A while back, in BEP 55 and BEP 56, we were introduced to Alan Chan and Honesto Salvador, two employees of a US electronics manufacturer visiting the USA on a business trip. As part of their training they have made a trip to Boston and will also travel to a nearby plant in New Haven. We join Alan and Honesto at the hotel in Boston as they go to reception to check out and pay the bill.

Listening Questions:

1. How does Honesto feel about breakfast at the hotel?
2. Who was responsible for the minibar charge?
3. Why does Honesto mention his club membership?
4. How will Alan and Honesto get to the airport?

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In celebration of the holidays, we’re releasing a selection of classic podcasts from deep within our archives. For each of the next five days, we’ll post one of the more popular podcasts from our early days.

We’ll be back in the New Year with new podcasts, new eBooks, new membership options and a whole new way for premium members to download anything and everything from our Learning Center resources.

In this video, Brian looks at the use of the passive voice. After looking at why we use the passive voice, Brian goes on to explain how the passive voice is formed.

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Success! The hard work of negotiation has paid off. You’ve reached agreement. Now it’s time to close the deal. In this episode, we’ll study skills and language for the final stage of the discussion. In particular, we’ll focus on summarizing details, tying up loose ends, reinforcing the relationship and adopting a positive style. We’ll see that the end of talks presents a great opportunity to build stronger partnerships.

In this show, we will look at two short dialogs that demonstrate different styles of negotiation. In the first, a construction materials supplier, Tony, calls his customer, Paul, to agree to the terms of a deal. In the second, a general manager, Maxine, calls the owner of another company, Peter, to tell him that her board of directors has agreed to buy his company.

Listening Questions:
1. In the first dialog, what does the supplier, Tony, want to confirm with his customer, Paul?
2. What kind of positive language do Tony and Paul use at the end of the dialog to reinforce the relationship?
3. In the second dialog, does Maxine say that the board has agreed to Peter’s suggested price?
4. From the conversation, does it sound as though Peter will continue to work at his company through the merger?

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This lesson examines the use of perfect tenses in both the simple and continuous aspect - past, present and future forms. In grammatical terms, perfect tenses are used to refer to completed or finished events.

These videos were made by Brian Rhodes, an English teacher from Canada. As Brian said, “These lessons are dedicated to my past and present students who enjoy analyzing and studying English grammar. Lots of students would rather just ‘use’ the language, but some like to know the why’s and how’s of English.” Our thanks to Brian for allowing BEP to share this excellent series of videos with our audience.

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Each video lesson features a review of a real-life email from one of our members. If you’d like to submit one of your own emails for possible review, click this link to go to the information page.

Given our own issues with our web server, this podcast wins the award for most ironic post of the century!

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Today we’re looking at basic vocabulary related to finance and accounting. First we’ll hear a short article introducing the vocabulary. Then we’ll go over each word in detail, with some example sentences to show how you can use the words. At the end of the video you’ll have a chance to review and practice your new vocabulary.

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Usually we think of blockage in terms of stumbling blocks, or obstacles, to agreement. But blockage can also be any impediment to creating maximum value. In other words, we’re not only interested in removing obstacles to a deal but also in removing obstacles to a better deal. Doing this successfully often requires thinking outside the box, that is, thinking creatively.

So in this episode, we’ll study overcoming barriers. In particular, we’ll focus on identifying stumbling blocks, exploring alternatives, and moving towards agreement.

Recall that Peter, owner of Textacular, has been trying to buy Maxine’s company, Gamester, as part of his strategy to roll up other small businesses. His ultimate goal is to increase the value of his own operation so he can sell it to a larger company for a handsome profit. In previous episodes, Peter had tried to acquire Maxine’s company, but talks reached an impasse when Maxine wouldn’t climb down from or reduce her price of 15 million.

In today’s listening, Peter calls Maxine back to restart talks. As you listen, focus on the language they use to remove obstacles to agreement.

Listening Questions:

1. How does Peter suggest restarting talks with Maxine?
2. What does Peter identifying as the main stumbling block to a deal?
3. What does Peter mean when he says, “It’s not a question of growth for us, it’s a question of survival.”
4. What is Peter’s key insight that enables Maxine and him to overcome their blockage?

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Bargaining is the process of swapping or trading concessions - in other words, “You give me something, and I’ll give you something in return.” This is also called making offers and counter-offers. The goal is to reach a compromise - a result in which both sides benefit.

Today’s listening focuses on a typical bargaining situation. Paul is a purchasing manager for a construction company. Tony is a supplier of anchor bolts - large metal screws used in building projects. They are in the middle of a telephone conversation in which they are negotiating an order. Tony has already opened the discussion and clarified Paul’s basic needs. Now they need to agree on the quantity and price.

As you listen, focus on the language that they use to swap concessions and reach a deal.

Listening Questions:

1. What does Paul mean when he says he’ll be “throwing more business your way?”
2. Tony suggests a way of helping Paul get a higher discount. What is it?
3. When Tony says to Paul, “You drive a hard bargain!” what does he mean?

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A while back in BEP 92 & 93 we met Bill, a buyer for Bancroft’s, a chain of women’s clothing stores in the U.S. He’s placed a large order with Viva, an Italian fashion company, which is being coordinated by Catherine Traynor, Foxtrot’s shipping manager. Foxtrot is Viva’s U.S. distributor.

It’s now several months later and the order is due to be delivered. But Bill has just received a call from Bancroft’s warehouse to let him know that only half the order has been delivered so far. Now he’s calling Catherine to check on the rest of the delivery.

Listening Questions:

1. How does Catherine let Bill know she’s looking for information about his order?
2. Where is the second part of the shipment?
3. What does Catherine offer to do to avoid separate deliveries in future?

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We live in the era of remote communication: teleconferencing, videoconferencing, and online meetings. More and more group efforts are getting done from a distance. In theory, at least, it’s possible to work closely with anyone in the world without leaving our desks. Nevertheless, there’s something about a face-to-face meeting that no virtual one can replace. We still need to shake people’s hands, read their body language, and make personal connections. That’s why - even today - one of the commonest uses for the telephone is to make appointments. In this episode, we’ll take a close look at making appointments on the phone.

Gordon Knight works for Bridgewater, a U.S. pension fund. (Pension funds are institutions that invest retirement savings.) At a recent conference, Gordon met Penny Yip, a senior financial analyst for the Asia Markets office of Solomon-Clyde. Solomon is a boutique - or small and specialized - global investment company that deals only with institutional customers - very large clients, like Bridgewater. Now, Gordon plans to be in Malaysia, and he phones Penny to set up an appointment to discuss possibilities for investment.

Listening Questions:

1. Where and when does Gordon say he met Penny?
2. When does Gordon suggest meeting with Penny?
3. Why does he want to meet with Penny?
4. What time do they finally agree on?

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Listening Questions:

1) What does Kerri want Martina to do for the company?
2) How much time will Martina have to complete this project?
3) What does Kerri promise to do to make Martina’s work easier?

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We continue our look at the vocabulary related to project management by looking at the words used to describe a project timeline. First we’ll hear a short article introducing the topic and then we’ll go though each word in detail with some example sentences to show how you can use the words. At the end of the video you’ll have a chance to review practice your new vocabulary.

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Today we’re looking at business words related to projects and project management. First we’ll hear a short article introducing the topic and then we’ll go though each word in detail with some example sentences to show how you can use the words. At the end of the video you’ll have a chance to review practice your new vocabulary.

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As you listen, pay attention to how Peter makes a final offer, how Maxine declines it, and how they both work to maintain goodwill.

Listening Questions:
1) What are Maxine’s reasons for staying firm on price?
2) What does Peter say to justify not being able to pay more?
3) How does Maxine leave open the possibility for future cooperation?

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An important part of any discussion is making our position clear; at the same time, we must make sure we understand the other side’s point of view. Achieving mutual understanding can help us save money by avoiding missed opportunities. In addition, the ultimate goal of any negotiation is to create value. Therefore, evaluation - determining whether an offer or position is good or bad - plays an important role. So in this show we’ll study stating, clarifying, and evaluating positions.

Peter is the owner of mobile phone ringtone and game provider, Textacular. He is attempting to roll up, or buy, other small companies like his in an effort to increase the value of his company. Eventually, he wants to sell his business to a larger, regional service provider for a profit. In the listening, he is meeting with Maxine, owner of Gamester, to discuss a possible merger. As you listen, pay attention to how they clarify and evaluate each other’s positions.

Listening Questions:

1) What is the basic source of disagreement between Maxine and Peter?
2) What are Maxine’s reasons for insisting on her price?
3) What does Peter mean when he says he has done “months of due diligence?”

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Each video lesson features a review of a real-life email from one of our members. If you’d like to submit one of your own emails for possible review, click this link to go to the information page.

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Today’s listening continues Pat’s presentation of the market trends for Ambient and its competitors. This time Pat is coming to the “real story” - the main point - of his presentation. As you listen, see if you can catch what it is.

Listening Questions:
1) What is the main focus of this part of Pat’s presentation?
2) What happened in 2005 that caused the trend in RPU to “break out” of “existing trend lines?”
3) What are Pat’s predictions for Ambient’s RPU in 2007?

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A trend is the general direction or tendency of a metric or measurement - upward, downward, flat, fluctuating, peaking, bottoming out, and so on. So, you’ll be learning how to use these and many more terms for describing your charts and graphs in fluent, vivid sentences so that you can present your data with maximum impact.

Pat, Ambient’s new Central European finance director, has just finished talking about sales revenue and is now moving on to discuss market share. The visual he will be talking about is a line graph that compares the trends in market share over the last six quarters from Q1 2006 to Q2 2007. His discussion centers on the top three players in the mobile phone business – his own company, Ambient, and their two top competitors, CallTell and Sirus.

As you listen, pay attention to the trend language that Pat uses to describe the recent changes in the market.

Listening Questions:
1) Which company has the largest share of the market at the beginning of 2006?
2) How does Pat describe his own company’s performance in 2006?
3) How big is the “others” group share of the market in Spring 2007?

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When you think of “office administration”, what are the first things that come to mind? They might be things like paperwork, filing, copying, and other boring and repetitive tasks. Most people probably don’t think of an office manager’s job as a crucial service that supports the successful running of a company and, therefore, its ability to make money.

Well, today we’re about to meet Thomas, who’s going to tell us about the role he plays as office manager at the Mexican subsidiary of a multinational chemical company.

Listening Questions:
1) How does Thomas summarize his role as Office Manager?
2) What characteristics does Thomas list as important qualities of an office manager?
3) According to Thomas, what is a common misunderstanding about the best way for an office manager to do his job?

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