10 Ways to Make Suggestions

10 Smart Ways to Make Suggestions in Business Meetings

/ Steven Hobson / Business English, English Meetings

Are you a non-native speaker who frequently attends business meetings in English?

If so, you will have noticed that most meetings have one main objective: to solve some kind of problem.

Solving problems within a team normally relies on its’ team members to make suggestions for potential solutions.

This makes the ability of “making suggestions” in English one of the most important language functions for professionals who participate in English meetings for their companies.

In this lesson, I show you 10 different ways to make suggestions in English with typical examples of how native speakers use them in business meetings.

At the end of this post, you’ll have learned a variety of different ways to suggest your next great idea to your team!

There are a variety of ways to make suggestions in English. First, we’ll look at affirmatives, then questions.

Make Suggestions with Affirmatives

1. Past Modal Verbs: (Would, Could, Should,)

I think we should increase the price.I would suggest increasing the price.I would recommend increasing the price.The best course of action would probably be to increase the price.We should probably consider increasing the price.We could increase the price.

2. Perhaps / Maybe

Perhaps we should hire somebody for this role.Perhaps we could outsource a company for this project.Maybe we should increase the price.

3. Let’s

Let’s put the prices up.Let’s create a survey.

4. Just

It’s just an idea, but we could look at reviewing the recruitment process.It’s just a suggestion, but we could only use social media for this campaign.

5. Suggest(ion) / Recommend(ation)

My suggestion would be to hire somebody else for this role.I suggest hiring somebody else for this position.My recommendation would be to promote John.I recommend promoting John.

Make Suggestions with Questions

6. How about…? / What about…?

How about dividing this task between two people?What about trying something completely different?What about asking David his opinion?

7. Shall…?

Shall we start by trying to understand the root cause?Shall I visit a couple of our stores to try and understand what’s going on?

8. What if…?

What if we start by trying to understand the root cause?What if I visit a couple of our stores to try and understand what’s going on?

9. Why don’t …?

Why don’t you talk to your boss about this?Why don’t we invest more of the budget in training and development?

10. Other Common Questions to Make Suggestions

May I suggest…?Would you consider…?Wouldn’t it be better to…?Shouldn’t you…?Why don’t you…?Have you tried…?Have you thought about…?

Whether you are having an English meeting about a new marketing campaign, working out how to reduce costs, or resolving some kind of conflict in the office, you will need to know how to make suggestions.

And the more confident you make a suggestion, the more chance people will buy into it.

This article shows you a range of different ways of making suggestions, but you only have to learn a few. And that is what I recommend…

Learn 3 to 5 different ways of making suggestions so that you can say them fluently and confidently. This way, you will appear more emphatic with your suggestions without sounding repetitive.