Business English Polite Negotiations Advanced Professional English

hi i’m vanessa from speak english with

vanessa calm are you ready to negotiate

let’s talk about it

negotiating is a really important skill

to have in life and especially in

business and today i want to talk about

three different expressions or sentences

that you can use to negotiate politely

in a business situation but you can also

use these in your daily life let’s start

with the first one let’s imagine that

your boss tells you that he’d like to

have a meeting next week and this

meeting is really important you’re gonna

be talking about the whole quarters data

so you’re gonna need to compile the data

create a good way to present it and talk

with a lot of different team members in

order to prepare for the meeting so it’s

a lot of work but you’re not sure if

you’re gonna be ready by next week so

how can you politely suggest or

negotiate with your boss to maybe change

the time of the meeting well let’s

imagine that you are a therapist a great

way to negotiate to start negotiations

is to imagine yourself as a therapist a

therapist hardly ever gives direct

advice they usually ask a question or

try to indirectly get you to come to the

same conclusion that they are thinking

as well so in our first example it’s the

most indirect and this isn’t an

emergency situation of course in an

emergency situation you need to be

direct as direct as possible but for

this meeting situation or problem

concern that you have you can start out

with an indirect question you could say

I see that you’d like to have the

meeting next week do you think we’ll be

ready by then ooh why is this a good

negotiation statement well first of all

in the beat

Jenny you said I see that you’d like to

have the meeting next week you are

repeating what your boss said so your

boss knows that you are listening you

understand exactly what he’s thinking

and you’re asking him a question so

you’re asking his advice usually in this

way it makes the boss have to think

about it themselves do you think that

will be ready in time

you’re not saying we won’t be ready

you’re asking what do you think and

maybe if the boss thinks about it a

little bit maybe he’ll say oh you know

maybe we won’t be ready in time or if he

thinks that it’s possible to be ready in

time he’ll let you know but this is

letting him think about it just a little

bit more so this indirect negotiation is

a good way to start talking about a

concern that you have do you think that

will be ready on time

asking the other person what do you

think the second way to negotiate is

becoming a little more direct so let’s

have the same situation your boss wants

to have a meeting but you’re not sure if

you’ll be ready in time you can say I

see that you’d like to have the meeting

next week we are concerned that the data

won’t be ready in time ooh what kind of

statement did we use here it’s not a

question it’s not asking do you think

we’ll be ready in time it’s a little

stronger but you didn’t say I you’re

talking about your team we don’t think

that the data will be ready by next week

when you talk about a team it shows that

you have support and it’s also kind of

indirectly putting the attention away

from yourself so in this way you can be

a little more direct without being too

strong we are concerned that the data

might not be ready by next week we think

that possibly the data won’t be ready by

next week using

instead of just I don’t think it will be

ready the third and most direct way to

negotiate to get someone else to come to

the same conclusion that you have is to

really tell them directly but politely

so you could say I see that you’d like

to have the meeting next week well I’m

afraid we aren’t going to have the data

ready in time would it be possible to

reschedule it for two weeks so here

you’re combining some of these ideas

you’re using we we aren’t going to be

able to have the data ready and also a

question would it be possible to

reschedule the meeting

you’re still appealing to your boss he

is the one in charge so you’re asking

him would it be possible and it’s giving

him the chance to say oh no we really

need to work hard and get it finished in

one week or he could say okay two weeks

that’s fine if you want to add a little

bit more to your direct statement

because you feel it’s really unlikely

that you’re gonna have the data ready in

time you can add a little bit more every

boss wants to be efficient not waste

time so you can say at the end of this

would it be possible to reschedule the

meeting in two weeks I want to make sure

that we will have a profitable and

efficient meeting who it shows that

you’re not lazy you don’t want to push

the meeting to another time because you

don’t want to work

no it means if the meeting is earlier it

might not be as profitable it might not

be as efficient because you won’t have

enough time to work hard to prepare so

if you want to add a little bit more

bosses love to hear these kinds of

things because it’s true you want to

have a profitable and efficient time so

we could say would it be possible to

reschedule the meeting for two weeks

because I think it would be a more

profitable and efficient meeting

beautiful a great way to show what you

would like and also not be too direct

about it I hope that these three styles

of negotiation indirect a little bit

more direct and more direct are useful

for you and you can use these now I have

a question for you can you make a

sentence or a question using these

styles of negotiation in the comments

it’s your turn to use this and as you go

about your job as you go to your job and

hear people using English listen for

these kinds of statements I’m sure that

you’ll hear them because people use them

all the time thanks so much for learning

with me and I’ll see you the next time

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