BEP 84 – 銷售英語: 現場參觀

There are many different kinds of sites. We often speak of construction sites, a site where something is being builtsuch as buildings, roads, bridges, airports, 等等. But a site can also be a completed structure, like a factory or even sometimes an office. In a site visit, visitors come on site to have a look around. Someone in your company will usually play host and give them a tour. This is often part of the sales process: Sometimes it’s the visitors who are selling something to the host, and sometimes it’s other way around.

The language we’re going to study in this episode will be useful for anyone who needs to host visitors. No matter whether we are giving journalists a demonstration of a factory, or introducing potential customers to our work site, or giving government officials a tour of a construction project, we need to show people around and point out areas of interest.

在聆聽中, Stanley Wang works for China Western Railroad Construction Company. Stanley is the site agent – 那是, the person in charge of a construction sitefor a railway tunnel that is being built. Matt and Paulawho work for a small engineering company called TunnelTechare visiting potential customers in China. 對話開始時, Stanley is getting ready to take them into the tunnel for a look around.

聽力問題:

1) What does Stanley point out in the tunnel? What language does he use to draw everyone’s attention to it?
2) What are the advantages of the machine that Stanley describes?
3) Stanley mentions two safety hazards. 這些是什麼?
4) What is the question that Paula asks Stanley about the hazards?

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BEP 65 – 銷售英語: 提問技巧 (2)

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.

您會記得, 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.

在......的最後 部分 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.

聽力問題

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?

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BEP 64 – 銷售英語: 提問技巧 (1)

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 todrill down to” – 那是, get to or uncoverthe 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 producesconformal 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 devicesTVs, CD players, phoneshave 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’sprospect” – 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 62 – 勸說 3: 滿意, 可視化和操作步驟

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 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. 最後, you need to make a concrete, specific call to actionwhat 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.

聽力問題

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?

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BEP 60 – 勸說 2: 建立需求

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. 記住, 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?

聽力問題

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

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