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 bringing your visuals to life in a presentation.
Now, we've all sat through some pretty boring presentations.
And in those presentations we've all seen complex charts and graphs that tell us either way too much or nothing at all.
For the most part, visuals aren't naturally interesting or informative.
It's what we do with them that is important.
You can't just put a graph on a screen and then explain each point on the graph, and you can't put up a table of figures and then read out each column and row.
You'll put your listeners to sleep.
What you really need to do is tell the story of the data and to bring the visuals to life.
What should people focus on?
What is the important number on the screen?
What does the graph actually tell us?
Bringing visuals to life is necessary if you want to give effective presentations.
We'll look at how to do this today.
In this lesson, we'll cover several important functions, including analogy, defining terms using rhetorical questions and highlighting key numbers.
You will hear David, an engineer in a manufacturing company.
He's giving a presentation to members of the finance department.
His purpose is to explain a new plan that he hopes to get financed.
As you listen, try to answer the following questions.
Okay, everyone.
I'm going to be talking about a new idea for distribution today.
But first, let me ask you a question.
Do you always take the same route to work?
I mean, do you drive the same way to the office every day?
Yeah, pretty much.
And do you know for a fact that it's the easiest, least stressful or quickest way?
Well, not for sure.
Right.
And if I showed you a better way, I'm pretty sure you'd want to use it, right?
Sure.
Well, that's what I want to show you today.
Not a better way to commute, but a better way to handle our logistics.
Let me pull up a flowchart for a sec.
There.
At the bottom, you see that phrase distribution logistics.
Focus on the graphic here and you'll see what we're talking about.
How do we get our products from our factories to our customers?
Well, you can see how.
Here are our two plants in China, one in Dalian in the north and one in Guangzhou in the south.
From there, we truck our products to two different ports.
Then we use two separate shipping lines, here, and bring these products to our warehouses in the US.
And then trucks take these products to our customers across the country.
Does this make sense?
Yeah, looks good to me.
Okay, now what if I told you that it doesn't make sense?
Let's reimagine this.
Put our primary consolidation warehouse here, overseas.
By that I'm talking about a new handling facility in Guangzhou.
We consolidate everything there and use just one shipping line to get it over to the States.
And what do we get?
Well, I'm guessing we'll get some cost savings, but I'd like to know how exactly.
Of course.
Allow me to show you.
Have a look at this.
What you're seeing are the costs and benefits that would come with this new plan.
Let me point to two key numbers.
This is the total cost, $22 million.
And this is the total benefit, $34 million.
It's right there in front of you.
The numbers don't lie.
Now let's go through the dialogue again and look at the techniques David uses to bring his presentation and visuals to life.
Okay, everyone.
I'm going to be talking about a new idea for distribution today.
But first, let me ask you a question.
Do you always take the same route to work?
I mean, do you drive the same way to the office every day?
Yeah, pretty much.
David gets his listeners' attention by saying, okay, everyone.
He then introduces the topic of his presentation distribution, but he doesn't get right into this idea at the very start.
Instead, he says, but first, let me ask you a question.
David's question is about whether people take the same route or way to work every day.
And just to make sure people understand, he says I mean and then restates his question in different words.
And the listeners answer just as David thought they would.
They say that they do normally take the same route to work.
David's not really concerned about how people get to work.
He's setting up another idea.
But first, he has a couple more questions.
And do you know for a fact that it's the easiest, least stressful or quickest way?
Well, not for sure.
Right.
And if I showed you a better way, I'm pretty sure you'd want to use it, right?
Sure.
Well, that's what I want to show you today.
Not a better way to commute, but a better way to handle our logistics.
David can guess how people will respond to each question.
He starts by asking them if they know their usual route is the best one.
Kent replies that he doesn't.
David then asks whether people would take a better route if he showed them one.
Allison answers, sure. and that's when David reveals what his purpose is.
He wants to show them something, and he uses a not-but expression to do it.
His idea is not about commuting, but about logistics.
His questions about commuting can apply to logistics.
That's why he asked the questions.
It was obvious to his listeners that they should choose the best route.
From this, he wants them to understand that they should choose the best logistics plan as well.
This is what we call an analogy.
We talk about one thing to help us understand another thing.
It's a very useful technique in presentations.
So let's run through a few more examples of how it works.
Think of this as a soccer match tied at one-all and going into penalty kicks.
A badly designed website is like giving a sales presentation in jeans and a T-shirt.
It says we just don't care.
It's like we're entering our teenage phase and we're not sure who we are.
Would you manage your family finances like this?
Now, David introduces his first visual.
Let me pull up a flow chart for a sec.
There, at the bottom, you see that phrase distribution logistics.
Focus on the graphic here and you'll see what we're talking about.
How do we get our products from our factories to our customers?
David pulls up a flow chart.
In other words, he displays the diagram on the screen and he calls attention to the phrase distribution logistics at the bottom of the diagram.
This is a special term that needs a definition.
David understands this and he uses a visual to show the meaning.
He asked listeners to focus on the graphic.
He then defines the phrase distribution logistics in the form of a question.
He says, how do we get our products from our factories to our customers?
That's a simple but effective way to explain the idea.
If you are using words or expressions that your listeners might not know, you will have to define them.
How else can we do this?
Listen to the language used in these examples.
By opportunity cost, I mean the value of what we're giving up to do this.
The assignee in this case is the person you are transferring the contract to.
When you see KBO there, you should understand that it refers to key business objectives.
Contribution margin, that's sales minus our variable costs.
Next, David describes a flowchart in more detail.
Well, you can see how.
Here are our two plants in China, one in Dalian in the north and one in Guangzhou in the south.
From there, we truck our products to two different ports.
Then we use two separate shipping lines, here, and bring these products to our warehouses in the US.
And then trucks take these products to our customers across the country.
Does this make sense?
David summarizes the flow chart on the screen in real terms.
That is, he talks about the two plants or factories.
Products move from those plants to ports on the ocean where different shipping companies or lines take products to the US.
Trucks then transport their products across the states.
David ends this description with a question, does this make sense?
If something makes sense, it means it is understandable or reasonable.
In this case, he could mean both.
So how do people respond?
Yeah, looks good to me.
Okay, now what if I told you that it doesn't make sense?
Allison thinks the situation looks fine, but David has carefully set things up again.
He assumed listeners would say that the flow chart makes sense, but he wants to show them it doesn't.
The way that he introduces this important idea is with a rhetorical question.
That's a question that we don't expect an answer for.
We use a question like this to introduce an idea or to make people think.
David's rhetorical question begins with what if and notice that he repeats the expression makes sense saying what if I told you that it doesn't make sense?
Rhetorical questions are useful for moving to a new topic or to set up an important idea.
Let's practice some more examples of this technique.
So what is all this data telling us anyway?
Can we really let this trend continue?
What if I told you that these numbers are misleading?
What exactly are we looking at here?
Now, back to the presentation.
Let's reimagine this.
Put our primary consolidation warehouse here, overseas.
By that I'm talking about a new handling facility in Guangzhou.
We consolidate everything there and use just one shipping line to get it over to the States.
And what do we get?
Well, I'm guessing we'll get some cost savings, but I'd like to know how exactly.
David says, let's reimagine this.
He wants everyone to start thinking of new possibilities.
Notice that he uses the word let's to make it feel like something they are doing together.
David already has a plan, but he wants to make it seem like a group effort.
Then David describes the basic idea he has of building a new facility in Guangzhou.
He thinks they should consolidate or bring together products from both Chinese factories to this one facility.
Then they can ship everything to the US on one container ship.
David uses the question, and what do we get?
To invite comments and he gets one from Kent who can't support a plan without evidence.
He guesses that they're at cost savings, but wants to know where.
David is ready for this.
Of course.
Allow me to show you.
Have a look at this.
What you're seeing are the costs and benefits that would come with this new plan.
Let me point to two key numbers.
This is the total cost, $22 million.
And this is the total benefit, $34 million.
It's right there in front of you.
The numbers don't lie.
David uses the slightly formal.
Allow me to show you to introduce the first visual that supports his plan.
He summarizes the image briefly, stating that it shows costs and benefits or advantages.
He then wants everyone to look at the two most important figures on the chart.
There's the total cost of $22 million and the total benefit of $34 million.
Then, just for emphasis, he states that the numbers don't lie.
We use this expression when we think figures or statistics tell an important and undeniable story.
Nothing is worse than just reading out a bunch of numbers on a graph during a presentation.
You need to highlight the key numbers.
Here are a few more ways we can do this.
So, as you can see, total fixed costs come in at $37,000 per month.
And that gives us a daily average of 50,000 unique visitors.
The important thing here is that figure of 12% sales growth in two quarters.
I want to draw your attention to the 97% right here.
David has introduced his basic idea and is ready to give more details.
He will need to use his visuals well to convince Kent and Allison of his plan.
But we'll have to wait for the next episode to hear how he does this.
Now, let's practice some of the language we've learned in today's lesson.
Imagine you are giving a presentation in a sales meeting.
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 a presentation.
First let's try making an analogy by comparing an increase in sales to winning first place in the Olympics.
This situation.
Like.
Just won.
First place.
Olympics.
Answer.
This situation is like we just won first place in the Olympics.
Now, try giving a definition of an important term that's related to your presentation.
The term is overrider.
Overrider means large bonus, successful salesperson.
Answer.
The word overrider means a large bonus for a successful salesperson.
Next, ask your audience a rhetorical question.
Remember, you need to use question intonation.
How Continue Success Fourth Quarter Answer.
How are we going to continue this success in the fourth quarter?
Finally, highlight a key number on a graph that you are sharing to your audience.
Notice.
Sales target.
3 million.
Answer.
Notice that our sales target is $3 million.
Now, let's practice useful vocabulary and idioms.
You'll hear a series of sentences with a word replaced with a beep.
Repeat the whole sentence, saying the missing word.
For example, if you hear... It takes me one hour to... by bus to work.
You can say, It takes me one hour to commute by bus to work.
After each response, we'll play the correct answer.
Let's begin.
Okay, now let me pull the next slide here.
Answer.
Okay, now let me pull up the next slide here.
I think we really need to focus on the total cost of the project.
Answer.
I think we really need to focus on the total cost of the project.
Next year we will Answer.
Next year we will consolidate production into one location.
The numbers don't... We're losing money fast.
Answer.
The numbers don't lie.
We're losing money fast.
We've reached the end of this episode, the first in our two-part series about bringing visuals to life in a presentation.
We've learned how to use analogy to define terms, to use rhetorical questions and to highlight key numbers.
In our next episode we'll hear David really try to impress his audience with some more effective visuals and techniques.
Thanks for listening and see you again soon.
