英文正文

Mark: Mr. Liu, what kinds of sales do you think youcould get?

Robert: Well, to begin with, we’d have to insist on sole agency in Taiwan. We believe we couldspike sales by 30% to 40% in the first year. But certain conditions would have to be met.

Mark: What kinds of conditions?

Robert: We’d need your full technical and marketing support.

Mark: Could you explain what you mean by that?

Robert: We’d like you to give training to our technical staff; we’d also like you to pay a fee forafter-sales service.

Mark: It’s no problem with the training. As for service support, we usually pay a yearly fee,pegged to total sales.

Robert: Sounds OK, if we can come to terms on how much is fair. As far as marketing support,we’d like you to assume 50% of all costs.

Mark: We’d prefer 40%. Many of our customers learn about our products through internationalmagazines, trade shows, and so on. We pick up the tab for that, but you get the sales inTaiwan.

Robert: We’ll think about it, and talk more tomorrow.

Mark: Fine. We’d like you to tell us about your marketing plans.

句型总结

●　 表明前提

1. To begin with, we’d have to insist on sole agency in Taiwan.

2. In the first place, we’d have to insist on sole agency in Taiwan.

3. First of all, we’d have to insist on sole agency in Taiwan.

4. Firstly, we’d have to insist on sole agency in Taiwan.

Robert为要强调己方的首要条件，而使用"To begin with, we’d have to insist..."这个句型，表明双方合作的首要前提。

"to begin with,"‘首先’，常用于句首，为副词词组，有强调语气的作用。"We’d have to insist..."表示‘我们得坚持…’，此句语气十分严正，有不可以则拉倒的意味。

●　 提出条件

1. But certain conditions would have to be met.

2. But certain conditions would have to be granted.

3. But we’d have to have your guarantee on some conditions.

4. But we’d have to get certain guarantees.

商谈到了某个关卡，自己想表示‘事情的成功与否，深受某些条件的影响’时，可使用这个句型："Butcertain conditions would have to be met."。

"meet"在这里是‘满足;符合’之意。句子以"But"开头，因为Robert已先向对方描绘光明的远景--第一年内激增三成以上的销售量;所以他用此作饵，再提出要求。

●　 客气建议

1. We would like you to assume 50% of all costs.

2. We would like you to take on 50% of all costs.

3. We’d prefer that you assume 50% of all costs.

4. We’d prefer that you accept financial responsibility for 50% of all costs.

提出要求的方式有好几种，如文中Robert所使用的："We would like you to assume 50% of allcosts."即属于软调的要求，与前面两个语意强硬的句型，大异其趣。

"would like to"等于"want"，但比较客气、有礼;应用这个句型的时机是己方急欲提出建议，却又不想以"we demand"--‘我们强烈要求’这种字眼来表达，以免让对方有压迫感。