Business phone calls are a common scenario on the TOEIC exam, especially in listening sections involving product introductions, customer questions, and meeting arrangements. Mastering expressions such as flooded with, go beyond, streamline, and at your fingertips helps learners understand conversations quickly and communicate more professionally at work.
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💬 Dialogue Section
Scenario: First-time business phone call introducing an AI office platform
English Dialogue
Erik: Hello, this is Erik from BrightWorks Solutions. Do you have a minute?
Hana: I have a minute. What is this regarding?
Erik: We develop a specialized all-in-one platform for scheduling and digital storage.
Hana: To be honest, the market is flooded with similar tools.
Erik: I understand. That’s why we’ve gone beyond basic organization features.
Hana: What makes your product different?
Erik: It helps teams streamline workflows, with everything at your fingertips.
Hana: Does it work well for remote teams?
Erik: Yes. Many companies use it for cross-border and remote collaboration.
Hana: Is it difficult to set up?
Erik: Not at all. It’s customizable, and we provide onboarding support.
Hana: I might be interested, but I’d like to see how it works.
Erik: Of course. Could we schedule an online or in-person demo this Wednesday afternoon?
Hana: Wednesday afternoon works for me.
Erik: Perfect. I’ll send you a calendar invitation shortly.
📚 Vocabulary Boost — Key TOEIC Words
| Word / Phrase | Part of Speech | Meaning | Example Sentence |
|---|---|---|---|
| flooded with | phrase | filled with too many similar items | The market is flooded with similar products. |
| go beyond | phrase | to exceed or do more than the basic level | We go beyond basic organization features. |
| streamline | verb | to simplify and improve efficiency | This platform helps streamline daily workflows. |
| at your fingertips | idiom | easily accessible; immediately available | All project data is at your fingertips. |
| specialized | adjective | designed for a specific purpose or need | We provide a specialized solution for teams. |
| all-in-one | adjective | combining multiple functions into one | It’s an all-in-one platform for scheduling and storage. |
| customize | verb | to modify to fit specific needs | The system can be customized for each department. |
| onboarding | noun | training and setup for new users | We offer onboarding support for new clients. |
| remote collaboration | noun | working together from different locations | Remote collaboration is common in global companies. |
| schedule | verb | to arrange a time or date | Could we schedule a demo this week? |
🔍 Grammar Points
| Structure / Pattern | Meaning | Example Sentence |
|---|---|---|
| Do you have a minute? | polite phone opener | – |
| be flooded with | describe market saturation | The market is flooded with apps. |
| present perfect (have + past participle) | focus on completed results or experience | We’ve gone beyond basic tools. |
| Could we schedule…? | polite suggestion or request | Could we schedule a demo? |
📖 Transcript
J: Hello and welcome to Win in 5 Minutes English.
M: Hello everyone. Today, we’re really getting into something practical.
J: We are. We’re looking at business English for those high-stakes first calls with a new client.
M: This is a situation that comes up all the time, not just in the real world, but, you know, on professional exams like the TOEIC as well. It’s about being efficient and persuasive.
J: And that’s our goal today. We’re going to listen to a conversation between a sales rep named Eric and a potential client, Hana. He’s introducing a new AI office platform.
M: And your mission as you listen is to pick out the key phrases he uses to turn that first contact into a scheduled meeting.
J: So let’s listen to the whole exchange first, just to get a feel for the flow. Then we’ll break it all down.
▶ English Dialogue
Erik: Hello, this is Erik from BrightWorks Solutions. Do you have a minute?
Hana: I have a minute. What is this regarding?
Erik: We develop a specialized all-in-one platform for scheduling and digital storage.
Hana: To be honest, the market is flooded with similar tools.
Erik: I understand. That’s why we’ve gone beyond basic organization features.
Hana: What makes your product different?
Erik: It helps teams streamline workflows, with everything at your fingertips.
Hana: Does it work well for remote teams?
Erik: Yes. Many companies use it for cross-border and remote collaboration.
Hana: Is it difficult to set up?
Erik: Not at all. It’s customizable, and we provide onboarding support.
Hana: I might be interested, but I’d like to see how it works.
Erik: Of course. Could we schedule an online or in-person demo this Wednesday afternoon?
Hana: Wednesday afternoon works for me.
Erik: Perfect. I’ll send you a calendar invitation shortly.
M: You know, that whole exchange, what was that? Maybe a minute?
J: Not even. Super quick.
M: Yeah. But so much happened. He dealt with an objection, he established value…
J: And he closed on the next step. The efficiency is just, um, it’s incredible. And it all comes down to specific word choices.
M: Okay, so let’s start where the conversation got a little tense. The client, Hana, immediately puts up a wall. She says the market is, quote, “flooded with” similar tools.
J: Yeah, that phrase “flooded with” is so important to recognize. It just means overwhelmed, oversaturated. It’s a huge objection.
M: It is. She’s basically saying, “Why are you wasting my time? I’ve seen this before.” If you’re in this situation, you have to know how to respond to that.
J: And Eric’s response is, I think, just perfect. It’s a brilliant two-step move. First, he validates her. He says, “I understand.”
M: He doesn’t argue.
J: No, he agrees. And then he pivots. He says, “That’s why we’ve gone beyond basic organization features.”
M: Okay, let’s break that down. “Go beyond.” It means to exceed, to do more than what’s expected.
J: Right. So strategically, what he’s doing is: one, he’s agreeing with her that, yeah, basic tools are everywhere. But two, he’s positioning his product as something special, an exception.
M: And there’s a subtle grammar point here too, isn’t there? He says “we’ve gone beyond”—the present perfect tense.
J: Yes. That’s such a sharp observation. He could have said “we go beyond,” but “we’ve gone beyond” implies that the work is already done.
M: The innovation is complete. It just sounds more confident, more established.
J: It’s using a past action to prove a current advantage. It’s very powerful and, you know, very concise.
M: Okay, so he’s handled the objection. Now he has to quickly show the value. And he doesn’t just list a bunch of features, does he?
J: No, he talks about outcomes. He says the platform helps teams “streamline workflows.”
M: “Streamline.” That is such a key piece of business vocabulary.
M: Oh, absolutely. It means making a process simpler, more efficient.
J: When you tell a client you can “streamline” something for them, what they hear is: save time, less money spent, fewer mistakes.
M: It’s so much better than just saying “we make things easier.”
J: Yeah. “Streamline” sounds engineered. It sounds intentional.
M: And then he adds that little idiom right after…
J: “With everything at your fingertips.”
M: “At your fingertips.” It’s a classic for a reason.
M: It’s a shortcut for saying “easily accessible and ready to use.”
J: It immediately gets rid of any fear that the tool is complicated.
M: It signals simplicity. Control.
J: And you might think, “Oh, isn’t that a bit of a cliché?”
M: And maybe it is, but in a 60-second phone call, clarity is more important than creativity.
J: Everyone knows what “at your fingertips” means instantly.
M: You don’t have to explain it.
J: That’s a very fair point. Speed is everything here.
J: Okay, can we go back to the very beginning of his pitch?
J: He didn’t just call it a platform. He used two really important adjectives: “specialized” and “all-in-one.”
M: Yes. These are positioning words.
M: They tell the client exactly how to think about the product.
J: So “specialized” means…
M: It means we’re not generic. We’re focused on solving a specific problem—probably your problem.
J: And “all-in-one” attacks a different pain point.
M: Nobody wants to pay for five different apps that do similar things.
J: So it’s both focused and comprehensive.
M: That’s a really smart way to frame it.
J: It is. And you can see it works because Hana stays on the line.
M: But she’s still skeptical. Her next question is all about logistics.
J: “Does it work well for remote collaboration?”
M: A critical question in today’s world.
M: “Remote collaboration” is just, you know, a professional way of saying “working together when you’re not in the same office.”
J: And the fact that Eric could just say “Yes,” immediately, and even add “cross-border use”…
M: It shows he understands the modern workplace. He’s prepared for that question.
J: And this brings us to Hana’s final set of worries, which are all about risk.
M: She asks, “Is it difficult to set up?”
J: Right. The implementation fear.
M: Exactly. And Eric’s answer here uses two words that are designed to build trust.
J: First, he says it’s “customizable.”
M: Which means you can change it to fit your needs.
J: The verb is “customize.”
M: So “customizable” removes the fear that you’re buying some rigid, one-size-fits-all box that won’t work for your specific team.
M: It promises flexibility.
M: And then he gives her the safety net.
J: The safety net. I like that.
M: He says, “We provide onboarding support.”
J: Let’s talk about “onboarding.” It’s a word you hear everywhere in business now.
M: “Onboarding” is simply the whole process of getting a new client or employee set up and running.
M: It means training, support, integration… all of it.
J: So when he says that, he’s telling Hana, “Don’t worry, we’re not just going to sell this to you and disappear.”
M: “We’ll be there to help you.”
M: It manages her risk. It’s a huge reassurance.
J: Okay, so at this point, he’s done everything right.
J: He’s handled the objection, shown the value, confirmed it works for her team, and calmed her fears about setup.
J: The path is clear.
J: All that’s left is the call to action—the reason he called in the first place.
J: And that all comes down to one verb.
M: Schedule.
J: Schedule.
J: But it’s how he says it that matters.
J: The sentence structure is key.
J: He says, “Could we schedule an online or in-person demo?”
M: “Could we.” Not “can we.”
M: It’s a subtle but really important difference.
J: Why is “could” so much better than “can”?
M: Well, “can we” is just asking about ability. Is it possible?
M: But “could we” is, uh, it’s softer.
M: It’s a polite suggestion.
M: It gives the control back to the client.
J: It sounds less like a demand and more like a collaboration.
M: It’s respectful of their time and their authority.
M: In any professional setting, when you’re proposing a meeting, “could we” is just the gold standard.
M: It’s non-negotiable professional politeness.
J: So let’s just quickly recap those key structures.
J: The opening: “Do you have a minute?”
M: Simple, respectful, and it sets a boundary.
M: They’ve agreed to give you that minute.
J: Then we had the passive structure in the objection: “The market is flooded with.”
M: Which you’ll see used to describe any kind of crowded market situation.
M: It’s a good one to know for reading or listening tests.
J: We also talked about the present perfect tense in “we’ve gone beyond.”
J: To show a completed action with a current benefit.
M: A very powerful persuasive tool.
J: And finally, that idiom: “at your fingertips.”
J: A perfect shortcut for convenience and accessibility.
M: So when you put it all together, it’s a sequence.
M: Acknowledge, pivot with value, use benefit-focused words like “streamline,”
M: Build trust with words like “onboarding,”
M: And then close with that polite “could we” structure.
J: That’s the formula.
J: Every single word has a job to do.
J: And when you understand not just what the words mean, but what they’re doing strategically,
J: That’s when you start to sound professional, confident, and effective.
M: That’s it for today’s Win in 5 Minutes English.
J: Remember, 5 minutes a day is all you need to win at work, win the TOEIC, and win over your colleagues.
M: If you found this episode useful, don’t forget to follow and share it with your friends. See you next time.
J: Goodbye for now.
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