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 Edwin, and I'll be your host for today's lesson on presenting numbers.
In business, numbers are everywhere.
Whether you work in sales, marketing, finance, or management, you deal with them all the time.
You've got data, metrics, projections, and results all expressed in numbers.
We read about numbers, we discuss numbers and we often have to stand up in front of our colleagues, our clients or our bosses and present numbers.
Giving a presentation about anything can be challenging.
Giving a presentation about numbers and data can be especially difficult.
You have to describe those numbers, to interpret them, and to connect them to ideas and decisions.
In today's lesson, we'll begin looking at some techniques for this situation.
We'll learn how to approximate and how to describe change.
We'll also learn how to talk about increases and decreases, as well as how to compare and contrast numbers.
In the dialogue, we'll hear Tony, who works in marketing for a large grocery chain called Forrestis.
Tony is giving a presentation about the outcomes of a new promotional campaign targeting the young singles market.
We'll also hear Ellen and William, two executives with Forrestis.
As you listen to the dialogue, try to answer the following questions.
One, what does Tony say has improved as a result of the company's national campaign?
2.
What decreased as a result of the national campaign?
3.
What two things does Tony say increased at the test stores?
Okay, so all of these activities I'm going to talk about today are related to our push to grab a bigger piece of one key market segment the young singles.
And Tony, could you remind us all how big this segment is?
Yes, of course.
Young singles actually make up somewhere in the region of 20% of the total adult population.
In some urban centers, that's up to around one-third.
I see.
So a pretty decent chunk.
Yes, it is indeed.
And that's what I wanted to look at today.
But before I drill down on our promotions in that area, I just want to mention our national campaign, because this has really supported our efforts at the store level.
In fact, we've seen some great improvements in brand awareness.
64 percent before the TV and print ads, growing to 76 mid-campaign and topping out at 82 percent by the end.
That's quite an impact.
Yes, and that's not all.
Focus groups and surveys were very promising too.
We saw a 26% drop in the number of people with a negative response to our brand.
And words like bland and cheap are giving way to words like fresh and quality.
The feedback on the ads and the brand overall have been really positive.
So these changes from our national campaign serve as a backdrop to our promotional activities at our three test stores.
Sound good so far?
Yes, all good, Tony.
Please, go on.
Okay.
Well first, during the promotion period, we saw a steady overall increase in both footfall and sales at the test stores.
We're really pumped about that, of course.
And I'll talk more about the sales figures in a bit.
But first I just want to take a closer look at the footfall at these three test stores, which you can see here.
So Lakeview saw a modest increase at about 500 per week.
Bedford was nearly twice that, and Little Creek outstripped both combined.
Reason being that Little Creek has a higher number of young singles?
Precisely.
It's confirmation that our promotional activities were well targeted.
Those numbers correspond to roughly the size of the target market in these areas.
Okay, now I'd like you to look at footfall on different days of the week, because there's some really good news there as well.
Now let's go through the dialogue again and look at the language and techniques.
Toni used to present her numbers.
Okay, so all of these activities I'm going to talk about today are related to our push to grab a bigger piece of one key market segment the young singles.
And Toni, could you remind us all how big this segment is?
Tony begins by stating the topic of her presentation, which is the company's efforts to grab a bigger piece of a market segment.
In other words, they want to sell more to a particular type of customer.
In this case, that's young single people.
And Ellen politely asks Tony how big that segment is.
How does Tony respond?
Yes, of course.
Young singles actually make up somewhere in the region of 20% of the total adult population.
In some urban centres, that's up to around one-third.
Tony wants to answer Ellen by giving an approximate number.
That is, she doesn't want to say exactly how many young people there are, which would be unnecessary.
It's enough for her to say they make up somewhere in the region of, or approximately, 20% of adults.
And in some cities, she says the number is up to, or at a maximum of, about one-third.
In many situations, approximating is less confusing and more appropriate than giving an exact number.
So let's practice some more ways of doing this.
There was somewhere around a thousand people at the event.
We currently have in the neighborhood of 10,000 unique visitors to our site every day.
About 20% of our customers are institutions, while around 80% are individuals.
The economy is expected to grow by approximately 3% next year.
Now, let's get back to the presentation.
I see.
So a pretty decent chunk.
Yes, it is indeed.
And that's what I wanted to look at today.
But before I drill down on our promotions in that area, I just want to mention our national campaign, because this has really supported our efforts at the store level.
In response to Tony's approximation of the size of the young singles market, Ellen says it's a pretty decent chunk.
A chunk is a piece of something, and pretty decent in this case means quite large.
Toni agrees with.
It is indeed which helps, gives the idea emphasis and connects the topic of the question with the presentation by saying that's what she wants to look at.
But there's a but.
Before discussing the promotions to young singles, she wants to mention the national campaign.
A campaign is a big organized effort to do something.
In marketing, a campaign might include several activities to promote a company or its products.
So, what were the results of the national campaign?
Let's hear Tony describe them.
In fact, we've seen some great improvements in brand awareness.
64% before the TV and print ads, growing to 76% mid-campaign, and topping out at 82% by the end.
Toni starts by describing changes generally, saying there have been great improvements in brand awareness.
Brand awareness is a measurement often expressed as a percentage of how many people recognize your company.
After summarizing the changes, Toni gets more specific.
She says that brand awareness started at 64, grew to or increased to 76 in the middle of the campaign and topped out at, or reached 82 by the end.
Giving these details without summarizing the change first might be confusing for listeners, so it's very important to start by describing the change.
Now, let's run through some more ways of describing change in a presentation.
As we do, you will notice that we often use adjectives and adverbs to describe the kind of change.
For example, to describe a big change, we might use dramatically, considerable or wildly.
The stock price has fluctuated quite a bit over the past six months.
The number of mobile users has changed dramatically since we introduced our new service.
Rebus Enterprises saw considerable growth in European sales in the third quarter.
Real estate values have varied wildly since the recession.
Now, let's get back to the presentation.
That's quite an impact.
Yes, and that's not all.
Focus groups and surveys were very promising too.
We saw a 26% drop in the number of people with a negative response to our brand.
Once again we hear a positive response from a member of the audience who says the changes Toni described have had quite an impact.
So clearly, Toni is presenting the numbers in a way that connects with her audience.
And once again, Tony uses the response to lead to the next idea, saying, yes, and that's not all.
This means there's more good news related to surveys and focus groups, which are used in market research to assess customers' reactions to your company or products.
This time, the good news is a decrease in the number of people with a negative response to the brand.
And to describe this decrease, Tony says we saw a 26 drop.
Drop can be used as a noun and a verb to describe a decrease.
And there are plenty of other words we can use such as fall, reduce, decline, and fall off, as you can hear in the following examples.
The number of daily calls to tech support has fallen by 15%.
The company has managed to reduce costs by $30,000 per month in the past year.
Sales have declined slightly since the summer months.
The number of users has fallen off by around 3000 since our technical problems.
Now let's hear Tony describe some more results of the focus groups and surveys.
And words like bland and cheap are giving way to words like fresh and quality.
The feedback on the ads and the brand overall have been really positive.
So these changes from our national campaign serve as a backdrop to our promotional activities at our three test stores.
Sound good so far?
Yes, all good, Tony.
Please, go on.
Tony has been describing numbers or quantitative data.
But she also wants to mention qualitative data, which is about ideas, impressions, and qualities.
In this case, she says people are using more positive words, like fresh and quality, to talk about their company.
Tony then summarizes all of this information by saying that the feedback has been very positive.
A good presenter like Tony helps listeners along by introducing ideas, giving examples and details and summarizing ideas.
After talking about the national campaign, Tony wants to talk about the in-store promotions.
But first she does something else that a good presenter does, which is check whether the audience understand or has any questions.
Tony does this with the informal question, sound good so far?
And William agrees that it's all good, encouraging Tony to go on or continue.
So let's hear Tony talk about the in-store promotional activities.
Okay.
Well first, during the promotion period, we saw a steady overall increase in both footfall and sales at the test stores.
Tony begins by saying, well, first, to tell the listeners that several ideas will follow.
This first idea she wants to explain is a steady overall increase in footfall and sales.
Footfall is a measure of how many people come through a store.
We can also refer to footfall as customer traffic, which is just another way of describing the number of people visiting a store.
And a steady overall increase is Tony's way of saying that footfall and sales went up.
Again, Tony is not getting too specific yet.
She's describing the increase generally.
Let's practice some more ways of describing increases using words like rise, shoot up and boost.
The company's valuation has shot up since its latest round of investment.
The latest job numbers show that the unemployment rate has risen slightly to 6.5%.
An excellent fourth quarter boosted corporate profits by just over 12% compared to last year.
We have seen a sharp rise in orders over the holiday season.
After introducing the increase in footfall and sales, how does Tony continue?
We're really pumped about that, of course, and I'll talk more about the sales figures in a bit.
But first I just want to take a closer look at the footfall at these three test stores, which you can see here.
So Lakeview saw a modest increase at about 500 per week.
Bedford was nearly twice that, and Little Creek outstripped both combined.
Toni says they're pumped about the increase, which means really excited, and she wants to explain footfall in more detail.
But she understands that people are probably very curious about sales, so she helps her listeners by stating what she's going to do.
That is, she'll talk about sales, but first she'll talk about footfall at the three test stores.
In describing footfall at the three stores, Toni compares and contrasts the numbers to show the differences.
She starts with the modest increase or small increase at Lakeview of 500 people.
Next she says that Bedford was nearly twice that, which listeners understand means about 1000, and Little Creek outstripped or went higher than both combined.
So Little Creek saw an increase of over 1500.
Comparing and contrasting numbers is very common in presentations.
Numbers don't mean anything on their own.
They need to be related to numbers in the past or numbers in other places.
There are many other useful ways of comparing and contrasting numbers.
The words whereas and while are especially useful when contrasting two numbers or ideas.
Let's try some of these different ways of comparing and contrasting with a few more examples.
As we can see, wage increases have not kept up with the rate of inflation.
Our software sales are now about three times our hardware sales.
Growth in our Asian markets is at 6% monthly, while European markets lag behind at 3%.
Our new building in Seattle cost 25 million, whereas the development in Portland was only half that.
Now, let's hear how Tony's audience responds.
Reason being that Little Creek has a higher number of young singles?
Precisely.
It's confirmation that our promotional activities were well targeted.
Those numbers correspond to roughly the size of the target market in these areas.
Okay, now I'd like you to look at footfall on different days of the week, because there's some really good news there as well.
Ellen begins with reason being, which is a way of introducing an explanation for why something happened.
In this case, she's explaining why Little Creek saw such a big increase in footfall, which is that there are more young singles there.
Ellen is helping to connect the numbers and ideas in Tony's presentation.
And Tony responds positively with the word precisely, which means exactly true.
Tony continues to explain that the footfall numbers show that their promotional activities were well targeted or effective.
Finally, she begins to transition to her next topic, which is footfall on different days of the week.
But we'll have to wait for the next lesson to hear all about that.
Now let's practice some of the language we learned in today's lesson.
Imagine you are giving a presentation about logistics for a distribution company.
I'll give you a cue telling you what you need to do.
Then you'll hear a prompt.
Use the words in the prompt to make an effective statement during your presentation.
We'll guide you through each step in the practice and provide an example answer for each response.
Ready?
Let's give it a go.
Start off by approximating how many customers your company delivers to.
Currently Approximately 350 Answer We currently have approximately 350 customers we deliver to.
Next, describe how distribution costs have changed in the past year.
Costs go up dramatically past year.
Answer.
Our distribution costs have gone up dramatically over the past year.
Now, explain that shipping goods by truck has decreased.
The amount of goods we ship by truck has declined.
Next say that truck shipping has decreased because of an increase in the price of fuel, less trucking because fuel rise sharply Answer.
We are doing less trucking now because fuel costs have risen sharply.
Finally, compare the cost of trucking with the cost of shipping by rail.
By comparison, rail half cost trucking.
Answer by comparison, shipping by rail is about half the cost of trucking.
Now let's practice some of the vocabulary and collocations we've covered in this lesson.
In a moment you'll hear a series of sentences with a word replaced with a beep.
Repeat each sentence, including the missing word.
For example, if you hear Every month we attract in the of 3000 new users.
You can say, Every month we attract in the region of 3,000 new users.
After each response, we'll provide the correct answer.
Let's begin.
To test people's reactions to our new product, we ran several focus.
To test people's reactions to our new product, we ran several focus groups.
Our television ads helped increase brand by 24%?
Our television ads helped increase brand awareness by 24%.
Now I would like to drill on the reasons for the drop in sales.
Answer.
Now I would like to drill down on the reasons for the drop in sales.
Teenagers and young adults are important market for the music industry.
Answer.
Teenagers and young adults are important market segments for the music industry.
We've reached the end of this lesson, the first in our series on presenting numbers.
We've learned how to approximate, describe changes, decreases and increases, and how to compare and contrast numbers.
In the next lesson we'll see Tony use some more great techniques and language for understanding and connecting numbers and ideas.
Thanks for listening, and see you again soon.
