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Business English
Business Conference calls
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Objectives “Use of empathetic voice tones are essential to this lesson plan, please use the audio recordings taken from this course to study.” Meetings come in various formats however the fundamental rules remain the same.
The objective of this course is to provide the student with various realistic scenarios that help to identify with this form of meeting structure.
This course will provide:
• • • • • •
Practice
Structure
Confidence
Grammatical awareness
Increased vocabulary
Target sentence constructions
Role Play Tasks
You will be challenged with a series of realistic role play scenarios which are recorded at key points to allow for study outside of a classroom environment.
Course Design Module 1 - Business introductions
Module 3 - Listening skills Module 4 - Questions Module 5 - Presenting ideas and concepts
Module 6 - How to close a meeting Module 7 - Setting Appointments Module 8 - Role Play Tasks Module 9 - Resource
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Module 2 - Meeting structure
Module 1 Business Introductions
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Structure “It all begins with a strong business introduction”. There are countless ways to introduce yourself in business, the good news is that there is a basic structure that you can follow. Greeting The part of the day holds significance, the voice tone is often stressed to demonstrate the concept of empathy. Target voice tones are incredibly difficult to achieve without practice. You will now practice the various parts of the day with your teacher. This part of the class is recorded so that you can practice pronunciation and target voice tones outside of a class room environment. - Good morning - Good afternoon - Good evening
Audio Recordings
Audio’s are significantly large in size, we recommend that you store them on a cloud storage facility and we recommend Gmail. We will either share them with you via Gdrive or drag the files into Skype. Please don’t download them during the class as they will take bandwidth and may cause problems with the sound quality of your class. Your voice is important to the outcome of this course so you will need to become familiar with the way in which you sound to others. These audio recordings will also act as a point of reference for you and the ability to monitor progress. It’s normal for students to dismiss audio’s as people often don’t like the sound of their own voice but it’s deemed essential.
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Introductions are an important part of this structure. A weak introduction can place you in a submissive position and leave your company wide open to price negotiations. Confidence is key so below you will find a structure that you will practice with your teacher in order to find target voice tones. - Greeting - Pleased to meet you, my name is ………………. and I am responsible for ……………. at …………… . At this point it is important to mention that speed of speech has some relevance. Speaking at speed can give the impression to client’s that you simply have little time, that you are just completing a formality and that you will adopt this technique throughout the business relationship.
Listening Conversations are a two way process, if you greet someone, you should allow for interaction and allow for interruptions. Students who are placed under the pressure of holding a conference call with a client often overlook this concept. Speaking should be a balanced, your teacher will now demonstrate this. Role Play Task 1 Skype will ring, you will connect and introduce yourself to Mr Chris Biggins, a very important company client. Your performance will be graded from 1 - 10. For the purpose of this task you will use your real job function and name.
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Module 2 Meeting Structure
Meetings often take different forms. Some are defined as presentations, others discussions. We will take a look at a few variations to help identify with these different types. Presentations Presentations have clear goals and normally adhere to format. If you allow a client to participate i.e. allowed to ask questions during the presentation, then this could easily turn into a discussion. Here you would almost certainly state that a client can feel free to answer any questions that they may have after the presentation is completed. Some schools of thought think that interaction and discussion produce more productive results, whichever way you choose as long as the result is positive and leaves a lasting impression it has been successful. Below you will find a basic presentation format however if you would like to perfect this skill please follow the link: http://issuu.com/learnenglishonline001.com/docs/ presentation_course_design
Role play tasks 1. You are about to have a meeting to discuss a new project with a an international client. Client details: Name: David Martin Project: Of your choice Meeting type: Introduction to the services that your company offer and the point of contact. Time allowed: 6 minutes Instructions: Call your client and introduce yourself and provide an insight into the products and services that your company offers. For this task you will act as yourself and represent the company that you work for.
Presentation Format:
Objectives:
- Greeting and introduction. - Today I am going to talk to you about… - I will also be looking at…. - I would be only too pleased to take your questions at the end of this presentation. - First I would like to talk to you about…. - Next, I would like to look at…. - Turning, then to….. - I will now move on to….. - We can illustrate this by….. - If you take a look at the graph, you can see….. - For example….. - To summarise….. - I would now be happy to take your questions. - So in conclusion…….
- To demonstrate a strong introduction. - To become familiar with target voice tones. - To identify with the structure used in a business introduction.
Needs analysis 1. What type of presentations do you give? 2. How often are you involved with Presentations? 3. What type of topics do you present? 4. What problems have you identified with when you are giving a presentation? 5. What type of structure do you use and why?
If you have been successful in demonstrating the above, your teacher will now move to the next section.
Discussions In Business English, we apply different degrees of formality. This concept can be demonstrated with how well you know your client, the type of formality that is used by the client, the number of people in attendance to name a few. Generally you will address the client by their surname and title unless otherwise permitted. This formality is important as it can effect the outcome. A discussion is based on two key factors, your ability to listen and comprehend along with the ability to speak. Students often intimidated by the very concept of a conference call tend to speak too much which can leave your eating unbalanced and more often than not produce a negative result.
This task will be recorded and be repeated until target voice tones and structure is achieved. Homework: You will use the presentation format shown on the previous page to write a presentation to be presented at the next class. Small talk link: http://issuu.com/ learnenglishonline001.com/docs/ small_talk_lesson_plan
Rules of engagement Greeting Introduction Set out a format for the meeting Allow for feedback Ensure that there is a balance between speaking and listening. Apply empathetic voice tones. Try to engage in small talk if necessary to build on a business relationship. Task 4 You are about to have a conference call with a client who you have spoken to on several occasions. His name is Michael Stevens and the purpose of your meeting is to clarify 3 different service packages that your company offers. For the purpose of this task you will use your real position and company services. Explain them to Mr stevens but engage in small talk at the beginning of your meeting. This time you will introduce your colleague Mark Kray who will be the first point of contact for Mr Stevens should you manage to convince him to take one of your services. You will introduce your colleague using the principles of business introductions shown in Module 1.
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Module 3 Listening Skills
Audio’s You are expected to listen to 4 audio’s. You will be scored on your ability to understand. Improving your listening skills will help you to find a balance between speaking and listening when you have meetings.
Audio 1
Audio 2
Link: https://soundcloud.com/ learnenglishonline001/the-meeting
Link:https://soundcloud.com/ learnenglishonline001/the-invoice
Audio 3
Audio 4
Link:https://soundcloud.com/ learnenglishonline001/the-it-consultant
Link: https://soundcloud.com/ learnenglishonline001/the-hr-manager
Module 4 Questions
Fact finding or asking questions has an important part to play in meeting formats. If the meeting is about a project then you may find the following list helpful: 1. What are the project specifications? 2. Where will the project be based? 3. What stage is the project in? 4. What are the goals and objectives for this project? 5. Who is the target audience? 6. What are the anticipated problems that may occur? 7. What is the projected budget? 8. Who will be the decision maker? 9. What is the contingency allowance for any changes? There are countless questions that could be asked but in an effort to remain professional and polite we will apply modals. Can Could May These are the most popular forms. Task: You will now be asked to provide modals when asking the questions shown above.
Module 5 Presenting Ideas and concepts
Having put so much effort into your meeting format, it would be a shame to be unsuccessful if you sounded bored, tired and lethargic. Your ability to convince others about a new product, service or concept is dependent on how your voice traits demonstrate that you are ambitious, enthusiastic, eager and keen to do business. Even if you were grammatically flawless, your voice tones could still let you down!. Task 1
Transitions: In order to move between the topics within a conference call or a meeting in any form we adopt a sequence of transitions. These help your audience to identify with a specific part of the topic you are discussing. Examples: Moving to If we skip to Could we now look at Turning to the next slide Could we move to point number……
You will be provided with various topics. Your task is to demonstrate upbeat voice tones to reflect how you truly feel about the topics: • • • • • • •
Your Job Running Food Holidays Politics The Economy Shopping
If your voice tone relate to your topic, we will now move to the next task. Task 2 Pick a product or service from your job and discuss it with your teacher. Your teacher will interrupt you if your target sound is not achieved. Your goal is to demonstrate how passionately you feel about this product or service and try to convince the teacher that they need to buy it.
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Module 6 How to close a meeting
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Impression
Endings
Leaving a good impression with a client is an end goal. Remember that you represent the voice of the company so give your client a reason to return.
There are many ways to end a conversation, typically if you are not very familiar with your client, you would use Goodbye.
Task You will now end your call with a summary, examples are shown below: 1. Thank you for taking the time to meet us today. We feel that we can certainly help you to achieve your business goals. 2. It was a pleasure to meet you and on behalf of ……………. we would like to thank you for your time and look forward to meeting you again to discuss your project in more detail. 3. Thank you for attending the meeting, it was a great opportunity to discuss your project. I am sure that we can assist you with your requirements and look forward to discussing the project with you in more detail soon.
Students often use “Bye Bye” however this is not common practice and a more familiar “bye” in it’s singular form is better. Do not over extend your welcome, this means that you will end the call. Extending final greetings can make you and your client feel uncomfortable. Task You will now practice ending a call with your teacher. Your teacher will provide you with the necessary details.
Setting Appointments
Module 7
Numbers has always been very difficult as a topic for students who are learning English as a second language. In relation to conference calls, we need at the very least to be able to communicate dates accurately. This module will focus on pronunciation and will require practice. Task 1 The following dates need to be typed into your Skype text box and then you will have to state what you have just typed. 1. The twenty-fifth of April, twenty fifteen. 2. The tenth of November, twenty fifteen. 3. The eleventh of May, twenty fifteen. 4. The seventh of June, twenty fifteen. The objective of this task is to relate words to numbers and help to identify with the concept of translation time.
Task 2 Your teacher will now provide you with the following dates shown below. Write them down into your Skype text box in numerical form. Please do not look at the answers as it defeats the objective of reducing translation time. 1. 21.02.15 2. 04.04.15 3. 09.07.15 4. 21.09.15 5. 17.03.15 6. 13.05.15
The Diary is a course of two specialist classes to provide further assistance with this topic if required: http://issuu.com/learnenglishonline001.com/ docs/the_diary
Significance Most of us try our best to avoid this topic however we need to be able to relate to it if we want to set up appointments, meetings and on a day to day basis at work. Specific parts of this course will be recorded using a recording feature. You will be expected to use these audio’s to study no matter how much you hate the sound of your voice.
Other courses in this series: http://issuu.com/ learnenglishonline001.com/docs/ business_course http://issuu.com/ learnenglishonline001.com/docs/ business_presentations
Prepositions The following link is taken from the British Council and will assist with the use of prepositions used for dates and time. Link: http:// learnenglish.britishcouncil.or g/en/english-grammar/ adverbials/adverbials-time/ time-and-dates
Task 3 Module 7 You have the following entries in your diary. Your teacher will ask you a series of questions regarding your scheduled appointments. Remember that your answers must be in the form of a sentence construction using the correct prepositions.
1. 21.01.15 - Meeting with Tom Andrews 3:15 pm 2. 27.01.15 - Dentist appointment 10:00 am 3. 14.02.15 - Management meeting 5:00 pm 4. 18.02.15 - Meeting with Geoff Banks 7:30 pm
1.When do you have a meeting with Geoff Banks? 2.When is your Dentist appointment? 3.When is your management meeting? 4.When is your meeting with Tom Andrews?
Essential elements Counting For the purpose of this topic, you will now be expected to count from the 1st to the 31st.
Your teacher will stop you if they think that the pronunciation needs correcting.
Months of the year With your teachers assistance state every month in a year.
“Teen and Tee” Pronunciation in relation to this topic relies on your ability to pronounce these two phonics.
Practice with your teacher until the target sound is acquired.
Our Numbers lesson plan is available on the ibooks platform or on issuu and is a valuable course to assist students who require further practice on this topic. Link: http://issuu.com/learnenglishonline001.com/docs/numbers_pdf
Module 8 Role Play Tasks
Task 1
Task 2
Task 3
Everyone in your office is out. The phone rings and you answer it, a client wants to leave a message for your manager: Mrs Jane Smith to call them back to discuss a new project. Take down the information and interact with the client to find out as much information as possible.
You are about to start a conference call. Skype connects, introduce yourself to the client then introduce 2 further members of your team. Clearly state your positions and what each member of your team is responsible for. Set up an appointment for next week to discuss the client’s project in detail.
You are having problems with the quality of the call you have made to a client. It’s impossible to hear them, explain this to the client and set up an alternative date and time for your meeting. Your client’s name is Mr Stevens.
Module 9 Resource At this part of the course, you will review and practice. Your teacher will answer any questions that you may have and provide you with new audio recordings if required.
Our Telephone course may be useful if you are in need of practice with interacting frequently with client’s in English as a second language. Link: http://issuu.com/ learnenglishonline001.com/docs/ telephone_course
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