Speak Like a Pro! | MUST-LEARN Business English Phrases for Effective Communication

Hi there. This is Harry. And welcome back  to Advanced English Lessons with Harry,  

where we try to help you to get a better  understanding of the English language,  

where you can improve your grammar, pronunciation,  help you do those all-important job interviews,  

or even if it's just simple conversational  English. But today we're looking at business  

English, and in fact, we're looking at advanced  business English concerning workplace jargon.

Okay, so these are typical phrases  that you'll hear in the workplace  

or advanced business English  using workplace jargon.

And again, as always, there are ten of  them. So I'm going to go through the  

list one by one. And then I'll give you those  particular situations when you can use them.

So some of them are quite strange in the way  they sound. But I'll give you the examples  

and situations and hopefully that will  make it a lot clearer when you come to  

understand them yourself. And as you know the  drill by now, I'm going to go through them,  

give you particular situations,  then you've got to practise them,  

see if you can just introduce 1 or 2 of  them into your conversations, into your  

particular business English, you'd be amazed  how quickly you'll get comfortable with them.

Okay. Let's go. Drill down. Well, we usually  drill down some numbers. So if you're number  

crunching in an office, an accountant or if  you're some form of analyst, then you'll need  

to drill down into the numbers from time to  time. Your boss or supervisor or report line  

manager might ask you to drill down the numbers  and give him some more detailed breakdowns.

Okay, so for example, you might have  given him a figure of the overheads of  

the business. So it might be 10,000 a  month or 1,000 a month or whatever the  

figure happens to be. But he wants you  to drill down and break that number out  

into some other little pieces so he can  see exactly where the money is spent.

Or indeed somebody in the marketing department  has got some numbers about how many people have

landed on their webpage. How long  the people sit there and stay there  

and whatever they're looking for, they're  trying to get some more information as to  

exactly how this social media works. So they  ask you, as the analyst, the I.T. analyst,  

to try and drill down into those numbers and  get some more facts and figures that would  

make the analysis of this business  even easier and better and quicker.

Okay. So anything to do with sales  projections, anything to do with new sales,  

marketing campaigns, overheads, really,  really important to know what the numbers  

are. So you'll often be asked to drill  down literally if you have electric fields,  

you drill down, you drill in to try and  find out more information, drill down.

To go the extra mile. When somebody asks  us to go the extra mile, they want us to  

do a little bit more, okay, a little bit more  than normal, a little bit more than average,  

a little bit more. That would put  the icing on the cake. Recently,  

I've been helping a lot of people who  are planning and preparing for interviews  

with an airline, and one of the questions  the airline really likes to ask them is,  

please give me a situation. When you have gone  the extra mile with a passenger or a customer  

that puts you in a good light, that made the  customer have a really, really good experience.

So to go the extra mile means to do  that little bit more than expected.  

That little bit more than anybody else does.  And when the person is on the receiving end  

of that type of service, they're really,  really happy. So to go the extra mile.

So if we're launching a new product into the  market, we might have to go the extra mile to  

attract the customers that have to spend a little  bit more on the advertising campaign. We need to  

jazz up our proposal and presentation a bit and  put a bit more life into it to go the extra mile,

To give somebody or people a heads-up.  Well, when we give people a heads-up,  

we notify them in advance of what might happen.  So if you're launching a new product, you want  

to tell the whole team that it's going to happen  from the 1st of October or the 1st of November,  

or if something's going to happen where one  client is going to really be writing in to  

complain about something, you want the  management to know about it in advance.

So yeah, you give them a heads-up.  You send a memo to your boss and you  

copy it to other people to say bad news.  This customer has put me on notice that  

he's going to close his account for XYZ  reasons. So I'm giving you the heads-up  

that when you get the letter, you're  not going to be completely surprised.

Or you get the phone call or the email,  

whatever way he has of communicating the  fact that he's unhappy or that he's leaving,  

or perhaps he's just trying to warn you that you  might do something, go that extra mile to prevent  

him leaving. Okay, so you give everybody  the heads-up, you notify them in advance.

To keep somebody in the loop. Well, a  loop can be a circle. So if you want  

to keep somebody in the circle, you  mean you want to keep them informed?  

So if somebody goes on holidays, for  example, your boss goes on holidays,  

but he asks to be kept in the loop while  he's away because he reads his emails.

Well, that means if anything happens while he's  out, you copy him or you CC him on the email so  

he can read it even when he's on holidays.  Please keep me in the loop. You know how to  

handle this customer. You've dealt with him  a long time. He trusts you. But just keep me  

in the loop. Keep me informed just in case I  meet him socially or he calls me or emails me.

I like to know what's happening, so please keep me  

in the loop. Keep me included in the  circle of emails and correspondence.

To bring something to the table. Well, you might  ask, what does he bring to the table? So at a  

meeting, you don't literally mean to the table  that you're sitting around, but you want to know,  

what is this person going to do that somebody else  cannot do. So perhaps your company or the board  

or the management are considering hiring  an extra pair of hands, some specialist,  

some consultant, and somebody will ask the  question, well, what is he bringing to the table?

Meaning what is he going to offer us? It seems to  be very expensive. That's a huge price he's asking  

for. Are we sure he can deliver? So somebody will  have to then justify the reason why we're going to  

invite X, Y or Z to the company in a consultancy  role and pay this huge fee, because we want to  

know exactly what he's bringing to the table.  What is he going to introduce? What is he going  

to do for us that will make a difference that we  haven't already done or already thought about?

So to bring something to the table.

If you do like this lesson then  please like the video. And as always,  

if you could subscribe to the channel,  it would really, really help us.

To hit the ground running. But we often hear  this expression when somebody gets hired. So  

we will be hiring a new head of marketing.  We're hiring a new graduate. We're hiring  

a new I.T. analyst. Whatever the position  is. One of the questions we might ask the  

person when we're interviewing them is, what  experience do you have? How do you operate?

Do you need a lot of training? So if  somebody doesn't need a lot of training,  

they might reply and say, no, no, no.  I know exactly what is required. I  

can hit the ground running means. Day  one. You tell me what you want done.  

Give me a little bit of direction  and I'll get it delivered for you.

So I will hit the ground running. You don't  have to spend a lot of time training me. You  

don't have to spend a lot of time holding  my hand. I'm not a new recruit. I've done  

this before. I know what's required. I  just need some broad outline and. Yeah,  

I'll get the job done. I will certainly  guarantee that I can hit the ground running.

It means you can start immediately without  any delay to hit the ground running.

To think outside the box. A great expression.

When people are asked to think outside the box,  people want something a little bit different.  

They want something a little bit unusual.  They want something outside the norm. Are  

we always doing the same old campaign?  We always have the same old advertising.  

The same advertisements. Don't you  think they've gone a little bit stale?

Why don't we try and think outside the box?  Think about something different after all. At  

the moment, it's all about social media. It's  all about Facebook. It's all about Instagram.  

We should go to social media. We should have a  campaign there, do something a little different.  

So what we need is somebody to go away, think  outside the box and come back with some plan.

That really might sound a little bit crazy, but

you know what? It's probably just  what we're looking for. It's going  

to make all of the difference. So to  think outside the box and when you're  

looking at a strategy for a business,  you often have to think outside the box,  

think about something a little bit unusual. The  world doesn't happen in the same way every time.

Yeah, things have moved on a bit. Things have  changed, so we need to think outside the box.  

So we want a few people who can think  strategically, think outside the box.

Touch base. Well, simply to touch base means  to get in touch with somebody. So perhaps we're  

making a promise. Perhaps we've had a conversation  with somebody. We haven't reached a conclusion.

Indeed, there may be no conclusion to  be reached. But we tell them, look,  

I'll touch base in a couple of days and see  what progress has been made. So perhaps you're  

waiting to get the word whether that proposal  has been successful and the boss is asking,  

well, have we heard anything yet? It's  been a few days. You said no, nothing yet.

But they told us it would probably take them  about a week. They have to go through a few  

other proposals, but as soon as they know, they'll  tell us and says, I know, I'll tell you. So I'll  

touch base with you as soon as I hear, or if  I don't hear anything. By the end of the week,  

I'll touch base with my contact in the other  company and see is there a reason for the delay?

Okay, so whenever I hear you will  hear I will touch base. So touch  

base to get in touch with to contact  send an email a quick text message,  

whatever. Whatever way you're used to  communicating with people to touch base

And then bring somebody up to speed.  So when we bring somebody up to speed,  

we bring them up to date with whatever has  happened. So somebody's been on holidays or out  

sick for a prolonged period of time. We have  a meeting on the Monday when they return.  

See? Look. I just thought I'd bring you up to  speed with what has happened in your absence.

So that's a very common way to use it. So  they've been out sick for a few weeks. You  

took over the account. Everything is running  smoothly. A few little pieces here and there.  

But you've been able to handle it.  So when your colleague comes back,  

you sit down with him and say,  okay, let me bring you up to speed.

I had this meeting last week, the week before.  We had two calls the week before that. We got  

the order out as expected. So everything is okay.  As far as I know. There are no complications. So

You bring somebody up to speed and it  can be a face-to-face meeting, email,  

whatever way you communicate  to bring somebody a colleague.

Up to speed with what's been happening, or  at the regular meeting that you have with the  

boss. Perhaps he likes a meeting  with 8 or 10 or 15 minutes. Each  

member of the team brings him the boss  up to speed with what's happening in  

every area. It's an easy way for them  to find out. It's an easy way for him  

to be able to ask questions, look you in  the eye and say what's really happening?

So you bring him up to speed.

And then finally to be on somebody's radar.  Well, when you're on somebody's radar,  

good or bad, they're aware of you. They're  aware that something's happening or I'm on  

his radar. Okay. Yeah, he's he had a reason to  complain about something last week, and wow,  

he really let rip. So I was really on the  end of his tongue, so it wasn't so good.

So, yes, I think I'm... I'm on his radar.  I have his attention. So that could be for  

bad reasons. But it could be that you get  a phone call from one of your competitors  

through an agency, and they want to talk to  you about a potential job opportunity. So  

you're under the radar of your competition.  They're looking out for a senior executive.

They obviously have seen how you work.  They've seen how the competition is doing,  

and they'd like to talk to you with  the possibility to develop that,  

to get and offer you that particular position.  So you are on their radar. It means you've come  

to their attention somehow and they've noticed you  like a radar on checking out airplanes in the sky.

They've noticed you and they want to  talk and perhaps offer you the job.

Okay, so these are the particular jargon  or the expressions that we commonly hear  

in business. Okay. So they're all  business English expressions. They  

are advanced business English expressions,  jargon that you will hear in any workplace.

Okay. So let me go through them one more time.

To drill down. To drill down.

To go the extra mile. Go the extra mile to give  people a heads up to give people a heads up.

Keep somebody in the loop. Keep somebody  in the loop. Bring something to the table.

Hit the ground running. Think outside the box.

Touch base.

Bring somebody up to speed. And then finally to  be on somebody's radar. To be on somebody's radar.

Okay, so all advanced English jargon. So try them.  Practice them. If you don't understand them still,  

check them out. Look them up in the dictionary,  

or better still, come back to me and  I'll give you some more examples.

Okay. I always appreciate you watching  and looking at our videos. Thanks for  

watching this one and join me  again for your next lesson.