Negotiation is the art of improving what you can obtain. It is a fundamental skill to have in business today. Everybody wants to obtain the best deal possible when they negotiate, either for themselves or for their company.
There are different techniques/strategies you can use when you want to do this when negotiating in English. You can use persuasion, force or logic. The one you choose depends on who you are negotiating with and how they respond to what you say.
In this online exercise on negotiations, we will both look at and I will explain the purpose of certain phrases in English which are used in business negotiations when people want to improve their side of a deal. In addition, we will also look at how to react to these, and how to suggest a compromise.
Click here to see more of our free online exercises on business negotiation vocabulary
Read the following negotiation between a television manufacturer and a components company for a two-year contract for components. Bill is representing the television company and Fleur is representing the component company.
From the context, try to guess what the meaning of the words/phrases in bold are. Then do the quiz at the end to check if you are right.
Fleur:'So, we could supply you with 40,000 components per month, for a two-year period at a unit cost of $4.35 per component.'
Bill:'There seems to have been a slight misunderstanding. You do realise that we want to order nearly a million components. And for that quantity, the price per unit does seem to be very high.'
Fleur:'We have taken into account the size of the order you require. And we have reduced the unit price markedly from what we normally ask. In terms of unit price, what were you thinking of?'
Bill:'Well, we were hoping for something around $3.40 per unit. Please bear in mind that we want to order nearly a million components, not a thousand.'
Fleur:'$3.40 per unit. I am afraid that is out of the question. If we sold it to you at that price, we would be making loss on every unit sold.'
Bill:'Well, we have received a quote from one of your competitors at $3.53 per unit.'
Fleur:'I am afraid that we can't match that. But if I were you, I would be asking myself how can they sell the components at such a low price? I would say that they are sacrificing the quality of the component for price. But there may be some room for manoeuvre. If you were to increase your order to 50,000 components per month, then we could lower the unit cost to $4.15.'
Bill:'For 50,000 units per month we wouldn't expect to pay more than $3.85 per unit. I would say that this price is the going rate for the quantity.'
Fleur:'I don't think that we could go that far. Under $4 per unit. It's too low.'
Bill:'Well, could you meet us halfway? At $4 per unit?'
Fleur:'If that's $4 per unit, 50,000 per month for 2 years. I think we can do that.'
Match the words/phrases in bold from the above text to each of the definitions/descriptions below. Click on the "Check" button at the bottom of the quiz to check your answers.
When the answer is correct, two icons will appear below the answer. The "" icon contains extra information on the word/phrase. In the "" icon, you can listen to the pronunciation of the word/phrase.
Now that you understand the meaning of the words/phrases and when to use them, practise using them by creating your own sentences with them in English. Also click on the "" icon under each correct answer and listen how each is pronounced correctly.
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