You:
First of all, thank you very much for taking the time to see me this week.
May I ask you about your schedule today?
I’d like to know how much time we have for our discussion.
Mr. Gruber:
I usually leave the office at 6 p.m. It’s three now, so we have three hours or so today.
I’d be delighted if you could join me for dinner tonight. My team members will also be joining us.
They’ve all been looking forward to meeting you.
Tomorrow, I have time scheduled from 10 to 12 in the morning for us to meet.
I was planning to show you around some of our shops tomorrow afternoon.
For Friday, I have the meeting room from 10 to 12 again, so we can cover any further discussion items then.
I’ve lined up our sales staffs to be available if necessary.
I hope that will be enough time to cover all our business.
It will be the time for you to leave for the airport after lunch.
You:
That sounds great. Thank you very much for freeing up so much of your and your team’s time this week.
You:
We are here to finalize the reseller agreement.
I’m glad that we were able to agree to most of the draft.
There are still a few points we have to finalize.
Can I suggest we use the first hour or so to cover your areas of concern?
I want to understand exactly what it is we still need to fix.
I’ll try to answer each one as we move through the agenda.
We can use any remaining time to tie up the loose ends and confirm what we’ve agreed.
If we need to involve my colleagues in Japan, I’ll ask them immediately after our meeting.
That way I’ll be able to bring all the answers to the meeting tomorrow morning and hopefully agree on the terms and conditions.
Are you happy to proceed with the agenda on that basis?
Mr. Gruber:
Perfect, that’s what I was expecting. Thank you for being so well prepared.
May I add just one item to the agenda for the first hour?
I’d like to present our sales plan to you to give you an idea of the bigger picture. It should only take 10 minutes.
You:
That sounds very interesting. Excellent. Shall we kick off with your presentation?
You:
Thank you very much for such an attractive proposal.
I’m especially impressed by the projected sales targets.
Could you explain the data and rationale behind the targets you presented?
You:
Excuse me, can I ask about the logic here? I’m not sure I understood the connection.
What kind of promotion activities are you planning to carry out?
You:
Thank you for outlining your areas of concern. They make a lot of sense.
We are happy to start with the smaller minimum guaranteed quantities and gradually increase them, but if that is so, we would like to keep the exclusive sales territory limited to you home country only as per the original draft.
Mr. Gruber:
Do you mean that as a bargaining position?
You:
In a sense, yes.
I’d like to ask you to concentrate on achieving results in your home territory first.
That is the condition on which we can accept the smaller minimum quantity.
We can of course assure you that you will have first refusal when we start to seek resellers in the wider area you mentioned.
Mr. Gruber:
That seems reasonable enough. I agree.
Mr. Gruber:
Do you have any specific ideas for the minimum quantities for each phase of the deal?
What will the conditions be for moving to the next phase?
You:
Please let me consider that overnight. I’d appreciate a chance to check with my colleagues.
I’ll be able to get back to you on this point tomorrow.
You:
Please let me confirm. Here are the revised conditions of our agreement.
All the items and concerns have been resolved. I believe we have a deal.
I think we are both ready to sign, don’t you?
Mr. Gruber:
Let me see… yes indeed. I really appreciate your consideration.
I think we have a very solid agreement and a strong basis for future collaboration and growth.
You:
Okay, I’ll ask my colleagues to make the revisions and to prepare two copies.
When I return to my office, I’ll get our president to sign them and courier them to you.
Please sign them and return one copy to us.
Mr. Gruber:
All right, thank you.
Let’s move on to the next topic!
Let’s have some lunch and then I’d like to invite you to visit one of our shops.