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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