This is an All Ears English podcast, three telephone English tactics for transitions.
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With your American hosts Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer, and Michelle Kaplan, the New York radio girl.
Coming to you from Colorado and New York City, USA.
When you get on a business phone call, you know how to open the call.
But what do you say when you want to transition politely into the topic or the reason you called?
Find out today.
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Hello, Michelle.
How's it going today?
How are you?
Good.
I'm good.
How are you, Lindsay?
You went to a concert last night.
Yes, I got to see Madonna in concert last night, which was kind of a once in a lifetime thing.
When I had the chance, I said, yes, I will go.
You have to.
You can't get the opportunity to see Madonna and not go.
I know.
I know amazing.
So today, back at work, feeling good, feeling excited.
But today we're actually talking about business telephone calls right, michelle?
Yes lindsay, are you confident when it comes to business calls?
I would say i've gotten more confident over the years, right?
Um yeah, usually i try to focus on, you know, building the relationship, which is what we talk about a lot in our business english course, right?
Uh, what about you michelle, do you feel confidence when you get on that call?
I mean, I feel pretty good.
I guess it would depend on what it's for.
If it's somebody that I don't frequently talk to or I'm not sure what's going to happen.
Maybe there's something coming up around the bend.
But overall, I feel pretty good on business calls.
Today we're going to be talking about getting you guys confidently on business calls, because this is an area that our listeners have mentioned that doesn't feel quite comfortable all the time.
And it's, and that's okay.
It's also, I think the phone can be difficult because maybe you don't hear something correctly.
Maybe someone's service cuts out.
It's a little, the signal can be fuzzy, whatever it is.
So we want to make you as confident going into these calls as possible.
Yeah, exactly, Michelle.
Especially, you know, saying hello is easy enough, right?
We can do that.
But what do you do once you've done the greetings and you want to transition into the actual conversation, the substance of why you're calling?
That is what we're getting into today.
I am excited for this one.
Our listeners are gonna come away with a true skill today.
And we're also here to mention that there is a special deal on our Business English course.
And Michelle, what is this course all about?
Well, this is a fantastic course.
Wow.
It's been around for a few years now and we worked super hard on this course.
We have interviews with business professionals on all sorts of topics.
We talk about presentations and phone calls and interviews and the new economy.
So many different things that will help you learn and be confident in the business world exactly.
The key comes back to our connection method, right.
What we do is we start with real conversations.
We don't manufacture conversations.
We don't take a textbook and put it online and call that a course.
No, we actually start with organic, natural conversations with these people that we know, that we know business professionals who are successful in different industries.
We interview them and then we pull out the learnings for you vocabulary grammar, pronunciation right michelle, Right so that you know, this is natural English.
It's not something that we've just made up.
Yeah, exactly.
So guys, we have a special deal.
If you join our business English course before midnight on March 31st, what's the deal, Lindsay?
Yeah, the deal is you can save up to $100 on the course, depending on which plan you choose.
And, of course, we always recommend the plan with more support, which is that personal coach plan to save 100.
So guys go check out the deal because it is going away on April 1st right after midnight on March 31.
So go to allearsenglish.com slash business.
All right, good.
And we'll remind you about that again towards the end of the episode.
But Michelle, let's get into the substance, the meat of today's episode.
Let's do it.
So as Lindsay mentioned, we are going to be talking about these transitions.
You've said hello, and now we need to start to get to the meat of the conversation.
So we're going to give you three things that you can say to use in conversation, pretty specific situations.
So okay, we'll talk through them today.
So what's the first one lindsay?
All right, so this is once.
We've already greeted each other right, michelle?
We've greeted each other, we've said hello and now we're transitioning.
We could say i have a favor to ask you, okay.
So yeah, what is this for?
What do we use this for?
If you're asking for something or they're asking, you're asking for them to do something for you, asking them for some information right, Right?
Any kind of an ask.
Yeah, exactly.
Exactly.
It could be a big a favor might not be a giant ask.
I feel right.
Right.
I agree.
Yeah.
So I don't know.
I have this image of being in the office and calling somebody across the hall and saying I have a favor to ask you.
Can you pick up these copies and bring them to my office?
But it could be for something bigger than that.
Yeah.
Maybe you are asking for their insight on something, right?
We can't be experts in every area.
Maybe you're calling someone in another department to see what they think about a situation, maybe a case study you're doing right.
Right, right, right.
And that kind of leads us to our next one.
But before we got there, let's do a little role play to show you how this would sound.
All right.
So we're on the phone, right?
And we've done this.
We've had the conversation.
So what's going on, Michelle?
Well, I have a favor to ask you.
Okay.
What is it?
And then I would say what it is.
Yeah.
So again, transitioning.
I like how we're using well, right?
Because well is kind of opening up the idea, the point.
Yeah.
Exactly.
So now, Lindsay, the next one you mentioned asking an expert special insight.
So I love this next one.
This one is so much fun.
Yeah, I like it.
I need to pick your brain, which sounds absolutely disgusting and horrifying, but it's not right.
It's not literal, as I'm sure you guys can imagine.
But what does that mean?
To pick someone's brain?
Oh my gosh.
It means to go into their mind to get information, basically ask them questions.
Same thing, right?
I, you know, we know that they know something, they're an expert of some sort, and you and you need that information.
That's what it means.
So you're going to ask them questions.
It signifies that you respect the person right, that you look up to them, that you know they're a good source of info.
That's true.
That's true.
So it's kind of flattering in a way.
Kind of flattering asks you uh, in a unique kind of way.
So, and you're probably gonna be asking them more than one question.
If somebody says I need to pick your brain, kind of prepare for a conversation, that's not two seconds long, in my opinion.
Yeah, for sure, for sure.
This could be maybe you're sitting down for coffee with someone you're on the phone, but because it's something that you're an expert in, sometimes that can be nice to be asked for help on something.
Yes, definitely.
So let's go into it.
So here we go.
So we're on the phone.
Ring, ring, ring.
No, we've said hello.
Okay.
So hi, Lindsay.
How are you?
I'm good.
How are you, Michelle?
Good.
So I need to pick your brain about something.
Do you have some time?
Okay.
No problem.
I have a few minutes.
Great.
Nice.
Again, you used a transition word of so here, right?
Just like we used well in the first one.
So also really good to kind of open up the request.
And then you used very native and natural language here.
I need to pick your brain about something.
Okay.
Right, right, right.
And then I said, do you have some time?
Because, like we talked about, usually if you're picking someone's brain, it's not I need to pick your brain about something.
Do you want the white flowers or the red flowers?
It's not... It's too much.
You need a long... It's going to be a longer thing.
A longer conversation about something more in depth, in my opinion.
Yeah.
Okay.
Let's do one more.
What's the last one, Lindsay?
Okay, this one is a little, the grammar is a little more roundabout here, but it's good, right?
I was hoping we could touch base about X. So what are we saying here, Michelle?
Well, it's something the person probably already knows about.
Maybe it's a task you've been working on together.
You have a deadline.
Maybe you're following up on something.
You have something coming up on the calendar you want to review.
So you don't use touch base about.
In my opinion, unless the person already will know what you're talking about once you present it.
Yeah.
It's like if you think of a baseball game, right?
They have to be in the game to touch the base.
Otherwise, what are you even talking?
Touch the base?
Yeah, it's true, actually.
That's a good point.
You really do need to have already touched on it or talked about it.
Yeah, somehow there needs to be some prior involvement.
It's not something completely new.
It's not just out of nowhere.
Yeah, 100%.
Let's show our listeners how it's done.
Are you ready?
Okay, yes.
All right.
Hi, Michelle.
Hi, Lindsay.
How's everything?
Oh, good, good.
Oh, hey, I was hoping we could touch base about the upcoming presentation.
Definitely.
Let's go over it.
Right.
So clearly we both know this is happening.
Maybe we've talked about it before.
Now we're going to touch base.
We're going to connect and discuss.
Right.
Catch up.
Yeah.
Right.
Right.
Right.
So guys, these are the ways that you can transition into that further conversation.
So in the course you would get this information and then you would talk about the purpose of the call, lots of other things with tips for these phone calls, and this is something that you can get in our business course among tons and tons of other topics, but phone calls is a big topic in this course.
So if you are unsure about phone calls, definitely get in on this.
Yeah, I mean that you know.
A lot of students ask us what is the difference between the podcast and the course?
Right,
I mean, I think the big difference is that we provide a actual study plan, a curriculum right, and the lessons go so much deeper than the podcast right, michelle?
Here on the podcast, it's fun, it's edutainment, right?
We're just jumping around from topic to topic, there's not much organization and so there's not going to be a clear outcome.
But once you join a course like the business course, you're going through our learning system, using our connection method, taking quizzes, taking a final exam at the end and getting your certificate right.
So there's a clear outcome.
Your improvement right, michelle?
Definitely.
You have a system to follow, so that's going to be very helpful.
So again guys, join our business english course before midnight on march 31st and if you do this you can save up to 100.
So Yes,
They have a pretty penny.
That's a pretty penny for sure.
And again, guys, go over to allearsenglish.com slash business.
And again, that offer ends at midnight on March 31st.
All right.
Good stuff, Michelle.
Any final notes for our listeners today?
Any place you want to leave them?
Go for it.
Go for it.
Just get on the phone.
Be confident.
Try and talk on the phone more.
Try and do some practice with the phone.
Yeah, I agree.
So yeah, you got this.
Well, I was going to say Michelle, just to extend on what you said, to get to the point where you feel comfortable on the phone, you have to get on the phone, right?
You have to actually have these calls.
If we're avoiding these calls or we're trying to email when it actually should be a call, that's a problem.
So guys, just go right at The fear, if there's fear there, go right at it.
We know the telephone can be a high stakes situation, but these are the tools.
And in the business course you'll get more tools to actually you know templates vocabulary, exactly what needs to be done to find results on the phone.
Build relationships, get business done.
All right.
Perfect.
All right, Lizzie.
Well, this was fun and wishing you guys many, many happy, healthy phone calls to come.
Happy, healthy phone calls.
I love it.
All right, Michelle, you have a good one.
I'll talk to you soon.
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