You're listening to Business English Pod, the Business English podcast for professionals on the move.
Welcome back to Business English Pod.
My name's Edwin and I'll be your host for this episode, the first of a three-part series about meeting with a vendor or potential supplier.
When you meet with a vendor to discuss a proposal, it's partly about getting information and partly about negotiating better terms.
You may be meeting with several vendors who are bidding on the same job.
You want to make sure you understand each proposal and can have confidence in each vendor's ability to deliver.
You'll also want to get the best terms possible in the deal.
Then you can make a wise decision about who deserves the contract.
In this lesson, we'll look at using probing questions to dig for more information, ensuring vendor expertise by asking about past experience, asking leading questions and confirming information.
We'll also see how a vendor attempts to address the client's concerns.
In today's dialogue we'll hear Steve, who works for a company that wants to hire someone to run language training courses for its employees.
Steve is meeting with Karen, a potential vendor who works for Lexis Training Solutions.
As you listen to the dialogue, try to answer the following questions.
1.
What are Lexis Training Solutions' strengths?
2.
What are Steve's biggest concerns in this meeting?
3.
Why does Karen say that each company is unique?
All right.
Well, I've taken a pretty close look at everything, but I still have a few questions, particularly about tailoring the course.
Of course.
The idea of tailoring gets thrown around quite a bit by a lot of companies without much explanation.
What would you like to know?
Well, tailoring a course can mean quite a few different things.
Could you give me a bit more detail?
What would a tailored course look like in our case?
Sure, I see where you're coming from.
But that's not what we're about.
Lexis Training Solutions has built a fantastic reputation for creating tailored courses that directly address clients' needs.
That sounds great.
In general.
But what exactly are you going to tailor?
Are you going to sit down with us and develop specific scenarios for our business?
Certainly.
That's what the initial consultation fee in the proposal is all about.
I see.
Now, do all of your clients choose to have tailored courses, or is this something that you guys are pretty new at?
Well, as I mentioned, we've built an excellent reputation for just this type of work.
And you've done this for companies in our industry before, right?
Certainly.
Our client list is dominated by software companies just like yours.
That's our key market segment.
So do these customized solutions share any similarities among different companies?
To a certain extent, they do.
Software companies are going to face many of the same issues because they're working in the same markets.
But on an organizational level, each company is unique.
And because each company is unique, each of the courses we design is unique.
Okay, Steve is asking some good questions here, and Karen is doing a good job of answering them.
Let's go through the dialogue again, step by step, so we can understand exactly what's going on.
All right.
Well, I've taken a pretty close look at everything, but I still have a few questions, particularly about tailoring the course.
Of course.
The idea of tailoring gets thrown around quite a bit by a lot of companies without much explanation.
What would you like to know?
Well, tailoring a course can mean quite a few different things.
Could you give me a bit more detail?
What would a tailored course look like in our case?
Steve needs to know more about tailoring a course.
Tailoring a course is fitting it or adapting it to a client's specific needs or situation.
What's happening here?
Steve is beginning to probe or dig deeper for more information.
Karen admits that the idea of tailoring gets thrown around a lot without much explanation.
People say it too casually. perhaps hoping to impress clients.
But Steve is not easily impressed just by the idea of tailoring.
He wants to know exactly what it means for his company.
He asks for more detail.
He wants to know what a tailored course would look like.
So he is asking Karen to give the explanation that other people often don't give.
This is important.
Steve is probing because he's not satisfied with general statements.
Tailored course could mean many different things.
So when you're not satisfied with general statements, you can probe for more specific details or information, as in these examples
How exactly do you propose we handle potential changes in our timelines?
What does ongoing customer support entail?
Does in-house design and copywriting mean that you never outsource any of those pieces of work?
What problems do you foresee in upgrading our internal computer networks?
Okay, now Karen sees what Steve is doing and tries to allay his concerns by explaining more clearly.
Sure, I see where you're coming from, but that's not what we're about.
Lexus Training Solutions has built a fantastic reputation for creating tailored courses that directly address clients' needs.
Karen says, I see where you are coming from, to show that she understands Steve's concerns.
She goes on to talk about the fact that Lexus has built a reputation for this kind of work and that they address clients' needs.
Karen is being reassuring.
She has figured out for the most part what Steve might be worried about.
He's worried that this company might talk about tailoring but not really be able to do it.
Karen is allaying his concerns and building confidence with her prospective client.
What else can you say to build confidence?
Let's practice a few more examples.
With over 20 years' experience in this field, we understand what works and what doesn't.
We value open and prompt communication, so if there's a problem, you'll know right away.
Technical support is available 24-7 and our staff can walk you through anything you don't understand.
We have seen this issue several times before and are confident we can help your company through this.
We can see here how this type of meeting is like a dance.
Steve probes for information.
Karen allays his concerns.
Steve probes some more and Karen responds.
They go back and forth, with Steve leading and Karen responding to his moves.
Now listen as Steve tries to make sure of one thing in particular.
That sounds great, in general.
But what exactly are you going to tailor?
Are you going to sit down with us and develop specific scenarios for our business?
Certainly.
That's what the initial consultation fee in the proposal is all about.
I see.
Now, do all of your clients choose to have tailored courses, or is this something that you guys are pretty new at?
Notice how the dance works.
Steve is still dissatisfied with general statements, so he probes for even more specifics, and Karen notes which part of the proposal provides the answer to his question.
Then Steve tries to make sure that Karen's company has the right expertise, the right experience and skills for the job.
He wants to know that Lexus is the right company and has done this type of training before.
To find out, Steve asks whether other clients choose tailored options.
If Karen answers no, he might have reason to worry.
He also asks, is this something you guys are pretty new at?
Notice that he's not asking directly by saying, are you experts?
He's leading gently into the real issue.
Let's look at some other questions we can use to make sure a vendor has the right experience.
Can you tell me more about your professional and educational background?
Have you taken on projects of this size before?
How long has the design team been working together in this field?
What are your minimum requirements for trainers?
Okay, Steve has tried to ensure expertise.
Now he wants to make sure of something else.
He wants to confirm information, or find out whether something he thought was true really is true.
Well, as I mentioned, we've built an excellent reputation for just this type of work.
And you've done this for companies in our industry before, right?
Karen has made it clear that Lexis has done this type of work. but that's not enough for Steve.
He wants to see that they have experience in his industry.
He thinks they do, but he just wants to confirm.
That's why he makes a statement and then adds the tag question, right?
There are many situations in which you might want to make sure something is true or invite a person to speak about something.
Here are some examples of ways to do that.
Notice that not all of them use tag questions.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but your company was only established 12 months ago.
Is it true that Marlin Systems has had you on contract for three years?
So, this is the final price you're showing me here, isn't it?
As I understand it, you subcontract a lot of work out to Indian developers.
Steve is confirming information, but he's doing more than that.
He's leading into another topic and setting himself up for negotiation.
Listen here as he leads Karen into a potentially difficult situation.
Certainly.
Our client list is dominated by software companies just like yours.
That's our key market segment.
So do these customized solutions share any similarities among different companies?
To a certain extent, they do.
Software companies are going to face many of the same issues because they're working in the same markets.
But on an organizational level, each company is unique.
And because each company is unique, each of the courses we design is unique.
Karen emphasizes that their client list is dominated by software companies, meaning that most of their clients are software companies.
She calls this their key market segment.
Lexis does language training for many different companies, but the market is broken down into segments like software.
Steve's question is clever.
He asks if the customized solutions are somewhat similar.
This is a leading question.
He's implying or suggesting something more.
In this case, his real point is that it's not too difficult to make another customized course for a software company.
And for that reason, perhaps it shouldn't be too costly.
He doesn't say this directly.
He's leading into it.
He's trying to get Karen to say that the courses are similar.
Then he can use that fact in negotiation.
Let's hear a few more examples of statements like this.
Isn't this at the high end of your normal price range?
Haven't you experienced quite high turnover lately?
Are there a lot of clients who ask you about your lack of experience?
Do you usually have a lot of pressure to bring in more sales near the end of the year?
Karen actually handles this quite nicely.
She admits some similarities, but stresses that every company is unique and that the courses therefore, are unique.
Okay, we'll leave it there for this lesson.
Now, let's practice some of this language.
Try using some of the language we introduced for asking probing questions.
You'll hear a statement from a prospective vendor, then you'll hear a prompt.
Use the language in the prompt to ask the vendor a probing question.
For example, if you hear, We'll check in with you to make sure everything is working okay.
Exactly.
How often?
Check in.
You can say Okay, but exactly how often will you check in with us?
We'll play an example answer after each practice.
Ready?
Let's give it a go.
Situation.
Our trainers can come in and spend 12 hours with your employees over four weeks.
Good amount.
How flexible.
Scheduling.
Example answer.
That's a good amount of training, but how flexible are you with scheduling situation?
We have a network guy who can come and set things up for you right away.
But size of business before example answer.
But has he worked with this size of business before situation?
We'll get a good idea of your needs before beginning.
Development include consultation, staff and management example answer.
So does that include consultation with our staff and management Situation?
Once you give us the layout and copy, it shouldn't take too long to build your website.
Exactly.
Time.
Launch.
Example answer.
Exactly how much time will it take until we can launch it?
Great.
Now let's practice useful vocabulary and idioms.
You'll hear a series of sentences with a word replaced with a beep.
Repeat the whole sentence, saying the missing word.
For example, if you hear... You can say...
After each response, we'll play the correct answer.
Let's begin.
Answer.
The Economist enjoys an excellent reputation in the magazine industry.
Answer.
Health care has changed to address the needs of the elderly.
Automobile advertising targets very specific market... Answer.
Automobile advertising targets very specific market segments.
The term value added gets... Around a lot in business meetings.
Answer.
The term value added gets thrown around a lot in business meetings.
Well, we've reached the end of this episode, our first in a three-part series about external meetings with vendors.
We've talked about asking, probing and leading questions, confirming information, ensuring expertise and allaying client concerns.
Tune in next time when we'll hear the next part of Steve's conversation with Karen, in which he'll get into the topic of money.
The dance continues.
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Thanks for listening and see you next time.
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