Are your Negotiations  “Seasoned with Salt?”

Conducting business in English although not your first language? Sometimes unsure how to get your point across without offending your customer? To maintain good relations and increase your chances of doing business, and to negotiate successfully, you need to be polite.

So, how polite are you? How polite should we be?

There is an old expression that talks about letting your speech be gracious, and “seasoned with salt”. This originates from ancient times in the Middle East were salt was very important in flavouring food. This expression was used to help people understand the importance of using speech that, not only did not cause offence, but was pleasing to the person you are talking to. It should make them want to listen, just like food that tastes good, or is well seasoned, makes you want more. In other words being polite!

Even when you are fluent in another language it is easy to get it wrong.

In English there are 4 main ways we can be polite with our business speech;

• Be more indirect with your speech
• Use verbs like should, might, could, would & wouldn’t (modal verbs)
• Use the past tense
• Use the expression “seems to be”

Here are some examples;

Direct v Indirect speech

“Your services are very expensive!” This may be true but you will not win many friends talking like this. A more indirect way of saying this will soften what you say – “to be honest your services do seem to be rather expensive”

“rather” is an adverb, and other adverbs of degree will work well with indirect speech such as; barely, fairly, hardly and relatively.

Other Verbs

Perhaps we should…………

It might be a good idea to……………

Could we think of another way to………………

Would you be open to other suggestions?

Wouldn’t it be better to……………….

Using the Past Tense

We were thinking of a much lower figure…………

Actually, I was hoping to speak to you………………

I just wanted to say thank you for hosting this event

What did you have in mind?

Using the phrase “seems to be”

There is a problem – there seems to be a problem

Your not willing to compromise – you don’t seem willing to compromise

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These are all phrases that need to be practised so write them down and try them out. Not all at once!! These teaching suggestions are part of a wider Business English lesson on Negotiation. To see a list of specific English lessons related to business click here.

If you are interested in other business related English, you can download my free PDF on  English Sales questions and the Magic Keywords! CLICK HERE.