You're listening to Business English Pod, the Business English podcast for professionals on the move.
Hello and welcome back to Business English Pod.
My name's Tim and in today's lesson, we're going to learn how to introduce a presentation.
And if you think this topic sounds familiar, you're right.
This lesson is the start of a new series where we'll take a fresh look at some of our older lessons.
We're going to keep the original dialogue and record new explanations and practices, with the aim of making these lessons more accessible to some of our lower level learners.
So what should we say to introduce a presentation?
Well, how about starting with a greeting like a simple hello, and what comes after a greeting your name?
So we've got something like hello, I'm Tim, great.
What's next?
Well, it's a good idea to tell people who you work for and what your job is like, and I'm a marketing manager at Swift by right.
So now that you've introduced yourself, you can introduce your presentation.
What do people want to know about your presentation?
The topic is important, of course.
That might sound something like i'm going to be talking about our advertising strategy and, besides the topic, How about the organization and the goal of your presentation?
Think about when you listen to a presentation.
You want to know what you're going to be hearing about and why, right?
Okay, now what about questions?
People want to ask questions, right?
So, you should mention how you'll handle questions.
Maybe like this.
At the end of the presentation, we'll have about 15 minutes for questions.
So there you have the important parts of an introduction.
And you can use these ideas in more than just presentations.
I mean, you have to introduce yourself in many different situations, right?
And introducing a topic and a goal is something you might do at the start of any meeting or discussion.
Okay, now in the dialogue, you're going to hear a presenter named Claude.
Claude is presenting an analysis of sales data.
When we talk about analysis or use the verb analyze, we're talking about looking closely at something, to understand it.
So Claude is looking closely at sales information and explaining what he sees to a group of managers.
As you listen, try to answer the following questions and then we'll give you some answers later in the lesson.
2.
What is Claude's job?
3.
What does Claude hope to do?
4.
What is the final part of the presentation going to be?
And he'll be presenting some of the latest sales figures and trends for our product lines in this very key sector.
Claude, if you're ready, please take it away.
Thank you, Perry.
And good morning, everybody.
A warm welcome from our Paris office, whether you are here in person or here via video from Sydney or New York.
For those of you who don't know me, I'm Claude Daughtry, senior sales analyst from our consumer products division, and I'll be presenting our analysis of recent sales data.
I will then examine some important trends and conclusions we can make about the growth of our product lines.
After that I plan to look at some forecasts and propose sales strategies to adjust to the trends we see developing.
During this kick-off meeting, we hope to arrive at some recommendations to forward to senior management before their next shareholder meeting.
And finally, we will open it up to any questions you might have about sales in general, whether it concerns the EU, the Americas or the Asia-Pacific region.
I estimate my prepared remarks will cover about 30 minutes and the next 30 minutes will be dedicated to answering your questions.
Hopefully you've all received the handout material I sent, but I'll also be showing the charts in PowerPoint for those of you that
Now, I want to go through the dialogue again and look at the language in more detail.
I'll talk about what Claude says and why he says it.
And as we go through the lesson, we'll provide more language examples, together with opportunities for you to practice this language.
Let's listen again to what Claude says right at the beginning of his presentation.
Thank you, Perry, and good morning, everybody.
A warm welcome from our Paris office, whether you are here in person or here via video from Sydney or New York.
Claude starts with a friendly greeting to his audience.
He uses the expressions good morning and a warm welcome.
You can't start a presentation without saying hello, right?
So let's practice some more greetings.
I want you to repeat what you hear to practice each expression.
Ready?
Good morning, everybody.
Good afternoon, and welcome to the North American Division.
Hello, and welcome to the Smith Center.
I thank you all for coming this evening.
All right.
Now you've had some practice with greetings.
Let's get back to Claude's presentation.
Do you remember what usually comes after a greeting?
Let's listen.
For those of you who don't know me, I'm Claude Daughtry, Senior Sales Analyst from our Consumer Products Division.
That's right.
After your greeting, you need to introduce yourself, just like Claude did.
And what does he say about himself?
Well, he gives his name, of course.
And he mentions his job and what part of the company he works for.
Now let's practice some expressions for introducing yourself.
You'll notice that to give your name, you can say, My name is… or just, I'm… followed by your name.
And after your name, you can say your job.
My name is…
And I'm the HR manager for our UK operation.
I'm... and I'm a test engineer for the QC department.
How does that sound?
Now, let's try the same sentences with real names.
Remember, you'll hear the example and then you can try saying it.
Ready?
My name is Alison Wright, and I'm the HR manager for our UK operation.
I'm Charles Wagner, and I'm a test engineer for the QC department.
All right.
Now we just practiced introducing the name or title of our job.
But when we introduce ourselves, we sometimes also say what we actually do or what we are responsible for.
If you are responsible for something or in charge of something, it means you control or manage that something.
So I might say, I'm responsible for sales in New York.
Want to try?
Listen and repeat.
I'm responsible for designing new electrical switches.
I manage regional sales promotions in South America.
Now let's put some of these ideas together with a bigger practice.
Let's try introducing yourself.
I'll give you a job title and job responsibilities.
You can greet the audience, tell them your name, then tell them about your job.
So if I say your job title is Salesperson and your responsibilities are the Northern Region, then what could you say?
Well, you could say, Hello, my name is Jim Smith.
I'm a Salesperson and I'm responsible for the Northern Region.
All right, now it's your turn.
Your job is HR Manager for the London Division and your responsibility is employee training.
Start with a greeting, then name, job and responsibilities.
After you try, we will play an example answer.
Now listen to an example answer.
Good morning, everybody.
My name is Alison Wright.
I'm the HR manager for our London division, and I'm responsible for new employee training.
How did that go?
If you want, you can try the practice again with your own information.
Now, let's get back to the dialogue.
We're going to hear part of Claude's personal introduction again, and I'd like you to listen for what he says.
Next to introduce his presentation.
I'm Claude Daughtry, Senior Sales Analyst from our Consumer Products Division, and I'll be presenting our analysis of recent sales data.
So, what does Claude say after his personal introduction?
Well, he tells his audience what he's going to talk about, or the topic of his presentation.
And what is Claude's topic?
It's the analysis of recent sales data.
Remember I mentioned before that analysis means looking closely at something to understand it right.
Now let's practice introducing a topic for a presentation.
Try repeating the examples that you hear.
I'd like to talk about our new advertising campaign.
Today I want to show you our new product line.
I'm going to explain a new type of design.
Okay, now that the topic has been introduced, what's next?
Let's listen to Claude explain the content of his talk.
I will then examine some important trends and conclusions we can make about the growth of our product lines.
After that I plan to look at some forecasts and propose sales strategies to adjust to the trends we see developing.
After introducing his topic, Claude is talking more about what his presentation will include.
He wants his listeners to know what he's going to discuss.
Sometimes, this means telling people the organization of your presentation.
For example, at the start of this lesson, I might say that I want to talk about introducing a presentation and that first I'll talk about introducing myself.
Then, I'll talk about introducing my topic.
Okay, let's try this.
You'll hear an example of introducing the content of a presentation.
Then you can repeat what you hear.
Ready?
We're going to look at operations in North America, then Europe, then Asia.
First, I want to discuss the past year.
Then we can talk about next year.
I'd like to talk about three factors, cost, location, and time.
Great.
Now let's try putting together the topic and the content into one practice.
I'll give you a topic and two ideas you want to discuss.
You can introduce them.
So if I say your topic is a new product and the two ideas are design and pricing, then what could you say in an introduction?
You could say I'd like to talk about the new product first, I'll talk about design and Then I'll talk about pricing.
Okay?
After each response, we will play an example answer.
Your topic is the annual budget, and the two ideas are revenue and costs.
How did that go?
Let's listen to an example answer.
Today I want to talk about the annual budget first.
I'll talk about revenue, then I'll talk about costs.
Are you ready for another?
Your topic is advertising, and the two ideas are print ads, TV ads.
Now listen to an example answer.
I'm going to talk about advertising.
First I'll discuss print ads, then I'll talk about TV ads.
All right, we've covered the topic and the content of a presentation.
What happens next in the dialogue?
Let's listen to Claude.
During this kickoff meeting, we hope to arrive at some recommendations to forward to senior management before their next shareholder meeting.
Claude mentions that they hope to create some recommendations for management.
In other words, creating some recommendations is the final goal of their meeting.
Of course, every presentation and every meeting has some kind of goal or a purpose or something you want to achieve, right?
And it's a good idea to tell everybody what that goal is.
Now you can try stating a goal.
Repeat what you hear in the following examples.
Our goal today is to figure out why our profits have gone down.
My hope is that everyone will have the information they need to do their jobs better.
Okay, so we've tried stating goals and we're almost finished.
But there's one more thing that Claude wants to explain before he begins his presentation.
And finally, we will open it up to any questions you might have about sales in general, whether it concerns the EU, the Americas or the Asia-Pacific region.
I estimate my prepared remarks will cover about 30 minutes and the next 30 minutes will be dedicated to answering your questions.
What does Claude want to make sure everybody knows?
People always have questions during a presentation, right?
So you need to decide how you're going to handle that.
Are you going to let people ask questions during the presentation?
Do you want them to save questions for the end?
You should tell your listeners what you prefer, just like Claw does.
He says that his prepared remarks or his actual presentation will be 30 minutes, and then he'll give 30 minutes to questions.
How about practicing this yourself?
Listen to the example about arrangements for questions and answers.
Then repeat what you hear.
I'll give you time for questions at the break.
We should have 20 minutes for questions at the end.
Please just raise your hand at any time if you have a question.
I'll give you a goal and a way of dealing with questions.
Then you can tell your audience.
So if I say your goal is to give an overview of finances and everyone should ask questions at the end, what could you say?
How about?
My goal is to give you an overview of finances and then let everyone ask questions at the end.
After each response, we'll play an example answer.
The goal is to choose a new location and ask people to save questions for the end.
How did that go?
Here's an example answer for you.
Okay.
Our goal is to choose a new location, and I'd like you to save your questions for the end.
Ready for another?
The goal is to understand project costs and people can ask questions at any time.
Now listen to an example answer.
My hope is that everyone can understand the project costs and you can ask questions at any time.
Remember, you can always go back and redo these practices using your own information.
And even better, try to use some of this language in your daily work.
That's about it for this lesson.
Remember, you can use what you've learned for different kinds of presentations and different kinds of audiences.
For example, I could use these ideas for an introduction to this lesson.
How?
Well, I could say, Hello, and welcome to Business English Pod.
I'm Tim Simmons, and today I want to talk about introducing a presentation.
First, we'll listen to a dialogue.
Then I'll talk about the dialogue and give you the chance to practice what we learn.
And if you have any questions, you can visit www.businessenglishpod.com.
Thanks for listening, and see you again soon.
