You have arranged a meeting with a potential client and you want to tell her about your products or services and the temptation to show a presentation that you have practised and are familiar with is very strong. Your hope is that you can show her what you do and she will simply buy it. Unfortunately, life seems to be less and less like that. The world is moving away from the standardised and towards the personalised. This means that giving the same presentation to every potential client is no longer acceptable. Presentations should really be reserved for group audiences. A sales meeting is no longer a presentation, it is now a conversation. A conversation where, perhaps, the salesperson listens more and speaks less because the aim is to understand and discover problems and issues in order to offer the right solution. This means that communication skills, especially listening, are more important than ever.
Consequently, language learning for business purposes now means standard Business English textbooks are less relevant than personalised training where situations can be developed through individual or group role-play sessions. In this way, confidence is developed beyond memorising the content of one or two practised presentations and into the ability to converse.