Effective Business Discussions / Erfolgreich kommunizieren

ƒƒ I declare the meeting open!

ƒƒ Ladies and gentlemen, may I please open this meeting?

ƒƒ I would like to welcome you all to our sales meeting.

ƒƒ Thank you for coming to today’s meeting.

ƒƒ Let’s get down to business.

ƒƒ Right, shall we get started / begin?

ƒƒ Has everybody seen the minutes of the last meeting?

ƒƒ Can we take the minutes for read?

ƒƒWho’s taking the minutes?

ƒƒ As the minutes of the last meeting have been approved, we

can start with the first item on the agenda.

ƒƒWe circulated the agenda in advance.

ƒƒ Has everybody received a copy of the agenda?

ƒƒ Does anyone want to add an item?

ƒƒ I’d like to put another item on the agenda.

ƒƒ I think we can delete item 3.

ƒƒ The reason for our coming together is …

ƒƒWe are here to discuss ...

ƒƒ I’ve called a meeting to ...

ƒƒ The purpose of today’s meeting is

ƒƒ I’d like Mr Brown to take the floor.

ƒƒ I would like to invite Dr Lee to present his views on ...

ƒƒMr Grem would you like to say something about this?

ƒƒ I wonder if you like to comment, Mr Smith?

ƒƒWhat’s your opinion on this, John?

ƒƒWhat do you think of that / say to that, Jim?

ƒƒ I’m afraid we’re moving too far away from the subject.

ƒƒ I’m afraid this isn’t really relevant to the discussion.

ƒƒ Shouldn’t we rather return to the topic?

ƒƒ Let’s not get side-tracked.

ƒƒ Could we stick to the subject, please?

ƒƒ Could you keep to the point.

ƒƒ There seems to be a misunderstanding.

ƒƒ Could you explain what you mean?

ƒƒ Could you give us some more details?

ƒƒ Could you be a little more precise?

ƒƒ I’m afraid I don’t really understand you?

ƒƒ Do you mean to say that ...?

ƒƒ Let’s try to keep this meeting short.

ƒƒ Let’s try to finish by four o’clock.

ƒƒ I’m sorry, but we’re running out of time.

ƒƒ Could you keep your comment short?

ƒƒ As time is short we have to move on.

ƒƒ In short, the main points that have been made are ...

ƒƒ Let me summarise what we have discussed so far.

ƒƒ To sum up, it seems that we all agree ...

ƒƒ I’d like to go over the most important pros and cons.

ƒƒ I suggest we move to a vote.

ƒƒ Could we take a vote on it? / Let’s have a vote on this.

ƒƒ Can I ask for a show of hands?

ƒƒ All those in favour raise their hands.

ƒƒ Those against?

ƒƒ Any abstentions?

ƒƒ I’d like to abstain.

ƒƒ The motion is carried by six votes to four.

ƒƒ Is there anything else to discuss?

ƒƒ Any further points of discussion?

ƒƒ Is there any other business?

ƒƒWe seem to have arrived to the decision that ...

ƒƒ I think we’ve discussed everything.

ƒƒ I’d now like to draw this meeting to a close.

ƒƒ I declare the meeting closed! Thank you Ladies and Gentlemen.

ƒƒ I’d like to / let’s call it a day now.I

ƒƒ Thanks for coming everyone!

ƒƒ I would like to put forward an alternative proposal.

ƒƒ I would like to make another suggestion.

ƒƒWouldn’t it be a good idea if ...

ƒƒMay I interrupt you for a moment?

ƒƒ I’m sorry to interrupt you / break in, but ...

ƒƒMay I come in at this point ...

ƒƒ Excuse me, may I ask a question?

ƒƒ I don’t want to interrupt, but ...

ƒƒ I would like to give you some details on this matter.

ƒƒ Let me give you an overview of the figures.

ƒƒ I will brief you on the results so far.

ƒƒMay I inform you on the decisions made by…

ƒƒ In my opinion / in my view ...

ƒƒ If you want to know my opinon ...

ƒƒ The way I see it is ...

ƒƒ I feel / think / believe that ...

ƒƒ It seems / appears to me that

ƒƒ I can go along with your proposal.

ƒƒ I think we are in agreement on that.

ƒƒ I share your view.

ƒƒ I agree with you / I think you’re right.

ƒƒ I don’t think that’s a good idea.

ƒƒ I cannot go along with you there.

ƒƒ I’m afraid I can’t agree with you.

ƒƒ I’m sorry, but I don’t agree at all.

ƒƒ I absolutely disagree / I think you’re wrong.

ƒƒ He said / stated / observed that ...

ƒƒ She pointed out that ...

ƒƒ The chairman asked if / whether ...

ƒƒMr Bloom answered / replied ...

ƒƒ The speaker argued ...

ƒƒ He reminded the board…

ƒƒ He underlined / emphasized / stressed ...

ƒƒ She warned / cautioned ...

ƒƒ He urged ...

ƒƒ The chairman summoned the speaker

ƒƒWe were thinking of ... / suggest ...

ƒƒ The best offer we can make you is ...

ƒƒWe could offer you a discount of 2 %.

ƒƒWe grant a price reduction of 2 %.

ƒƒWe can deliver the goods in 6 weeks.

ƒƒ Our deal includes maintenance.

ƒƒ I’m afraid we cannot accept that.

ƒƒ There’s no question of our being able to accept.

ƒƒWe feel that the price is rather high.

ƒƒWe cannot agree to what you propose.

ƒƒ That is not negotiable.

ƒƒ If you shorten delivery, we could ...

ƒƒWe may be able to ... but only if you ...

ƒƒ Provided you ... we might ...

ƒƒ That sounds fine but I’ll have to confer with my boss first.

ƒƒ I should like to think this over.

ƒƒ Could you keep that offer open for 2 more weeks?

ƒƒ I’m afraid I don’t have the authority to decide.

ƒƒ I would like to discuss this proposal with my partner.

ƒƒ I’m pleased to say we agree.

ƒƒ I think we’ve finally come to terms.

ƒƒ This seems a very reasonable offer.

ƒƒWe’re in complete agreement with each other.

ƒƒ I’m afraid that you didn’t respect the date of delivery.

ƒƒ The goods you delivered were damaged.

ƒƒWe’re sorry to say that we’re dissatisfied with the consignment.

ƒƒ Please accept our apologies.

ƒƒ I’m very sorry to hear that.

ƒƒ I really must apologize.

ƒƒ I quite understand how you feel.

ƒƒ Good morning. Let me introduce myself ...

ƒƒ Let me introduce you to my colleague ...

ƒƒ I / We represent..

ƒƒ It’s a great honour to be able to speak here today.

ƒƒ I’m grateful for having the opportunity to …

ƒƒ I’m glad to have a chance to speak.

ƒƒ Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for asking me to …

ƒƒ Today I’m going to talk about ...

ƒƒ The topic / subject of this presentation is ...

ƒƒ In my presentation I’ll be explaining our new project.

ƒƒ I’ll try to give you an overview of the development ...

ƒƒ You’ve met here today to hear something about ...

ƒƒ In the handout, which will be passing around, you’ll find ...

ƒƒ I hope everybody received the handout?

ƒƒMay I draw your attention to the handout?

ƒƒ There is a small mistake in the handout which I would like

to correct.

ƒƒ I’ll focus on two main points.

ƒƒ I’ll be covering the following three main areas.

ƒƒ I’ve divided this presentation into four sections.

ƒƒ In the first part of my presentation I’ll ...

ƒƒ Please do not hesitate to interrupt me if I’m speaking too

fast / I’m not making myself clear / you have questions.

ƒƒ Please stop me if anything is unclear.

ƒƒ After the presentation there will be time for questions.

ƒƒ I’ll be happy to answer any questions after my talk.

ƒƒ Let’s start with ...

ƒƒ I’d like to begin with an overview of ...

ƒƒ So that’s the present situation. Let’s now have a look at ...

ƒƒWith this we have come to the following ...

ƒƒ Let me now move on to ...

ƒƒ So much for the figures. Now as to ...

ƒƒ The question is: What can we do about this?

ƒƒWhat does this mean for our company?

ƒƒWhat advantages would this offer us?

ƒƒ You will ask yourselves: In what way does this affect us?

ƒƒ On the one hand ... On the other ...

ƒƒ In addition ..., furthermore ...

ƒƒ Because of this / as a result of this ...

ƒƒ Consequently / therefore ...

ƒƒ However, I think that ...

ƒƒ Generally speaking / in general we could say ...

ƒƒ On the whole ...

ƒƒWe should take into account the following ...

ƒƒ One way to solve this problem would be ...

ƒƒWe propose the following solution ...

ƒƒ A possible solution would be ...

ƒƒ I found a way to deal with this problem.

ƒƒ However, there’s another alternative.

ƒƒWhat’s the forecast for next year?

ƒƒ The long / short term forecast is ...

ƒƒ The outlook is (not) very encouraging.

ƒƒ The prospects for next year are pretty good.

ƒƒWe expect this trend to continue.

ƒƒ If I might just finish my sentence.

ƒƒ Perhaps we could return to that question later on.

ƒƒ If you would be so kind as to let me finish. I’ll answer questions

later on.

ƒƒ If you would allow me to finish off first.

ƒƒ As I was saying ...

ƒƒ Coming back to what I was trying to explain ...

ƒƒ To return to my subject ...

ƒƒ If we could just return to the topic ...

ƒƒ If I could just continue ...

ƒƒ This leads us back to what I was saying before …

ƒƒƒƒ Let’s have a look at this graph / diagram.

ƒƒ The horizontal / vertical axis represents ...

ƒƒ Production is indicated by a red line.

ƒƒ This solid line gives us ...

ƒƒ The broken line shows ...

ƒƒ The dotted line illustrates ...

ƒƒ This curve here indicates ...

ƒƒWith this pie chart I’d like to show you ...

ƒƒ The shaded section represents ...

ƒƒ The table in the middle gives us last year’s sales figures.

ƒƒ The number of … has grown / gone up / increased / climbed.

ƒƒ Prices have jumped since ...

ƒƒ There has been an enormous boom / upturn.

ƒƒMarket has picked up / recovered again.

ƒƒ Sales reached a peak in 20XX.

ƒƒ It reached an all-time high.

ƒƒ Profits have declined / gone down / dropped / decreased /

fallen.

ƒƒ Sales have slumped / plummeted.

ƒƒWe could almost speak of a recession.

ƒƒ There has been an enormous down turn in production.

ƒƒ Prices bottomed out.

ƒƒ Our sales figures have remained stable / steady.

ƒƒ Prices have been stable / unchanged for several years.

ƒƒ Profits held firm for two years.

ƒƒ If we compare these figures, we see that ...

ƒƒ Compared with last year, sales have increased by 5 %.

ƒƒ Although we invested a lot, sales figures fell.

ƒƒ Investment increased whereas sales dropped.

ƒƒ The higher the costs, the higher the price.

ƒƒ Investment was not as high as last year.

ƒƒ I’d like to conclude by making the following statement.

ƒƒ Let me go through the main arguments again before finishing

this presentation.

ƒƒ I hope it has become clear through this presentation ...

ƒƒ I’d like to close off with the following suggestion ...

ƒƒ To put it in a nutshell ...

ƒƒ I’d now like to turn to the questions that you certainly have.

ƒƒ If you have any questions, I’d be happy to answer them now.

ƒƒ I’d welcome any questions or comments.

ƒƒ Please tell me if anything was unclear.

ƒƒ I don’t think I’m the right person to answer that question.

ƒƒ That is beyond my competence.

ƒƒ I’m afraid I don’t have those figures here, but I could let you

know later.

ƒƒ I quite see your point but still ...

ƒƒ That’s an interesting observation but we shouldn’t forget ...

ƒƒ I understand your criticism, but don’t you think ...?

ƒƒ I entirely agree with you. On the other hand ...

ƒƒ Perhaps I should make myself clearer on this point.

ƒƒWith this last question I’d like to finish this presentation.

ƒƒ I’m sorry to break off this interesting discussion but I think

we’re running out of time.

ƒƒ I think we should call it a day.

ƒƒ Thank you for your attention, ladies and gentlemen.

ƒƒ Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for sacrificing your valuable

time.