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About Business English Pod
关于商务英语Pod

Business English Pod provides ESL podcast and business English lessons for intermediate and advanced business English learners. Each business English podcast lesson is focused on a particular skill (meetings, presentations, telephoning, negotiating, socializing, travel, conversation etc.) and language function (clarifying, disagreeing, questioning, expressing opinions, persuasion etc.).
商务英语Pod为中级和高级商务英语学习者提供mp3 podcast和ESL（将英语作为第二语言的学习）课程。每一课商务英语podcast都重要培养某一特定的技巧（如会议、陈述、电话、谈判、社交、旅游、会话等）和语言功能（如表示澄清、不赞同、提问、表达观点、劝说等）。

Business English Pod’s MP3 lessons feature example training dialogs with clear explanations of the target language, vocabulary, idioms and useful phrases, followed by a short practice and review session. The audio lessons can be downloaded directly from the website or transferred to your iPod or MP3 player using free software such as Apple’s iTunes program.
商务英语Pod提供的MP3课程以训练对话示例为特色，配合对目标语言、词汇、习语和实用短语的清楚解释，之后是很短的练习和复习部分。音频课程可以直接从网站下载、或是使用如Apple的iTunes程序等免费软件传输到你的iPod或MP3播放器上。

Sign up as a Premium Member and you will have access to the detailed study notes, including a full transcript, example phrases, vocabulary and language review exercises for each podcast lesson. Online quizzes, language exercises and vocabulary glossaries are also available to premium members.
注册称为高级会员，你就可以享受到详细的学习笔记，包括每一课podcast完全的录音文稿，示例短语、词汇和语言复习的练习。在学习中心还可以享受到网上测试、语言练习和词汇抽认卡。

BEP 69 – Telephone English: Leaving a Message

Business English, ESL Podcast, Intermediate English, Telephone English /

This lesson has been updated in anew series: BEP 69A Redux & BEP 69B Redux.

People are busy. When you telephone people, they often aren’t there to take your call, so you need to leave a message. And almost everyone has to answer the telephone and take a message sometimes. Doing so professionally leaves a good impression on your customers, colleagues and boss.

Today we will hear a bad example and a good example of taking and leaving a telephone message.

Justin Thomas is with Trivesco, a major shipyard, or maker of ships. He is calling Sylvie Peterson at Daneline, a shipping company. Sylvie is a sales and purchase (S&P) broker. A broker is a middleman or negotiator. Sylvie specializes in negotiating the purchase of “newbuildings” or newly built ships. Amy, the receptionist, answers the phone.

Listening Questions

Bad Example
1) Does Amy answer the phone professionally?
2) Is Justin prepared?

Good Example
1) How does Amy answer the phone?
2) What is Mark calling about?
3) How does Amy make sure that she has got Mark’s correct phone number?

Premium Members: PDF Transcript

Download: Podcast MP3

BEP 67 – Socializing with Colleagues at Work

A2, Business English, ESL Podcast, Intermediate English, Socializing, Travel /

This is the fourth in a series of intermediate business ESL podcasts that focus on business travel. In this series we’re following a group of trainees who work for the telecommunications company Ambient as they visit their head office in Michigan in the U.S.

How do you make friendly chat with your colleagues? What kinds of topics can you talk about? We’ll be looking at some answers. In particular, we’ll cover informal greetings and how to chat about movies. As almost everyone loves to go to the cinema, movies are usually a good topic for small talk.

As our listening begins, it’s Monday morning. Honesto, a trainee from the Philippines, says hello to his American colleague Brenda as she comes in to the office.

Listening Questions

1) What does Brenda mean when she says “veg out”?
2) What are critics and what did they think about Rush Hour 3?
3) How does Brenda like her coffee?

PDF Transcript

Download: Podcast MP3

BEP 66 – Working with Colleagues and Making Requests

Business English, ESL Podcast, Functions, Intermediate English, Travel /

What do you do if you don’t have office space for all your employees or many of them usually spend most of their time traveling or working offsite? In the 90s, some clever manager came up with a solution – hot desking – and the rest is history. Hot desking refers to using temporary work areas that are set up for any staff who needs them.

With the invention of laptop computers and the Internet, we can pretty much work anywhere. Now, in many companies around the world from hi-tech software firms to management consultancies and even increasingly in more traditional industries such as banking and engineering, a certain number of work areas are made into “hot desks.” As long as they are empty, any one can work there. Sit down, plug in your computer, and you are ready to go! In companies where a lot of people are traveling, this is a great way to save money because it reduces unused space to a minimum.

In this Business English Podcast lesson, we’ll be continuing our series on business travel. We’re following Honesto, an Ambient Telecommunications employee from Manila, on a training trip to head office in Michigan, USA. The main language focus of the lesson is on making polite requests. Along the way, we’ll also look at some different ways to express likes and dislikes. Honesto has found himself an unused desk and is working along when all of the sudden he gets a new neighbor, Megan.

Listening Questions

1) What kind of expressions do Honesto and Megan use to make polite requests?
2) What type of training is Honesto taking part in?
3) Where is Megan from?

Premium Members: PDF Transcript | PhraseCast

Download: Podcast MP3

BEP 65 – Sales English: Questioning Techniques (2)

Business English, Communication, ESL Podcast, Sales English /

This is the second in a two-part Business English Pod lesson on questioning techniques. Last time in BEP 64 we looked at making small talk and gathering information with open questions, getting specific information with probing questions and guiding the conversation by showing interest.

This time we’ll learn several more advanced questioning techniques, including direct questions, to get information from someone who is being uncommunicative, reflective questions, to guide the conversation, and hypothetical questions, to suggest possible action. Together these techniques form a series that can be used to drill down to the information you need.

As you’ll remember, the listening takes place in a customer needs analysis: Brad, from chemical coatings producer Forrest and Brown, is visiting his customer Andy. Andy’s company, Stratos, puts together circuit boards for use in consumer electronics.

At the end of Part 1 , Brad had just used a probing question to determine what exact kinds of products Andy’s company focuses on. When he discovered that Stratos was making a lot of boards for TVs, Brad decides to follow this line of questioning. As we’ll see, this is because TVs are a good match for Brad’s products.

The specific kind of TV they are talking about is an LCD TV, often referred to as a flat screen TV.

Listening Questions

1) LCD TVs produce a lot of heat. Why is this important to Brad’s sales pitch?
2) What are Andy’s main priorities in selecting conformal coatings to protect the circuit boards Stratos produces?
3) What are the main good points of the coating that Brad wishes to sell to Andy?

Members: PDF Transcript

Download: Podcast MP3

BEP 64 – Sales English: Questioning Techniques (1)

Business English, Communication, ESL Podcast, Sales English /

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” – that is, 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. For example, 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’ needs.

Listening Questions

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?

Members: PDF Transcript

Download: Podcast MP3

BEP 63 – Indirect Persuasion in a Social Context

Business English, ESL Podcast, Persuasion /

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, Steve, to try a new vacation spot.

As you listen, 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; but, 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.

Premium Members: PDF Transcript

Download: Podcast MP3

BEP 62 – Persuasion 3: Satisfaction, Visualization and Action Steps

Advanced, Business English, ESL Podcast, Persuasion, Presentation in English, Sales English /

In the first two ESL lessons (BEP 59 & BEP 60) in this three-part series on persuasion, we saw how getting your audience’s attention and demonstrating a clear need were essential to the persuasive process. We learned that in the indirect method of persuasion you should demonstrate the problem before you offer a solution. This mirrors the psychological process of decision-making: First we feel a need, and then we look for a way to satisfy that need.

After you have established the need, you then describe the future benefits if your proposal is accepted. This is the visualization step: Talk about how accepting your proposal will have positive future outcomes or maybe how not accepting it will have negative outcomes. Finally, you need to make a concrete, specific call to action – what the audience can do right now to implement your proposal.

Let’s finish listening to Steve give his proposal to Swift management. See if you can identify the satisfaction, visualization and action steps in his speech.

Listening Questions

1. How long will it take Swift to get back the investment in air conditioning?
2. How much extra profit can Swift make per year by adopting Nick’s proposal?
3. What specific action does Steve ask his manager’s to take?

Premium Members: PDF Transcript

Download: Podcast MP3

BEP 61 – American Sports Idioms in a Business Meeting

Business English, Business Idioms, Culture, English for Meetings, ESL Podcast /

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. Also, they give you more opportunities to practice what you’ve learned.

We’ll hear several idioms from Sports Idioms 1 (BEP 57) and 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. Jen, Ken and Ryan of Ambient are in a marketing meeting discussing Accent’s recent buyout of Telstar.

Members: PDF Transcript

Download: Podcast MP3

BEP 60 – Persuasion 2: Establishing the Need

Advanced, Business English, ESL Podcast, Persuasion, Presentation in English, Sales English /

Welcome to the second in this three-part Business English Pod series on presenting your ideas presuasively.

Last time we heard a bad example and a good example of persuasion. Then we covered the first step of the Monroe Sequence: We learned that to be persuasive, you first need to get the audience’s attention by establishing the relevance of the topic. We also talked about how it’s extremely important to relate your proposal directly to your audience’s needs.

In today’s show, we will be continuing on that theme by looking in detail at the second step in the Monroe Sequence, the need step. This is where you demonstrate to the audience that there is a serious problem with the current situation. This prepares them psychologically to accept your solution.

Let’s continue listening to the good example of persuasion that we started last time. Remember, Steve has just gotten his audience’s attention by pointing out the amount of money that Swift loses every year due to turnover. He has also posed a problem: How can we reverse the trend and turn the situation around?

Listening Questions

1. What’s the highest temperature in the welding room?
2. What does Steve present first – the problem or the solution?
3. What kind of strategies does Steve use to paint a vivid picture of the need for his solution?

Members: PDF Transcript

Download: Podcast MP3