It's a deal! Negotiating in English

Are you good at making deals in English, or do you always come out the loser? Negotiating can be tough, but with these handy words and phrases you can improve your bargaining power and be a winner every time!

Party

The parties or sides in the negotiation are the different people or groups that want to make a deal.

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Terms

The terms of the agreement are the specific details, like the price, delivery date, or other conditions.

Small talk

After some initial small talk (chatting), you can open the negotiations by saying, Let's get down to business.

Making an offer

The negotiations usually start when one side makes an offer (gives their proposal) by saying something like, We're prepared to offer $500 per unit/.

Responding

The other side will then respond (reply) to the offer. If they disagree, they could say, I'm afraid we can't accept that price or That's out of the question!

What do you have in mind?

If the other side disagrees, you could ask them to make a suggestion, for example What do you have in mind?, or you could revise your offer by saying Would you consider $550?

Repetition and paraphrasing

In negotiations, it's important to clarify what the other party means by using repetition (repeating what they say) or paraphrasing (repeating their statement using different words). E.g. So what you're saying is...

If...then...

It is common to use the conditional tense (if...then...) when bargaining, for example If you are willing to pay cash, then we can give you a discount.

Win-win situation

Remember that you should try to end the negotiations with a win-win situation, where both sides benefit.

Let's shake on it!

When both parties agree to the terms, you can say You've got a deal! or Let's shake on it! (let's shake hands to seal the agreement).