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Business English vocabulary · Negotiations

Trade-off

Meaning in business english, with examples

/ˈtreɪdɔːf/nounCommon term

In business english, trade-off means: A situation in which you accept less of one thing in order to get more of another, such as a lower price for a longer contract.

In Turkish: ödünleşim, takas, artı-eksi dengesi

How it is used

Used in negotiations and decisions: 'There's a trade-off between speed and quality', 'make a trade-off', 'What's the trade-off?' Managers often ask teams to explain the trade-offs before choosing an option.

Example sentences

  1. The trade-off is simple: a lower price, but a three-year commitment.

  2. We had to make some trade-offs between features and the launch date.

Common collocations

  • make a trade-off
  • a trade-off between X and Y
  • a fair trade-off
  • accept the trade-off
  • compromiseAn agreement in which each side gives up part of what it wanted so that both can accept the result. Also used as a verb.
  • concessionSomething that one side agrees to give up or allow during a negotiation in order to reach an agreement.
  • win-winDescribing a situation or agreement in which both sides gain something and nobody loses.
  • meet halfwayTo reach an agreement by each side accepting part of what the other wants, for example by splitting a price difference.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Negotiations

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