18 Must-Have Negotiation Skills For Procurement Professionals
What is Accommodation Negotiation? 3 Powerful Examples
A question that is always asked here at Procurement Tactics is that is there any type of negotiation style wherein you don’t have to play hardball negotiator.
Luckily, there is one such style.
Read on and find out more about the accommodation negotiation style.
Key takeaways:
- The accommodation negotiation objective is for the benefit of the other party.
- Competitive negotiation is contrary to accommodation because it is about getting your benefit in the negotiation.
- Accommodation negotiation can identify if you want to be a reasonable party during the discussion with the other party.
The AccommodationNegotiation Style Debunked
Completely opposite from the usual “hardball” competitive negotiation style, the accommodation negotiations style is the mild or selfless version of all negotiation tactics.
Probably known as the “good guy” negotiation style, your aim or objective throughout the whole negotiation is for the benefit of the other party. You might get something out of it, but it is the other party who truly gains from this negotiation style.
Contrary, the competitive negotiation style is all about getting what you want. For this particular negotiation strategy, it’s time to be selfless and understanding for the sake of benefits that you can take advantage of in the future.
Below you’ll see the overview of where accommodation negotiation fits within the negotiation styles framework.
Accommodation Negotiation Style – When Do the Pros Use It?
There will be times that you, the negotiator, must think about the bigger picture in the potential future. You may gain smaller rewards today, but it does not always mean bigger opportunities later.
Thus, there is always a reason why you must be patient and understanding when negotiating with people or with a company. When done right, you may even turn things around towards your benefit in the end!
Here are some best examples as to when a negotiator or procurement manager can use the accommodation negotiation style:
- When you find out that you are in the wrong.
- When you want to be the reasonable party during the negotiation.
- When you are looking to minimize your losses.
- When you want to maintain amicable terms with the other party.
- When you are trying to improve relations with the other party.
The Advantagesof the Accommodation Negotiation Style
So why use the accommodation negotiation style at all if you, the negotiator, are not going to get the juiciest deal?
Here are some of the advantages that a negotiator may want to consider:
- When done properly, you will end up as the better person during and after the negotiation.
- You want to continue having good terms with the other party.
- You can control your losses to a minimum by agreeing to a compromise.
- The other party may have a better impression of you by agreeing to their terms.
- The other party may even agree to terms that may benefit you as a show of respect.
The Disadvantages of the Accommodation Negotiation Style
If it’s the other party who’s going to benefit from the accommodation negotiation style, then clearly a seasoned negotiator or procurement manager must distinguish its disadvantages.
Some of the disadvantages of this negotiation style are as follows:
- You’ll end up getting frustrated as you’re getting the short end of the straw.
- Your self-esteem is undermined.
- It may generate a lack of confidence among your peers.
- It gives the other party an opportunity to make more demands.
Editor's note:
Our Negotiation Course For Procurement Professionals teaches you the skills needed to drive better, fact-based decisions that ultimately benefit both organizations and its employees. As a negotiation game changer, you will have a comprehensive analytics skill set that will enable you to achieve deals with results you have been dreaming of.
Accommodation Negotiation Examples
An example of the founder of Procurement Tactics
Negotiation styles are a very important variable to master to achieve great deal results. Your ultimate deal will be determined by how skilled you are as a negotiator. The more skilled you are in using different styles, the more the other party will be drawn to settle close to your ideal outcome and closer to their limit.
Your selection of negotiation style should depend on your personality and the results of your earlier research on the styles that will probably be used by your negotiating counterpart. Getting to recognize the different negotiation styles will help you to negotiate way more efficiently! It’s important to know how and when to use particular styles to get more of what you want from the negotiation.
“In my time as a Procurement Manager, I had to deal with 1500 different products delivered by 70 suppliers every year. Suppliers were traditionally better equipped; most account managers that I had been dealing with, only had to focus on one customer and thus the negotiator: me. This led to what I call, the knowledge gap. They had way more time to prepare for negotiations. Most of them kept detailed notes on my negotiation style, likes and dislikes, interests, family details, and so on. In general, they were in a better position to choose the most appropriate style to approach me in the upcoming negotiation. My advantage, on the other hand, was the fact that I was negotiating all day & year: that experience leveraged the knowledge gap mostly: I practiced a full year with changing styles & using tactics. This helped me to have one important skill in any negotiation: I was not predictable.”
Do you also want to learn to apply effective tactics yourself and become unpredictable? There are a large number of styles & tactics that you can use in negotiations! In our Certificate Program, we will teach you when which styles to use and in what way you should use them to your advantage!
Accommodation negotiation example – Dan
- Dan is a 35-year-old marketing negotiation manager for a mobile phone company.
- He is in charge of getting in touch with retail stores for marketing campaigns.
Dan is working on creating a big summer marketing campaign for his mobile phone company’s newest mobile phone. He signed up numerous retail stores for the campaign. Unfortunately, a problem with the delivery vans triggered a series of events that caused the new mobile phones to arrive late during the summer marketing campaign.
In order to alleviate the frustration coming from the retail store owners, Dan personally apologized to the owners and created a new follow-up marketing campaign where a limited number of the new mobile phone will be sold at a limited time only to the first few customers who went to the retail stores early during the summer marketing campaign.
Not only did this ensure profit for the retail store owners, it also made them feel that Dan was really sorry for what happened. Thus improving Dan’s reputation among other mobile retail store owners.
Want to check out more negotiation case studies? We actually created an overview with 13 inspiring real-life negotiation examples.
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Accommodation negotiation example – Jacklyn
- Jacklyn is given the task of procuring 1000 new desktop computers for the new workers in the IT company.
Jacklyn calls HP – the company she is doing business with for four years – to find a good deal. She starts the negotiation and HP directly tells Jacklyn that due to the shortage of chips, standard delivery times will not be met. The delivery of computers will be only possible in about 8 months, 6 months later versus the initial standard 2 months.
Quickly thinking before things got heated, Jacklyn decides not to switch to another supplier to make sure to get faster delivery but asks HP how they propose to compensate Jacklyn & her company for the late delivery. Without having one argument in the negotiation, HP offers Jacklyn a 10% discount on the total order.
What we can learn from this, is that by giving away a variable that is not important to Jacklyn (time), she maintains a good relationship with her supplier HP ánd she gets a discount. Only winners, right?
Accommodation NegotiationStrategies
Contrary, the competitive negotiation style is all about getting what you want. For this particular negotiation strategy, it’s time to be selfless and understanding for the sake of benefits that you can take advantage of in the future.?
There are a lot of strategies to take note of actually. However, we are going to list down some of the most important ones for you to take note of:
- Because it is considered a “good guy” negotiation tactic, one should always only use this negotiation style during instances where you want to preserve a good relationship status between your party and the other.
- When you do end up making a compromise, always make sure to deliver it. Nothing is more disastrous than making false promises!
- When apologizing, you must sound like you really do mean it. Yes, it’s important.
- When thinking about a good compromise, make sure that it won’t be a big loss for your company. Always remember, the aim here is to minimize your losses.
- In essence, the accommodation negotiation style is only great and effective towards two parties that have a great working relationship toward each other.
- It can also be used in the case where a negotiator or procurement manager wants to establish a relationship between the company he/she is representing and the other party or company.
- This is a situational negotiation strategy where a keen and observant eye is also important. Always assess the situation before employing it.
- If you feel that the other party is abusing the accommodation negotiation style by asking for ridiculous or underhanded requests, then stop negotiating and simply walk away.
Frequentlyasked questions
+ What is Accommodation Negotiation?
It is a negotiation style where a negotiator shows more concern for the results of the other party rather than his own.
+ When to use accommodation negotiation?
Oftentimes used as a way of apologizing over a mistake, the accommodation style is also used to get on the good side of the other party.
+ Why would you use an accommodation negotiation style?
A negotiator may use the accommodation style to improve his/her relationship with the other party/negotiator.
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