Contributing during a business meeting in English. On this page, we will look at what ways you can say something in a meeting and how you can ask other people to say something.
Make sure you’ve looked at the previous pages in this lesson – how to start a business meeting and staying on topic in a business meeting.
Before we begin, here’s some useful vocabulary that you will see on this page:
- Delegate – to give someone a task to complete
- Clarify – make something clearer / easier to understand
- A department – a part or division of a larger organisation (e.g. the sales department)
- A shortlist – a large list being considered for something reduced down to a smaller number
OK, let’s start with some of the phrases you can use to get other people to contribute to a meeting that you are running:
- Can you tell us how the Human Resources department feels about…?
- How does that affect your department?
- What do you think, Ellen?
- Do you have any input on that?
- What are your thoughts on this?
- Let’s hear what the sales team have to say on this.
- I’ll hand over to Simone from the sales department.
- Eric, I think you might have something to say on this.
- I understand that Patrick has a lot of experience in this, so let’s hear from him.
- Can I get (you) to expand on that?
- I think that’s something that Dave has been working on, so I’ll get him to respond.
Here are some complete examples:
Example 1: So as you know, we’ve recently had some budget cuts in lots of departments. Corinne, can you tell us how the Human Resources department feels about these cuts?
Example 2: The new products will be on sale from next year, so we need to start working on the marketing. David, do you have any input on that?
Now let’s move on the some of the phrases you can use to contribute to a meeting:
- Iād like to add a few words about that.
- Yes, I feel I can contribute to this point.
- My experience in this area might help to clarify the situation.
- Perhaps I could say something here.
- If I could just add…
Example 1:
David: So we’ll be looking to employ at least 5 new people so we can meet our targets.
Joanne: I’d like to add a few words about that. We’ve already had over 30 applicants, and we’re in the process of interviewing each one and should have a shortlist by next week.
Emma: Does anybody have any feedback on how we can increase productivity in the office?
Jean: Yes, I feel I can contribute to this point. One issue that I think we can consider is how the office is set up. Moving the printer to a more central location, for example, would help.