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Business English- Starting and Ending Negotiations

A LESSON PLAN FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS

Students memorise and practise the most useful phrases for beginning and ending negotiations, starting with a fun quick responses listening game, then using key words to remember each phrase.

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Lesson Plan Content:


Starting and ending negotiations simplest responses game and key words

Without looking below for now, listen to your teacher and raise the “Starting” card or “Ending” card depending on when you think each thing is said in a negotiation.

Label the sections below with “S” for Starting or “E” for Ending. They are arranged by sections, so if you don’t know one phrase you can look at the ones above and/ or below.

 

According to our previous discussion,…

Can I begin by explaining our position?

I have considered the proposal in your email and…

The reason why we invited you here today is…

 

Although I’ll have to check with my boss,…

I’ll put that in writing and email you by the middle of next week.

This is just a formality, but I’ll need to talk to my boss first.

 

Are we (all) agreed?

Do we have a deal?

 

Can I just go over what we’ve discussed again?

Can I just summarize what we have talked about so far?

To sum up, what we’ve discussed so far,…

 

Can we start by hearing your initial offer?

Can you clarify the situation for us?

Can you outline the issues for us?

Can I suggest we start by clarifying the situation?

 

Did you get up to anything at the weekend?

Did you have a good summer?

 

Did you have a good journey?

Did you have any problems finding us?

How was your flight?

Is it your first time here in…?

 

Do we need to discuss anything else?

Do you have anything to add?

Have I missed anything out?

Have we covered everything?

I think we’ve covered everything.

Is there anything we still need to discuss?

 

Do you think we could have that in writing by the end of the week?

I look forward to doing business with you again soon.

Looking forward to hearing from you soon.           

We can follow this up by email.

 

Does everyone have a copy of the agenda?

There are four points on the agenda.

We can hopefully be finished by…

 

Due to unforeseen circumstances,…

I know this is not ideal, but…

I know this is rather short notice, but…

I know we agreed… but…

 

Have you been busy?

How have you been?

How’s business?

 

Long time no see.

How long has it been?

 

Hopefully our next meeting will be more productive.

I hope we can still do business in the future.

We can continue this conversation when…

 

I guess it’s time to begin, don’t you think?

It’s about time to discuss the point at hand, if that’s okay.

We’ve got a lot to get through, so…

 

I can shake on that.

I think we have a deal.

It’s a deal.

Where should I sign?

You have a deal.

 

I can’t see any way round this.

There doesn’t seem to be much point in discussing this further.

We seem to have come to some kind of a stalemate.

 

I feel we are making some progress.

I think we’ve found some common ground.

 

I hope you can reconsider.

Let me know if you change your mind.

You have my email if the situation changes.

 

I will confirm that later.

I’d need to see all that written down.

Let’s draw up a draft contract with those terms and then…

 

It was lovely to meet you.

It was really nice to see you again.

 

It’s been great to chat, but…

It’s been nice to catch up, but…

 

We must carry on talking after the meeting, but…

You must tell me more about that later, but…

 

It’s a pleasure to meet you (name).

Pleased to meet you (name).

 

It’s a shame we couldn’t…

Sorry that we weren’t able to…

 

It’s been a pleasure doing business with you.

Thank you for your understanding.

Thanks, that was very productive.

We really appreciate your help with this.

 

Let’s get down to business, shall we?

Perhaps we should get started, if that’s okay with you.

Shall we make a start?

 

Let’s go over what we agreed.

Shall we go through the agreement one more time?

To recap what we have agreed,…

To summarise our agreement,…

 

Our goal is…

Our main aim today is...

Our main concern is…

Our main objective is…

 

Thank you for coming all this way on such a cold morning.

Welcome to...

Would anyone like a drink before we begin?

 

That brings me onto why we are here today.

That’s connected to what I wanted to talk about today, which is…

 

This might be a good time to have a look at the agenda.

To get down to the point at hand,…

We really should make a start, if you don’t mind.

 

... sends his apologies.

On our side we have…

… will take minutes.

 

Check your answers as a class, then test each other in small groups in the same way.


Without looking above for now, try to think of or remember phrases with these functions.

Brainstorming stage

Starting

Small talk/ Social language

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Getting down to business

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The practicalities of the meeting

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Setting out the situation/ initial positions

 


 

Ending

Summarising

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coming to an agreement

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ending with no (clear) agreement

 

 

 

 

 

 

Checking that you’ve finished

 

 

 

 

 

 

Social language at the end

 

 

 

 

 

 

Talking about the next contact


 

 

Key words

Use the key words below to help with the brainstorming task above.

Starting

Small talk/ Social language

 

weekend

summer

 

journey

finding

flight

here

 

busy

been

long

business

no

 

pleasure

pleased

 

coming

welcome

drink

 

Getting down to business

 

time

point

through

 

chat

catch

after

later

 

down

started

start

 

why

connected

 

agenda

down

make

 


The practicalities of the meeting

 

copy

points

finished

 

apologies

side

minutes

 

Setting out the situation/ initial positions

 

according

position

considered

reason

 

initial

clarify

outline

situation

 

circumstances

ideal

short

agreed

 

goal

aim

concern

objective

 

Ending

Summarising

 

over

summarize

sum

 

over

through

recap

agreement

 


Coming to an agreement

 

check

writing

boss

 

agreed

have

 

shake

think

deal

sign

you

 

Ending with no (clear) agreement

 

can’t

further

stalemate

 

progress

common

 

confirm

written

draft

 

Checking that you’ve finished

 

else

add

missed

covered

everything

still

 


Social language at the end

 

lovely

nice

 

shame

sorry

 

pleasure

understanding

productive

appreciate

 

Talking about the next contact

 

writing

business

hearing

follow

 

hopefully

hope

continue

 

reconsider

change

changes

 


Suggested answers

Other phrases are possible, including with the same key words, so please check if you wrote something different.

Small talk/ Social language

Did you get up to anything at the weekend?

Did you have a good summer?

 

Did you have a good journey?

Did you have any problems finding us?

How was your flight?

Is it your first time here in…?

 

Have you been busy?

How have you been?

How’s business?

 

Long time no see.

How long has it been?

 

It’s a pleasure to meet you (name).

Pleased to meet you (name).

 

Thank you for coming all this way on such a cold morning.

Welcome to...

Would anyone like a drink before we begin?

 

Getting down to business

I guess it’s time to begin, don’t you think?

It’s about time to discuss the point at hand, if that’s okay.

We’ve got a lot to get through, so…

 

It’s been great to chat, but…

It’s been nice to catch up, but…

We must carry on talking after the meeting, but…

You must tell me more about that later, but…

 

Let’s get down to business, shall we?

Perhaps we should get started, if that’s okay with you.

Shall we make a start?

 

That brings me onto why we are here today.

That’s connected to what I wanted to talk about today, which is…

 

This might be a good time to have a look at the agenda.

To get down to the point at hand,…

We really should make a start, if you don’t mind.


The practicalities of the meeting

Does everyone have a copy of the agenda?

There are four points on the agenda.

We can hopefully be finished by…

 

... sends his apologies.

On our side we have…

… will take minutes.

 

Setting out the situation/ initial positions

According to our previous discussion,…

Can I begin by explaining our position?

I have considered the proposal in your email and…

The reason why we invited you here today is…

 

Can we start by hearing your initial offer?

Can you clarify the situation for us?

Can you outline the issues for us?

Can I suggest we start by clarifying the situation?

 

Due to unforeseen circumstances,…

I know this is not ideal, but…

I know this is rather short notice, but…

I know we agreed…, but…

 

Our goal is…

Our main aim today is...

Our main concern is…

Our main objective is…

 

Ending

Summarising

Can I just go over what we’ve discussed again?

Can I just summarize what we have talked about so far?

To sum up what we’ve discussed so far,…

 

Let’s go over what we agreed.

Shall we go through the agreement one more time?

To recap what we have agreed,…

To summarise our agreement,…

 

Coming to an agreement

Although I’ll have to check with my boss,…

I’ll put that in writing and email you by the middle of next week.

This is just a formality, but I’ll need to talk to my boss first.

Are we (all) agreed?

Do we have a deal?

 

I can shake on that.

I think we have a deal.

It’s a deal.

Where should I sign?

You have a deal.

 

Ending with no (clear) agreement

I can’t see any way round this.

There doesn’t seem to be much point in discussing this further.

We seem to have come to some kind of a stalemate.

 

I feel we are making some progress.

I think we’ve found some common ground.

 

I will confirm that later.

I’d need to see all that written down.

Let’s draw up a draft contract with those terms and then…

 

Checking that you’ve finished

Do we need to discuss anything else?

Do you have anything to add?

Have I missed anything out?

Have we covered everything?

I think we’ve covered everything.

Is there anything we still need to discuss?

 

Social language at the end

It was lovely to meet you.

It was really nice to see you again.

 

It’s a shame we couldn’t…

Sorry that we weren’t able to…

 

It’s been a pleasure doing business with you.

Thank you for your understanding.

Thanks, that was very productive.

We really appreciate your help with this.

 

Talking about the next contact

Do you think we could have that in writing by the end of the week?

I look forward to doing business with you again soon.

Looking forward to hearing from you soon.

We can follow this up by email.

 

Hopefully our next meeting will be more productive.

I hope we can still do business in the future.

We can continue this conversation when…

 

I hope you can reconsider.

Let me know if you change your mind.

You have my email if the situation changes.

 

Test each other in pairs:

  • Play the same holding up cards game
  • Say phrases from one category above until your partner can categorise them
  • Say the name of one category and say phrases with gaps for your partner to complete
  • Say the name of one category and help your partner make example phrases with key words, gapped phrases, etc

Use that kind of language in roleplay negotiations, first with the lists of phrases to help, then with only the key words to help, and finally with no help. 

Write phrases you used or could use in the body of the negotiation in these categories:

Making proposals/ suggestions

 

 

Rejecting proposals

 

 

Accepting proposals

 

 

Reacting to acceptance

 

 

Reacting to rejection

 

 

Moving the meeting on/ Not getting stuck on a point

 

 

Trading/ linking offers and conditions

 

 

Giving reasons

 

 

 

 

Cards to hold up

 

Starting

 

 

Ending

 

Starting

 

 

Ending

 

Starting

 

 

Ending

 

Starting

 

 

Ending

 

Starting

 

 

Ending

 

Starting

 

 

Ending

 

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