Selling old stock

　　The manufacturing company you work for needs to make space in its warehouse to stock its new products. The company would like to sell off end-of-range products at discounted prices.

　　You have been asked to make recommendations.

　　Discuss the situation together and decide:

　　* How much discount should be offered

　　* Whether to offer the same discount on all products

　　* How customers could be informed of the discounts.

　　库存积压品处理

　　你所在的制造公司要清理仓库以便储存新产品。公司想把已停产的尾货打折处理掉。公司要求你们对此提出建议。

　　你们一起讨论当前的状况，并决定：

　　l 应该提供多大幅度的折扣

　　l 是否对所有的产品采取同样的折扣

　　l 如何通知客户这次的打折活动

　　【词汇&短语】

　　整理，选出 sort out 区分，区别 differentiate

　　仓库 warehouse 广告费用 advertising rate

　　配饰 accessory 亏本 at a loss

　　过时 out of fashion 替换物 alternative

　　有吸引力 appeal 传单，散页印刷品 leaflet

　　营造空间 make space 社区 community

　　有道理，所言极是 have a point 几乎，实际地 practically

　　【句型点击】

　　* 常用否定句小结

　　Little remains to be said. 简直没什么可说的了

　　I don’t wholly agree. 我并不完全同意

　　It simply will not do. 那是绝对不行的

　　I never thought of it, let alone did I do it. 我想都没想到它，更别说去做了

　　【参考范例】

　　A: Now, we have to work out a plan to deal with the old stock which has been just sorted out from our warehouse. We don’t have much time left; because the new products are suppose to arrive in early next month.

　　B: So we have two weeks left and we must hurry up.

　　C: Most our stocks are clothes and accessories, and they have gone out of fashion.

　　B: Yes, fashions changes quickly. So, to appeal our customers, we must offer great discount for our stock. How much discount would be appropriate?

　　A: What do you think to a 50% discount? It’s Christmas season, a big sale time, discount is everywhere, so we must offer bigger discount than usual.

　　B: Yes, I agree with you. The most important thing at this time is to sell off the stock and make space for our new products.

　　C: You two have a point here. Anyway, our products are end-of-range and need to be cleared out soon. But I am wondering whether we will offer the same discount on all products?

　　A: I prefer the same discount because people nowadays don’t like to bother themselves with calculating and differentiating. They are attracted by a 50% discount. And if they find our products are actually offered with different discounts, they would feel being cheated.

　　B: Yes, I feel the same way. 50% discount is easy to catch attention and easy to handle. We don’t want to get our sales staff confused, do we?

　　A: All right then, 50% discount for all our stock. Now let’s move onto our last term. How can we inform our customers the clearance sale?

　　C: There are many ways to inform our customers. For example, we can advertise our sale on TV, radio and newspapers.

　　B: I don’t think we have time for that, you know, there are just two weeks left, and it takes at least a week to contact the concerned department s to have our advertisement finally put on media. Then just a week left. I’m really not sure how much effect it will have on customers.

　　A: Absolutely. And the advertising rates are high. I don’t think we can afford that. Our stock is already sold at a loss.

　　C: Yeah, what you said is true.

　　A: There’s an alternative, we can print leaflets and distribute them on the street and in the communities. In this way we can attract a lot of people’s attention at a low cost.

　　C: Good idea, and we may also send emails to our customers or publish the news of our sale on line, and it’s particular free!

　　B: Wonderful! It seems everything has been work out for selling our old stock.