Functional language bank

1 Presentation skills
Lead-in Some business practices may differ from country to country. Here are some questions to
research before you prepare presentations for different audiences:
1 What method of presentation is appropriate for the audience? Are they likely to expect
visual data, facts and evidence to support your case? What level of detail is appropriate
for the audience? Do they have prior knowledge of the subject or do they need a general
overview to explain key points? It is a good idea to use language that makes the aim of
the presentation clear, whether it is presenting arguments and building a strong case for a
course of action or describing the benefits of a product or service.
2 Are questions more likely to be asked during or at the end of a presentation? How will you
respond if you do not have an immediate answer to a question? Can you anticipate any of
the questions and is the audience likely to require a detailed or a general response?

Starting a Formal/Semi-formal Less formal

presentation Opening and Thank you for inviting me to It’s great to be here today.
welcoming the speak to you today. Hi everyone. Thanks for coming.
audience I’d like to start by extending a
warm welcome to everyone.
Providing a brief I’d like to give you a brief The talk is divided into three main
outline of the talk outline of my presentation. parts.
The talk consists of three We’ll begin with some background
main parts/sections. on/a general overview of
investment strategies.
Informing the I will be happy to answer Feel free to ask questions as we go
audience when they any questions during the along.
can ask questions presentation. There’ll be time after the
There will be an opportunity presentation to ask any questions.
after the presentation to ask
questions.

Developing a Highlighting the One clear benefit is that staff retention will increase.
convincing argument positives This alone can undoubtedly save thousands in lost revenue.
Stating two This is not only cost-effective but also easy to install.
advantages together This gives you the twin benefits of more effective communication
for impact and improved customer satisfaction.
Giving data to defend The evidence from research clearly shows that this speeds up
an argument production.
Data on the use of smartphones proves without doubt that this is
true.
Reducing negative Even if investments fall in the short term, you’ll still be able to
risks maintain profits in the long term.
What’s the worst thing that can happen?
Simplifying to make a Put simply, this is the best technology on the market.
clear point In a nutshell, a company has a responsibility to its staff and clients.
Suggesting easy steps The obvious thing to do is increase production to meet demand.
for success This alone can undoubtedly boost sales within three months.
Emphasising possible If you don’t take this opportunity to expand then you’ll never know
lost opportunities how successful this product could have been.
Without this, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to keep up with
competitors in this industry.

Business Partner B2+ © Pearson Education 2019 1

 Functional language bank

Inviting questions During the Any questions before we move on?

presentation Please stop me if you have any questions.
If there are no further questions, I’d like to move on.
After the presentation Does anyone have any questions?
Any questions or comments?
I’m happy to answer any questions now.

Responding to A question you can't That’s a good question but I’m afraid I don’t know the answer.
different types of answer However, I’ll check and email you the information tomorrow.
Is that ok?
questions
I’ll need to check and get back to you on that.
A question you don't I’m sorry, I didn’t understand that. What’s the question exactly?
understand So let me just repeat your question to be sure I understood it. You
asked about …
A question not for open If you can email me that question, I’ll respond directly to you.
discussion Is that ok?
If you’d like to come and see me after the presentation I’ll try to
answer your query.
A question better Let me put you in touch with a colleague in Marketing to answer
handled by someone that.
else Gina, perhaps you’d like to answer that question as it’s your area
of expertise.
An angry question I understand your frustration. As a solution, I suggest contacting
our Customer Services Manager.
I can see that you feel very strongly about this. I’ll try to answer
your question as fully/honestly as possible.
A redundant question We covered that at the beginning of the presentation when I
talked about exchange rates. But I’m happy to briefly summarise
the point again if that helps.
I’m not sure that topic relates to the presentation but we can
have a word afterwards if that helps.
A question that is not I'm afraid that question is outside the scope of today's
relevant presentation.

A question that is taking Sorry to interrupt, but what’s the main question you have on
up too much time this?
Would you be able to summarise so that I can make sure that I’m
addressing your key question?
A sensitive question We need to be mindful that many people feel very strongly
about this. What I will say is that we fully understand these
concerns.
A question you want to That’s a good question and I’d like to come back to it later.
address later Thanks for highlighting that. We’ll come on to logistics in a
moment.

Closing a Summing up I’d like to summarise the main concepts of this/my talk.
presentation Let’s sum up the key points.
Closing In conclusion, the office of tomorrow starts right here, today.
We’ve reached the end of the presentation.
Thanking the audience Thank you for listening.
Many thanks for your attention.

Business Partner B2+ © Pearson Education 2019 2

 Functional language bank

2 Meeting skills
Lead-in Some business practices may differ from country to country. Here are some questions to
research if you are attending meetings in a different country:
1 Will the meeting be informal and similar to a discussion or more formal and structured?
Does the meeting have a clearly defined focus, outcomes and a written agenda?
2 If you are leading the meeting, what strategies can you use to encourage people to
participate and collaborate?
3 Will someone be responsible for managing the meeting time-keeping, dealing with
interruptions, etc.? Are participants likely to be required to discuss ideas expansively and
consider various options or make their points concisely and briefly, staying on topic?
4 Will the meeting have a chairperson who will sum up the main points and decisions?
In addition, will action points and follow-up tasks be circulated in written form after
the meeting?

Introductions Welcoming It’s great to see everyone here this morning.

and opening participants Thank you all for taking the time to attend this meeting.
Introducing Does everyone know each other?
participants Before we begin, could we go round and say a little about our
roles?
Most of you know each other but you may not have met Celina
who is joining us from Head Office today.
Stating the meeting We’re here today to discuss the relocation plans.
objectives The main focus of this meeting is to come to a decision about the
direction of the marketing campaign.
You’ll see from the agenda that we are here to discuss rebranding
the logo.
We’re here to work together to find a solution to our recent
distribution problems.
By the end of the meeting we should have agreed on how to
proceed with the takeover proposal.
Opening the meeting Everyone is here now, so shall we begin?
OK, let’s start by looking at the first point on the agenda.

Encouraging Focusing on common So, what we’re all looking to achieve today is to increase
collaboration ground productivity.
We all want to find a solution to this issue.
Encouraging people Let’s be creative and open today and come up with some new
to be creative ideas on how to market this product.
I encourage everyone to put forward their ideas: there are no right
or wrong answers, there are just opinions, and it isn’t necessary to
agree with each other.
Asking people directly Mia, any thoughts on how best to tackle this?
for solutions What approach do you think would work here, Andrew?
Making people Tino, any reflections from your side on Rob’s suggestion to
engage with others’ postpone the product launch?
ideas What’s your response to Simon's idea, Yuko?
Paraphrasing to So, let me just make sure we’re all on the same page. You said that
ensure understanding we need to improve quality control.
The technical details are quite complex, Paula, so let me just
make sure everyone understood your point. You’re saying that the
software isn’t effective, is that right?

Business Partner B2+ © Pearson Education 2019 3

 Functional language bank

Including quieter Hugo, let me come to you to make sure everyone has the
individuals opportunity to speak. What are your thoughts?
Clara, you haven’t commented so far. What’s your view on this?
Quietening louder If I could just stop you there, I'd like to hear some other viewpoints.
individuals Thanks for contributing your views on this. Now let’s hear what
others think.
Managing different I think both your perspectives are valid because they will result in
views positively the same outcome.
Let’s not dismiss the idea of hiring a consultant too quickly.
Why don’t we talk it through a little more?

Managing a Keeping to the point We seem to have moved away from the main subject.
meeting Let’s get back to the main topic, shall we?
Dealing with Let’s hear some other views on this.
interruptions We’ll come to you next, Helga. Liam, please continue with what
you were saying.
We’ll address that topic in a moment.
Managing time We’re running out of time so we need to move on to the next
point.
Perhaps we need to discuss that topic in a separate meeting?
Time is pressing so let’s make a decision.

Describing Highlighting positive Let’s start with the positives.

outcomes outcomes Overall, it’s been a very good year.
Generally speaking, we are very pleased with progress.
We have been particularly impressed with how the project was
managed.
I was pleased with the results.
I thought it went well.
I managed to get the supplier to agree to a revised delivery
schedule.
As a result we cut costs by 15 percent.
Discussing problems What areas do you think need to be improved?
Could you talk us through the issue with the production line?
Can you tell me exactly what went wrong?
Why didn’t we contact the client immediately?
The main issue was changes in the exchange rate.
The problem was due to misunderstanding the schedule.
Talking about We should rethink our current strategy as otherwise we’ll continue
consequences to lose money.
If we fail to act, then customers will complain.
We won’t achieve our collective targets if we don’t work together.
Committing to this action would mean that we’d have more
chance of taking over that market.
The consequences of that would be less profit for shareholders.

Closing a Summing up That’s all we have time for today. Let’s sum up the main points.
meeting To recap, we’ve agreed on a plan to move forward.
Closing Thank you for coming everyone. It was a very productive meeting.
Thank you for your contributions and ideas.

Business Partner B2+ © Pearson Education 2019 4

 Functional language bank

3 Analysis skills
Lead-in Analysis skills are used in a variety of ways in organisations. The methods may differ from
company to company and can include risk analysis prior to taking action and debriefing, for
example evaluating what has gone right or wrong in a project and learning from mistakes.
In these contexts, it would be useful to consider the following:
1 Attitudes to risk and uncertainty can differ from culture to culture. It is therefore useful
to research attitudes in the context of what is being analysed. Some cultures have a low
tolerance to ambiguity and prefer structured procedures, regulations and clearly defined,
predictable outcomes. Others have a greater willingness to incorporate risk and have a
flexible attitude which can accommodate change if things go wrong.
2 Cultural attitudes can also affect how feedback should be given and might be received
when evaluating mistakes or negative project outcomes. In some cultural contexts
there may be a need to avoid direct criticism, or blame might be considered to be the
responsibility of the group rather than an individual. It is important to think about the
best context for evaluation and discussing mistakes, for example, one-to-one or with the
whole team.

Analysing risk Talking about risk We need to analyse the market so we can better understand the
analysis possible risks.
I’d like to look into things that can go wrong as there may be some
that are not on our radar.
Which process should we use to analyse the risks/challenges
we’re facing?
It’s important to look into all possible risks at this stage.
Identifying risks We can use various methods to establish the potential risks.
From our analysis we identified two main areas of risk.
We have found risks that range from low to high.
The biggest risk we can see is that costs will rise significantly.
Talking about There’s a medium level of probability/risk that it will occur.
probability and It’s very likely that this will happen, so we want to avoid any
possible outcomes negative outcomes.
This will likely cause us issues in the future.
This could lead to big problems if we don’t act now.
We possibly/probably/definitely need to be prepared for this risk.
Deciding on action Let’s address this at the meeting next month.
If that happens and we’re not ready, the effect would be
catastrophic.
There is an urgent need to act as soon as possible.
We’re going to prioritise safety and security.
Let’s research the risks/consequences/possible impact further and
make an informed decision.
Please make sure that a risk analysis is carried out.

Business Partner B2+ © Pearson Education 2019 5

 Functional language bank

Evaluating a Identifying what went On the plus side, we were able to use new software.
situation well One positive outcome was that the number of responses to the
market research was much higher than expected.
The project was completed to a high standard/within budget/by
the required deadline.
Highlighting what went However, the delivery times could be improved.
wrong Unfortunately, there were some technical issues.

Learning from Specifying the mistake Our biggest mistake was not opening a new branch.
mistakes clearly
Explaining the results of This created the problem that the data was incorrect.
the mistake It meant that the production line stopped working.
Proposing alternative With hindsight, we should have carried out more research.
past actions If we’d spent more time analysing the market, we would have
anticipated the risks.
Describing unexpected One thing I hadn’t expected was the difficulty in recruiting staff.
problems It wasn’t foreseen that oil prices would rise so steeply.
Summarising the main The key takeaway from this is the value of carrying out a risk
learning point assessment.
The main lesson learnt is the importance of time management.
Summarising the All in all, the outcome could have been worse.
general experience Considering everything that happened, the team reacted well.
Recommending actions Going forward, we will learn from these mistakes.
In future, we will analyse potential risks more carefully.

Business Partner B2+ © Pearson Education 2019 6

 Functional language bank

4 Negotiation skills
Lead-in Some business practices may differ from country to country. Here are some questions to
research before you prepare for a negotiation:
1 Is the negotiation likely to be formal and goal-oriented or part of a conversation during
daily interaction? How might agreement and disagreement be viewed by the person you
are interacting with? Do they usually prefer to avoid conflict? Is the negotiation about a big
or a small issue? Is the person’s job likely to be affected by the outcome of the negotiation?
2 If there are difficulties in the discussion, what can you expect to happen? Is it acceptable
for conflict to be openly discussed? How can you find areas of common interest to move
forward?
3 How might attitudes to negotiations differ between your culture and that of the person you
are negotiating with? How might misunderstandings be avoided?

Opening Formal/Semi-formal Less formal

Welcoming Thank you for coming today. Thanks for agreeing to meet today.
someone It’s a pleasure to meet you. Can I get you a tea or coffee before we
Good to meet you/see you start?
again.
Can I offer you something to
drink?
Outlining Today, we need to agree on Let’s try to agree on some training dates
objectives the product range. for your team.
I’d like to have a brief Can I have a quick word about the project
discussion about the deadline?
proposed launch date. I’d like to start by hearing what you think of
Shall we begin by discussing the new design.
the new trade regulations? We have to find a compromise we can both
We need to find a way to work with.
move forward with the
changes to the terms and
conditions.

Managing Focusing on The fact of the matter is that we need to employ more staff.
challenging the facts not I don't think that’s a fair reflection of the facts.
conversations the person Can we look at this objectively for a moment?
Confirming I get your point.
you've I see what you mean.
understood So, to put it differently, you’re saying that there were issues with the
supplier.
If I follow you correctly, you mean that costs will increase.
Finding the That doesn’t sound all bad.
positives That’s not a bad idea.
That doesn’t sound unreasonable/unrealistic/unfair.
I can see the benefits of what you’re saying.
Asking Can we dive deeper into the topic of scheduling?
questions to Are you perhaps overlooking the delivery date? Can we talk about that for
find out more a moment?
Could you elaborate on how the project will be managed?
Collaboratively How can we work together to move beyond this point?
identifying a What would need to happen for us to move beyond this?
way forward Can we discuss some logical next steps?
What would you like to happen next?
How can we resolve this?

Business Partner B2+ © Pearson Education 2019 7

 Functional language bank

Maintaining Being There’s no easy way to say this, so I’ll just say it.
positive transparent Initially, it looked like a good idea, but now I’m not so sure.
relationships To be honest, I have an issue with the way changes are communicated.
Showing I don’t want to cause any hostility between us.
positive I’d like to find a quick resolution where the task responsibilities
intention are clarified.
I really don't want us to fall out over this.
Learning more How do you think we can get beyond this?
about the How will it negatively affect you if we move the launch date?
other person’s I’d like to get a feeling for your priorities.
position
Focusing This solution is in both/all of our interests.
on shared We need to think about both mutual and individual gain.
interests and We should aim for an agreement by the end of the week.
looking to the
Let’s put it on hold for a few days.
future

Making Outlining We need to decide on option A or B.

decisions decisions The most important thing to decide is the time frame.
Asking for What do you think you we can do about this?
opinions What outcome would work for you?
Making or Let’s go with the decision to merge the teams.
postponing OK, so we are in agreement that more training is needed?
decisions Let’s just decide to postpone our decision for the moment.
Expressing OK. That works for me.
degrees of I’m not sure. It’s a tricky situation.
agreement

Closing a Reaching an It’s been a productive discussion.

negotiation agreement I feel/In my opinion, this is a very positive outcome.
Failing to reach I’m sorry that we couldn’t reach an agreement on this.
an agreement Perhaps we'll be able to reach an agreement at a later date.
Outlining the Let's keep in touch to discuss how to proceed.
next steps I’ll send an email outlining what we’ve agreed today.

Business Partner B2+ © Pearson Education 2019 8