Negotiating

Sometimes at work, we need to be able to negotiate. Voicenote clips I guess the important thing is to be sure of what you actually want. So you don't wanna come away feeling that you've negotiated badly. I find negotiating very awkward because my main instinct is to be polite and kind. So I find it quite difficult to be direct in what I want.

Today on Office English, we're talking about the language of negotiating.

Hello and welcome to Office English from BBC Learning English. I'm Phil.

And I'm Pippa. And in this podcast we discuss the business English that you can use to do well at work.

Today, we're talking about negotiations. This means discussions which we use to get what we want. So, for example, if we wanted to buy a car, we might negotiate with the sales person to get the best price.

OK, so do you ever negotiate at work, Phil?

Sometimes, yes, particularly when there's someone who we might need to do some work for us and we have to make sure that we get a good price for the department.

Yeah, so we tend to negotiate at work even if it's not a big part of our job. So, if you're a salesperson or you're dealing with customers a lot, you might have to negotiate all the time at work. But even if you don't, you might need to negotiate now and then when you're asking for a price for something. Or even in your own role, so if you're asking for something from your boss or if you're starting a new job, you need to talk about how much you're going to get paid, what your hours would be, you'd been negotiating with them about that. And the way that people negotiate, especially in business deals between different companies, differs around the world and depending on the situation. But today, we'll talk about some phrases for negotiating that are familiar in the UK context.

So, first up, how do we start a negotiation, Pippa?

So, in Britain, there's usually some politeness or small talk, and we talked about small talk in a previous episode. But once you've kind of said hello, had a chat with the person, then you might say something like Right! let's talk about the price or let's get down to business is a nice phrase.

It's a nice focusing expression that isn't it Right! sort of you're saying, now we're getting started. Now we 're doing what we really mean to do.

Yeah, and in some contexts you wouldn't need to have the chit chat part at the beginning. You might just go straight in and say 'OK, we're talking about this product and we need to talk about the price of it' and you don't need to have the small talk. But in the UK we tend to do that. And then probably what you want to do is make your opening offer. So you might say I'm looking for... ten pounds for this or I think my work is worth... four hundred pounds, for instance.

Yes and of course, because it's a negotiation, you're probably going to ask for more than what you'd actually accept.

Yes. That's a tactic that people often use in negotiations. They start with a higher price in the hope that they might get more than they... than they wanted and then there's sort of a a lower limit that they're willing to take for something. You could open a negotiation by asking the other person for their first offer. So that sort of changes the dynamics a little bit. So you could say What sort of price would you be willing to pay for this? OK, so we've started the negotiation. But how do we try and persuade the other person to give us what we want? Are there any phrases that we can use, Phil?

Yes, well this is all about something we call haggling, which is basically arguing, but professionally and persistently, about the price of something. So you might say what your first offer is and someone will say, 'No, no, no, that's too expensive, but we can pay this'. And you go 'Ooh, no, no, no, that's too low, but I might accept this'. And you go backwards and forwards until you get to the right price.

Yeah. So it's about a compromise between the two and there's often a lot of different tactics that people use. Now, I'm not a very good negotiator so I wouldn't be very good at the haggling part of things, I usually just kind of accept what someone offers because I'm scared. But yeah, people have different ways of trying to persuade the other person to kind of meet their price rather than dropping the price.

Yeah so, if you want somebody to increase the amount they'll pay you for something, then you could say something like we've got to cover our costs and cover your costs means that you need to earn enough to pay for what it would cost to do something.

Yeah and this is good because you're sort of saying we have to be realistic, we'd love to give it to you for less money, but we've got to cover our costs. And if we're buying something from somebody else, and we wanted them to lower the price that they were asking what could we say then?

Yeah, I mean, you could say something like Oh, I'd love to offer that. But we have to be realistic about our budget. And this is another one where you kind of maybe making it slightly less personal, you're saying, 'Oh, yeah. That's fine. That'd be great, but we don't have that money. And we need to think about this. So, while I want to pay you more, I can't, it's not down to me. It's just the situation'.

Yes, you're using 'we' so you're sort of negotiating on behalf of the company rather than on behalf of yourself. And both of these phrases we've got to cover our costs and we have to be realistic about the budget are still kind of friendly. So it's not actually an argument when you're negotiating, it's more of a discussion.

Ok and we've talked a lot about negotiating with someone from another company, but actually sometimes you have to negotiate with people in your company and in fact, sometimes you have to negotiate with your boss, particularly about how much you get paid. So you might want to use phrases like Well, other people in my position earn... this much or I've taken on lots of responsibility without more pay.

Yes, and it's probably useful to say that it will depend on your company as to whether there is an opportunity to talk about your pay and to negotiate it. Some companies don't like that, some do, it really depends. But yes, giving evidence for why you want more money would be a useful thing to do.

Right, so we have some ways to try and persuade the other person in a negotiation. Let's imagine that after haggling for a while, we're ready to accept the price or offer. How do we end a negotiation?

Well, we could be quite informal and we could say OK, we can go with five pounds. So we can go with means we'll accept that amount. Or you could be more formal, you could say something like I'm happy to accept five pounds, thank you very much. And then one thing that I think is useful is to try and sort of maintain the business relationship. So you've not just gone there to get the best price possible, but you also want to kind of continue a working relationship with the person. So you could say something like I look forward to working with you or it was great doing business with you. What do you think about that, Phil?

Yes, I think this is quite nice because negotiations can sometimes get a little bit tense. So it's quite good to bring everything back to a kind of friendly tone at the end.

Negotiations can be difficult, especially if we're not used to persuading other people to do something. Let's hear again from our BBC Learning English colleagues. Voicenote clips I guess the important thing is to be sure of what you actually want. So you don't want to come away feeling that you've negotiated badly. I find negotiating very awkward because my main instinct is to be polite and kind. So I find it quite difficult to be direct in what I want.

Yeah, I think it's different, isn't it. I mean, if you do it all the time as part of your job, if you're a salesperson or you're involved in things like that then I guess it's a lot easier, you get used to it. But in a lot of jobs we don't do a lot of negotiating.

Yeah and that's why I think we're nervous to do it. But as we said, if you try and remain friendly and try and kind of make the conversation less of an argument and more of a discussion then that's a good way to kind of try and get your, your opinion across. And one thing that is really important that we haven't talked about is it's good to be clear with yourself about what you want before you start the negotiation, what you would be willing to accept as a high or low point. Otherwise, you could get carried away and pay far too much or accept far too little for something. So yeah, think before about what are you wanting to get out of a negotiation, so that you don't kind of go in and end up with something you didn't want.

That's it for this episode of Office English. Remember, you can find courses and activities to help you with your English at work on our website,

Next time, we're talking about how to talk about your achievements at work and sell yourself.

See you then! Bye!

Bye!