A WIN-WIN GAME.- Session 2.- It’s a deal.

When negotiating a good deal you need to use good skills to come out of the meeting feeling positive and confident. That's why it's important that you get acquainted with different ways of making suggestions and giving advice when discussing a proposal.

Here are some ways of making suggestions you should know by now:

Now we are going to learn other possibilities for making suggestions.

• One way of doing so is by means of conditional sentences that we have already studied in session 1:
  • If you are interested in merging, try to reach a compromise as soon as possible.
  • If I were you, I would use the money raised.
  • If I were in your shoes/ If I were in your position, I would start my own business.
• There are certain expressions that you can use to make suggestions:
  • Reaching an agreement is a must in negotiations.
  • I recommend that you stick to the company's code of conduct when negotiating.
  • It's best not to accept the first offer.
  • It's a good idea to create jobs for local people.
  • Why don't you take her on?
  • Let's launch the new product after carrying out market research.
  • What about/ How about selling direct to the public?

• You can also give advice by means of modal verbs: SHOULD and OUGHT TO
  • You should change the marketing policy.
  • You ought to compete with overseas producers.

Their meaning is the same, but it is important to consider their differences in form:

As you can see from the examples the modal verb should is followed by an infinitive without to as any other modal verb.

Negative form: Should + not / Shouldn't.

• You shouldn't resign now.

Interrogative form: Should + subject + infinitive without to.

• Should I resign now?

On the contrary, Ought to is followed by an infinitive with to.

Negative form: Ought not to

• Your company ought not to branch out.

Interrogative form: In interrogative sentences should is more common than ought to.

When asking someone something you can use:

• A direct wh- question:
  • Where is the manager?
• An indirect question:
  • Could you tell me where the manager is?

    Direct questions are less polite than indirect ones in formal occasions, such as when you are involved in a process of negotiation. That's why you must study them in order to make your speech more polite and adequate.

    As you can notice, the indirect question has an introductory part and then the question itself:

    Introductory part: Could you tell me (Auxiliar + subject + verb)

    Question: where the manager is? (wh- + subject + verb)

    In the second part the subject comes in front of the verb. That's the reason why the following indirect question would be incorrect:

  • * Could you tell me where is the manager?
• A direct yes/no question:
  • Do you speak German?
• An indirect question:
  • Could you tell me if/whether you speak German?

As you can see from the example, now the second part of the indirect question is introduced by if/whether since there is no wh- item in the direct question.

There are some other examples of indirect questions. Look at the table below to understand the relation between direct and indirect questions. All these indirect questions are more polite and more formal than their corresponding direct questions.

You use a purpose clause when you want to state the purpose of the action in the independent clause, the reason why somebody does something

• The most common type of purpose clause is a to-infinitive clause:
  • I went to the bank to ask for information.
  • I needed to work hard to win the contract.

As you can see from the examples we are using to+infinitive to indicate the purpose. In more formal situations in order to and so as to can also be used with the same meaning.

• When the purpose is negative in order not to and so as not to are used:
  • We made a great effort in order not to lose the job.
  • We made a great effort so as not to lose the job.

In order not to and so as not to are followed by an infinitive verb.

• As you can see in the first sentence for is followed by a noun; however, to is used when it is followed by an infinitive verb.
  • Why don't we go out for dinner?
  • Why don't we go to the travel agent's to book our tickets?

When you are asking for the general purpose of a thing, both for and to can be used:

• What is this knife for? It's for cutting bread.
• What is this knife for? It's to cut bread.

• So that can also be used to indicate purpose. But it must be followed by subject and verb unlike to:
  • It is used when the purpose is negative:
    • Work hard so that you don't get fired.
  • And so that can also be followed by a modal verb (can/could/will/would/may/might):
    • He went abroad so that he could carry out market research.

To summarize, in the table below you can see the different ways of expressing purpose in English:

As you already know in any process of negotiation two or more parties are involved trying to reach an agreement to satisfy their interests. The following words may be useful for you when being involved in such a process.

The process of negotiation:

1. Afford.
2. Agenda.
3. Agreement.
4. Alternative.
5. Be paid peanuts.
6. Bargain.
7. Bedrock price.
8. Bottom-line.
9. Borrow.
10. Break even.
11. Bribe.
12. Budget.
13. Cancellation.
14. Capital.
15. Commission.
16. Comply.
17. Compromise.
18. Concession.
19. Condition.
20. Confront.
21. Consensus.
22. Cost an arm and a leg.
23. Counter proposal.
24. Counter attack.
25. Counter offer.
26. Counterpart.
27. Counter-productive.
28. Deal.
29. Deadlock.
30. Deadline.
31. Dispute.
32. Estimate.
33. Feasible.
34. Goal.
35. (in) Gross.
36. Guarantee.
37. Haggle.
38. Income tax.
39. Inflation.
40. Lend.
41. Leverage.
42. Loss.
43. Make ends meet.
44. Memo.
45. Mislead.
46. Mutual.
47. Net.
48. Party.
49. Penalty.
50. Pressure.
51. Profit.
52. Proposal.
53. Quarter.
54. Reach an agreement.
55. Tactics.
56. Tentative solution.
57. Terms.
58. Trade-off.
59. Work out.
60. Yield.