You're listening to Business English Pod, the Business English podcast for professionals on the move.
Hello and welcome back to Business English Pod for today's lesson on video conferences and presenting online.
Today we're going to focus on how to get your presentation off to a good start.
Just head over to www.businessenglishpod.com.
Video conferences are now a normal, everyday part of business life, and people have had to develop a new set of skills for this new reality.
Consider giving a presentation online.
It definitely brings some new challenges, especially technical ones.
But virtual presentations also require many of the same skills as presenting in person.
For example, you still need to be engaging and confident, especially at the start, as you get people excited about your presentation.
And besides getting them excited, you need to help them understand.
So outlining your presentation clearly is also a good idea.
Now, how can you present information and data in a way that keeps your listeners engaged?
Well, for one thing, you can talk about your own experience, and you can also relate the information to your listeners' experience.
That will help your presentation connect with your audience.
And finally, one technical skill that you'll need in the virtual format is sharing your screen.
In today's dialogue, we'll listen to part of an online presentation given by Adam, who works as a business consultant.
He's presenting on the topic of sales to several colleagues, including Chris Nancy and his boss Heather.
We'll hear how Adam begins his online presentation.
As you listen to the dialogue, try to answer the following questions.
One, what is the last thing Adam will do in his presentation, according to his outline?
Two, what experience does Adam talk about to ground his presentation?
Three, what information does Adam present on his shared screen?
Alright everyone, looks like we're all online now, so let's get rolling.
Nice to see everyone this fine Tuesday morning.
Now, as I explained in my email, I called this meeting to talk about sales.
And so today, Adam's going to talk us through some research he's done.
And, well, I'll let you explain more specifically, Adam.
It's all yours.
Thanks, Heather.
And good morning, everyone.
So, sales.
It's great to make sales, and we all love increasing sales.
Numbers go up, everyone's happy.
But increasing sales is hard, right?
You've got to find the clients, sign them up.
It's a lot of work.
But it doesn't have to be.
Today I want to talk about how we can make more sales with less effort.
Sound good?
Can I get a thumbs up in the chat?
Nice.
Okay, so I'm going to kick off with a bit of background.
Then I want to show you some key findings from the research I did on last year's clients and engagements.
And I'll finish off by answering the, so what?
That's in all your minds.
Uh, Chris, I see you've unmuted.
Yeah, thanks, Adam.
It all sounds great.
But just want to let you know that I know we're booked for 90 minutes, but I've got a hard stop at 11 so I'll have to jump out after an hour.
No problem, Chris.
We'll catch you up afterward.
Okay, now let's dig in.
So, here's the situation.
A couple of months ago, I get a call from Healthwise.
Last year we helped them up their online retail game, so they called and asked if I could come back for a bit of follow-up work.
Of course, sure thing, I said, and off I trot.
But it got me thinking.
Why wasn't I the one who called them?
Uh, yes, Nancy, did you have something?
Don't want to derail you right at the start, but just for clarity, had Olivia followed up already post-engagement?
She had.
Olivia typically follows up a month after the final invoice is sent, but this call came in four months after that.
In fact, something about the situation reminded me of your experience with Silvertown, Nancy.
Remember how they kept calling you back for more help?
Right.
Silvertown.
They needed a ton of help.
Great to work with.
But yeah, it made my job easier in that they kept coming back for more.
Exactly.
And this got me thinking about our approaches to follow-up and about selling more to existing clients.
So, with Olivia's help, I did some digging into the CRM for some data.
And now I'd just like to show you a few charts of the trends that really jumped out at me.
Let's start by comparing sales to new clients and sales to repeat clients.
Let me just share my screen here.
All right.
Can I get a thumbs up if you can see this?
Okay.
Lots of thumbs.
Great.
So, as you can see, last year, repeat clients generated 34% of our revenue.
That means 66% of revenue came from new clients.
Now, how much time did we spend getting that new work?
Well, let's take a look at that, shall we?
Now let's go through the dialogue again and look at the language and techniques Adam used in his presentation.
At the start, we can hear Heather beginning the meeting and introducing Adam.
All right, everyone.
Looks like we're all online now, so let's get rolling.
Nice to see everyone this fine Tuesday morning.
Now, as I explained in my email, I called this meeting to talk about sales.
And so today, Adam's going to talk us through some research he's done.
And, well, I'll let you explain more specifically, Adam.
It's all yours.
Thanks, Heather.
And good morning, everyone.
So, sales.
It's great to make sales, and we all love increasing sales.
Numbers go up, everyone's happy.
But increasing sales is hard, right?
You've got to find the clients, sign them up.
It's a lot of work.
But it doesn't have to be.
Today, I want to talk about how we can make more sales with less effort.
Sound good?
Can I get a thumbs up in the chat?
Nice.
Adam doesn't just jump into numbers and statistics at the beginning of his presentation.
Instead, he tries to engage his listeners.
He introduces the general topic of sales, and he acknowledges that sales is hard.
He uses short, simple sentences and says things he knows his listeners will agree with.
This confident opening helps Adam set up his central idea that they can make more sales with less effort.
And with his positive energy, Adam is engaging his audience and making them want to listen.
What are some other ways of making an engaging and confident opening?
Let's run through a few more examples.
All right, everyone, let's get to it.
Lots to share with you today.
Really great to be here with you and have the chance to share all this new data.
Thanks so much for being here bright and early.
I'm excited to share my ideas with you today.
Good morning and welcome.
I've got some great things to show you today.
Now that Adam has everyone's attention, what does he do next?
Okay, so I'm going to kick off with a bit of background.
Then I want to show you some key findings from the research I did on last year's clients and engagements.
And I'll finish off by answering the, so what?
That's in all your minds.
Like all good presenters, Adam is organized and prepared.
He's got his presentation arranged in three parts and he tells his listeners exactly what these parts are.
First, he'll begin with some background, or the situation that led to his presentation.
Next, he'll look at key findings, or what he discovered in his research.
Then he'll answer the so what.
Notice how he's anticipating his listeners' questions right at the start and then setting out to answer them.
That's the mark of a good presenter.
Good presenters understand how listeners might feel or think.
And most listeners like to know what the presentation is about right at the start.
This is why Adam gives a basic outline of his presentation, so they know what to expect.
Let's practice some more ways of outlining your presentation clearly.
Next, we're going to have to look at some recent policy developments.
After that, I'll talk about the qualities of a good design.
Finally, I'd like to finish up with a discussion on strategies.
Before Adam can continue his presentation, he has to deal with a little interruption.
He notices that his colleague Chris has unmuted or clicked the microphone icon so that he can speak.
Let's listen.
Uh, Chris, I see you've unmuted.
Yeah, thanks, Adam.
It all sounds great.
But just want to let you know that I know we're booked for 90 minutes, but I've got a hard stop at 11 so I'll have to jump out after an hour.
No problem, Chris.
We'll catch you up afterward.
As you can hear, Chris can only stay for one hour before he has to jump out or leave for another meeting.
It's common courtesy in a meeting to let a presenter know if you have to leave early, and Adam promises to catch him up afterward, meaning he'll let him know what he missed.
Now let's listen as Adam digs in or begins with some background information.
Okay, now let's dig in.
So, here's the situation.
A couple of months ago, I get a call from Healthwise.
Last year we helped them up their online retail game, so they called and asked if I could come back for a bit of follow-up work.
Of course, sure thing, I said, and off I trot.
But it got me thinking, why wasn't I the one who called them?
Adam is going to be presenting some research and data, but that research will make better sense to everyone if they understand why he did it.
So, before getting into the details, tell a story.
Tell your listeners about the experience that led to your presentation.
Grounding your presentation in an experience will help draw your listeners in and connect with the topic.
In this case, Adam is talking about an experience with a client who wanted some follow-up work or some additional work after the main contract.
What are some other ways to ground your presentation in an experience to engage your audience?
Let's try some more examples.
So, last week, I watched a TED talk about employee motivation.
This all started when I had lunch with our former operations manager.
Okay, well let me begin by telling you about a really difficult customer I had to deal with.
This presentation stems from an experience I had a couple of months ago.
Before Adam can go on, he gets another question, this time from his colleague Nancy.
Uh, yes, Nancy.
Did you have something?
Don't want to derail you right at the start, but just for clarity, had Olivia followed up already post-engagement?
She had.
Olivia typically follows up a month after the final invoice is sent.
But this call came in four months after that.
In fact, something about the situation reminded me of your experience with Silvertown, Nancy.
Remember how they kept calling you back for more help?
Nancy is curious about Adam's experience with a client.
She wants to know if Olivia another colleague had done her follow-up with the client Adam's talking about.
Now, Adam could answer the question very simply and say, yes, Olivia followed up.
But he takes the opportunity to go a step further and relate the situation directly to Nancy's experience.
He compares his experience with a client to Nancy's experience with another client.
Anytime we can connect our presentation directly to our listeners' experience, they'll feel more engaged.
Let's explore some more ways to do this.
I'm guessing that many of you have also had difficulties dealing with tough customers.
Remember when we ran into problems with that new IT provider?
This reminds me of that time our team was behind on a big project.
This is exactly like our experience with United Trucking last year.
Now let's get back to the dialogue, as Adam uses these background experiences to introduce his research.
Right.
Silvertown.
They needed a ton of help.
Great to work with.
But yeah, it made my job easier in that they kept coming back for more.
Exactly.
And this got me thinking about our approaches to follow-up and about selling more to existing clients.
So, with Olivia's help, I did some digging into the CRM for some data.
And now I'd just like to show you a few charts of the trends that really jumped out at me.
So Adam's curiosity about approaches to follow-up or ways of checking in with clients motivated him to do some research.
He dug into or looked closely at their CRM or Customer Relationship Management software and he found some interesting information that he wants to present.
During an in-person presentation, we would typically project the information onto a screen for everyone in the room to see.
During an online presentation, it's a bit different.
You have your presentation open on your computer and you have to share your screen or show your audience the window with your presentation.
Let's hear how Adam does this.
Let's start by comparing sales to new clients and sales to repeat clients.
Let me just share my screen here.
All right.
Can I get a thumbs up if you can see this?
Okay.
Lots of thumbs.
Great.
Sharing your screen usually involves clicking a share screen button, then selecting what you want to share.
There are a few things that can go wrong, and you can't actually see what your audience sees.
So how do you know if the screen sharing has worked the way you want it?
You have to ask.
As you can hear, Adam asks for people to give a thumbs up if they can see his screen.
In most cases, this is all you need.
You could ask, can everyone see my screen?
But responding to that question requires someone to unmute and say yes.
It's usually easier just to ask for a thumbs up.
Screen sharing is a common task during an online presentation, so let's practice some more ways of talking about it.
All right, I'm just going to share my screen with you here.
Now, let me show you what I'm talking about with a graph.
I'm just pulling up a PowerPoint here.
Can you all see that?
Okay.
Let me share my screen so you can see what I'm talking about.
Now that everyone can see Adam's screen, he can start discussing his research.
Let's listen.
So, as you can see, last year repeat clients generated 34% of our revenue.
That means 66% of revenue came from new clients.
Now, how much time did we spend getting that new work?
Well, let's take a look at that, shall we?
Notice how long it has taken Adam to get to the numbers and statistics part of his presentation.
It's only after some introduction and storytelling that he gets to the details of where their revenue comes from.
We won't hear the rest of his presentation today, but Adam's done a great job of setting things up and getting to this point of his presentation.
Now let's practice some of the language we learned in today's lesson.
Imagine you are giving a presentation about your ideas for improving the company's website.
To help you get started, I'll give you some suggestions for what you can say during your introduction.
We'll guide you through each step in the practice and provide an example answer for each step.
Ready?
Let's give it a go.
Start by saying good morning and you're happy for the chance to discuss the website.
Answer.
Good morning.
I'm really happy for the chance to discuss the website.
Next, say you'll give some background information, suggest three improvements, then take questions.
Today I'm going to give some background, suggest three improvements, and then take questions.
Now say that when you joined the company, you found it difficult to find information on the website.
Now, when I joined the company, I found it difficult to find information on the website.
Next, say that you've heard from many people that they've had the same experience.
Answer And I've just heard from many of you that you've had the same experience.
Finally, say you want to share your screen and show comments from new employees about the website.
Answer.
So let me just share my screen here and show you some comments from new employees about the website.
Now let's practice some of the vocabulary 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... You can say...
Let's have a look at the key findings from our research.
After each response, we'll provide the correct answer.
Let's begin.
Answer.
Let's wait five more minutes before we get this meeting rolling.
Answer.
Our focus on quality means that we have a lot of repeat clients.
I'm happy to meet at 9, but I do have a hard... at 10.
Answer.
I'm happy to meet at 9, but I do have a hard stop at 10.
David, do you have a few minutes just to talk me... Your proposal?
Answer David, do you have a few minutes just to talk me through your proposal?
We've reached the end of this lesson, the first in our series about online presentations.
We've learned how to give a confident and engaging opening and how to outline your presentation.
We've also looked at grounding the presentation in experience and relating it to your listeners' experience.
And finally, we've learned how to pull up a shared screen.
For more practice.
Premium members can access the online quizzes and PDF transcripts for this and other lessons on the BEP website.
Not a member yet?
Then head over to wwwbusinessenglishpodcom and sign up for a free trial to preview some of the extra resources available to members.
Thanks for listening and see you again soon.
