The Negotiation lesson

These are follow up/ additional exercises to supplement the YouTube video episode Negotiating like a native. Use these to help your English language students practice and improve their negotiating strategies by discussing the points and approaches below. Business or professional-themed lessons ideas are also available on The infographics lesson idea, the probability and likelihood lesson as well as The starting your own business lesson ideas I’ve created for such students.

Speaking

1. What sort of negotiations have you taken part in(at work or outside of work)?
2. How many people were involved? Were you alone or part of a team?
3. Was the atmosphere formal or informal?
4. Was the negotiation successful? What happened?
5. How common is negotiating in your country? Is it important to adapt this skill? why?

Language practice and Speaking

Points to consider:

1. Keep an open mind and be flexible
2. Propose a strict agenda you are going keep to it
3. Anticipate the interests of the other side
4. Let the other side make the first offer
5. Be very clear and direct about what you want from the other side
6. Pay careful attention to building a rapport
7. Put pressure on the other side to make an agreement
8. Have a deadline for  getting a deal

Which tips do you agree with? Why?

1. OM the early stages, you need to ask the other side a lot of questions.
2. Always interrupt if you don’t understand something.
3. Never make a concession for free. Always get something in return.
4. Use simple, direct language and be open about your aims.
5. Signal what  you are going to do. For example, say ‘I’d just like to clarify that.’
6. Summarize often so that everyone is clear when you reach agreement.
7. Adapt your language so you don’t appear aggressive.
8. Talk about your emotions and how you are feeling.

Techniques used to achieve your negotiating objective, match them with their definitions:

Open questions                                            a) modify language so that it does not appear too aggressive

Closed questions                                          b) gather information and explore the opposite number’s view

Softening phrases                                        c) say what you are going to do before you do it

Signalling phrases                                         d) check understanding and ask for precise information

Summarizing                                                  e) go over points covered to highlight when agreement is reached

Here is the video episode on this lesson:

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