Successful negotiations in English

There will be many occasions in which you might find yourself having to negotiate with an English-speaking person in business: to ask for a pay rise or promotion, to get the best possible deal from your suppliers, or even to make social arrangements with your colleagues.

Ideally, in any negotiation, you can give the other party what they want, and they can also give you what you want. But in some situations, one person has to compromise and will probably try to negotiate something in return. The important thing is that both parties feel happy with the final outcome: a "win-win" situation.

Although some negotiations are more "important" than others, there are some useful phrases you can use at different stages of the negotiation to make your position clear and to make sure that the other party are in agreement with you.

Preparation for the negotiation

It goes without saying that the better prepared you are, the more likely you are to get what you want. Think about your goals - as well as those of the opposing party - to make sure you are clear about what you want. What can you trade with the other party? Do you have any alternatives that are acceptable to you? If you can also work out possible solutions, then it is easier to find an acceptable outcome. Finally, you should be clear about your "bottom line": the point at which you can offer no more. In rare cases you may even have to be prepared to walk away from the negotiation if you reach a stalemate: a position from which it is impossible to negotiate any more.

Starting and outlining your position

I'd like to begin by saying…

I'd like to outline our aims and objectives.

There are two main areas that we'd like to concentrate on / discuss.

Agreeing

We agree.

This is a fair suggestion.

You have a good point.

I can't see any problem with that.

Provided / As long as you….. we will….

Disagreeing

I'm afraid that's not acceptable to us.

I'm afraid we can't agree with you there.

Can I just pick you up on a point you made earlier.

I understand where you're coming from / your position, but…

We're prepared to compromise, but…

If you look at it from our point of view,…

As we see it…

That's not exactly as we see it.

Is that your best offer?

Clarifying

Does anything I have suggested / proposed seem unclear to you?

I'd like to clarify our position.

What do you mean exactly when you say….

Could you clarify your last point for me?

Summarising

Can we summarise what we've agreed so far?

Let's look at the points we agree on.

So the next step is…

Language points

During a negotiation, you're likely to hear "if" sentences, as the negotiation moves from the stage of exploring issues to the stage of making a deal.
If you increased the order size, we could / would reduce the price. (2nd conditional - exploring the issue) So, we'll reduce the price by 5% if you increase the order by 5%. (1st conditional - making a deal)

You might also hear "unless" (=if not), "as long as" and "provided (that)" instead of if:

As long as you increase your order, we can give you a greater discount.

Unless you increase your order, we won't be able to give you a bigger discount.

Provided you increase your order, we can give you a bigger discount.


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English presentation skills - vocabulary

Overviews

After you give your opening statement, you should give a brief overview of your presentation. This includes what your presentation is about, how long you will take and how you are going to handle questions.

For example, a presentation to sales staff could start like this:"Welcome / "Hello everyone."

Opening statement

"As you all know, this company is losing its market share. But we are being asked to increasesales by 20 – 25%. How can we possibly increase sales in a shrinking market?"

Overview

"Today I am going to talk to you about how we can do this. My presentation will be in three parts. Firstly I am going to look at the market and the background. Then I am going to talk to you about our new products and how they fit in. Finally, I'm going to examine some selling strategies that will help us increase our sales by 20%. The presentation will probably take around 20 minutes. There will be time for questions at the end of my talk."

Useful language for overviews

"My presentation is in three parts."

"My presentation is divided into three main sections."

"Firstly, secondly, thirdly, finally…"

"I'm going to…take a look at…talk about…examine…tell you something about the background…give you some facts and figures…fill you in on the history of…concentrate on…limit myself to the question of…
"Please feel free to interrupt me if you have questions."

"There will be time for questions at the end of the presentation."

"I'd be grateful if you could ask your questions after the presentation."

The main body of the presentation

During your presentation, it’s a good idea to remind your audience occasionally of the benefit of what you are saying.

"As I said at the beginning…"

"This, of course, will help you (to achieve the 20% increase)."

"As you remember, we are concerned with…"

"This ties in with my original statement…"

"This relates directly to the question I put to you before…"

Keeping your audience with you

Remember that what you are saying is new to your audience. You are clear about the structure of your talk, but let your audience know when you are moving on to a new point. You can do this by saying something like "right", or "OK". You can also use some of the following expressions:

"I'd now like to move on to…"

"I'd like to turn to…"

"That's all I have to say about…"

"Now I'd like to look at…"

"This leads me to my next point…"

If you are using index cards (see the previous article), putting the link on the cards will help you remember to keep the audience with you. In addition, by glancing at your index cards you will be pausing - this will also help your audience to realise that you are moving on to something new.

Language for using visuals

It's important to introduce your visual to the audience. You can use the following phrases:

"This graph shows you…"

"Take a look at this…"

"If you look at this, you will see…"

"I'd like you to look at this…"

"This chart illustrates the figures…"

"This graph gives you a break down of…"

Give your audience enough time to absorb the information on the visual. Pause to allow them to look at the information and then explain why the visual is important:

"As you can see…"

"This clearly shows …"

"From this, we can understand how / why…"

"This area of the chart is interesting…"

Summarising

At the end of your presentation, you should summarise your talk and remind the audience of what you have told them:

"That brings me to the end of my presentation. I've talked about…"

"Well, that's about it for now. We've covered…"

"So, that was our marketing strategy. In brief, we…"

"To summarise, I…"

Relate the end of your presentation to your opening statement:

"So I hope that you're a little clearer on how we can achieve sales growth of 20%."

"To return to the original question, we can achieve…"

"So just to round the talk off, I want to go back to the beginning when I asked you…"

"I hope that my presentation today will help you with what I said at the beginning…"

Handling questions

Thank the audience for their attention and invite questions.

"Thank you for listening - and now if there are any questions, I would be pleased to answer them."

"That brings me to the end of my presentation. Thank you for your attention. I'd be glad to answer any questions you might have."

It’s useful to re-word the question, as you can check that you have understood the question and you can give yourself some time to think of an answer. By asking the question again you also make sure that other people in the audience understand the question.

"Thank you. So you would like further clarification on our strategy?"

"That's an interesting question. How are we going to get voluntary redundancy?"

"Thank you for asking. What is our plan for next year?"

After you have answered your question, check that the person who asked you is happy with the answer.

"Does this answer your question?"

"Do you follow what I am saying?"

"I hope this explains the situation for you."

"I hope this was what you wanted to hear!"

If you don't know the answer to a question, say you don't know. It's better to admit to not knowing something than to guess and maybe get it wrong. You can say something like:

"That's an interesting question. I don't actually know off the top of my head, but I'll try to get back to you later with an answer."

"I'm afraid I'm unable to answer that at the moment. Perhaps I can get back to you later."

"Good question. I really don't know! What do you think?"

"That's a very good question. However, we don't have any figures on that, so I can't give you an accurate answer."

"Unfortunately, I'm not the best person to answer that."

What can you say if things go wrong?

You think you've lost your audience? Rephrase what you have said:

"Let me just say that in another way."

"Perhaps I can rephrase that."

"Put another way, this means…"

"What I mean to say is…"

Can't remember the word?

If it's a difficult word for you - one that you often forget, or one that you have difficulty pronouncing - you should write it on your index card. Pause briefly, look down at your index card and say the word.

Using your voice

Don't speak in a flat monotone - this will bore your audience. By varying your speed and tone, you will be able to keep your audience's attention. Practise emphasising key words and pause in the right places - usually in between ideas in a sentence. For example "The first strategy involves getting to know our market (pause) and finding out what they want. (pause) Customer surveys (pause) as well as staff training (pause) will help us do this."

Don't forget - if you speak too fast you will lose your audience!

Avoid the top ten presentation mistakes.


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English presentation skills

At some time or other, most of us will have to give a presentation. The idea of speaking in public can be frightening enough if you're a native English speaker, but it's even more so if English is your second language.

In this first article on presentation skills, we show you how to take the stress out of giving presentations with eight tips to help you plan a perfect presentation.

1. Know your audience
To give an effective presentation, you need to know something about your audience. How good is their English? How much do they know about the subject of your talk? Why will they be interested in listening to you? It’s a good idea to find out who is attending your presentation so that you can make the information relevant and interesting to them. For example, a presentation on your company’s financial results to financial analysts will focus on results, reasons and analysis. A presentation on new auditing software will focus on the benefits and features of the software.

Also ask yourself what you want to achieve from your presentation. Sales presentations are different from information-giving presentations, for example. It’s always a good idea to work out what you want your audience to think or do at the end of your talk, as this will help you focus on the language and content of your presentation.

2. Use a strong opening statement or question to interest your audience
The first minute of your presentation is crucial. In this time you should interest your audience and give them a reason to listen to you. What you say in the first minute depends on your audience and their interests, but it must mean something important to them. Perhaps it is a problem that you know how to solve, or a fact or statistic that they need to know.

3. Don’t forget the physical details
You’ll need to make sure the room is big enough for the number of people attending, and that you have all the equipment you need. Find out when you are giving your presentation – your audience may be less attentive if it’s right before lunch or at the end of the week and you’ll need to make especially sure that the presentation is interesting if it’s at a difficult time.

4. Plan the content of your presentation
Planning helps you focus on your presentation goals, and minimises the chances of anything going wrong.

If you know who you are talking to and why you are talking to them, you can put yourself in your audience's position. You can decide what information to include and how to order it.

Aim to speak for no longer than 30 minutes, and leave time for questions and answers at the end. Remember that it’s difficult to absorb lots of new information, so don’t aim to include too much.

Many presentations are divided into five areas:

a) The introduction (Get someone else to introduce you to the audience. This gives you credibility as a speaker and means that you don't have to waste time telling people who you are and why you are there)

b) The overview

c) The main body of the presentation

d) Your summary

e) A question and answer session

Make brief notes about all the points you want to make in your presentation and make a plan. Organise your presentation into main points and supporting evidence.
During the presentation, remember that it is a good idea to refer back to your opening statement and remind your audience why they are listening to you.

5. Use index cards
Put your points on individual index cards to help you during the presentation. If you put the key words onto cards (1 card for 1 key word or point) you can refer to them at any time if you forget where you are in the presentation.

Use your index cards for any words that you might find difficult to remember, or words that are difficult to pronounce.

You can also use the index cards to write the links between points, such as:“this brings me to…”“now I’d like to move on to..”“Right…”

6. Keep visuals simple
Don't put too much information in visuals and only use them to illustrate information that would otherwise take too long to explain.

Simple graphic visuals such as pie charts and bar graphs work better than visuals with lots of labelling or words. Use colour and different fonts to help information stand out.

7. Practice makes perfect!
Practise your presentation as often as you can using your index cards. By practising, you will know how long it will take, and where the difficult areas are in your talk. The more you practise, the more confident you will feel!

8. Prepare questions and answers
You're likely to have questions at the end of your presentation, so try to think of some in advance, as well as possible answers. The more you prepare these, the better you'll feel able to deal with them.


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Making telephone calls

Making and receiving telephone calls is one of the hardest skills in English. As we can't see the person we're speaking to, we can't use the usual non-linguistic signs (gestures, facial expressions etc) to help us understand the other person.

However, we often use standard phrases during a phone call, and learning these will help you not only understand what the other person is saying, but also direct the telephone conversation so that you can communicate your message successfully and concisely.

Here is a list of useful telephoning phrases. As a suggestion, print them out and keep them by the phone for handy reference.

Introducing yourself

Good morning / Hello.
This is (name) from (company).
My name is…

Asking to speak to someone

Could I speak to X please?

I'd like to speak to X please.

Could you put me through to X please?

When you answer the phone

Good morning / Hello.

Sarah Jones speaking.
If the caller has asked for you by name, say "Speaking!"

Asking for caller identification
May I say who's calling?
Could I have your name please?
Who's calling please?

Saying why you are calling
I'm calling to… / about ….
I'm phoning about….

Saying that someone is not available

I'm sorry, but (name)…… isn't here at the moment… is out of the office… away from his/her desk…. is in a meeting.
I'm sorry, but the line is engaged / X is on another call.

Offering to take a message

Would you like to leave a message?
Can I take a message?
Can I take your name and number?

Leaving a message
Could you ask X to call me back please?
Can I leave a message for X?

Promising action
I'll give X your message as soon as he / she comes back.
I'll pass your message on.

Saying goodbye
Thank you for calling.

If you don't understand what the other person is saying
Sorry? / Pardon?
Could you repeat that please?
Sorry, I can't hear you.
Can you spell that please?


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