Negotiations!
They’re exciting–it means you have the opportunity to work with a new client.
But for some of us, negotiations can also be a little…stressful.
And even if you enjoy negotiations and feel confident doing them in your native language, negotiating in English is difficult.
Especially if you’re wondering if you are saying the right thing in English. Or you can’t find your words.
But with a few new phrases, you can start improving your negotiations right now.
That way you can start feeling more confident in your negotiations.
Today, you’ll learn polite, professional, and confident ways to ask what your client wants and see if your client agrees with your offer. And you’ll learn phrases you’ll need to conclude your negotiations.
I’ve picked 9 essential expressions for you that I think will have the most impact on your negotiations.
Plus, to start things off, I have a dialogue for you.
It will show you exactly how to use these key expressions in a real negotiation in English. If you want to hear the dialogue and all these phrases–be sure to watch today’s video.
Index:
1. Better negotiations in English: advice from a Neurolanguage coach.
2. Better negotiations in English: start with this dialogue.
3. Better negotiations in English: Expressions to help you listen to your client and understand their needs.
4. Better negotiations in English: Expressions you can use to ask what your client thinks about your offer.
5. Better negotiations in English: How to close the negotiations.
1. Better negotiations in English: advice from a Neurolanguage coach.
I run my business in France and so I have to negotiate in French. And negotiations can mean pressure! If you fee like you have to learn a lot–right now–you’re not alone.
But I’m also a Neurolanguage coach–so I want to remind you to relax.
And focus on the most important expressions you can practice today.
Take a small step. Learn these REALLY WELL.
Practice them a bit each day.
See if you can use them with a conversation partner, or your English teacher.
Then use them in real life and see how your confidence improves.
And here’s a little more advice–start by discovering these new phrases in a dialogue.
2. Better negotiations in English: start with this dialogue.
Here’s another piece of advice from my Neurolanguage training.
If your goal is to learn these 9 new phrases today and feel more confident with your negotiations in English…
Start by reviewing this dialogue.
It’s the smart and brain-friendly way to learn.
As a Neurolanguage coach, I know you need to hear these expressions in context.
That is–the way they would normally be used, in an authentic conversation between native speakers.
Your first job is to take a look at this dialogue (or listen to it when you watch the video).
All you have to do is see if you understand–especially the key expressions you see in bold.
We’ll talk more about how to use them after. For now, just focus on ONE thing–noticing and understanding.
Business Negotiations in English: A dialogue.
YOU: Hello, it’s great to meet you in person so we can talk about your new project. Can you tell me a little more? What would you like to accomplish?
YOUR CLIENT: We’d like to offer training to all of our staff. We want them to be great negotiators!
YOU: That sounds like a wonderful idea. And how we can help you reach your goals?
YOUR CLIENT: What we’re interested in is a full-time immersion for our entire team. We’d like to focus on just this skill for one week at least.
YOU: So, if I understand you correctly, you’d like your entire sales team to focus only on this training, during all of their normal working hours. For a week. Or perhaps more. Is that right?
YOUR CLIENT: Yes, but we can only do that during one of the weeks when business is usually slow. But yes, that’s the idea.
YOU: That’s definitely something we can do. We can offer you a one-week training session for your entire sales team, during your slow season. We’ll add a second trainer so that your team can work in small groups. How does that sound?
YOUR CLIENT: It sounds great. But since we’re a large team and we are planning our training well in advance, I was wondering if you could also provide us with an extra session on negotiations in English. For the same price…
YOU: That’s a fair suggestion. We could offer you the English training during your week-long training free of charge.
YOUR CLIENT: Perfect. I think that’s everything.
YOU: I think we have a deal. I’m looking forward to working with you.
Also check out my lesson: Words you need to know to understand a meeting in English.
3. Better negotiations in English: Expressions to help you listen to your client and understand their needs.
Now that you’ve had a chance to listen to this short negotiation in English, let’s talk about those expressions you heard. That way, you’ll be able to use them too.
We’re going to begin with phrases that will help you listen to your client and understand what he/she wants.
Of course, you’ll want to know exactly what your client wants to gain from working with you. Here are some phrases you can use:
1. To find out what your client wants to do try one of these expressions:
What would you like to do?
What would you like to achieve/accomplish?
What are your goals?
2. To ask what your client wants from you or your company, you can use one of these:
What do you expect from our company?
What do you expect from our work together?
How can we help you reach your goals?
3. To find out what your client wants to say more precisely, or to clarify, use these expressions:
What do you mean by _______(a word usually).
For example:
What do you mean by full-time training? How many hours a week would that be for your team?
When you say ____ what do you mean?
For example:
When you say you’d like an immersive training experience, what do you mean by that exactly? Can you tell me more?
Now that you understand what your client wants to gain by working with you, you’re ready for the next step. Asking what they think of your offer!
4. Better negotiations in English: Expressions you can use to ask what your client thinks about your offer.
In your negotiation, you’ll definitely want to ask your client his or her opinion. Here are some professional ways you can do that:
4. What do you think…
Yes, it really is quite simple this time! You could ask,
What do you think about that?
What do you think about our offer (our proposal? the plan I’ve presented/ the schedule…)
5. Or you could use an expression very common with native speakers to find out what your client thinks:
How does that sound?
How does that sound to you?
How does a free training session sound to you?
This is another way of asking your client what they think.
6. If your client is hesitating, and you want them to make a suggestion ask this:
This expression isn’t in the dialogue, but you might need it someday.
Maybe you can see that the negotiations are not moving forward as you’d like.
You’d like your client to be clear about what he or she would need to work with you.
Here’s an extra expression you could try:
What would it take for us to be able to work with you?
What would it take for this proposal to work for you?
Asking this can help the person you’re negotiating with make suggestions that can help the negotiation. You both win!
Maybe you’ll even start to agree on some details.
So it might be time to close the negotiation.
Also check out my lesson: How to pitch your business in conversations in English.
5. Better negotiations in English: How to close the negotiations.
After all that hard work, you’ll want to make sure you know how to close your negotiation with confidence!
Here are some phrases you can learn to make sure everyone understands. And your work together starts off well:
7. To make sure everyone understands your agreement try one of these:
I would like to clarify our position. (And then you explain anything you need to).
OR you can say,
Just to clarify… (And then restate what you understood from the conversation.)
8. To show your client you understand his or her point and you agree with their suggestion, say:
That’s a fair suggestion.
You could follow up by making some suggestions that will help your client accept your offer.
We could….
We are prepared to…
What we could do is…
9. And if everything goes well, you get to close your negotiation with one of these phrases:
It’s a deal.
We have a deal.
I think we have a deal.
Also check out my lesson: How to prepare better conversations in English and save time too.
Take the next step: Improve your English in the comments
The best way to become more confident using Business English is to practice!
Here’s your weekly challenge for this week:
- Tell me one expression you plan to learn for your future negotiations today.
- Use it in an example sentence that you could use in real life.
If you learned something from this lesson, please share it with your coworkers & friends. You can send your message to them in English for more practice!
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Christina
Every time that a see your videos I understood so clear what you say. Congratulations.