Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 768, Negotiating Price.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 768.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, in the state of California, in the country of the United States.
But you know that already.
You also know our website is eslpod.com.
Go there, become a member, download a learning guide, and support this podcast.
This episode is a dialogue between Justin and Rachel about trying to get the best price for something that you're going to buy.
Let's get started.
Hello.
Hi, Justin.
It's Rachel from McEw Corp.
Oh, hi, Rachel.
Did you get our bid for the job?
Yes, we did.
We like your proposal, but we still need to come to terms on the price.
We've already given you our rock-bottom price.
Because we want to get this job.
But we always try to be flexible.
Good.
Could you do better on what you've quoted us for labor?
The price seemed a little high.
We might be able to trim a little off of that...
How about if we discount that by 10%?
That's an attractive offer, but we were hoping for 20%.
You're driving a hard bargain.
We have certain fixed costs, you know.
I do, and that's why I'm only asking about labor costs.
Can you meet me halfway at 15%?
I think that might be doable if that's the only stumbling block to us getting the job.
I can't make any promises, but I'll do my best.
That's all I can ask.
I'll send you over a revised bid.
Great.
I hope to have good news for you next week.
We begin our phone conversation with Justin saying hello.
Rachel says, Hi Justin, it's Rachel from McEw Corp.
Oh, hi Rachel, Justin says.
To understand BID B-I-D, You have to think of a company or an individual person who wants to get something done, or perhaps wants to purchase something.
Buy something.
A company may ask other companies, how much will you charge me?
How much will it cost me to do this?
To build a new building or to paint my offices or whatever it happens to be?
These different companies will then give you a proposal that includes a price.
Well, we will charge you $25 or $25,000, whatever it is.
That proposal with a price is called a bid.
So a bid is something that I give to another company, telling them how much I will charge them to do whatever they want to have done.
Bid actually has a few other meanings in English as well, and those can be found, where else?
In the learning guide.
Rachel said, Yes, we did receive your bid.
She says To come to terms T-E-R-M-S means to reach an agreement or an understanding, to agree on something.
Justin says, we've already given you our rock bottom price.
The expression rock bottom means means as low as possible.
Usually we're talking about a price for something.
What Justin is saying here is that the price that they gave Rachel and McEucorp is the lowest possible price they can give them.
They can't give them any more discount.
It's the rock bottom price.
Sometimes people use rock bottom as a noun, especially with the verb hit.
I've hit rock bottom means I've gone as low as I can go, especially if you are having difficulties or you have some sort of problem.
Usually it's a negative thing to hit rock bottom.
Justin says we've already given you our rock bottom price because we want to get this job, meaning we want you to hire us.
But we always try to be flexible.
To be flexible.
F-L-E-X-I-B-L-E means to be willing to change, to be willing to do something different.
In this case, perhaps, to be willing to lower the price.
Rachel says good.
Could you do better on what you've quoted us for labor?
To do better on means to improve in some way.
What Rachel is asking for is a lower price on what Justin has quoted them for labor.
To quote means to give a price, usually in writing.
A quote is similar to a bid.
Here it's used as a verb to mean to give someone a price, a definite price written down.
Here's how much I'm going to charge you.
Labor is the amount of money you pay people to work.
So if you are painting your house, labor would be the amount of money you have to pay the painters, the people who actually put the paint on your house.
The other part of the cost would be the supplies, the things they actually use, in this case, the cans of paint that they have to buy.
Rachel says the price, the price for labor, seemed a little high.
Rachel's company thought it was too high.
Justin says we might be able to trim a little off of that.
To trim, T-R-I-M, means to reduce the amount of something or make something a little bit smaller.
To trim your hair would be to cut a little bit of your hair off of your head.
Trim has a few other meanings which can be found, once again, in our learning guide.
Justin says we might be able to trim a little off of that to lower the price.
How about, what do you think, if we discount that by 10%?
To discount, as a verb, means to lower or reduce the price of something.
Rachel says that's an attractive offer, but we were hoping for 20%.
Attractive here means appealing something that makes you want to accept it, something that sounds or looks good to you.
Attractive when used to describe a person would mean someone who is very good looking, a handsome man, a beautiful woman.
Rachel says that the offer, the proposal that Justin gave of a 10% discount is attractive.
It's nice, but her company was hoping for 20%, a 20% discount on the price of labor.
Justin says, The expression to drive a hard bargain.
B-A-R-G-A-I-N means to be a difficult, we might say a tough negotiator.
A negotiator is someone who negotiates a price.
To negotiate is means to go back and forth with someone to get the best price you possibly can, the lowest price you possibly can, and that's what Rachel is doing.
She's negotiating the price.
She's saying, well, we'd like it a little lower.
And Justin is saying, well, we can't go that low.
How about this?
And they go back and forth, each one of them saying something, and eventually they will agree on a price.
But if you make it very difficult for the other person to agree with you, if you ask for a lot of things or want a very low price, we might say that you drive a hard bargain.
You are very difficult to negotiate with.
Justin says...
We have certain fixed costs you know.
A fixed cost is a kind of expense that you have to pay for no matter how much business you have.
So if you have an office in a building you have to pay rent every month.
It doesn't matter how much business you are doing, how much you are selling.
The person who owns the building wants his or her money for the rent.
So that's what we would call a fixed cost.
It doesn't go up or down, typically, depending upon the amount of things or services that you sell.
Rachel says I do meaning.
I understand you have certain fixed costs and that's why I'm only asking about labor costs.
Then she says, can you meet me halfway at 15%?
When you say...
Can you meet me halfway?
H-A-L-F-W-A-Y.
One word.
You mean, can we compromise?
Can we divide it in half?
Can we, another expression, split the difference?
You want 25%.
I want 15%.
We agree on 20%.
It's halfway between 15 and 25.
So the expression is, can you meet me halfway?
Justin says, I think that might be doable.
Doable means you are able to do it.
It's possible.
He says, it might be doable if that's the only stumbling block to us getting the job.
A stumbling S-T-U-M-B-L-I-N-G block B-L-O-C-K is something that makes it difficult, but not impossible, for you to get what you want, to reach your goal.
In this case, Justin wants to get the contract from Rachel's company.
He wants to be able to sell his services to her company.
A stumbling block would be something that gets in the way, some difficulty.
He's saying that if the labor cost is the only stumbling block...
He might be able to compromise to meet her halfway by reducing the labor costs by 15%.
Rachel says, I can't make any promises, but I'll do my best.
Justin is asking her if there's going to be anything else she wants to ask for.
And she's saying that she can't make any promises.
She can't say yes, definitely.
But she'll do her best.
She'll try to make sure that this is the only thing she asks for.
Justin says, that's all I can ask, meaning that's all I want you to do, to do your best.
He says, I'll send you over, I'll send you a revised bid.
Revised means corrected, updated, changed.
Rachel says, great.
Meaning, I hope I will be able to tell you that you, your company, got the job.
We are going to hire you next week.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Hello?
Hi, Justin.
It's Rachel from EQ Corp.
Oh, hi, Rachel.
Did you get our bid for the job?
Yes, we did.
We like your proposal, but we still need to come to terms on the price.
We've already given you our rock-bottom price because we want to get this job, but we always try to be flexible.
Good.
Could you do better on what you've quoted us for labor?
The price seemed a little high.
We might be able to trim a little off of that.
How about if we discount that by 10%?
That's an attractive offer, but we were hoping for 20%.
You're driving a hard bargain.
We have certain fixed costs, you know.
I do, and that's why I'm only asking about labor costs.
Can you meet me halfway at 15%?
I think that might be doable if that's the only stumbling block to us getting the job.
I can't make any promises, but I'll do my best.
That's all I can ask.
I'll send you over a revised bid.
Great.
I hope to have good news for you next week.
We think acquiring or picking up English is very doable, especially if you listen to the scripts by our wonderful scriptwriter, Dr Lucy Saye.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2012 by the Center for Educational Development.
