Welcome back（在后） English learners（学习者）. My name is Marco and I am joined by Erica. How are you Erica? I'm doing great Marco and you? Excellent（卓越的）. I'm doing really well and I'm really excited about our lesson for today.

  That's right. We've got an intermediate（中间的） lesson today and we're going to study some real English. English that you use every day, right? That's right. English that native（本国的） speakers（演讲者） really use. Exactly（确切地）.

  And today, as（当…的时候） Erica mentioned（提到）, we have an intermediate lesson. And not only is it intermediate, but it's a business lesson. Yeah. So today we're listening in to a sales（ 卖） meeting and we're going to learn some great useful English to talk about sales（ 卖） strategies（战略）. So we're going to learn English for sales strategies for making suggestions（ [C] 建议） and for responding（作答） to suggestions（ [C] 建议）. Great.

  So why don't we take a look（看） at our vocabulary（词汇） preview（预演） for today? Vocabulary preview. So our vocabulary preview is a part of our lesson when we teach you some really important words that will help you to understand the dialogue better. Okay（好）, great. So that is what vocabulary preview is. We have two words for you today and we can start off by looking at the first one.

  Our first word today is drive（驱动器） sales（ 卖）. Drive sales. Drive sales. To drive sales. And that means（意味）? To increase（增加） sales（ 卖）.

  Right. To sell more. Exactly. So to drive sales. Okay. So now let's look at our second word and it's an interesting one.

  It's promotion（提升）. Promotion. Promotion. Promotion. So Erica, what is a promotion exactly? Okay.

  So here we're not really talking about getting a better job, right? Okay. Not like a job promotion. No. We're talking about a marketing（行销） strategy（战略）. Okay.

  So I can give you an example. Suppose（猜想） that I want to buy shampoo（洗发） and if I go to the supermarket and I see buy one and get one free. So that's a two for one. That's a two for one promotion. Yeah. Okay.

  That's a sales promotion or? Perhaps（也许） the shampoo（洗发） in the supermarket is less（更少地） expensive than usual. Okay. Yeah. Usually maybe it costs $5 but today it costs $4. That's a sales promotion.

  Great. So that's a really good marketing strategy. Exactly. And we'll hear this word in our dialogue today. Great. So we are ready to listen to our dialogue.

  It's going to be pretty fast. So it might（可以〔用于礼貌地提出建议〕） be a little bit（一点） difficult to understand. But don't worry（ 担忧） if you don't understand everything because later in this lesson we're going to explain all the important words and phrases. All（ 全部） right, people. We're holding（拿住） this meeting today because we've got to do something about our sales（ 卖） and we need to do it now. I want concrete（混凝土的） solutions（解决方案）.

  How do you plan to drive sales? Roger. Well, in fact, we're the most expensive in the market. So maybe we need to lower（放下） our prices to match the competitors（竞争者）. Lower our prices. Not very creative（创造性的）.

  It'll never fly with swan（天鹅）. What kind of thinking（ 思索） is that? Geez. Anyone have a better plan? Natalie. Um, perhaps a promotion.

  Maybe a two for one offer（提供） or something like that. That's the same thing. Bad idea. Really bad idea. Damn（讨厌） it, people. Come on.

  Think（ 想）. The CEO will be here any minute. Hello, Mr.Swan. Hello, Mr.Swan. Do we have any ideas yet（ 到目前为止）? Yes, Mr.Swan.

  We were kind（种类） of considering（认为） a two for one offer（提供） to get more competitive. A two for one promotion. Hmm. I kind of like the sound of that. It sounds like something we should consider. Yeah, exactly.

  That's just what I was thinking. In fact, it's a brilliant（灿烂的） idea. I'm glad（高兴的） we thought（ 想） of that. Very creative. OK, so an interesting manager（经理）, right? I don't know about interesting.

  Maybe I would think bad manager. We're going to talk about him later on in the show. But now let's take a look at our language take away. Language take away. OK, so language take away is the part of our lesson where we teach you the most important words from the dialogue. All these words that we are going to focus（使集中） on can be found in today's dialogue.

  Exactly. So we have three words for you today. Let's look at the first one. Match the competitors. Match the competitors. Match the competitors.

  Match the competitors. Great. So we have some examples for you so you can listen and try and see if you can figure（ 认为） out what match the competitors（竞争者） really means（意味）. Example one. We guarantee（保证） that we can match the competitors（竞争者） lowest（低的） price. Example two.

  It's impossible（不可能的） for us to match the competitors（竞争者）. Our costs are just too high. Example three. Do you think we can match our competitors prices and still keep our quality（质量） high? OK, so I see that match the competitors means to be as good as or better than other companies in the same industry（工业）. Exactly.

  Match the competitors. All right. So let's move to our second word today for language takeaways（外卖食品）. And it is in the market. In the market. In the market.

  In the market. We heard this phrase in the dialogue and it means in the industry. Exactly. I can say, for example, English pod is the best language pod in the market. So of all the podcasts that teach English, English pod is the best. Of course, no doubt（怀疑） about it.

  I totally（完全地） agree. Right. Or I can give you another example. iPods are the most popular mp3 players in the market. So of all the mp3 players in the world, iPods are the most popular. So let's move to our final word for today.

  And it is it'll never fly. It'll never fly. It'll never fly. It will never fly. So this phrase sounds a little bit strange（陌生的）. I know fly.

  Are we talking about an airplane（飞机） here? What's going on? Exactly. But we're not. So so we're going to give you some examples and try and guess what it'll never fly. It'll never fly really means.

  Example one. This marketing plan will never fly. It's just too expensive. Example two. What? You want to sell bikinis in Alaska?

  That'll never fly. Example three. Brad told me his（他的） idea for a film script（脚本）, but the story will never fly. It's not interesting enough. So it means it won't work（使工作）. It won't work.

  It's not a good idea. They'll never agree. Exactly. Great. So now we've seen a lot of useful phrases, and we are ready to listen to our dialogue a second time. But this time it's going to be slow.

  So you'll be able（有能力的） to understand a little bit（一点） better and you'll be able（有能力的） to hear the words and phrases we were just talking about. All right, people. We're holding this meeting today because we've got to do something about our sales and we need to do it now. I want concrete solutions. How do you plan to drive sales, Roger? Well, in fact, we're the most expensive in the market.

  So maybe we need to lower our prices to match the competitors. Lower our prices. Not very creative. It'll never fly with swan. What kind of thinking is that? Jeez.

  Anybody（任何人） else have a better plan? Natalie? Um, perhaps, um, a promotion, maybe a two for one offer or something like that. What? That's the same thing. Bad idea.

  Really bad idea. Dammit, people. Come on. Think the CEO will be here any minute. Hello, Mr.Swan. Oh, Mr.Swan.

  Hello, Mr.Swan. Do we have any ideas yet? Yes, Mr.Swan. We were kind of considering a two for one offer to get more competitive（竞争的）. A two for one promotion. Hmm.

  I kind of like the sound of that. It sounds like something we should consider. Yeah, exactly. That's just what I was thinking. In fact, that's a brilliant idea. I'm glad we thought of that.

  Very creative. Okay, great. I hope everyone understands a lot better now. And I hope everyone could listen out for some of those key words. Right. So now it's time for us to take a look at Fluency（流利） Builder（建筑者）.

  Fluency Builder. So with Fluency Builder, we try to help you increase your fluency. We take a word or phrase that you already（早已） know and show you how to say it a little bit（一点） more naturally（自然地）, a little bit more like a native English speaker. Right. And we have three of these words for you today. Yeah, let's start with the first one.

  Okay, so often students will say something like, I'll be here soon, or I will arrive soon. Right. And these sentences are correct. They're totally fine. But I think there's a better way to say this. Right.

  And we heard it in the dialogue. So let's listen to what the person in the dialogue said. The CEO will be here any minute. The CEO will be here any minute. Okay, so be here any minute. He'll be here any minute.

  It just sounds a little bit more natural. Yeah, I think I use this phrase quite often. He'll be here any minute. He'll be here soon. Yeah, great. Okay, so let's move on to our second phrase for Fluency Builder.

  So this phrase will help you to learn how to say I'm thinking about something in a better sounding way. Right. So you can say something like we are thinking about a sales strategy. Or that sounds like something we should think about. Right. And it's perfectly（理想地） correct.

  Yeah, there's no problem with this. But in the dialogue, we heard something a little bit different. So let's listen to it. It sounds like something we should consider. It sounds like something we should consider. So consider sounds like a pretty natural way of saying it, right?

  Yeah. And you know, I think it sounds really kind of smart（聪明的）. Yeah, it sounds more formal（正式的）, even a little（完全不） more professional（职业的）. Yeah, yeah. It's a good word. Yeah.

  Okay, brilliant. So let's move on to our third word. Marco, you already said our third word. Yeah, I actually（实际上） did. Brilliant. That's a great word right there.

  Yeah. A lot of people might say, that's a great idea, or great. But in the dialogue, we heard another way of saying the same idea. That's a brilliant idea. That's a brilliant idea. Okay, so this is great.

  But I would have to say that it's a little bit more British English. Yeah, I'd agree with you there. But I also think it sort（种类） of gives more power（力量） to this idea that it's a good idea of doing it. It's a good idea. Brilliant idea. It's a really, really good idea.

  Yeah, yeah. And I like that word. Yeah. Okay, so we're ready to listen to our dialogue again a third time, but at its normal（正常的） speed（速度）. All right, people, we're holding this meeting today because we've got to do something about our sales and we need to do it now. I want concrete solutions.

  How do you plan to drive sales, Roger? Well, in fact, we're the most expensive in the market. So maybe we need to lower our prices to match the competitors? Lower our prices. Not very creative. It'll never fly with swan.

  What kind of thinking is that? Geez, anyone have a better plan? Natalie? Um, perhaps a promotion, maybe a two for one offer or something like that. That's the same thing. Bad idea.

  Really bad idea. Damn it, people. Come on. Think. The CEO will be here any minute. Hello, Mr.Swan.

  Oh, Mr.Swan. Hello, Mr.Swan. Do we have any ideas yet? Yes, Mr.Swan. We were kind of considering a two for one offer to get more competitive. A two for one promotion.

  Hmm. I kind of like the sound of that. It sounds like something we should consider. Yeah, exactly. That's just what I was thinking. In fact, it's a brilliant idea.

  I'm glad we thought of that. Very creative. All right. So listening to this dialogue makes you think about this boss（老板）. I'm pretty sure everyone has had a manager or a supervisor（督导） that's similar to this guy（家伙）. Yeah, this boss, Clark, I would have to say he sounds like a terrible person to work for.

  Yeah, that's true. If you're a manager, you want to motivate（激发） your employees（受雇者）. I think it's the most important thing a manager does is to encourage（鼓励） his（他的） or her employees（受雇者） and to help support them to grow and to be better people in the job. And this guy is totally not doing this. And you can tell because they are a little bit scared（惊慌的） of talking and he cuts them off with saying, oh, it's a bad idea. Give me a better idea and stuff（材料） like that.

  Yeah, I could never work for a guy like this. You know, my first boss that I had when I first entered（走进） the workforce（劳动力）, I was in a very junior（年少的） position（位置） and I was working（使工作） for a large company and the general manager（经理） of the company. He was amazing. He was so encouraging. He knew every single（ 单一的） employee（受雇者）'s name, first name, and he would make an effort（努力） to stop and say hello and ask them how things were going. And you know what?

  This left me with such a good feeling about the company that I really wanted to work hard for this company and try my best. And I think that I've never met such a great boss as this guy. No, I think that's true. Definitely（一定地）. If you have a boss that's encouraging and motivating like that, it makes you work harder and makes you feel part of a really special team. And that's something we can all agree on.

  And I'm sure all our managers out there do the same. Well, you know what? I hope some of our listeners（听者） log（ 记录） on to our website and maybe they can tell us some experiences（经验） with bad managers（经理） or good managers（经理） or if they are managers（经理）, how they handle（拿） things. Yeah. And hopefully they can use some of these great phrases that we talked about today. Great.