hi I'm Gina welcome to Oxford online
English in this lesson you can learn
useful language for business
negotiations you'll learn how to make
your position clear how to accept or
reject the other side's proposals and
how to express yourself in clear
professional sounding English if you
haven't already seen them I suggest you
watch our videos on chairing and
attending meetings negotiations are also
a kind of business meeting and the
language from those videos will also
help you in these situations don't
forget you should also visit our website
oxfordonlineenglish.com you can find
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lessons with one of our professional
teachers if you need more help in this
lesson you'll see a scenario where all
role play a purchaser for a clothing
wholesaler Staniel
will role play the manufacturers
representatives and will be negotiating
a deal let's look at the first part
so let's get started I've read your
proposals and I understand you're
looking for unbranded clothing in a
variety of styles that's right meaning
t-shirts tank tops hoodies zip up tops
and long sleeve tees right correct all
right so my first question is what kind
of volumes are we looking at well we're
a reseller so we rebrand the clothing
and sell it on to retailers we can
potentially move quite a lot of product
but I suggest starting small and scaling
up later we're thinking of starting
around 500 to 1500 units per SKU with
more in popular sizes and colors and
that would be per month or we prefer to
keep things flexible to begin with what
do you have in mind exactly
I'm not against flexibility but
logistics require a certain amount of
forward planning of course let me ask
you something
what's the situation regarding
production and delivery how long does it
take you to process orders it's not
completely fixed but around 2 weeks
larger orders can take more time that's
fine
so here's our situation we don't have a
lot of warehousing space that means we
can't commit to a fixed schedule for
deliveries instead we'll have to make
orders once our stock level is low
enough and we have this space hmm that's
possible one thing you should know we
won't be able to offer the lowest prices
if we can't be sure of your delivery
schedule in advance I understand and for
one product category for example
short-sleeved t-shirts
how many variations of size and color do
you need we need all the common sizes
from extra small to double XL each and
16 colors at the beginning of a
negotiation both sides need to make
their position clear in the
dialogue you saw several ways to do this
can you remember any first you can state
what you want directly like this I
suggest starting small and scaling up
later we're thinking of starting around
500 units per SKU we prefer to keep
things flexible to begin with you can
use this language in other ways for
example I suggest a 6-month contract to
begin with we're thinking of opening new
branches in 15 cities we'd prefer to do
the marketing work ourselves you can
also ask the other side specific
questions to find out what they need in
the dialogue you heard what kind of
volumes are we looking at what's the
situation
regarding production and delivery again
you could use these in different
situations for example what kind of
schedule are we looking at what's the
situation
regarding minimum order volume finally
you can also use open-ended questions to
check information or to get more
information from the other side like
this what do you have in mind exactly
and that would be per month or making a
question by leaving a sentence
unfinished with the word or at the end
is conversational you wouldn't use it in
writing
however in spoken English it's an
effective way of showing that you need
more information and that you want the
other person to finish the idea very
often negotiations depend on setting
conditions what you can offer depends on
what the other side can do let's see how
you can talk about this
okay so if we're ordering around a
hundred thousand units at one time what
kind of per unit pricing can you offer
that depends if you can commit to a
regular delivery schedule or not
assuming that you need a flexible
schedule we could offer six dollars per
unit for tees and tank tops and 15 for
hoodies and zip ups if we need higher
volumes would you be able to go lower
possibly but the schedule is more
important to us
supposing you could commit to a minimum
monthly volume we could go down to 550
and 14 if we commit to a minimum volume
over a six-month period but with the
flexible delivery schedule could you
offer us the same price as long as there
were some limitations on the delivery
timing I think that would be acceptable
the easiest way to express conditions is
with if sentences for example if we're
ordering around 100,000 units at one
time
what kind of per unit pricing can you
offer if we need higher volumes would
you be able to go lower if we commit to
a minimum volume over a six-month period
but with a flexible delivery schedule
could you offer us the same price if
sentences can be used in many ways it's
common to use the modal verbs we'll can
could or would on the other side of the
sentence let's make some more examples
if we commit to a longer contract can
you offer us a better price if we agreed
to pay the licensing costs would that
make the deal work for you however there
are other ways to talk about conditions
can you remember any from the dialogue
you heard
assuming that you need a flexible
schedule we could offer $6 per unit for
tees and tank tops
supposing you could commit to a minimum
monthly volume we could go down to 550
as long as there were some limitations
on the delivery timing I think that
would be acceptable all of these have
the same basic meaning which is like an
if sentence although assuming and
supposing are used when you want to
suggest something which is more
speculative using these shows that
you're talking about possibilities
rather than very firm suggestions which
needs to be accepted or rejected
immediately as long as has the opposite
meaning it sets a very firm condition if
you say as long as there were some
limitations on the delivery timing I
think that would be acceptable you mean
that these limitations are necessary if
you can reach an agreement then that's
great
but what if there is a sticking point
let's work out the details about
delivery and scheduling for us to make
this work at the lower price we'd need
to have monthly deliveries but we could
let you adjust the size of the order to
some extent so that you can manage your
warehousing space I'll come right out
and say that's not going to work for us
flexibility is essential for us our
whole model is based on just-in-time
logistics so there's no way around this
well in that case we won't be able to
offer you the lower price I have no
problem with flexible deliveries as such
but we can't offer our best prices
without a regular commitment on your
part I'm sorry to be blunt but this
seems a little short-sighted on your
part we're potentially looking to order
millions of units each year flexible
delivery doesn't mean that we won't make
our orders regularly it just means that
we need to control the timing and
quantities I understand completely but
you need to realize that we have our own
logistics issues to deal with if we
don't know exactly when and how big an
order will be that creates costs for us
we're not willing to absorb those costs
I feel that if you need this flexibility
then you should be willing to pay for it
I'm sorry but I have to draw a line here
it's simply too risky for us to give you
what you're asking
it seems like we've reached a bit of an
impasse shall we take a five-minute
break good idea if the other side makes
a proposal which you can't accept you
can tell them directly like this we
won't be able to offer you the lower
price we can't offer our best prices
without a regular commitment on your
part we're not willing to absorb those
costs this language is direct but it's
often better to be direct if something
is important you can use this language
in other ways
for example we won't be able to finish
the work in such a short space of time
we can't sign a contract if you can't
guarantee a delivery date we're not
willing to share this technology for
free you can also show that you disagree
by using phrases like I'll come right
out and say that's not going to work for
us there's no way around this I'm sorry
but I have to draw a line here these are
general so you can use them to react to
any suggestion which you strongly
disagree with it's a good idea when
negotiating to keep things calm and
avoid direct criticisms if things get
confrontational you could give everyone
space to cool off by saying shall we
take a five-minute break next let's see
how you can resolve disagreements in a
productive way
right I've spoken to a few people and I
have a proposal which I hope can make
this work for everyone sounds good
what's your idea the problem for us is
that if you don't maintain a certain
monthly volume we might lose money at
the lower prices which obviously we
can't do sure so here's my solution we
have an annual contract with a flexible
delivery schedule but with a minimum
volume per quarter at the end of the
quarter if you haven't met the volume
requirements you're liable for the
difference in price between your orders
and the minimum I like the basic idea
but earlier I suggested a six-month
contract and this sounds like a much
worse deal for us well I want to make
this work but the lower prices only work
if we can guarantee orders over a full
year I'll make another offer you pay 575
for teas and tank tops and 1450 for
hoodies and zip up tops then you can
have a six-month contract with minimum
volume per quarter that's a good offer
but can we have the minimum over the
whole period just to have more
flexibility I can't make more
concessions than I already have I'm
afraid I think this is a good compromise
which allows us to move forwards I need
to call my team to confirm but I think
this should be feasible great when
you've reached an impasse you need to
make suggestions so that you can move
forward to introduce a new idea you
heard this language from the dialogue I
have a proposal which I hope can make
this work for everyone here's my
solution I'll make another offer you can
also ask the other side to suggest their
ideas like this what's your idea
what would you suggest then you need to
react to the other side's ideas
if you agree you could say something
like that's a good offer I think this
should be feasible feasible has a
similar meaning to possible or practical
if something is feasible it means that
you can do it and it won't be difficult
or problematic hopefully at this point
you've managed to reach an agreement if
so what else do you need to do
let's go through the main points you'll
order a minimum of 500,000 units in a
six-month period at a price of 575 for
short-sleeved t-shirts long sleeve
t-shirts and tank tops and 1450 for
hoodies and zipper tops that's right
regarding delivery orders are flexible
but you commit to giving us three weeks
notice
for each order yes we still need to
settle the exact details of sizes colors
and so on of course but from our point
of view that isn't an issue production
costs almost identical okay so we can
work that out later there's also the
matter of penalties in case you don't
meet your minimum volume over the course
of the contract I thought we agreed that
we would simply pay the unit cost for
the shortfall yes but which unit cost we
need to agree separate minimums for the
t-shirts and tank tops and for the
heavier items true but I don't see that
being a problem no me neither so we'll
put this in writing and send you a
provisional agreement within the next
few days if everything looks okay we can
work on getting a contracts drawn up
perfect once you've reached an agreement
you should summarize what you've agreed
and then outline the next steps which
you both need to take you might also
mention points which need to be
discussed later to summarize what you've
agreed you could say let's go through
the main points regarding delivery you
can use regarding to introduce a new
idea
so you could say regarding the pricing
regarding the timetables and so on if
there's something you need to talk about
later you could say we still need to
settle the exact details
there's also the matter of these are
flexible phrases which you can use to
talk about many points like this we
still need to settle the exact details
of the training program there's also the
matter of integration with our existing
software systems finally you need to
agree on the next steps you might say
something like we'll put this in writing
we'll send you a provisional agreement
we can work on getting a contract drawn
up draw up is a phrasal verb which means
right
but it's only used for contracts and
other legal documents do you have any
interesting experiences or tips relating
to business negotiations we'd love to
hear from you so please share your ideas
in the comments thanks for watching see
you next time