How to negotiate with English-speaking colleagues: instructions
- Tutorial
Many adult students begin to tighten their English primarily for work. English has long been the language of international business: wherever you are, with whatever companies you do business, most often all negotiations and sales transactions are conducted in English. Business English courses usually introduce you to the most common vocabulary, such as job titles, company structure, and business correspondence skills. But more often than not, you will have to negotiate, whether by telephone or in person. Where to start planning negotiations and do they need to be planned at all? What vocabulary is needed at the very beginning? Is small talk appropriate in business negotiations? Understanding the basics.
The structure of the English negotiations is much like the Russian, there are no subtleties here. To get started, you need to properly prepare and draw up an agenda - a plan that you will follow during the meeting. Many people think that you can skip the planning stage, they say, I already know what to discuss with clients. But without a clear plan, negotiations at some point may come to a standstill. Careful planning will help you:
- Do not forget all the topics that you want to discuss with a partner or potential client;
- record all the proposals and ideas that you want to offer to the interlocutors;
- clearly define the goals of the negotiations: what in the end do you want to get from the interlocutors;
- analyze the situation on the market, the current state of affairs of the second side of the negotiations, as well as study the cultural characteristics of your interlocutors.
Perhaps, here lies the main difference between negotiations with Russian and foreign companies. It is important to realize that many speech turnovers, gestures and manner of speech as a whole are very different from country to country. Not knowing the cultural differences between you and your interlocutors, you risk, at best, not achieving your desired goal. At worst, you can seriously offend a client or potential partner, and you will no longer have second negotiations.
When the plan is ready, the meeting is organized, and the second side has already arrived at the venue for negotiations, you can begin. Introduce yourself and speak the agenda - the interlocutors must also understand what they expect from you. At the stage of negotiations, do not forget to check whether you understand the interlocutors correctly. Better to repeat than to misunderstand each other. Check periodically with the plan and goals: is everything going as it should? If there is disagreement, try to find a compromise or go towards the other side.
At the end of the negotiations, say the results and be sure to fix them in writing as soon as possible, notifying your partner / client. Do not forget about the so-called follow-up: Depending on the field of activity, these “follow-up activities” may be different. For example, if you are selling something, you can call the customer and ask if everything suits him. Such communication will help you establish contacts with English-speaking partners and clients, as well as learn about their needs in a timely manner.
It all depends on the scale of the negotiations you are planning. But in any case, if such a need arises, you will need to draw up a competent letter. The following phrases will help you with this:
Could you please confirm that you have received the revised agenda?
Does the agenda meet your needs / expectations? (or “We would like to know if the revised agenda meets your needs / expectations.”)
Do you agree with the other items?
Shall we move forward on this basis?
I / We believe we will need to speak about ... as well.
... has reminded us that we also might / must discuss ... because ...
It has occurred to us that we need to add ... to the agenda.
Could we put ... on the agenda after the point ...?
An important point: there are never many modal verbs! In English, the degree of politeness is much higher than in Russian. Instead of "let's discuss," you have to say, "could we please also discuss." Be sure to pull up the modal verbs (in particular, the difference between must and have to, as well as the verbs may, might, would, could, shall - we talk about this in the section of modal verbs on the site ) and actively use the subjunctive mood instead of “let's” and “ we decided it would be so. ”
Avoid mistakes:if a corrected plan has been sent to you with a request to confirm receipt, in no case do not answer “The agenda is well-received” . This mistake is often made by non-native speakers, believing that well-received means "received." No, well-received is commonly used in the context of public acceptance. For example, a new performance was released, and at the premiere the audience received it well: “The new play was well received by the audience” . In the case of a letter, it is better to answer “Thank you, the revised agenda is safely received” / ”Thank you, I confirm the receipt of the agenda” .
Suppose that you successfully completed the planning stage in your native language, translated your suggestions and considerations into English so that you have something to please your interlocutors with, and now you have to start negotiations. Here are a few useful phrases to greet the other side and outline the negotiation plan:
We would like to welcome you ...
Today we are going to talk about ...
We are glad that you could come and hope you will enjoy your stay here. Let's get down to business.
Let's begin the discussion with ...
Do not forget that the appeal “Dear ...“ is quite appropriate both in business correspondence and in greeting, unless, of course, you have ten people at the table. If you are two or three, you can start with the words“Dear Mr. X and Mr. Y, we would like to welcome you ... ” . Remember that in English the word “dear” has several meanings, and in the context of business it is not “Dear Ivan Ivanovich”, but “Dear Ivan Ivanovich”.
After the welcome and small talk, which we will discuss below, it is important to stipulate a negotiation plan. This can be done with the following introductory phrases:
I would like now to begin by suggesting the following agenda.
To start with, I think we should establish the overall procedure.
Is this okay with you?
And how! You can say small talk - talking about nothing - helps businesses stay afloat. Almost half of all business communication is small talk. In the end, we are all human, and we are pleased when they treat us kindly and kindly. When conducting serious transactions, you want to be sure of a reliable partner. In fact, you trust and help him, and he helps you. You find out the needs of customers, ask what problems they face, offer their own solutions. You should know your customers well, but you cannot get to know them better after hours. So is it worth it to give small talk time in important negotiations? The answer is still yes: worth it.
In negotiations, you will of course adhere to the approved plan, but you should definitely include time for small talk in your plan. This will help you and your interlocutors to get to know each other better, easily switch from one topic to another, and maintain a balance between a tense formal atmosphere and a less strict atmosphere. Negotiations in which participants communicate not only as business partners are much more effective for both parties. Since in this article we examined the initial stages of negotiations, here is a list of questions that may lead to small talk:
Is it your first visit to ...?
How was your journey?
It's great to finally put a face to a name.
It's nice to meet you at last.
So, do you often travel for work?
Are you working on anything interesting at the moment?
What's happening in your sector / industry right now?
Of course, you can also discuss the weather or some topics close to you, if you already know your interlocutor well. Avoid overly personal questions and questions for which strictly confidential information will be answered.
In the next article, we will learn how to correctly put forward proposals and ideas, politely agree or disagree, and also seek a compromise.
We give the readers of the blog a coupon of 500 rubles for buying a subscription, which includes 8 types of training and weekly newsletters about English grammar and vocabulary - Vitamins and Buns.
And for unlimited and eternal access to all the features of the site there is an “All Inclusive” tariff (the discount is not valid).
How are negotiations built?
The structure of the English negotiations is much like the Russian, there are no subtleties here. To get started, you need to properly prepare and draw up an agenda - a plan that you will follow during the meeting. Many people think that you can skip the planning stage, they say, I already know what to discuss with clients. But without a clear plan, negotiations at some point may come to a standstill. Careful planning will help you:
- Do not forget all the topics that you want to discuss with a partner or potential client;
- record all the proposals and ideas that you want to offer to the interlocutors;
- clearly define the goals of the negotiations: what in the end do you want to get from the interlocutors;
- analyze the situation on the market, the current state of affairs of the second side of the negotiations, as well as study the cultural characteristics of your interlocutors.
Perhaps, here lies the main difference between negotiations with Russian and foreign companies. It is important to realize that many speech turnovers, gestures and manner of speech as a whole are very different from country to country. Not knowing the cultural differences between you and your interlocutors, you risk, at best, not achieving your desired goal. At worst, you can seriously offend a client or potential partner, and you will no longer have second negotiations.
When the plan is ready, the meeting is organized, and the second side has already arrived at the venue for negotiations, you can begin. Introduce yourself and speak the agenda - the interlocutors must also understand what they expect from you. At the stage of negotiations, do not forget to check whether you understand the interlocutors correctly. Better to repeat than to misunderstand each other. Check periodically with the plan and goals: is everything going as it should? If there is disagreement, try to find a compromise or go towards the other side.
At the end of the negotiations, say the results and be sure to fix them in writing as soon as possible, notifying your partner / client. Do not forget about the so-called follow-up: Depending on the field of activity, these “follow-up activities” may be different. For example, if you are selling something, you can call the customer and ask if everything suits him. Such communication will help you establish contacts with English-speaking partners and clients, as well as learn about their needs in a timely manner.
Do I need to coordinate a negotiation plan with a second party?
It all depends on the scale of the negotiations you are planning. But in any case, if such a need arises, you will need to draw up a competent letter. The following phrases will help you with this:
If you need to confirm details or changes to the plan:
Could you please confirm that you have received the revised agenda?
Does the agenda meet your needs / expectations? (or “We would like to know if the revised agenda meets your needs / expectations.”)
Do you agree with the other items?
Shall we move forward on this basis?
If you need to add something to an existing plan:
I / We believe we will need to speak about ... as well.
... has reminded us that we also might / must discuss ... because ...
It has occurred to us that we need to add ... to the agenda.
Could we put ... on the agenda after the point ...?
An important point: there are never many modal verbs! In English, the degree of politeness is much higher than in Russian. Instead of "let's discuss," you have to say, "could we please also discuss." Be sure to pull up the modal verbs (in particular, the difference between must and have to, as well as the verbs may, might, would, could, shall - we talk about this in the section of modal verbs on the site ) and actively use the subjunctive mood instead of “let's” and “ we decided it would be so. ”
Avoid mistakes:if a corrected plan has been sent to you with a request to confirm receipt, in no case do not answer “The agenda is well-received” . This mistake is often made by non-native speakers, believing that well-received means "received." No, well-received is commonly used in the context of public acceptance. For example, a new performance was released, and at the premiere the audience received it well: “The new play was well received by the audience” . In the case of a letter, it is better to answer “Thank you, the revised agenda is safely received” / ”Thank you, I confirm the receipt of the agenda” .
How to start negotiations in English?
Suppose that you successfully completed the planning stage in your native language, translated your suggestions and considerations into English so that you have something to please your interlocutors with, and now you have to start negotiations. Here are a few useful phrases to greet the other side and outline the negotiation plan:
We would like to welcome you ...
Today we are going to talk about ...
We are glad that you could come and hope you will enjoy your stay here. Let's get down to business.
Let's begin the discussion with ...
Do not forget that the appeal “Dear ...“ is quite appropriate both in business correspondence and in greeting, unless, of course, you have ten people at the table. If you are two or three, you can start with the words“Dear Mr. X and Mr. Y, we would like to welcome you ... ” . Remember that in English the word “dear” has several meanings, and in the context of business it is not “Dear Ivan Ivanovich”, but “Dear Ivan Ivanovich”.
After the welcome and small talk, which we will discuss below, it is important to stipulate a negotiation plan. This can be done with the following introductory phrases:
I would like now to begin by suggesting the following agenda.
To start with, I think we should establish the overall procedure.
Is this okay with you?
Is small talk appropriate in business negotiations?
And how! You can say small talk - talking about nothing - helps businesses stay afloat. Almost half of all business communication is small talk. In the end, we are all human, and we are pleased when they treat us kindly and kindly. When conducting serious transactions, you want to be sure of a reliable partner. In fact, you trust and help him, and he helps you. You find out the needs of customers, ask what problems they face, offer their own solutions. You should know your customers well, but you cannot get to know them better after hours. So is it worth it to give small talk time in important negotiations? The answer is still yes: worth it.
In negotiations, you will of course adhere to the approved plan, but you should definitely include time for small talk in your plan. This will help you and your interlocutors to get to know each other better, easily switch from one topic to another, and maintain a balance between a tense formal atmosphere and a less strict atmosphere. Negotiations in which participants communicate not only as business partners are much more effective for both parties. Since in this article we examined the initial stages of negotiations, here is a list of questions that may lead to small talk:
Upon customer arrival at your office:
Is it your first visit to ...?
How was your journey?
It's great to finally put a face to a name.
It's nice to meet you at last.
During the break:
So, do you often travel for work?
Are you working on anything interesting at the moment?
What's happening in your sector / industry right now?
Of course, you can also discuss the weather or some topics close to you, if you already know your interlocutor well. Avoid overly personal questions and questions for which strictly confidential information will be answered.
In the next article, we will learn how to correctly put forward proposals and ideas, politely agree or disagree, and also seek a compromise.
For those who want to pump English
We give the readers of the blog a coupon of 500 rubles for buying a subscription, which includes 8 types of training and weekly newsletters about English grammar and vocabulary - Vitamins and Buns.
And for unlimited and eternal access to all the features of the site there is an “All Inclusive” tariff (the discount is not valid).