Got a question for you, English learners. What's the most powerful skill in Business English?
I know. It depends, right? But here’s the thing. If you peek into the core of most Business English courses and materials, a pattern emerges. Most focus on grammar, vocabulary, and clunky expressions for different scenarios like meetings, presentations, or negotiations.
Now, don’t get me wrong. Those skills lay a foundation. But do they give professionals who speak English as a second language what they need to communicate key ideas and engage stakeholders?
To find out, I propose a little thought experiment. Let’s imagine two entrepreneurs who are pitching the same product to investors. Ready?
Entrepreneur 1:
A young tech entrepreneur walks on stage. Behind him, a PowerPoint slide shows the product’s picture and its name.
”Good morning, everyone. My name is Marcos Sanchez. I am a software engineer from Mexico City with an MBA from Stanford. On this occasion, I would like to introduce an app that my team and I have developed. It is called Fitness360. We’ve spent 18 months of hard work and our own money to develop a product that we are very proud of and that we believe you are going to love!
To start today, please let me direct your attention to the screen.
(clicks on the first slide, a colorful and crowded chart with the product’s features)
As you can appreciate, Fitness360 has a variety of key features. It utilizes state-of-the-art algorithms to track users' heart rate, calories burned, and sleep patterns and contains over 10,000 exercises with detailed instructions.
No other app has that many. We’ve checked.
(clicks)
And on the next slide, you can see how those features compare to the top five-selling apps today. In fact, if you observe here—on the top left corner of our slide—you will see that our app is the only one in the market to offer personalized workout plans tailored to individual goals. This includes both weight loss or muscle gain.
The only one…”
Marcos Sanchez drinks water, flips to another slide and goes on for another 10 minutes showing more metrics, charts and graphs as well as using correctly structured sentences, proper grammar and precise vocabulary to impress his audience.
The question is—can he or anyone else present information in a more effective way?
Entrepreneur 2
A young tech entrepreneur walks on stage. Behind her, the screen shows a sporty woman finishing a marathon.
"Imagine Jackie, a working mom. A busy professional juggling work, family—and fitness goals. Jackie wants to get in shape, but she also dreams of one day participating in an endurance event. Her late dad was a marathoner. But Jackie has a problem—the same one most of us have—a lack of time. Jackie struggles to find a wedge in her busy schedule to get fit.
Lucky for her, there’s FitFusion, an app Jackie recently downloaded on her phone. When Jackie opens the app, she is greeted by Alex, her virtual coach. There are many more to choose from. He guides her through workouts tailored to her schedule and goals. After each one, Alex gives her useful tips, and stats and always encourages her to push on. The best part, Jackie can interact with the app by speaking to Alex. Even while on a run.
But you know how it is. Life happens. On a day when the boss adds another meeting to Jackie’s schedule, she’s only left with fifteen minutes for training. Not a problem. Alex figures out something that she can do in that time—keeping her motivated, fit and on track to reach her goals.
As Jackie completes her runs and workouts, she also earns cool badges and even shares her progress with friends who also use the app. Eventually, inspired by a friend's transformation, she commits to a new challenge–running the New York Marathon. With FitFusion, Jackie turns dreams into reality, one step at a time. Kinda the way we developed FitFusion.
My name is Elena Kovac. Join us in empowering millions like Jackie to achieve their fitness dreams. You can scan the QR code to get the full story on our virtual pitch deck. Thank you."
So which one did you think was more effective? And which one was the cure for insomnia?
That’s up to you. What I can tell you is that the most effective communication skill mastered by the most successful people in business is not grammar or vocabulary. It’s storytelling. The crazy thing is that this is nothing new. It's a skill that has been around since the dawn of civilization. Stories are how our brains organize complex information.
Woah—what about logic? Logic should support your story. But it shouldn't be your story. See the difference? Logic is about the how. Important but not as engaging as the why? Simon Sinek has written and spoken extensively about this.
But if you need a logical answer as to why stories are better than cold logic to convey an idea, I'll give you one. Stories are sequences that illustrate problem-solving in a way that is relatable to a particular audience.
Unfortunately, our education system, which was conceived in the 19th century, has decided to ignore this. Go figure.
Regardless, behind every successful pitch, negotiation, or presentation—in any language—is someone who knows how to tell stories. The good news is that storytelling can be learned, even in a second language. To get started, all you have to do is understand and assimilate its three fundamental principles:
communication goal
story framework
delivery style
So if English is not your first language and you need to deliver key messages and engage stakeholders in that language, my advice is to find an experienced story English coach and ask if they can help.
Good luck!
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