B2Business15 min
Negotiating a furniture order
A client and a furniture maker discuss price, delivery and conditions for a large order on the phone.
Before you listen
You are going to hear a phone call between Priya, who is buying furniture for a new language school building, and Marco, who owns a furniture workshop. Negotiations often involve offers, conditions and polite refusals, so listen for what each person wants and what they are willing to give up.
- quotenoun
- a written statement of how much a piece of work or a product will costWe asked three builders for a quote.
- guaranteenoun
- a promise that a product will be repaired or replaced if it breaksThe fridge comes with a two-year guarantee.
- assemblynoun
- the process of putting the parts of something togetherThe price includes delivery and assembly.
- run something past someonephrase
- to tell someone about a plan so that they can give their opinion or approvalI'll run the idea past my manager tomorrow.
- put something in writingphrase
- to write down an offer or agreement officiallyCould you put that offer in writing, please?
Listen · 1:47
A call about the desk order
Show the transcript (try the questions first)
Priya: Thanks for sending the quote, Marco. We're very happy with the quality of the samples, but I have to be honest: at one hundred and fifty per desk, you're the most expensive of the three suppliers we've spoken to.
Marco: I appreciate your honesty. Our price reflects the fact that we use solid oak and offer a ten-year guarantee. But I understand you're working to a budget. What figure did you have in mind?
Priya: Ideally, one hundred and twenty-five.
Marco: I'm afraid that would be below what it costs us to make them. However, if you ordered the matching chairs as well, I could bring the desks down to one hundred and forty.
Priya: That's an interesting offer, but chairs weren't part of our plan. Can we talk about delivery? The new building opens on the first of September, and all one hundred and twenty desks need to be in place by then.
Marco: That's where it gets tricky. The workshop is very busy over the summer. Realistically, we could deliver eighty by the end of August and the remaining forty in mid-September.
Priya: That's not ideal. We'd have classes starting in rooms with no furniture.
Marco: Then let me suggest this. If you can confirm the order by Friday, I'll ask my team to work two extra weekends, and we'll deliver everything by the twenty-eighth of August. I could only come down to one hundred and forty-five, though, because of the extra hours.
Priya: So, one hundred and forty-five per desk, everything delivered on time, and the same guarantee?
Marco: Exactly. And we'll include assembly at no extra cost.
Priya: Well, free assembly would save us quite a lot. I'll need to run it past our finance director, but I think we can work with that. I'll call you back on Thursday.
Marco: Great. I'll put it all in writing this afternoon.
Exercise 1 of 2
Follow the negotiation
Listen to the phone call. Choose the best answer.
Exercise 2 of 2
Numbers and details
Listen again and type the missing word or number. You can write numbers as words or digits.
Marco's original price is per desk.
Marco's desks come with a guarantee of years.
The school needs desks in total.
Priya must confirm the order by .
Everything will be delivered by the of August.
The final price they discuss is per desk.
Source
Original script by Joy English, read by open-source text-to-speech voices (Kokoro-82M, Apache-2.0).
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