Describe Trends in Business English Describing Statistics Sales and Market Trends

Hi, I’m Kasia.

In this lesson, you can learn how 
to describe trends and statistics,  

with a focus on business English use. That means 
you’ll learn how to describe sales figures,  

market trends, and company successes or failures.

You’ll see useful language to talk 
about statistics in different ways,  

including how to describe line graphs, proportions 
and pie charts, and comparing different trends.

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right now to turn on English subtitles if you need 
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Now, let’s look at our first topic: how to 
describe sales figures in different time periods. 

Sales to the 18 to 35 age group increased 
consistently over the year. Sales rose from  

just under two million in the first quarter 
to a little over two million by the end of Q4.

Sales were strongest overall 
to the 36 to 50 demographic,  

with figures improving by five million between 
Q1 and Q3. However, the most spectacular  

results were seen in Q4; sales doubled 
from Q3, reaching a peak of 15 million.

For the 51 to 65 group, results were 
solid but there was only a negligible  

increase for the full year. Sales 
initially fell between Q1 and Q2,  

but recovered from four million in 
Q2 to 6.5 million by the end of Q4.

Finally, sales to those aged 66 and up 
decreased steadily throughout the year.  

Sales fell from eight million in the first 
quarter to two million by the end of Q4. There  

was a particularly pronounced decline between 
Q2 and Q3, when sales dropped by three million. 

Look at a sentence. 

What word could you use to complete the 
sentence? There’s more than one possible  

answer! Pause the video and think about 
it. Try to get as many answers as you can. 

You could say: ‘Sales increased 
from 150 million to 200 million.’ 

Or, you could say: ‘Sales rose 
from 150 million to 200 million.’

You could also say ‘grew’, ‘improved’,  

or ‘climbed’. Note that you can only use ‘improve’ 
if you’re talking about something positive. 

All these verbs follow the same pattern.
However, you can use them in other ways.  

Look at two sentences.
Do you know the difference? Could you explain it? 

Let’s do this by example. 

If these are the figures, which is correct? 
Did sales increase to 1,000, or by 1,000?

The correct answer is: ‘Sales increased  

to 1,000’. What about ‘increased 
by’? What would the numbers look like? 

If sales increased by 1,000, 
the numbers might look like this. 

The same rule works with the other verbs you saw 
before: ‘rise’, ‘grow’, ‘improve’ and ‘climb’.

Look at one more sentence: 

How many words could you use 
to complete this sentence? 

You could say ‘decrease’, but again 
there are other possibilities;  

‘fall’ and ‘drop’ are also common. You could also 
use ‘decline’, although it’s rarer as a verb.

You can use the same patterns you saw before. 
For example, you can say that something  

decreased from something to something. 
Or, you can use ‘by’ after these verbs.

Finally, many of these verbs can also be used 
as nouns. For example: ‘There was a large  

increase in sales figures in 
the first quarter of the year.’ 

‘There was a steady fall in 
advertising revenues throughout 2019.’ 

‘We experienced a sudden drop 
in web traffic in August.’ 

In some cases, the noun form is 
different, as in ‘grow - growth’, 

or ‘improve - improvement’.
You can use these nouns in the way you just saw.  

For example: ‘There was a steady growth 
in advertising revenues throughout 2019.’

Now, you should have many 
different ways to describe trends.  

Let’s see how you can describe 
percentages and proportions.

More than half (55%) of our sales were vehicle 
insurance. The second highest performer was  

home insurance, making up one-fifth of policies 
sold. Life and health insurance each comprised  

ten per cent of total sales, while travel 
insurance accounted for the smallest  

percentage of sales, at just five per cent.
If you want to talk about percentages and  

proportions, you’ll need to use different language 
compared to talking about trends and quantities.

Look at some sentences you 
heard in the presentation. 

Can you remember the missing words? Pause the 
video and try to find the answers. If you want,  

you can also go back and review the presentation.

Ready? Let’s check.

To talk about proportions, you might need to 
talk about fractions, like in sentence one.

Do you know other words for fractions in English? 

You can say ‘a third’, ‘a quarter’, ‘a fifth’, 
and so on. Then, you can add words like  

‘more than’ or ‘less than’ to 
describe things more accurately.

For example: ‘Less than a third of customers 
said they would recommend us to a friend.’ 

‘More than three quarters of 
purchases were through our website.’ 

You might also need verbs like 
‘comprise’ or ‘account for. 

A similar verb is ‘make up’. You heard ‘The 
second highest performer was home insurance,  

making up one-fifth of policies sold.’
You can use these verbs with percentages  

or fractions. For example, you can say ‘Clothing 
sales accounted for 80% of our revenue last year.’ 

Or, you could say ‘Clothing sales accounted 
for four-fifths of our revenue last year.’

Again, you can add a modifier, like ‘more than’ 
or ‘approximately’, if you need to. For example:  

‘Clothing sales accounted for approximately 
four-fifths of our revenue last year.’ 

Or: ‘Clothing sales accounted for just 
under four-fifths of our revenue last year.’ 

In this way, you can describe a wide range 
of figures as precisely as you need to.

Let’s move on to our next point: 
describing rates of change.

In Europe, the number of new customers fluctuated 
between 2017 and 2020, but overall numbers  

remained constant, with figures for 2020 very 
close to those for the beginning of the period.

In Asia, numbers increased in every year, but 
between 2019 and 2020 there was a dramatic rise,  

reaching a peak of 30 million 
new customers gained in 2020.

Customer acquisition in the 
Americas saw steady growth,  

with numbers rising by around 
five million each year.

In the Middle East and North Africa, the number 
of new customers collapsed between 2017 and 2018,  

reaching a low point of just half a 
million in 2018. Customer acquisition  

figures then levelled off, with only small 
fluctuations over the remaining period. 

Let’s look at some language 
you saw in the presentation. 

Look at the highlighted words. Imagine that you 
want to explain what they mean to a colleague  

who hasn’t seen them before. How would you 
explain the words in English? Think about it! 

If a figure fluctuates, it moves up and 
down, but the overall change is small.  

Here, it means that the 
number increased and decreased  

in different years, but that the number 
in 2020 was close to the number for 2017. 

A dramatic rise means a really large, sudden 
increase. ‘Dramatic’ is a strong word,  

so don’t overuse it – save it for exceptional 
cases. If you want other words to describe  

a large increase, you could say ‘a significant 
rise’, ‘a considerable rise’ or ‘a large rise’.

Remember that ‘increase’ can also be used as 
a noun, so you can say ‘a dramatic rise’ or ‘a  

dramatic increase’. You can say ‘a significant 
rise’ or ‘a significant increase’, and so on. 

‘Steady growth’ means that something increases 
at a constant rate over a period of time.  

You can also say ‘gradual growth’ or 
‘continuous growth’, with a similar meaning. 

Finally, in sentence four, 
‘collapse’ means to decrease  

by a large amount in a short time. ‘Collapse’ has 
the meaning of something negative or destructive.  

Generally, if something collapses, 
then it doesn’t exist any more.

‘Collapse’ can be a verb or a noun. 
You can use it as a noun like this:  

‘After the collapse of the company, 
thousands were made redundant.’

Now, let’s look at our final point.

2020 was a strong year for our vehicle insurance 
arm. In fact, in the second half of the year,  

sales hit their highest levels ever, which made 
a significant contribution to our record profits  

for the year. The home insurance division 
also did well, with a solid performance  

throughout 2020. Although life insurance 
constituted a small proportion of our total,  

sales nonetheless outperformed expectations, and 
we’re hoping to build on that growth in 2021.

On the other hand, our health insurance 
division had a disappointing year,  

with sales falling well below expectations. 
Challenging market conditions led to a significant  

increase in customer acquisition costs, meaning 
that profitability was also negatively impacted.  

Sales of travel insurance were also poor, 
although broadly in line with predictions. 

Look at some sentences from the presentation 
relating to a strong sales performance. 

Can you remember or guess the missing words? 
Pause the video and try to find your answers. 

Let’s take a look. 

Sales figures can be strong if they’re 
better than expected. You can also use  

general words like ‘good’ or ‘excellent’.
In sentence two, you can also say ‘reached’.  

If sales hit their highest levels ever, then 
you could say that you set a new record.

You set a new record when you reach a level 
which is better than you ever have in the past. 

In sentence three, ‘outperform’ means to 
perform better than expected. The opposite verb  

is ‘underperform’, so if figures are  

worse than expected, you could say that 
a department or a company underperformed. 

What about if sales were poor? 
Look at three more sentences. 

Can you remember the missing words? You know what 
to do! Pause the video and get your answers now. 

Could you remember? Let’s look together.
If sales are worse than you expected,  

you could also describe them as 
‘weak’, ‘poor’, or just ‘bad’. 

In sentence two, ‘challenging’ means 
something like ‘difficult’. ‘Challenging  

market conditions’ means that doing business 
and making sales is harder than it normally is. 

Don’t forget: the presentations contain 
many more examples of language you can use  

to describe market trends and company performance.  

Review them several times and find words 
and phrases which you can use in your work!

Thanks for watching!

See you next time!