Negotiating: Office English episode 9

Sometimes at work, we need to be able to negotiate.

I guess the important thing is to be sure of what you actually want,

so um you don't want to come away feeling that you've er 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 salesperson to get the best price.

Okay, 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 be  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!" It's 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, "Okay, we're talking about this  

product and we need to talk about the price of it." Um 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 £10 for this," or "I think my work is worth £400," 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 people often use in  negotiations. They start with a higher  

price um in the hope that they might  get more than they...than they wanted. Um and then  

there's sort of 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?"

Okay, 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, "Oh no, no, no, no,  

that's too expensive. 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. Um I usually just kind of accept what someone offers because I'm scared. But er yeah, people have different  

ways of trying to persuade the other person to kind of meet their price rather than um 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 want them to lower the price that they were asking, what could we say then?

Yeah, I mean, you could say something like, "I'd love to offer that, but we have to be realistic  

about our budget." And this is another one where you're 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, um 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 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.

Okay, and we've talked a lot here 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 are ready to accept the price or  offer. How do we end the negotiation?

Well, we could be quite informal. We could say,  

"Okay, we can go with £5." 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 £5, thank you very much."

Then, one thing 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.

I guess the important thing is to be sure of what you actually want, so um you don't  

want to come away feeling that you've er 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 um I think we're  nervous to do it. But as we said,  

if you try to remain friendly and try and kind of make the conversation less of an argument  

and more of a discussion, that's a  good way to kind of try and get your opinion across.

And one thing that's 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'd  

be willing to accept as a high or low point. Um, otherwise, you could get carried away and pay  

far too much or accept far too little for  something. So yeah, think before about what you want  

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, bbclearningenglish.com.

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

See you then! Bye.

Bye.