| Hi, everybody! Welcome back to Top Words, my name is Alisha. |
| And today we're going to be talking about 10 phrases for doing business successfully. |
| Okay, let's get to the lesson! |
| First is… |
| 1. Thank you for meeting with us. |
| “Thank you for meeting with us” is a great kind of introductory greeting phrase you can use when you're about to start a meeting with a client, with a potential collaborator, and so on. |
| “Thank you for meeting with us” expresses that you appreciate the other person or the other group has made time for you. It's a great way to start things off. |
| Thank you for meeting with us, we're looking forward to the discussion. |
| Okay, next is… |
| 2. Here's my card. |
| “Here's my card” is the phrase we use when we give someone our business card. You don't need to be especially polite about this, in English, you just need to show that you are giving someone your card. You can be very very straightforward and say hey, my name is so and so, here's my card. This is a great and very natural way to start a collaboration or to start a discussion in a business setting. |
| For example, It's nice to meet you, here's my card. |
| Okay, the next expression is… |
| 3. We'll send you everything prior to the meeting. |
| This is an expression you can use when you're making plans for the meeting. This shows that you are taking responsibility to provide some materials, like documents or data or so on, before the meeting. So you're saying, we're going to give you everything you need to prepare for the meeting before the meeting. That's what prior means in this sentence. |
| For example, we'll prepare all the documents, we'll send you everything prior to the meeting. |
| Okay, next is… |
| 4. Are there any questions we can answer? |
| This is a really great expression to use, typically at the end of a presentation or perhaps at the end of a business meeting. This gives your client or your collaborator the opportunity to ask any questions they may have, perhaps your meeting agenda didn't cover all the topics they wanted to discuss, so this is a great chance that you can give the other party to ask you some other things. |
| For example, did you have a chance to review the documents we provided? Are there any questions we can answer? |
| Okay, next is… |
| 5. Perhaps we can find a way to compromise. |
| You can use this statement in a meeting or in a discussion setting where two sides have some ideas about a topic but they can't quite agree 100% on something. You can agree to try to find a compromise, which means to try to find a solution that's between the two ideas. This is a very polite way to make this kind of suggestion and it also shows you care about the other person or the other party's feelings and opinions, while also wanting to have consideration for your own. |
| For example, If you'd like to make some changes, perhaps we can find a way to compromise. |
| Okay, next is… |
| 6. I completely agree. |
| This is a great expression to use in a meeting or discussion situation, it shows, of course, that you agree with the other person but by adding “completely,” you're emphasizing your agreement. You're showing just how much you agree with the other person's idea or opinion or suggestion, whatever it is. So yes, of course, you can say “I agree” but if you say “I completely agree,” you'll make the statement a lot stronger and maybe they'll be happier to hear that. |
| For example, that's a great point, I completely agree. |
| Okay, next is… |
| 7. I'm afraid I have to disagree. |
| Okay, the opposite of agreeing with someone is disagreeing with someone, and doing it politely in a business setting is very important. In this expression “I'm afraid I have to disagree” has two key components - “I'm afraid” and “have to.” |
| This “I'm afraid” doesn't mean I'm scared at all, it's a polite way to soften a negative sounding expression and then have to show that maybe you don't want to disagree but you feel it's your responsibility to do so. So this “I'm afraid I have to disagree” is like saying “I don't really want to and I feel a little bit negative about it, but my opinion doesn't match yours.” |
| For example, I understand, but I'm afraid I have to disagree. |
| This is a really good way to show that you're not quite on the same page with another person but to express it respectfully. |
| Okay, next is… |
| 8. Can we discuss this at our next meeting? |
| This is a great expression to use if you are between meetings with your client or your collaborator. You can use this in an email, you can use it on a phone call, when you find something you want to talk about in more detail but maybe you don't have the time at the moment or it's not the right setting, you can say “can we talk about this at the next meeting” and this shows that you have respect and consideration for the other person's ideas or opinions but maybe you need to talk about it in a meeting setting, this is a great way to do it. |
| For example, I think this is an important topic, can we discuss this at our next meeting. |
| Okay, the next expression is… |
| 9. Thank you very much for your understanding. |
| This is an excellent expression to use when something goes wrong. If you need to make a schedule change or if something happens to documents you plan to prepare and there needs to be maybe a change or some kind of transformation, and things are not going quite according to plan, and you need to express that to the person you're working with, you can end your email or you can end your business meeting with this expression - “Thank you for your understanding.” So this is saying we really appreciate that you understand our situation and you're continuing to cooperate with us. |
| For example, we apologize for the sudden change in scheduling, thank you very much for your understanding. |
| Keep in mind that we don't really use this phrase unless something goes wrong, so if you use this and there's no problem, it's going to sound unnatural. If you want to express thank you, just say thank you. We typically use this to express that we recognize that something has maybe not gone according to plan and we want to show that we appreciate the other side's understanding. |
| Okay, let's go to the next expression, next is… |
| 10. We're happy to have the opportunity to work with you. |
| This is a good expression to use perhaps after the first meeting with a new client or a new collaborator, you want to express that you're positive and that you feel this is a good opportunity for both sides, you can say - “we're happy to have the opportunity to work with you.” |
| This would be kind of strange to use in the middle of a project, we would probably use it, like I said, at the beginning of a project or perhaps at the end of a project. |
| If you want to use this at the end of a project, you can say something more kind of past tense centric. For example, we're very happy we had the opportunity to work with you. |
| That might be a more natural choice. |
| Here's another example. Thank you for your time today, we're happy to have the opportunity to work with you. |
| Alright! that brings us to the end of 10 phrases for doing business successfully. What did you think? You can let us know in the comments. Thanks very much for watching this video and I will see you again next time. Bye! |
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