Business English: Negotiations

The power of negotiation is a great skill to have. The ability to convince, persuade, and even manipulate the person you are speaking to is a great asset for any company in the world of business. In the world of international business you are going to need some phrases to help you negotiate in English. Below you can find some useful phrases for you to use the next time you find yourself negotiating. You can find a print friendly version of the phrases in a PDF file here.

Asking what they want

What do you expect to get from this?

What are you expectations?

Where do you see this going?

What is suitable for you?

What is the best offer for you?

Details of an offer

It includes....

It (does not) covers/includes.

Over time we expect (this to happen/change) and (this to happen/change)

In the short-term....

What we are purposing/offering is...

To start with we want... and then over time we..

Highlighting a problem

The problem with that is...

That isn't going to work because..

The flaw in that is..

That isn't going to be possible because..

That doesn't goes with our plans and therefore...

That doesn't meet our expectations as we...

Clarifying

Could you clarify the part about...

I'm not sure I fully understand the part about... can you elaborate?

I'm afraid I don't follow, could you explain it in another way

Could you break down exactly each part?

So, as I understand it you are offering....

What exactly are you offering?

Offering a solution to a problem

To overcome this we can…

To avoid (ing)... we will/can..

To tackle this we aim to...

To deal with this problem, we plan to...

Making your offer

Here is what we are prepared to offer..

We are prepared to offer. you..

We could offer...

We are in a position to offer you...

Making a counter offer

What about if we...

We are prepared to... if you....

We would rather....

How about giving us.... instead of

We would be happy if you gave us...

Checking final offer

So we are agreed on...

So the final offer stands at...

So just to clarify the offer on the table is...

So you are offering us... and we are offering...

Accepting

That works for us

We are prepared to accept that

That meets our expectations

That's perfect for us

So if everyone agrees that' is final

That isn't a problem for us and we are happy to accept that offer

Postponing

We can't confirm that now

We will need more time to talk about this, and get back to you

Right now, we are not in a position to say yes or no

We are not rejecting the offer, but we need to think this over

Declining

We are not prepared to accept that

That is something we can't agree to

Unfortunately, your offer doesn't meet our expectations

I'm not in a position to accept that

That's unacceptable

That is (way) below what we want

We came here today with a figure in mind, and your offer falls short of that

Being hard

This is the offer on the table, take it or leave it

This is our final offer. We are not prepared to negotiate any more

There is no negotiation on...

Is this the best offer you are going to receive

If I were you, I'd know what I would do

It's the only offer we are prepared to offer you

Cheers

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