What is Avoidance Negotiation? 3 Powerful Examples

If you’re thinking of negotiators constantly avoiding each other during a negotiation, then you have an imaginative mind, friend.

But in all seriousness, avoidance negotiation can be a powerful negotiation style if used correctly. Read on to learn how to do just that!

Key takeaways:

• Avoidance negotiation refers to a negotiation style where you do not acknowledge the negotiation.
• Compromising negotiation is the complete opposite of avoidance negotiation as it aims to discuss and earn common ground with the other party. 
• You can use the avoidance negotiation when the issue being discussed is not important.

Avoidance Negotiation Style – What is It?

The avoidance negotiation style is a negotiation style where you completely ignore the entire negotiation.

To put it simply, you negotiate by not acknowledging the negotiation.

Before you look at me in disbelief, know that the avoidance negotiation style is a powerful negotiation tactic especially when used by an experienced negotiator or procurement manager. 

Today, we are going to learn how and why. 

Below you’ll see the overview of where avoidance negotiation fits within the negotiation syles framework.

Avoidance Negotiation Style – When to Use It?

Completely opposite with the compromising negotiation style where both parties aim to discuss and gain a common ground, the avoidance negotiation style is used when you’ve made a decision to ignore the negotiations completely. 

Some of the instances where you can use this particular negotiation style are as follows:

• The issue being negotiated is not important at all.
• The end results of the negotiation will not be in your favor.
• You’ve lost perspective of the situation and you need to calm down and think.
• Time is needed to get accurate information about the deal.
• A team member is better at handling the negotiation.
• The issue being discussed or negotiated is a part of an even bigger negotiation.

Advantages – Avoidance Negotiation Style

In the eyes of a newly-trained negotiation expert, avoiding negotiations may seem like an opportunity lost. But for a seasoned negotiator or procurement manager, the avoidance negotiation style can bring a lot of advantages not just for your company, but for you as well.

Here are some of the advantages the avoidance negotiation style can give you:

• You can invest more time in preparation by avoiding the negotiation.
• You can also gather more information during the cooldown period.
• You avoid getting pressured in the middle of a losing negotiation.
• You can also save time and effort by actually discussing the important issue during the negotiation.
• You are displaying confidence and calm by avoiding the negotiation to collect your thoughts.

Disadvantages – Avoidance Negotiation Style

If we’ve talked about the advantages, then we should also clearly talk about the disadvantages of the avoidance negotiation style.

By determining each of the disadvantages, the expert negotiator or procurement manager can better acknowledge what strategies he or she can use while using the avoidance negotiation style. 

Here are some of the disadvantages of the avoidance negotiation style:

• If the other party is impatient or domineering, avoiding a negotiation may only seem to strengthen their claims.
• You may appear as the weaker party because you are intentionally avoiding the negotiation.
• You can’t give a creative response that may improve the negotiations.
• Your personal reputation could be damaged.
• Avoiding a negotiation is a very volatile solution and thus, it cannot be used many times in a row.
• Sometimes, avoiding a negotiation is a one-time thing. Meaning you might not be able to negotiate anymore.

Avoidance Negotiation StyleExamples

• The Camp David Accords

• Leaders of Israel and Egypt avoid negotiations after heated negotiations

The Camp David Accords were agreements signed by Israel and Egypt on September 17, 1978.

It was a momentous occassion as heavy fighting between the two countries had erupted when Israel occupied some of the territories claimed by Egypt. President Jimmy Carter vowed to establish peace between the two nations, so he invited the leaders of both countries to visit him in Camp David in rural Maryland for another shot at peaceful negotiations.

Both leaders stayed in Camp David for 13 days and negotiations were so heated that both leaders decided to avoid further negotiations. Prospects for a settlement became so bleak that Egyptian President Anwar Sadat threatened to leave. At the last minute, however, Isreali Prime Minister Menachem Begin began to allow the Israeli parliament to hold discussions regarding the settlements that were established on Egyptian captured territory.

Discussions began again between the two countries until both leaders agreed to some of President Carter’s proposals. The accords were signed and the two countries formally ended the war.

It’s said that the long waiting period must have pressured the Israeli prime minister to give in to concessions, despite his stand on not abandoning the settlements that were built on captured Egyptian territory.

• The Trump Wall

• Ex-president Trump’s failed wall negotiations with Mexico

During his 2016 Presidential campaign, Donald Trump promised his supporters that the United States will build a wall along the Mexican border to reduce illegal immigration and combat drug and weapons trafficking. He also stated that Mexico will be the ones to pay for the wall; a popular gimmick to capture the favor of Americans who believe that the US should be careful with how it spends its budget.

The campaign promise proved to be effective as Donald Trump wins the elections and is sworn in as President. However, Mexico did not like the idea one bit, with the Mexican President stating that his country “…does not believe in walls but believes in bridges”.

High-level negotiators from the US and Mexico were already scheduled to begin talks on trade, immigration, and border security while the Mexican President agreed to travel to the White House for meetings on January 31, 2016. Unfortunately, on the night of January 25, Trump stated in an interview that planning for the wall was starting immediately and that “federal funds would be used to pay for the wall and that the US government would seek reimbursement from Mexico.” This aggravated the situation, with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto canceling his trip to Washington when Trump reiterated his stance.

A few days after the event, Trump’s adviser managed to get both leaders on a one-hour phone call. Both leaders said that the call was “productive” and that they both agreed to not discuss the wall issue publicly.

No mention of the wall project was mentioned again until Trump’s election defeat in 2020.

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!

Want to check out more negotiation case studies? We actually created an overview with 13 inspiring real-life negotiation examples.