Business verbs are the action words you use every day at work: you schedule a meeting, allocate a budget, forecast sales and delegate a task. Below are 37 common business verbs in English, grouped by the situation you need them for. Each one has the words it usually goes with and an example sentence you can reuse.
Business verbs for meetings and communication
- meet (meet a client, meet to discuss): “Let’s meet on Thursday to discuss the proposal.”
- present (present findings, present a plan): “I will present the findings to the team.”
- communicate (communicate goals, communicate a change): “We need to communicate the new deadline to everyone.”
- negotiate (negotiate terms, negotiate a price): “We are negotiating the terms of the contract.”
- brainstorm (brainstorm ideas, brainstorm solutions): “Let’s brainstorm ideas for the next product.”
- address (address an issue, address a concern): “We need to address the drop in productivity.”
- collaborate (collaborate with, collaborate on): “We should collaborate with marketing on this project.”
Business verbs for projects and planning
- manage (manage a project, manage a team): “Can you manage the website project?”
- develop (develop a strategy, develop a product): “We need to develop a new marketing strategy.”
- implement (implement a system, implement a decision): “We will implement the new system next week.”
- prioritize (prioritize tasks, prioritize customers): “Let’s prioritize the tasks for today.”
- strategize (strategize how to, strategize with a team): “We should strategize how to enter the market.”
- allocate (allocate resources, allocate a budget): “We will allocate more resources to the project.”
- deploy (deploy software, deploy staff): “We will deploy the new software next month.”
- integrate (integrate with, integrate into): “We will integrate the new tool with our existing systems.”
- outsource (outsource a service, outsource to): “We are thinking about outsourcing our IT support.”
Business verbs for numbers and results
- increase (increase sales, increase by 5%): “We want to increase sales this quarter.”
- reduce (reduce costs, reduce risk): “We need to reduce our operating costs.”
- forecast (forecast sales, forecast demand): “Finance will forecast sales for the next quarter.”
- analyze (analyze data, analyze results): “We need to analyze the data to find trends.”
- evaluate (evaluate results, evaluate a supplier): “We need to evaluate the results of the campaign.”
- achieve (achieve a target, achieve a goal): “We aim to achieve our targets this quarter.”
- audit (audit accounts, audit a process): “An external firm will audit our accounts.”
- authorize (authorize a payment, authorize spending): “Can you authorize the payment for this invoice?”
- research (research a market, research competitors): “We are researching new markets for our products.”
- collate (collate data, collate feedback): “Can you collate the feedback into one report?”
Business verbs for people and teams
- delegate (delegate a task, delegate to): “I will delegate the report to someone in my team.”
- motivate (motivate a team, motivate staff): “Clear goals motivate the whole team.”
- incentivize (incentivize staff, incentivize sales): “We should incentivize early renewals.”
- leverage (leverage a network, leverage experience): “We can leverage our existing customers to reach new ones.”
Business verbs for change and improvement
- improve (improve customer satisfaction, improve a process): “We must improve customer satisfaction.”
- streamline (streamline a process, streamline approvals): “We need to streamline our processes to save time.”
- optimize (optimize a website, optimize costs): “We must optimize our website for search engines.”
- standardize (standardize procedures, standardize templates): “We need to standardize our procedures across offices.”
- restructure (restructure a department, restructure debt): “The company plans to restructure its sales team.”
- innovate (innovate in a market, innovate on a product): “We need to innovate to stay ahead of the competition.”
- rebrand (rebrand a product, rebrand as): “We plan to rebrand the product to reach a younger audience.”
How to use business verbs well
- Learn the verb with its partner word. “Allocate a budget” and “address an issue” are what people actually say. Learning the pair is faster than learning the verb alone.
- Choose the precise verb over a general one. “We need to do something about the costs” is vague. “We need to reduce the costs” says what you will do.
- Don’t overdo the buzzwords. “Leverage”, “strategize” and “incentivize” are common in business English, but three in one sentence sounds like jargon. “Use”, “plan” and “reward” are often clearer.
- Watch out for “control”. In English, “control” usually means to direct or have power over something. For the German “kontrollieren”, you usually want “check”: “Can you check the figures?” More pairs like this: false friends between English and German.
Spelling note: this page uses American spellings (prioritize, analyze, optimize). In British English, -ise spellings (prioritise, analyse, optimise) are the most common. Some British publishers, such as Oxford University Press, use -ize (prioritize, optimize) but still write analyse. Pick one style and keep it.
Practice these business verbs
The free Business English exercises use many of these verbs in real workplace situations, for example What is Management? (delegate, motivate, allocate, evaluate), Management Approaches (implement, analyze, innovate), Business Meetings and Business Negotiations. No sign-up needed.
Try this: pick five verbs from the list and use each one in a sentence about your own job this week. Then use them in your next email. For help with that, see how to write professional English emails.
Want your team to use this language with confidence in real meetings and emails? Business English training built on your team’s own work.