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 English collocations for talking about sales.
Sales has never been tougher.
In the digital age, competition for people's attention is fierce and customers are armed with more knowledge than ever before.
For these reasons, companies can't get lazy about their approach to sales.
They need to be strategic.
They have to find new ways to manage customer relationships and they need effective ways to track how they're doing.
In this lesson we'll listen to a pharmaceutical sales team discuss new strategies to improve and track their performance.
In their discussion, you'll hear a lot of what we call collocations.
Collocations are just groups of words that combine naturally.
For example, if you want to say that someone finishes making a sale, you can say that he closes a sale.
Everyone uses that verb close.
Nobody says shut a sale or do a sale.
The correct collocation is close a sale.
Native speakers learn and use these collocations naturally, and if you want to improve your vocabulary and sound more fluent, you can learn them too.
As you listen to the dialogue, try to pick out some of these collocations and we'll discuss them later in the debrief.
In the dialogue, we'll listen to a discussion between Fran, Gus, and Nick.
In our last lesson, the team discussed the need to improve their company's sales.
Now they're talking about ways to do that.
During their discussion, they use many English collocations related to sales.
As you listen to the dialogue, try to answer the following questions.
One, what does Nick think his colleague Dennis is doing wrong?
2.
What does Nick believe is an outdated way of measuring their success?
3.
What does Nick believe will happen if they improve their performance metrics?
Okay, so is this really about what the other guys are doing or what we could be doing better?
I think it's the latter.
I see a guy like Dennis chasing lousy prospects doctors that have never engaged with us and probably won't.
Meanwhile, there's a bunch of physicians who have signed up for webinars.
They're sales ready, ripe for the picking, but Dennis isn't trying to convert those leads.
I see.
But we have the information to help us focus our time and efforts.
I mean, marketing has implemented a great lead scoring system.
Which is only effective if people use it.
I'm with you on this one, Nick.
And it's not just about chasing poor leads.
It's also about cultivating better partnerships with existing customers.
You know, it's funny.
Fifteen years ago, we actually talked about closing speed, but now it's like, speed?
More like, how are we doing at building and nurturing these relationships?
Exactly.
That's what I meant when I talked about how it's not just about throwing around free samples anymore.
It takes much longer to close a sale these days.
All right, but this isn't new.
We've been dealing with this for a few years now.
But we haven't changed how we monitor sales metrics.
I'm not sure we've caught up with the times.
Yes, we have analytics and all that, but look at how we set KPIs.
It's old school.
Nick, is this resonating with you as well?
Completely.
I think this is the key to getting people like Dennis to do things a bit differently.
Okay.
Start with performance metrics.
We still talk a lot about generating new leads, but that makes people like Dennis ignore other opportunities.
So we need to emphasize things like upsell rates and cross-sell rates.
And customer engagement.
There are some wicked new tools available for tracking engagement.
I know the guys in marketing would be all over that.
Okay and you feel confident that we'd see an upturn in sales if we improved our performance metrics.
Without a doubt.
As long as we give everyone the tools to succeed or we make sure those tools match what we're asking them to do.
Now let's go through the dialogue again and look at the language and collocations used during the discussion.
Okay, so is this really about what the other guys are doing or what we could be doing better?
I think it's the latter.
I see a guy like Dennis chasing lousy prospects doctors that have never engaged with us and probably won't.
Previously the group discussed whether competitors or the other guys are doing well.
But Frank clearly wants to steer the discussion toward how they can improve their own team's performance.
Nick starts out by identifying a problem on their team.
He talks about a colleague who chases lousy prospects.
A prospect is a potential customer.
And when we try to convince a prospect to buy something, we say we chase the prospect.
The problem in this case is that Dennis is chasing lousy or terrible prospects.
How else can we talk about chasing prospects?
Let's try a few more examples.
I've been chasing this prospect for months now, but he just won't buy anything.
Rather than chasing new prospects, why not try to sell more to existing customers?
So who should they be chasing?
Let's listen as Nick explains.
Meanwhile, there's a bunch of physicians who have signed up for webinars.
They're sales ready, ripe for the picking, but Dennis isn't trying to convert those leads.
Nick is talking about doctors or physicians, as he says, who are sales ready.
That means they're good prospects.
They've signed up for the company's internet info sessions or webinars, so they're obviously interested in their products.
Clearly, these are good prospects, which we also refer to as leads.
When you convince a lead to become an actual customer who buys something, we say that you convert the lead.
You change them from a lead to a customer.
Converting leads is the ultimate goal of sales.
Let's practice some more ways of using this collocation to convert leads.
The challenge now is to convert the leads we got from the exhibition into customers.
You can't hope to convert a lead just by sending them a few emails.
Now back to the dialogue as the group continues discussing their strategy toward leads.
I see.
But we have the information to help us focus our time and efforts.
I mean, marketing has implemented a great lead scoring system.
Which is only effective if people use it.
I'm with you on this one, Nick.
And it's not just about chasing poor leads.
It's also about cultivating better partnerships with existing customers.
The lead scoring system that Fram mentions is basically a way of evaluating leads.
It helps determine which leads are good and which leads are lousy.
It's a useful tool for salespeople if they use it, as Gus points out.
Gus agrees with Nick's idea about chasing bad leads and he adds a point about cultivating partnerships with the customers they already have.
It might sound odd to talk about a partnership with a customer, but in business-to-business sales, this is crucial.
When you sell something to a business, you're trying to help them achieve their business goals.
That's very much a partner relationship.
And when we talk about partnerships and relationships, we use that verb to cultivate.
To cultivate something means to develop it or to grow it through care and attention.
Let's run through some more ways of using this collocation to cultivate a partnership.
We should be trying to cultivate partnerships with more than just one company.
Don't treat the hospital simply as a customer.
Instead cultivate a partnership with them.
For Nick, the idea of cultivating partnerships with customers signals a change in the sales profession.
Let's listen.
You know, it's funny.
15 years ago, we actually talked about closing speed.
But now it's like, speed?
More like, how are we doing at building and nurturing these relationships?
Nick finds it interesting that they are now focused on nurturing or cultivating relationships.
In the past, they didn't talk in the same way.
Instead, they talked about things like closing speed.
In the introduction, I mentioned that closing means finishing a sale.
Sometimes we talk about how fast we are able to do that.
We look at how much time it takes from our first conversation with someone to their first purchase.
That's closing speed.
Let's practice some more ways of talking about closing speed.
If we can improve our closing speed this month, we'll beat our quarterly targets.
Now let's hear Gus agree with Nick.
Exactly.
That's what I meant when I talked about how it's not just about throwing around free samples anymore.
It takes much longer to close a sale these days.
Here we can see Gus using the collocation to close a sale, as he talks about how sales has become more challenging.
It shows how common these collocations are and how people in a certain field all speak a similar language.
The word to close will come up repeatedly in any discussion of sales.
Let's practice this collocation to close a sale with some more examples.
As long as the customer can get financing, I should close this sale by Friday.
Fran is great with people, but she just can't seem to close a sale.
Next, the group begins to talk about how they track their performance.
Alright, but this isn't new.
We've been dealing with this for a few years now.
But we haven't changed how we monitor sales metrics.
I'm not sure we've caught up with the times.
Catching up with the times is an important theme in this discussion.
This idiom means changing and adapting as the world changes, and Gus is concerned that they haven't caught up with the times regarding how they monitor sales metrics.
Metrics are measurements we use to determine how well we're doing.
Closing speed is one example of a sales metric, although it's one that the team thinks is not as relevant anymore.
When we track or watch the metrics we've chosen, we say we monitor those metrics.
Monitoring metrics would involve regularly examining the measurements we've chosen and tracking whether they're going up or going down.
What are some other ways of using this collocation to monitor sales metrics?
Let's try some more examples.
Monitoring sales metrics has allowed us to set more realistic targets.
Even small startups would be wise to invest in software to monitor sales metrics.
Let's hear Gus continue with his assessment.
Yes, we have analytics and all that, but look at how we set KPIs.
It's old school.
Gus is reinforcing his idea that they need to change and adapt.
Instead of keeping up with the times, he says that the way they do things is old school or out of date.
In particular, he mentions how they set KPIs.
KPI is short for Key Performance Indicator.
A performance indicator is just like a metric or a measurement of how we're performing.
And a key performance indicator is a metric that we've decided is especially important.
It's something we measure consistently to figure out how we're doing and how to improve.
When we decide on KPIs, we say we set them.
Let's practice some more ways of using this collocation to set KPIs.
We've got our strategic objectives.
Now we need to set some KPIs to measure progress.
When we set our sales KPIs, we forgot to measure customer satisfaction.
Does Nick agree with Gus's idea?
Or as Fran asks, do his ideas resonate with Nick?
Let's listen.
Nick, is this resonating with you as well?
Completely.
I think this is the key to getting people like Dennis to do things a bit differently.
Okay.
Start with performance metrics.
We still talk a lot about generating new leads, but that makes people like Dennis ignore other opportunities.
Nick certainly agrees with Gus.
And as an example of an old school metric that they continue to monitor, he mentions generating new leads.
We already know that a lead is a potential customer.
Well, part of the job of a salesperson or a marketer is generating new leads.
That just means finding people who might become customers and getting their contact information.
To generate means to make, but you can't say make new leads.
The correct collocation is to generate new leads.
It's a great example of how collocations aren't just about finding the right meaning.
It's about finding the combination of words that are commonly used.
Let's run through some more examples of to generate new leads.
We generate a lot of new leads by exhibiting at trade shows.
Sure, we've generated lots of new leads, but now we need to turn them into customers.
So if generating new leads is an outdated metric, then what kind of metric might be more useful?
So we need to emphasize things like upsell rates and cross-sell rates.
Fran suggests that they use upsell rates as a performance metric.
A rate is simply a measure of how often or how much something happens.
And upselling is convincing a customer to buy more products or to buy more expensive products.
Upselling is an important sales strategy.
We often say that it's easier to sell more to existing customers than it is to find new customers.
So tracking upsell rates may be an effective way of improving the team's performance.
Let's run through some more examples of this collocation, upsell rates.
Our upsell rate has gone way up since we launched our recommendation bot.
To increase your upsell rates, you need to make it easier for customers to buy add-ons.
Gus has another idea for new performance indicators.
Let's listen.
And customer engagement.
There are some wicked new tools available for tracking engagement.
I know the guys in marketing would be all over that.
Gus is suggesting that they use some excellent or wicked new tools for monitoring customer engagement.
What is engagement?
If someone is engaged, they are connected.
Engaging with customers means connecting with them in all different ways.
So customer engagement is about the number of interactions a customer has with your salespeople, with your company and with your brand.
That can include online interactions and in-person interactions.
Customer engagement is a common expression in 21st century sales.
Let's practice some more examples of this collocation.
We have three employees dedicated to customer engagement through social media.
A good customer engagement strategy includes keeping in touch with the customer after their purchase.
Now let's return to the dialogue as Fran has an important question.
Okay and you feel confident that we'd see an upturn in sales if we improved our performance metrics.
It's useless to monitor or track something if it doesn't help you improve.
So Fran is asking Nick and Gus whether improving their performance metrics will actually lead to an upturn in sales.
You can probably guess what an upturn is.
If something turns, it changes direction.
And if it turns up, it increases.
So an upturn in sales just means an increase in sales.
Let's run through some more examples of this collocation, upturn in sales.
We always see an upturn in sales of new cars in the spring.
Our sponsorship of sporting events has led to a big upturn in sales.
The other collocation that Fran uses is performance metrics.
We've already talked about metrics as measurements and we've looked at key performance indicators, or KPIs.
So performance metrics is just another way of talking about how we measure our success.
That could be the performance of an individual salesperson or an entire company.
How else can we use performance metrics in a sentence?
Let's practice with some more examples.
I've seen the performance metrics, Hannah, and looks like you've had a great month.
Tracking these performance metrics helps us see what we're doing right.
So does Nick think that improving their metrics will lead to an increase in sales?
Without a doubt.
As long as we give everyone the tools to succeed or we make sure those tools match what we're asking them to do.
As Nick says, they need to be clear about what they're trying to do.
And they need to help the sales team do it.
It sounds like the team is confident that they've figured out some ways of improving their situation.
Now it's your turn to practice some of the collocations we've looked at in this lesson.
In a moment, you'll hear a series of sentences with a word replaced with a beep.
Repeat the whole sentence, including the missing word.
Remember a collocation is two or more words that we commonly use together, so pay close attention to the words before the beep.
For example, if you hear You can say, After each response, we'll provide the correct answer.
Ready?
Let's give it a go.
I hope to finally close this.
Answer.
We have been working to cultivate a with the government.
Answer.
We have been working to cultivate a relationship with the government.
Let's see if we can improve the website to increase our upsell.
Answer Let's see if we can improve the website to increase our upsell rates.
We should start to see a big upturn in around Thanksgiving.
Answer.
We should start to see a big upturn in sales around Thanksgiving.
Let's review our performance to see how the sales team is doing.
Answer.
Let's review our performance metrics to see how the sales team is doing.
Thanks for listening, and see you again soon.
