How to say no to a foreign customer and not to spoil business relations

There are many situations in life when you need to say “no”. Do you suggest something? - No, thanks, I'm just looking. Need a bag? - No, thanks, I'm with her.

It is important to say “no” in business communication. One of our native speaker teachers, William, previously worked as a project manager in America and put together a selection of tips on how to say no and not ruin business relationships.

We say "no" in English

We now turn to ways to say no.

I'd rather not, thanks.

Thank you, but I will refuse.

I appreciate your time, but no thank you.

Thank you for your time, but I have to refuse.

I know it's important to you, but I can't.

I know how important it is for you, but I can't.

But there is no sound.

It sounds great, but forced to refuse.

Thanks for thinking of me, but I have too much on my plate right now.

Thank you for choosing to contact me, but now I am very busy.

That's fantastic, but I am quite busy at the moment.

Sounds great, but I'm seriously busy at the moment.

I'm all booked until the next month.

Fully busy until next month.

That would be great, but I’m working on something else right now.

It would be great, but I'm already busy with something else.

At this moment.

Thanks for the offer, but my schedule is now full.

Unfortunately, I’m not going to be able to squeeze this one in.

Unfortunately, I now have an impressive list of tasks, so I can not allocate time for this project.

I wish I could. I'm afraid I can't. I'm afraid

All these sentences can be translated as “sorry, but I can’t” or “very sorry, but have to be refused.”

I am not sure we can make it.

Not sure what we will do.

I'll have to think about it. Thanks for asking.

Thanks for asking. But it still needs to be thought about.

To be honest, I have another set of priorities this time.

To be honest, I have other priorities now.

I think I'll leave it. Thank you.

Probably have to give up. But thanks.

May not be suitable for me.

Not sure if this suits me.

I really need this time.

I do not like to say no, but this time I just have to.

How not to spoil business relations

On the advice of all that William, our carrier, there are a number of principles that should be followed when communicating with foreign colleagues:

• negative words should be avoided and not used directly;
• it is better to replace negative words with positive wording, but in a negative form;
• do not be too direct - foreign partners may find you quite aggressive in this case;
• not always enough failure - the customer, for example, may decide that you are bargaining.

So get ready to explain everything in detail. And this is how it can be done.

Reason for this is ...

The main reason is ...

The thing is that ...

The fact is that …

You see, the fact is ...

You see, the problem is that ...

One possible explanation is that ...

One of the reasons is that ...

What is responsible for this effect is ...

The reason is this ...

Let me explain ...

Let me explain ...

That’s because

I have no doubt that the reason is ...

It could well be that ...

Perhaps the fact is that ...

I'd say that we can't as ...

I would say that we cannot for a reason ...

It's due / owing to the fact that ...

The thing is ...

I'll tell / give / lay / explain the reason why ...

I will explain why ...

Because of / on account of / seeing that ...

Because…

There is a number of reasons why ...

There are a number of reasons why ...

We hope that these tips will help you improve or maintain business relations at the proper level, as well as better understand the culture of business communication in general.

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