Requests and offers in business presentations

Requests and offers in business presentations

with imperative presentation

Try to do as many of these things as you can as you roleplay giving and attending business presentations.

Presenter:

• Explaining your policy on the audience asking questions
• Dealing with interruptions
• Inviting questions/ Starting the Q&A
• Indicating whose question you will answer next (pointing with an open hand)
• Checking the meaning of the question/ what they want to know
• Asking people to wait
• Offering to answer the question later/ another way
• Mentioning future contact/ Giving sources of more information

Attendees

• Interrupting the presenter
• Going back to particular parts of the presentation (a particular slide, etc)
• Starting indirect questions/ polite questions
• Checking/ clarifying questions
• Asking for more information/ more details
• Asking follow up questions/ more questions after the answer

Brainstorm useful phrases for doing the things above.

Use imperatives like “Please + verb” and requests like “Can/ Could…?” in as many categories above as you can.

Compare your phrases with the suggested answers on the next page. Many other phrases are possible, so please check if you wrote something different.

Why are these phrases wrong?

• Please let me finish this part.
• Please wait.
• Please go back to…/ Please bring up the second slide.
• Please tell me…
• Please explain…
• Please give me an example of…
• Please tell me more about…

Why are the examples of please + verb in the suggested answers below okay? What function do all the good examples of please + verb have?

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Suggested requests and offers in business presentations

Many other phrases are possible, so please check if you used or wrote a different phrase.

Presenter

Explaining your policy on the audience asking questions

• If you have any questions, please feel free to ask at any time/ to interrupt.
• If you have any questions, there will be a Q&A session/ time for questions at the end.

Dealing with interruptions

• (Name), do you have a question?
• Can I just finish this part?/ Sorry, if you have any questions, there will be a Q&A session at the end/ time for questions at the end.

Inviting questions/ Starting the Q&A

• If you have any questions, please raise your hand.

Indicating whose question you will answer next (pointing with an open hand)

• Please go ahead./ (Please) fire away.
• Yes, what was your question, please?
• Yes, what would you like to know?

Checking the meaning of the question/ what they want to know

• So, you are asking…?
• So, if understand you correctly, you want to know…?
• Can I just check…?

Asking people to wait

• Just a moment while I…/ Just a minute, I’ll…

Offering to answer the question later/ another way

• Sorry, I don’t have that data with me now/ that will take too long to explain, but I’ll get back to you…/ let’s…/ please come up and talk to me after…

Mentioning future contact/ Giving sources of more information

• If you need any more info, please email me at this address/ please click on this link/ please search for the terms “…”

 

Attendees

Interrupting the presenter

• Sorry, (before you go on) can I just ask one question/ just check…?

Going back to particular parts of the presentation (a particular slide, etc)

• Sorry, can we go back to…/ can you bring up the second slide?

Starting indirect questions/ polite questions

• Can I ask…?/ Can I check…?/ Could you tell me…?

Checking/ clarifying questions

• Can you explain…?/ Can you give me an example of…?

Asking for more information/ more details

• Can you tell me more about…?

Asking follow up questions/ more questions after the answer

• Sorry, could ask just one more thing?