I. Read the joke. Is there a lesson to be learnt from it?
 Two priests were so addicted to smoking that they desperately needed to puff on cigarettes even while they prayed. Both developed guilty conscience and decided to ask their superior for permission to smoke. The first asked if it was OK to smoke while he was praying. Permission was denied. The second priest asked if he was allowed to pray while he was smoking. His superior found his dedication admirable and immediately granted his request. |
II. How direct you want to be in a negotiation is a matter of both cultural and personal choice. In which side on the line below would you place people from your own culture? How about you personally?
prefer the diplomatic approach ß--------------------|------------------à prefer straight-talking
III. Find someone in your group who put themselves on the other side of the line from you. Try to persuade each other that your side is better.
Active Vocabulary
I. The following thoughts passed through the minds of two negotiators during a negotiation. Use the words and phrases in brackets to reproduce what they actually said.
- That’s impossible.
(unfortunately/would not/possible)___________
- We can’t go higher than 7%.
(would find/quite difficult) _____________________
- We won’t accept less than $5 a unit.
(afraid / not in the position / this stage)_________
- You’ll have to pay more if you want that.
(may / lightly)_____________________________
- We should spend more time looking for a compromise here.
(shouldn’t / little?)_________________________
- It would be a good idea to agree on a price before we go any further.
(wouldn’t / be better?)______________________
- We hoped you’d pay a deposit today.
(were hoping / able)________________________
- It will be difficult to get my boss to agree to this.
(might not / very easy)______________________
- That’s as far as we can go.
(think / about / the moment)__________________
II. What do the negotiators do to make their statements sound more diplomatically? Do you prefer the direct or diplomatic versions?
III. The following expressions are all useful in negotiations, but some letters are missing from the words. When you have completed them, the letters in the box spell out some good advise for a negotiator.
| Perhaps we should begin by outlining our initial … | p | s | t | ||||||||||||||
| Can I make a … | g | g | s | t | ? | ||||||||||||
| What if we offered you an ... | a | l | t | n | e | ? | |||||||||||
| Let me get this quite … | l | r | |||||||||||||||
| Would you be willing to accept a … | c | p | m | s | |||||||||||||
| I’m afraid this doesn’t really solve our … | r | b | m | ||||||||||||||
| We may be in a position to revise our … | f | f | |||||||||||||||
| That’s about as far as we can go at this … | t | g | |||||||||||||||
| Are these terms broadly … | c | c | p | t | ? | ||||||||||||
| Let me just check I understand you … | r | r | t | ||||||||||||||
| I’m afraid we could accept this on one … | n | d | t | ||||||||||||||
| What sort of figure we are talking … | a | t | |||||||||||||||
| Could you give us an idea of what we are looking … | f | ? | |||||||||||||||
| What sort of time-scale are we looking … | a | ? | |||||||||||||||
| We’d like to see some movement on … | p | r | c | ||||||||||||||
| Can’t we just run through the main points once … | o | e | ? | ||||||||||||||
| At this moment, we do not see this as a viable … | o | t | |||||||||||||||
| We seem to be nearing … | a | e | e | t | |||||||||||||
| Well, that’s it. I think we’ve earned ourselves a … | d | k | ! |
Listening
I. Listen to extracts from two different negotiations and tick off the expressions above as you hear them. Which two are not used?
II. Listen again and complete the following notes.
| Mammoth Construction plc Schumann Tender Our original bid: 7.8 m. euros Client counter offer:______ euros Project to be completed within__________ Plant to be operational by ___________ Our revised bid: ____________euros in advance ____________euros mid-contract ____________euros on copletion TOTAL:____________euros Schedule overrun penalty: ______________euros per week | Smart move plc The Communication skills specialist Telesales training 2-day seminar no. seminars______over_______-month period no. trainers ________ to be approved max no. participants per seminar__________ Full fee: ______ pounds Discount:_______pounds Final fee: _______pounds _________% non-refundable deposit = _______ poundes |
Lexical Exercises