Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 632, Negotiating a Business Deal.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 632.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development.
In guess where?
That's right, beautiful Los Angeles, California.
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This episode is called Negotiating a Business Deal, a Business Agreement.
It's a dialogue between Gia and Logan.
Let's get started.
The other side is holding out for more concessions.
And I think we've given in to most of them.
Now they're countering with even more demands.
They probably know that they have us over a barrel.
After all of the time and money we've put into this deal, they know that we don't want to walk away.
That's true, and that's why we're still at the table.
But they may be pushing too hard.
In the end...
I don't think we'll cave on those additional concessions.
So the entire thing is touch and go right now?
That's how I would characterize it.
If I were you, I wouldn't make any long-term plans.
Duly noted.
I won't run out and buy that new house and those three new cars.
Gia begins by asking, why are the negotiations on this deal taking so long?
Negotiation is the process of trying to reach an agreement, trying to agree with another person or another business.
When each side agrees compromises, that is, each side gives in a little.
For example, i want to buy a new car and the person selling it says it's twenty thousand dollars and i say oh, that's too much.
How about eighteen thousand dollars?
And the person selling the seller says, oh no, I could only go as low as 19000.
And you say, I'll give you $18,500 cash.
I have the money with me.
And he says, okay, I'll take it.
That's a negotiation.
Negotiations are always about time, power and knowledge.
That is, if you have a long time to wait or you need something done right away, if you have knowledge about what the other person wants.
And finally, if you have some other sort of influence or power over that person, all of those things will affect your negotiation.
Gia wants to know why the negotiations on this deal, this agreement, are taking so long, are lasting such a long time.
She says, I thought we would be putting the finishing touches on it by now.
The expression to put the finishing or final touches on something means to be making small changes immediately in order to finish something so that it's perfect.
The idea is that most of the important work has already been completed.
Logan says.
To hold out is a two-word phrasal verb meaning to delay agreeing to something because you are waiting to receive something more.
Usually, we say you hold out for something.
For example, someone wants to offer you a job.
And they offer you $50,000 a year.
And you say, I'm not too sure.
Let me think about it.
And you wait and you wait.
You are holding out for more money.
Boss may call you back and say well, I'm sorry, I need to make a decision.
It's been a week.
And you say, just one more day.
And he says, okay, just one more day.
As time goes on, the boss becomes more and more desperate.
He needs to hire someone.
And so you may get what you want because you have made him wait.
You have used time to your advantage in the negotiation.
The same is true when you go to buy, for example, a new car at a place that sells a lot of cars.
Well, that's true.
The other side is holding out for concessions.
Concessions are things that you agree to do in order to reach an agreement.
It's like a compromise.
You say well okay, I can't give you more than 50000 as the boss, but I can give you an extra week of vacation time.
That would be a concession.
Logan says, I don't know what they're thinking.
The other side.
They made some pretty big demands at the start and I think we've given in to most of them.
Some pretty big demands means some very large demands, where demand is something that you say you must have.
I cannot do this deal without it.
Logan says their company has already given in to most of their demands.
By the way, the word demand has a couple of different meanings.
The other meanings you can find in our learning guide.
To give in is a two-word phrasal verb meaning to agree to do what someone else wants you to do, even though you don't really want to do it.
So the parent who has a child who says, Mommy, Mommy, I want to go to the store.
I want to go to the store.
I want to, I want to, I want to, I want to.
Mommy can either say, no, go to your room.
I'm not letting you go to the store.
Or she can give in.
She can say, okay, you can go to the store.
Nowadays, most parents just give in, or so it seems.
So it appears to me, you know, when I was young, oh, never mind.
And you say, no, I only want to pay $18,000.
Your proposal is a counter proposal.
He says, 20,000, you say something different.
That something different that the other person says is their counter proposal.
The verb is to counter, to offer something else, instead of the original proposal.
Gia says The expression to have someone over a barrel B-A-R-R-E-L means to be in a situation where someone is very uncomfortable, or to be in a situation where you can beat the other person or take advantage of them, knowing that you will win.
For example, you live in an apartment and the person who owns the apartment raises your rent.
But if you don't have anywhere else to go or if you need to stay in that apartment...
He has you over a barrel.
He has you in a situation where he can get what he wants because you don't have the power to move.
In this case, the other side has knowledge about the situation of Gia and Logan's company and they have power.
They have them over a barrel.
Gia says...
This is the idea I was talking about earlier.
Gianlogan's company has spent a lot of time and money negotiating this agreement.
So they don't want to waste that time and money.
They don't want to walk away.
To walk away is a two word phrasal verb meaning to stop the negotiations, to end the discussion.
Logan says To be at the table means to be continuing to participate in the negotiations, to continue to talk to them.
Logan says They may be pushing too hard, meaning they may be trying to do too much, trying to get too much.
In the end, I don't think we'll cave on those additional concessions.
To cave C-A-V-E as a verb means to agree to do what the other person wants you to do, just so you can reach an agreement.
To give in or to give up are also ways of saying the same thing.
Gia says, so the entire thing, the entire negotiation, is touch and go right now.
Touch and go is something that... could fall apart at any time.
It's something we would say that is very fragile.
To be fragile means you could break it easily.
Well, the negotiations are fragile.
They're touch and go.
Logan says, that's how I would characterize it, meaning that's how I would describe it.
If I were you, I wouldn't make any long-term plans, plans into the future.
Gia says duly noted.
That phrase duly D-U-L-Y noted is, is used to show that you have heard and understood what the other person has said and will think about it.
We use this phrase especially if we need to make a decision about something.
Gia says, I won't run out means I won't go immediately. and buy a new house and three new cars.
She's joking, of course.
She's saying that she will not spend a lot of money because they still don't know how the negotiations are going to end up.
That is, how they are going to come to a final result, what that result will be.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
I thought we would be putting the finishing touches on it by now.
The other side is holding out for more concessions.
I don't know what they're thinking.
They made some pretty big demands at the start, and I think we've given in to most of them.
Now they're countering with even more demands.
They probably know that they have us over a barrel.
After all of the time and money we've put into this deal, they know that we don't want to walk away.
That's true, and that's why we're still at the table.
But they may be pushing too hard.
In the end, I don't think we'll cave on those additional concessions.
So the entire thing is touch and go right now?
That's how I would characterize it.
If I were you, I wouldn't make any long-term plans.
Duly noted.
I won't run out and buy that new house and those three new cars.
I would characterize our scriptwriter as amazing.
That's because it's our own Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us next time on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2010 by the Center for Educational Development.
