Speaking at Workplace

Negotiating with external parties

Section A: Definition

Negotiation means you discuss with someone in order to reach an agreement to which you and the other party both consent. Here, you are discussing the content of the contract with another company to reach a compromise that both of you agree on.

Section B: Purpose

The purpose is, of course, to try to agree on the terms of the contract such as the amount of money and the number of units ordered before you start doing business with that company.

Section C: Content

When negotiating with an external party, you need to be aware of the reason for the negotiation and read the terms in the draft contract carefully to understand what you need to discuss.

The following are some useful expressions in different situations of negotiation.

1. Starting the negotiation

Thank you very much for giving us the opportunity to discuss with you.
Well, let’s get started.
Today, we are here to negotiate …
Before we start, let’s look at the terms in the draft contract first.
Let’s begin by looking at …
Shall we start by looking at …?
Shall we talk about … first?

2. Making suggestions

We’d like to suggest/propose …
Our suggestion is to …
We propose raising the amount of money to …
The suggestion to the number of units ordered is …
Our main concern is …
What we are looking for is …
We would like to focus our discussion on three main aspects, which are …
How about increasing the amount to…?
What about HK$300,000? Does it sound acceptable to you?
Shall we agree on HK$2million?
Why don’t we make it 10,000 units?
What about …? Is this a win-win situation?
Is it better to …?
According to the draft contract, we are supposed to … However, we think that …
Let us consider this alternative.

3. Asking for opinions

What do you think about this suggestion?
How do you feel about this proposal?
Do you agree to our suggestion?
What ideas do you have?
Do you feel that our proposal is agreeable to you?
What is your opinion on this proposal?
Wouldn’t you agree that it is a suitable suggestion?
It is the best we can offer now. What do you think?
We could offer you … Do you agree?
We might be able to … How do you feel?
If we make it …, will you have any problems with that?
We’d like to hear more of your opinions.

4. Accepting the suggestion

We agree with your proposal.
We think your suggestion is acceptable.
We consider your proposal reasonable.
About this point, we totally agree with you.
That sounds good to us.
We couldn’t agree more.
We also think that …
That’s exactly what we are thinking now.
Yes, we can accept that.
We’d go along with that proposal.
That seems plausible.
That sounds fair to us.
We are willing to agree on that suggestion.

5. Disagreeing with the suggestion

We are sorry to say that it is not a very good suggestion.
We are afraid we can’t agree on this term.
We are not sure about …
We don’t think we can do that. We are very sorry.
We have reservations about this proposal.
About this suggestion, we’d prefer …
That’s quite a good idea, but it would be better if …
We are afraid that we can’t go any lower than that.
We are afraid that it is out of our budget.
That’s a bit too much for our budget. Can you make it …?
Unfortunately, we have to disagree with this suggestion.
We are sorry to inform you that it is our final offer.
We are afraid that we have a different suggestion in mind.

6. Concluding the negotiation

Shall we sum up what we have discussed so far?
Now, let’s confirm the details of the terms we have talked about.
Let’s review what we have agreed on so far.
Let’s look once again at the points we have agreed on.
We are very happy that at last we can agree on the terms of the contract.
We are very glad that we can finally make a compromise here.
It’s good that we can agree with each other on the contract terms.
Thank you very much for agreeing with us. Let’s sign the papers now.
Thanks a lot for your time to have this fruitful discussion with us.
Thank you very much and we promise that we will give you our top priority in our service with you.

Section D: Things to consider

As mentioned before, you have to read the terms of the draft contract carefully before the negotiation so that you know clearly what to discuss.
You also need to know the bottom line of your company for the negotiation in order to decide whether it is suitable to accept the terms or continue discussing with the other party.
Be straightforward. Don’t beat about the bush since you need to make everything in the discussion clear to the other party during the negotiation so that there won’t be any misunderstanding.
Be practical. Make sure what you suggest is feasible and can be implemented by the other party when you are making your proposal.
Be polite. You need to be respectful and show your goodwill during the negotiation.
Keep calm. Although negotiating with the other party is quite a challenging task, you have to control yourself and stay calm all the time so as to establish a harmonious atmosphere during the discussion.
Take notes during the negotiation. In case you or the other party forgets what you have discussed and agreed on, you can refer to your notes.