part of my speak like a manager series  it's one of the lessons in that series  

and those lessons basically all help you to  either speak and communicate more effectively in a  

business context whether you're already a manager  or you're aspiring to become a manager okay so  

let's get started and learn how you can start  and end a business call in a professional way  

so as you can see i've divided the board into two  parts in first we'll look at a formal way to start  

a business call and then we'll look at a slightly  more informal way now even the informal way it's  

still in the business situation you're not calling  your buddies and your friends right so it's still  

going to be a call perhaps to a colleague or  to your manager but somebody that you know  

and in the first situation in the formal one it's  more when you're calling someone that you do not  

know or you've met and you don't know very well  all right so in all cases what we're going to do  

in starting a call is have an introduction where  you say who you are then we're going to have  

the purpose which is why you're calling  and then a reference to the time which is  

how long whether that person has time  to talk to you okay so who what and  

uh whether the person has time all right  so first you introduce yourself uh sorry  

first you say hello right hello mr smith because  again he's not your buddy or she right so you're  

not going to say john or bob you're going  to say mr smith then you introduce yourself  

this is sandra bell from the hr department okay  let's suppose there this is a huge organization  

everybody does not know each other so sandra  bell has to introduce herself nevertheless so she  

could start off with something like this hello mr  smith this is sandra bell from the hr department  

next why is she calling i'm calling to confirm  that you received my email okay so that's  

one way or i'm calling to uh confirm that you will  be attending the marketing conference in london  

we'd like to make some travel arrangements  okay or just that much even and then before  

going on about anything more checking whether  the person actually has time right now to talk  

to you so this is a polite formal way to ask  that would you have a few minutes to speak  

okay let's run through the whole thing hello mr  smith this is sandra bell from the hr department  

i'm calling to confirm if you are attending  the marketing conference in london next week  

would you have a few minutes to speak okay  that's the whole script and then mr smith  

is going to answer and based on whatever his  answer is the conversation will continue or  

uh sandra will make a plan to call him back  but let's suppose there are other situations  

in which you're calling someone all right so  you could say for example this is sandra bell  

i was referred to you by bob johnson okay you're  giving the person some kind of context so they  

know who you are or why you're calling and  you could say again i'm calling to talk to  

you about the to discuss the marketing conference  in london uh would you have a few minutes to speak  

or hello mr smith this is sandra bell we  met at the marketing conference in london  

i'm calling to confirm that you received my  email would you have a few minutes to speak okay  

or the same way depending on the context  perhaps um even when we're this is called  

speak like a manager we're talking about  business but in any kind of formal situation  

even in a university perhaps you have to contact  your professor you could say hello professor  

smith i'm a student in your economics class i'm  calling to confirm the date of our examination or  

something like that would you have a few minutes  to speak okay so that's the formal situation  

now let's look at the informal situation again the  same three steps you're going to say who you are  

why you're calling and check if the person has  time to talk but now you know the other person  

all right perhaps you go to lunch together you  know each other you work with each other often  

so then you're on a first name basis so you just  call and you say hi john or hi mary this is susan  

or it's bill hi john it's bill i'm  calling to check if you got my email  

now let's see how the language also changes it's  a little more informal instead of saying i'm  

calling to confirm that you received my email  i'm calling to check if you got my email okay  

instead of saying i'm calling to confirm if you  will be attending the marketing conference in  

london you could just say i'm calling to to check  if you're going to the marketing conference okay  

so you see the same information but just expressed  a little more uh informally is this a good time  

instead of saying would you have a few minutes  to speak okay they know each other so is this a  

good time to talk or am i catching you  at a bad time this is a very popular  

expression both of these are popular expressions  okay but that's more when you know each other  

in an informal business context so let's run  through that one again uh hi mary this is susan  

i'm calling to check if you got my email  is this a good time to talk okay that's it  

one two three who you are why you're calling  and if the person has time to talk and that's  

very important and a lot of people miss  this step okay they just do the first part  

and sometimes they do the second part and then  they just continue with the second part without  

checking whether the other person has any time to  talk to them and that's not very polite and it's  

not very professional so make sure that you do  this so that you don't start talking and then the  

person will tell you i'm sorry i'm sorry i don't  have time to talk to you and suddenly the whole  

conversation has become negative and you don't  want to do that you want to keep all possibilities  

open in a business situation all right so this was  how to start the call now let's look at how to end  

the call okay so now you've had your conversation  you finished your discussion with the person  

on the phone and now it's time to end the call  so there's usually one or two parts to that  

so let's look at the formal call first all right  so that's going to include thanks as well as  

possibly talking about the future let's see how  to do that so the thanking part can go like this  

thank you very much for your time thank you very  much for your advice thank you very much for your  

help whatever the context okay whatever the person  did for you thank you for your very much for your  

recommendations for your suggestions for  your input all right depending on the context  

you can adapt this sentence but you want to thank  them and you're and by thanking them you're also  

saying this call is now coming to an end all  right so thank you very much for your advice  

if you're not saying anything more after that  if there's no future contact then you could if  

you wish add another line i really appreciate  it okay and then that's the end of the call and  

he will that person will hang up and you'll  hang up but if you have something more planned  

in the future then you could say just this  lie thank you very much for your advice  

i look forward to meeting you in person or i  look forward to meeting you at the conference  

or if that's not the situation thank you very  much for your advice i will keep you informed  

okay whatever the situation was that you know  this sentence will depend on your particular  

conversation and you can adapt it accordingly but  basically thinking and making some reference to  

the future if you have something to talk about  in the future all right so that's the formal  

situation and in the informal context again with  a colleague or a manager or something you could  

just say thanks instead of thank you thanks john  thanks for your help mary very kind of informal  

but still polite way to speak and then again if  there is something to talk about in the future  

you could just say well see you on wednesday  see you later talk to you later bye for now okay  

so that's in the informal context so again really  just two parts thinking and possibly referring to  

the future in some way so now what's happened we  have covered how to start a call and how to end  

a call but how are you going to remember this  well here are some suggestions first of course  

you can go to our website at www.ingwit.com there  you can do a quiz on this and really master these  

expressions and know which is formal which is  informal what do i say first what are the steps  

or not that many steps okay they're really just  three steps in the intro one or two steps in  

the in the ending and that's it but you still  need to practice it you need to say it out loud  

it's not enough for me to say it and for you to  hear it it's for you to hear it yourself and to  

say it and to practice saying these words okay so  you might want to go back watch the video again  

pause it say them aloud the more you get  comfortable with saying it the easier it  

will be when you actually have to make those  kind of phone calls in a business situation okay  

you can also record yourself all right record  yourself on your phone saying it listen to  

yourself listen to your accent listen to your your  pronunciation see if there's something that you  

can correct compare it to my way of pronouncing  something and see if that will help you to speak  

more clearly okay and another thing you can do  is to try it with a friend okay you can role  

play you can one person is calling one person  is the one who's receiving the call and you can  

practice this together the main thing is to use  it yourself don't just listen to this lesson or  

watch the lesson but actually participate in it  by speaking yourself alright so that's it for now  

thanks very much for watching don't forget  to subscribe to continue to get lots more  

lessons in the speak like a manager series  thanks very much for watching bye for now