Match the direct speech sentences in column A with the appropriate introductory verbs in column B.

1.	“I’m sorry I haven’t read your letter yet”.	A	threaten
2.	“You should consult your lawyer immediately”.	B	refuse
3.	“I’ll take care of your client while you are away”.	C	warn
4.	“Stay away from him”.	D	suggest
5.	“Would you like to talk to her personally?”	E	ask
6.	“No, we won’t accept this offer”.	F	promise
7.	“Let's take a closer look at this problem”.	G	invite
8.	“I’ll call the police if you don’t stop it’.	H	apologize
9.	“Don’t forget to inform Mr Big.”	I	remind
10.	“ Could you tell us what’s the company number?”	J	advise

 

Role-play one of these situations with a partner. Consider your negotiation style(s).Use as many phrases for negotiating from the table below as you can.

Situation 1
A
You are a third-year high school student and will be taking entrance examinations this year. You have always wanted to live alone in New York. The university you desperately want to go to is luckily in New York, but it is a private university. You can't study what you want to in public universities. Your parents don't like your idea but you want to live your own life. You have to persuade your parents.

B
You are the parent of a third year high school student. Your son/ daughter insists on going to a university in New York and renting an apartment to live alone. You and your husband/ wife are completely against the idea because you have heard of many dangerous cases of university students (especially girls) who live alone. You can't afford to pay for a private university. You have taken it for granted that your daughter should go to Kyiv University.

Situation 2
A

You are a lawyer. Your client sells packing machines which cost 250, ooo $ each. They are guaranteed for a year and have a year’s service plan included. Your client doesn’t usually offer credit and can deliver them in two months’ time.

B

You are a lawyer. Your client wants to buy five packing machines, to be delivered immediately. This price is to include a five-year service plan and full guarantee. The budget is $1 m, and your client wants to be able to spread the payments.

 

Situation 3

A

You own a law firm. You are in your office. Your best employee knocks on your door. He/she wants to talk with you.

B

You are at work. Please tell your boss that you have accepted a position in another firm, so you will be leaving the firm in 2 weeks.

Situation 4

A

You work in a department with a lot of difficult people, and unfortunately you argue with them a lot. It’s not your fault, it’s theirs! Two weeks ago, your manager (student B) called you into his/her office and told you to try to resolve the situation. You have been trying really hard. Now your manager has asked you to come into the office again.

 

B

One of your employees (student B) is causing a lot of problems, and many of his/her colleagues have complained to you about him/her. Two weeks ago you spoke to student B about these problems, but the situation has become even worse. You have decided to fire student B.

 

Situation 5

 

A

You are a good employee; you work hard, and you get good results. Most of your

colleagues got pay raises recently, but you didn’t get one. Go and speak to your manager (student B), and ask for a raise.

B

You are the manager of the department. You recently gave pay raises to some of your staff. However, you didn’t give student B a raise, because you are not particularly pleased with his/her work.

 

 

Useful phrases

Summarizing positions up to this point:	Can we summarize your position up tothis point? Would you care to summarize your position up this point?
Confirming a negotiating position:	Is that an accurate summary of whereyou stand? Would you say that is a fair representation of your position?
Looking for options:	Just for the sake of argument, what if... Can I ask a hypothetical question? Suppose that...
Signalling the start of bargaining:	We've looked at what you have proposed, and we are ready to respond. After serious consideration, we are prepared to respond to your proposal
Responding to a proposal:	Regarding your proposal, our position is... Our basic position is... As far as your proposal is concerned, we think that...
Making and qualifying concessions:	We would be willing to..., provided, ofcourse, that... We'd be prepared to.... However, there would be one condition.
Making counter proposals:	May we offer an alternative? Wepropose that... We'd like to make an alternative proposal. We propose that... From where we stand, a better solution might be...
Identifying obstacles:	The main obstacle to progress at the moment seems to be... The main thing that bothers us is... One big problem we have is...
Analyzing an obstacle:	What exactly is the underlying problem here? Let's take a closer look at this problem. I would like to analyze this situation and get to the bottom of the problem.
Asking for concessions:	In return for this, would you be willingto...? We feel there has to be a trade-off here.
Declining an offer:	I'm afraid your offer doesn't go far enough. Unfortunately, we must decline your offer for the following reason(s). I'm sorry, but we must respectfully decline your offer.
Delaying:	We would have to study this. Can we getback to you on this later? We'll have to consult with our colleagues back in the office. We'd like to get back to you on it.
Accepting:	We are happy to accept this agreement. This agreement is acceptable to us. I believe we have an agreement.

III Over to You

Imagine you are an experienced and successful negotiator. Your assistant in the coming negotiations is young and very nervous about the result. Look through the tips below and instruct your assistant in a friendly but persuasive manner.