
other companies in the same
industry to match the
competitors will not work will not be
approved will never
fly something done to make people aware
of a product
promotion we'll arrive very
soon be here any
minute thinking
about to
consider
excellent
brilliant as good as or better than
others of the same
type competitive
make sales
successfully win
sales plans for a company sales
activities sales
strategy the process a customer goes
through when deciding to buy a
product sales
cycle to sell more than others
to out
sell when a customer buys the same brand
over and
over Customer
Loyalty let's try that
faster
excellent
brilliant will arrive very
soon be here any
minute to sell more than
others to out
sell will not work will not be
approved will never
fly the process a customer goes through
when deciding to buy a
product sales
cycle something done to make people
aware of a
product
promotion in the
industry in the market
increase
sales Drive
sales be as good as or better than other
companies in the same
industry to match the
competitors as good as or better than
others of the same
type
competitive make sales
successfully win
sales plans for a company sales
activities sales
strategy when a customer buys the same
brand over and
over Customer
Loyalty thinking
about to
consider a real or specific solution to
a
problem Concrete
Solutions now say the word and hear it
in a
sentence Drive
sales if we want to drive sales I think
we need to spend more time training our
sales
people drive
sales the most important thing for us
right now is to focus on driving sales
Drive
sales I think if we increase our
marketing budget it will help us to
drive sales in the fourth
quarter I expect each of you to come to
the meeting tomorrow with Concrete
Solutions for our recruitment problem
Dale have you come up with any concrete
solution I'm sorry but I just can't
offer any Concrete Solutions right
now
promotion we can't have a sales
promotion right now because our costs
are too
high
promotion the department store is
offering a promotion everything is 50%
off let's go
shopping
promotion a two for one promotion might
be a way to attract new
customers we guarantee that we can match
the competitor's lowest
price it's impossible for us to match
the competitors our costs are just too
high do you think we can match the
competitor's quality and still keep our
price
low in the
market English pod is the best podcast
in the
market in the
market iPods are the most popular MP3
players in the market
in the
market our product is the cheapest in
the
market will never
fly this marketing plan will never fly
we just don't have enough money for
it we'll never fly
I like that idea but it'll never fly
with
management will never
fly Brad told me his idea for a film
script but the story will never fly it's
not interesting
enough be here any minute
hurry up the bus will be here any
minute be here any
minute Nick just called he said he
should be here any
minute be here any
minute is there everything prepared for
the meeting the CEO will be here any
minute to
consider we're considering a sales
promotion to
consider I think we need to consider a
new sales
strategy to
consider have you considered reducing
the price
brilliant that's a brilliant
idea
brilliant this is a brilliant marketing
plan
brilliant what a brilliant suggestion
thanks Roger so thanks for listening
today everyone and until next time this
is goodbye bye
[Music]
Voir Plus de Vidéos Connexes
English Learning Podcast Conversation Episode 3 | Elementary | Podcast To Improve English Speaking
English Learning Podcast Conversation Episode 8 | Elementary | Podcast To Improve English Listening
Powerful Podcasts for English Fluency | Episode 09
English Learning Podcast Conversation Episode 10 | Elementary | Easy Podcast For Learning English
English Learning Podcast Conversation Episode 17 | Intermediate | English Speaking Practice Podcast
Powerful Podcasts for English Fluency | Episode 11
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)