You're listening to Business English Pop, the business English podcast for professionals on the move.
This is the first of three episodes on charts and trends.
Over these three shows, we'll be learning language for dealing with visuals, describing trends, analyzing and comparing data and making predictions.
Visuals refers to any visual element of your presentation, charts, graphs, pictures, and so on.
A trend is the general direction, upward or downward, of some metric that is measurement, such as price or revenue.
For example, when we say the price of oil has risen 30% in the last three months, that's a trend.
Clayton, just before we get going, can you tell us why dealing with charts and trends is so important for presentations?
Well, every presentation contains a visual element, whether it's a few words written with a marker on the board or a high-tech PowerPoint presentation with movies and animations.
As the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words.
So pictures, charts and graphs they can do the talking for you, but you need to be able to highlight the main points clearly, effectively and logically.
That way, your carefully prepared visuals are going to have the maximum impact on your audience.
Now in today's episode, we're focusing on the basics of how to deal with visuals in your presentation.
That is how to attract attention to them, how to emphasize the key parts and how to relate points about different visuals as you move through your slides.
A slide is just one picture in your PowerPoint presentation, for example.
By the way, you'll see that a lot of the language we cover continues on our discussion of signposting during the last episode.
Great.
Now tell us about the listening today.
Okay.
The listening comes from a presentation at the Central European Head Office of Ambient, an American mobile phone manufacturer.
Ambient has regained market share after a couple of bad years and is now taking over the number two place, behind market leader Cirrus and just ahead of the third player, Calltail.
You'll hear Pat, the new finance director in the Central Europe region, in the middle of a presentation to the sales team.
As we join them.
He's bringing up a slide on revenue trends among the top three players in the business.
As you listen, pay attention to the language that Pat uses to call attention to his points and to relate them to each other.
Everybody ready?
Okay.
I'll lead into our discussion today with a quick look at sales over the last five quarters.
I'm going to bring up our competitors one by one so we can have a look at how they've been doing in contrast to our own performance.
Okay.
Well, first there's Calltel.
As I'm sure you all know, they've been making a play for the low-end market since they sold off their network division.
We can see the boost in sales they reaped in Q4 of 2006 when they brought out their new budget price points.
But that's only part of the story, as we'll see a little later.
Next, we have everyone's favorite, Cirrus.
Okay, okay, no love lost there.
But let me just draw your attention to the plateau in sales they're facing at the moment with their disastrous 3G rollout.
As you can see, it's really put their revenue under pressure in the last two quarters.
And that brings us to Ambien.
Hey!
As I said at the beginning, it's been a great couple of quarters and I'm sure you'll be pleased to hear Central Europe now accounts for over 25 of our European sales.
That's a 34% year-on-year increase.
Fantastic.
But we're actually projecting a fairly flat second half, as we focus on the higher value product lines, something we'll look at in more detail later.
Pat has clearly signposted all of his points and used some very effective language for highlighting key trends.
Let's take a closer look at how he does that.
Listen again to the beginning.
I'm going to bring up our competitors one by one so we can have a look at how they've been doing in contrast to our own performance.
This is Pat's introduction to his slide.
He is giving us the background on what he plans to say, so that we can follow him and keep everything in context.
He says I'll lead into our discussion today with From this we can tell this is the first or lead slide in his discussion.
Now, let's look at some of the vocabulary.
A quarter... refers to a period of three months.
There are four quarters in a year.
You can also refer to them by number, Q1, Q2, Q3, and Q4.
When Pat says he's going to bring up their competitors one by one, he doesn't just mean mention them, He means he's going to show us a graph where each competitor's revenue figures are brought up onto the picture, one at a time, building up until we have three trend lines to compare.
You can refer to the study notes for this episode to see the actual graph Pat is using.
This is called a bar graph because it is composed of a series of bars or thick vertical lines that look like chocolate bars standing on end.
Okay, let's practice some more language we can use to introduce a point.
We'll kick off the discussion today with an analysis of our revenue figures over the last 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.
Now, what does Pat do next?
He calls attention to the first trend he brings up on his graph.
Okay, well first, here's Calltel.
What is some other language he could use to call attention to a visual?
Have a look at this.
As you can see, take a look at this.
Well, first, here are our total profits in 2006.
All right.
What happens next?
Remember, Pat is talking about one of Ambient's competitors, Calltel.
As I'm sure you all know, they've been making a play for the low-end market since they sold off their network division.
As we'll see again and again...
Competition between companies is often described in terms of war or sports metaphors.
To make a play for is an idiom that means to try to acquire or to control.
Pat's sentence literally means that Kaltel is trying to improve their sales in the low-end that is, low-price market.
Now here's an important point.
Remember that Pat is what we call the new kid on the block.
That means he has not been working for Ambient very long, whereas many people in his audience will have been with the company for years.
At this stage.
In his presentation, Pat is making some fairly simple points, because they provide important background for his later analysis.
But everyone already knows what he's talking about.
Especially as a newcomer to Ambient, it's important for him to show respect for his audience.
As I'm sure you all know, is a great way to do this.
Let's learn some other ways to respect your audience's 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.
Alright, now let's take a look at how PAT highlights a key point.
He's still talking about call-tell.
We can see the boost in sales they reaped in Q4 of 2006 when they brought out their new budget price points.
Budget price points refers to inexpensive, low-end products.
In this case, mobile phones.
We can see is a way of drawing attention to the point you want to make.
Pat probably has a laser pointer and he's pointing at the part of the graph he wants everyone to focus on.
Later he highlights another point by saying let me just draw your attention to What other kinds of phrases can he use to do this?
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 investments 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.
Since highlighting is such an important part of getting your message across, why don't we practice this skill?
Are you ready?
It's your turn to give it a try.
In a moment, you'll hear a series of points, such as Fallen Sails, Q1.
After each point, you'll hear a beep.
That means it's your turn to start talking.
Use the phrases we just practiced to draw attention to each point.
For example, if you hear fall in sales Q1, you can say something like.
One thing you'll immediately notice is that sales fell dramatically in Q1.
Are you ready?
Let's begin.
Sharp increase in revenue, 2006.
Strong profit performance, Q1 2007.
How did that go?
Listen to some example answers.
I'd particularly like to draw your attention to the sharp increase in revenue in 2006.
One thing you'll immediately notice is the strong profit performance in Q1 of 2007.
After telling us that Kaltel has improved revenue by selling more low-end phones, Pat does something very interesting.
He foreshadows a point to come.
Foreshadow means anticipate or give a hint about something.
But that's only part of the story, as we'll see a little later.
Pat is essentially giving us a hint about a key point he's going to make later in his presentation, which we will see in the third episode of this series.
Foreshadowing is a great way of keeping the audience interested and also of relating the structure of your presentation internally, so that audience members will be able to think back clearly to a point that you made earlier when it becomes important for your analysis later.
Are there any other examples of foreshadowing in today's listening?
Yes, this is something Pat does again at the end when he says but we're actually projecting a fairly flat second half as we focus on the higher value product lines.
Something we'll look at in more detail later.
By the way, project means to predict, and flat refers to little growth, a flat trend line.
All right, how else can you foreshadow a point?
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 a departmental structure.
What happens next?
Pat brings up the trend for the second competitor onto the chart.
Let's listen.
Next, we have everyone's favorite, Cirrus.
Okay, okay.
No love lost there.
But let me just draw your attention to the plateau in sales they're facing at the moment with their disastrous 3G rollout.
It doesn't sound like Sirius is very popular, does it?
As the idiom goes, it's the company that everyone loves to hate.
That's what Pat means by there's no love lost there, which is another great idiom to add to your vocabulary.
As we looked at earlier when we reviewed highlighting.
Pat says let me just draw your attention to, in order to draw attention to the following point
That is, after the disastrous rollout or launch of their 3G technology, which means third generation advanced cell phone technology.
Cirrus is facing a plateau in sales.
A plateau is simply a mountain with a flat top.
So to face a plateau means to remain level, no movement, a flat trend line.
This kind of language for actually describing trends we'll be looking at in greater detail in the next episode in this series, Charts and Trends 2.
Now, before Pat is able to highlight this point about Cirrus, he has to signpost that he's moving on to another part of his slide.
He says, Next, we have everyone's favorite, Cirrus.
Then he puts the trendline for Cirrus on the screen so his audience can compare it to Call Tales.
And then again, after he finishes talking about Cirrus, Pat has to signpost the last point, as he brings ambiance figures up onto the screen.
He says, and that brings us to ambient.
What is some more language we can use to signpost the next graphic or next slide?
Well, you can use some of the ways we learned earlier for introducing a point.
In addition, here are some phrases that are specifically designed for moving between points.
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.
That concludes the first slide.
Let's bring up the next.
Now here we see the current state of the market.
Okay, there's just one more point to cover in today's episode.
We've practiced introducing a point, moving between points, highlighting a point, foreshadowing or anticipating a future point, and the only thing left is how to refer to a previous point.
Listen to Pat talking about ambient during the last section of today's listening.
As I said at the beginning, It's been a great couple of quarters and I'm sure you'll be pleased to hear Central Europe now accounts for over 25 of our European sales.
That's a 34% year-on-year increase.
As I said at the beginning, is a way of calling back to mind a previous point, perhaps something that you foreshadowed earlier.
In this case, Pat is giving more evidence to one of his main comments, which is that the Central Europe region is doing quite well.
By a 34% year-on-year increase, Pat means a 34% rise compared with last year.
Now, what are some more ways to refer 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.
And that does it for today's episode.
You've practiced a variety of signposting language for emphasizing or highlighting important messages and relating the points of your presentation to each other.
These are very important skills to have.
Practicing this language will help you prove the old saying true, by making each of your pictures truly worth a thousand words.
Now, just a little foreshadowing here.
In the next episode, we'll be dealing in detail with describing trends.
We'll be learning a variety of lively and vivid language and structures for concisely describing the main trend lines in your charts and graphs.
