English Vocabulary in Use - 7 At work: careers

telesales

selling or marketing goods and services by phone

telemarketing

selling or marketing goods and services by phone

cold calling

phoning people who have not requested a call in order to try and sell them something

hard sell

attempt to sell something by being very forceful or persuasive

part with their money

spend money

TV shopping channel

a TV channel devoted to selling products

merchandise

products that are bought and sold

hasn’t looked back

has moved forward successfully

purchasing power

the ability to buy goods i.e. the amount of money that have available

shop around

trying different companies or shops to see which offers best value

stocks

keeps a supply of it = **keeps it in stock**

trade something up

usually a car or a house, you buy one that is of higher value than the one you had before (*pop.* = **trade down**)

brand loyalty

confidence in that particular make and a tendency to always choose it

loss leader

selling an item for less than it costs to attract customers so they will also buy the more profitable items - the item being sold at a low price

price

give them a price

niche market

a specialised group of customers with particular interests

auction

sale of goods or property where people make gradually increasing bids and the item is then sold to the highest bidder

lucrative

producing a lot of money

red tape

bureaucracy (negative)

administration

organisation and arrangement of operations

proposition

formal offer

takeover

agreement in which one company takes control of another one

reach a compromise

come to an agreement in which both sides reduce their demands a little

hammer out a deal

talk in detail until a business agreement is made

swallowed up

taken over by a larger company

capital assets

buildings and machines owned by a company

invest in

put money into

start-up

new company

holiday property letting agency

a business organising the rental of holiday houses and flats