Presentation Series 5 - Deferring Questions

Hello everyone and welcome to EnglishPod.

My name is Marco.

My name is Katherine and as you've noticed on our website, we have a number of lessons

about giving a presentation in English.

So this is one of those lessons.

Today we're talking about avoiding questions.

That's right.

Today in part five of our presentation series, we're going to try and handle some questions

or avoid questions as Katherine said.

So why don't we jump into the dialogue.

Let's see what Mr. Ford is talking about now and we'll be back in a bit.

Now as we've already discussed, there's a huge untapped market out there, both in Asia,

in other developing markets and in the more mature markets for us to push into.

Now of course this represents an enormous challenge with enormous rewards for the winners.

But for any new product, we need a great marketing message and marketing campaign.

It needs to be directed and focused at our target consumer and needs to be pitched at

exactly the right level.

The question we must first address is of course, who is our target consumer and secondly, what

do they expect from the next generation alpha laptop?

Let's first of all tackle the first question.

Our target consumer for the X420 is the middle class white collar worker with an above average

income.

However, as we mentioned before, the total number of computer owners is expanding rapidly

and we need to broaden our audience for this product.

For example, the X420 is also ideally suited to the younger student sector who might use

laptops both for studying and gaming.

There's no doubt that...

Mr. Ford, if I could just interrupt a moment.

You say that the computer is suitable for students, but you don't think the price of

the X420 is just too much for most students?

Well that's a fair point.

If you don't mind, I'd like to tackle your question a little bit later in the Q&A section.

Is that okay?

Yes, sure.

Okay, so as I was saying, we have an exciting campaign planned for the X420.

Firstly we'll have a nationwide television campaign as well as advertising on radio and

also in many computer publications.

We also intend to...

I'm sorry to stop you Mr. Ford, but do you really think that a television campaign is

cost effective?

I mean, how much does that go into cost?

Well I don't have the figures to hand, but I'd be happy to discuss those figures with

you after the presentation.

Okay let me just go on to talk a little more about the exciting campaign we have in store.

All right we're back and now we can get started with Language Takeaway.

Language Takeaway.

Okay so Marco, a lot of the conversation today was about markets and a target consumer.

So perhaps we should start talking a little bit about who Mr. Ford thinks this company's

consumers are.

That's right.

He mentioned that the Alpha laptop could also be aimed at the middle class.

We have different classes in society, especially in America, where we talk about people who

are low income, they don't make very much money, or people who make a lot of money,

they're rich, they're on top.

That's the high class.

Yeah, high class.

But in the middle, we have the middle class.

And this is just average people.

They make money, they have a car.

They're not rich, but they're not poor.

Okay so they're in the middle.

So this is the middle class.

The computer is aimed at the middle class market, but he said that it's middle class

white collar worker.

Okay so I know this phrase exists in many other languages, but a white collar worker

in English means, refers to the color of the shirt that you wear.

So white collar workers usually work in offices.

So because they're usually wearing suits.

That's right, they have to wear nice clothes like suits and button down shirts.

But we sometimes also talk about blue collar workers.

Who are these guys?

Blue collar workers are usually people that are in trades, like for example a mechanic

or a plumber, because usually you see them wearing those blue shirts.

Yeah, uniforms.

They're usually people who work with their hands or who are not likely to work in a big

office.

So usually maybe these people are not middle class, maybe they are lower class.

They can be both.

In America right now I think you can make quite a bit of money if you're a plumber or

construction worker.

That's right.

But he also mentioned middle class white collar worker with an above average income.

Okay so an income is the amount of money that a person earns, usually in a year.

So we say $30,000 a year.

That's your annual income.

That's right.

So when we talk about something that's average, that means it's normal.

But in this case we're not talking about something that's average.

What are we talking about?

It's above average.

Above average.

So if the average income of a person in America is $36,000 a year, an above average income

is $70,000 a year or $65,000 a year.

But for the middle class maybe that's different.

So in the middle class an average annual income is $70,000.

An above average income in the middle class is $120,000 a year.

So the phrase there above average, you're just referring to something that's more than

the normal.

That's right.

So in this case more than the normal income for a middle class worker.

You can also say below average.

So a below average income is lower than most people earn.

Okay.

Very good.

And well continuing on talking about markets and the demographics, who were selling the

computer to, we also talked about our target consumer.

This is something that you often hear in meetings at work or in marketing departments.

A target is something you aim for.

It's something you want to hit or achieve.

And so a target consumer is the buyer, is a customer that you aim to have.

Okay.

So maybe you have some customers that they're students and you have some customers that

they're very old, but your target consumer are the people that you really want to reach

out to.

In this case, the middle class white collar worker.

That's right.

So in the case of our dialogue, our target consumer is a middle class white collar worker,

for example.

Okay.

So a lot of marketing stuff here talking about the computer and what Mr. Ford was saying.

Let's take a pause.

Let's listen to the dialogue again and we'll be back with some phrases on how to defer

questions.

Now as we've already discussed, there's a huge untapped market out there, both in Asia

and other developing markets and in the more mature markets for us to push into.

Now of course this represents an enormous challenge with enormous rewards for the winners.

But for any new product, we need a great marketing message and marketing campaign.

It needs to be directed and focused at our target consumer and needs to be pitched at

exactly the right level.

The question we must first address is of course, who is our target consumer?

And secondly, what do they expect from the next generation alpha laptop?

Let's first of all tackle the first question.

Our target consumer for the X420 is the middle class white collar worker with an above average

income.

However, as we mentioned before, the total number of computer owners is expanding rapidly

and we need to broaden our audience for this product.

For example, the X420 is also ideally suited to the younger student sector who might use

laptops both for studying and gaming.

There's no doubt that...

Mr. Ford, if I could just interrupt a moment.

You say that the computer is suitable for students, but you don't think the price of

the X420 is just too much for most students?

Well that's a fair point.

If you don't mind, I'd like to tackle your question a little bit later in the Q&A section.

Is that okay?

Yes, sure.

Okay, so as I was saying, we have an exciting campaign planned for the X420.

Firstly we'll have a nationwide television campaign as well as advertising on radio and

also in many computer publications.

We also intend to...

I'm sorry to stop you Mr. Ford, but do you really think that a television campaign is

cost effective?

I mean, how much does that go into cost?

Well I don't have the figures to hand, but I'd be happy to discuss those figures with

you after the presentation.

Okay, let me just go on to talk a little more about the exciting campaign we have in store.

Alright we're back, so now let's take a look at those phrases that we mentioned on Fluency

Builder.

Fluency Builder.

So Marco, there was a phrase that I heard twice in today's dialogue that I think we

should talk about.

The verb is to tackle, so we heard to tackle a question.

Right, so when Mr. Ford says, I'll tackle that question a little bit later on, he's

talking about I'll answer the question or I'll talk about that question later on.

Right, but in this word to tackle, there's something kind of physical about it because

in football we say that when someone tries to hit the ball from someone else, it's a

slide tackle.

And so to tackle a question means to really jump into it and try and solve it and it's

you know maybe not an easy question.

So I'm going to tackle that later.

I'm going to tackle a challenge.

It's more than just to solve a problem or to answer a question.

So maybe you can also tackle a project, a difficult project.

That's right, so you know what, I'm going to give us two weeks to tackle this project

because it's a very difficult one.

Alright, very good.

And well actually when he was getting some questions from the audience members specifically

because he was kind of being interrupted, he was very polite about it and to kind of

defer the question he said, you know what, that's a fair point but I'll tackle that question

later on.

Okay, and so this is a really great phrase if you want to flatter someone, make them

feel good before you tell them that you're not going to answer their question.

Or maybe you disagree with someone so I could say, you know what Marco, chocolate cake is

the only cake in the entire world that people should eat.

Okay, and I could say something like that's a fair point but in my opinion vanilla cake

is better.

Alright, so see what Marco did?

He made me feel good.

He said, you know, fair point, that's a good idea but I disagree or but in the case of

today's dialogue but we'll talk about that later.

Right, and actually he did another smart thing in the way that he used his language skills

here when he was interrupted again he said, hey, you know what, I'd be happy to answer

your questions at a later time or in the Q&A session.

Okay, so this phrase, I'd be happy to.

I'd be happy to talk about that at a later time but right now I'm trying to explain something

else.

Exactly, so these are two really, really key phrases for trying to in a nice way change

the topic or change the conversation.

So yeah, I guess you can say, yeah, I'd be happy to talk about that later on or I'll

tackle that question in a little bit or that's a fair point but we'll talk about it later

on.

Okay, so a lot of great language there.

Why don't we take a last listen to our dialogue and review everything we've just learned.

Now as we've already discussed, there's a huge untapped market out there both in Asia,

in other developing markets and in the more mature markets for us to push into.

Now of course this represents an enormous challenge with enormous rewards for the winners

but for any new product we need a great marketing message and marketing campaign.

It needs to be directed and focused at our target consumer and needs to be pitched at

exactly the right level.

The question we must first address is of course who is our target consumer and secondly what

do they expect from the next generation alpha laptop?

Let's first of all tackle the first question.

Our target consumer for the X420 is the middle class white collar worker with an above average

income.

However, as we mentioned before, the total number of computer owners is expanding rapidly

and we need to broaden our audience for this product.

For example, the X420 is also ideally suited to the younger student sector who might use

laptops both for studying and gaming.

There is no doubt that…

Mr. Ford, if I could just interrupt a moment.

You say that the computer is suitable for students but you don't think the price of

the X420 is just too much for most students?

Well that's a fair point.

If you don't mind, I'd like to tackle your question a little bit later in the Q&A section.

Is that okay?

Yes, sure.

Okay, so as I was saying, we have an exciting campaign planned for the X420.

Firstly we'll have a nationwide television campaign as well as advertising on radio and

also in many computer publications.

We also intend to…

I'm sorry to stop you Mr. Ford, but do you really think that a television campaign is

cost effective?

I mean, how much does that go into cost?

Well I don't have the figures to hand, but I'd be happy to discuss those figures with

you after the presentation.

Okay let me just go on to talk a little more about the exciting campaign we have in store.

All right, so this was part five of our presentation series.

We're halfway done with it and so far we've seen a lot of interesting things and as you

notice it's an intermediate lesson so it is a little bit more challenging and a little

bit longer than your previous lessons.

That's right, these are longer and some of the phrases that you've learned, these words

are very difficult.

But as a reminder, some of the words repeat.

So for example in today's dialogue we heard a lot about developing markets and campaigns,

but we also heard about these last week in episode four.

So if you're confused or you want some extra practice, I would recommend listening to some

of the older lessons again just to review because you're going to hear a lot of these

words and phrases over and over again.

That's right and of course if you have any questions about this or any suggestions you

can also come to our website EnglishPod.com where we'll see everyone there.

That's right, so until next week, bye everyone.