Why Internal Negotiations Are Twice as Hard - And What Procurement Must Unlearn
We’re trained to negotiate with suppliers. But what happens when the real fight is inside our own organization?
We teach procurement professionals to master RFQs, cost models, SLAs, and supplier negotiations. But rarely do we teach them how to negotiate with the people sitting just down the hall.
Karima Zaghrioui’s post on LinkedIn lays it bare:
“It’s often twice as hard to convince internal stakeholders than external suppliers.”
And she’s right.
When negotiating with suppliers, we usually have leverage: volume, competition, contract terms. But internally? We have politics, conflicting KPIs, and colleagues who simply don’t see procurement as their partner.
Karima’s post triggered a wave of agreement—and frustration. Beneath the polite comments lies a deeper truth: internal alignment isn’t a step in the process. It is the process. And most procurement teams are wildly underprepared for it.
Let’s unpack the key issues that came up in the comments, and explore how procurement can stop fighting uphill battles inside their own company.
1. The Problem Isn’t Resistance — It’s Misalignment
“We speak savings. They speak speed, specs, experience, or continuity.”
This line from Karima hits like a freight train. And it was echoed by many in the comments—Farzaneh S., Kalkidan Seifu, and Mike Wynn all emphasized the same thing: we’re not speaking the same language.
Stakeholders don’t wake up thinking about TCO or contract clauses. They care about launch dates, uptime, packaging design, or customer experience.
The result? Procurement comes off as an obstacle rather than an enabler.
As Naveen Das put it:
“The biggest resistance comes from misaligned priorities — where Procurement talks value, and other functions talk velocity, specs, or continuity.”
2. Power, Politics, and the Pain of Influence
Unlike supplier negotiations, there are no formal contracts or escalation mechanisms in internal talks. Everyone’s equal. Or rather, everyone thinks they’re right.
Karima summarized it perfectly:
“Inside the business, we don’t have the same leverage. There are no contracts—just politics.”
Commenters like Michael Zieba and Scott Harrison didn’t just agree—they expanded on it. Michael laid out a playbook for reframing conversations around their KPIs, not ours:
Talk uptime, not savings
Talk risk, not compliance
Use visual frameworks to turn debates into data
This is the silent skill set most procurement pros never learn: internal influence. Not managing suppliers—managing perceptions.
3. The Internal Deal Costs More Than You Think
“1 hour Procurement = 15 minutes for a deal and 45 minutes for internal alignment.” – Marc Gillissen
That ratio should terrify us. Because it means most of the time we’re not adding value—we’re firefighting internal friction.
Multiple commenters pointed out how draining this is. Althea Cross said:
“That’s the battle that wears you down the most. Every facet—mental, physical, emotional.”
And Eman Abouzeid framed it clearly:
“Internal negotiations are often the silent battleground of procurement.”
Silent—but deadly. Delays, missed opportunities, budget erosion, supplier distrust—all symptoms of internal dysfunction.
4. Why Procurement Keeps Losing the Internal Game
Let’s be honest. In many companies, procurement still lacks credibility.
Why?
Because we show up with savings charts, not stakeholder insight. We think we’re driving value, but others think we’re just slowing things down.
“Procurement is often seen as an obstacle to their goals.” – Olga C.
So how do we change that?
As Zyad Khan bluntly put it:
“First change management focus is to become ‘likeable.’ Facts don’t always win. Relationships do.”
Tim Jenkins echoed that idea: if we’re not able to sell internally, we won’t build trust.
5. So What Works? Real Tactics from the Trenches
Amid the friction, the comments also offered hard-earned lessons. Here are some recurring tactics:
Speak their language.
Don’t talk about 8% cost savings. Talk about what they gain—speed, reliability, lower customer complaints.
Pre-align before the big ask.
Have the quiet negotiation before the big one. Don’t surprise stakeholders. Prep them.
Co-create, don’t confront.
Invite stakeholders into the process early. Let them shape the spec, define success, share ownership.
Visuals over emails.
A risk matrix or scorecard can do more than five alignment meetings.
Small wins matter.
Mark Logan highlighted this too—internal credibility is built one micro-win at a time. Don’t wait for the big transformation.
6. Why This Is a Leadership Problem, Not a Skills Gap
The issue isn’t that procurement pros are bad negotiators. The issue is that they’re trained for supplier dynamics, not stakeholder dynamics.
And leadership keeps rewarding technical skill—Excel, RFx mastery, spend analytics—over soft power.
“Internal negotiations are more like the art of influence. Don’t you think?” – Urszula Woronowicz
Yes, Urszula. Exactly that.
Procurement education hasn’t kept up with the shift from compliance cop to business partner. Internal alignment, stakeholder psychology, negotiation without power—these aren’t nice-to-haves. They’re the core skill set of modern procurement.
7. Maybe Procurement Isn’t Ready to Lead… Yet
Let’s get uncomfortable for a second.
If internal negotiations are so central to value creation—and we keep losing them—maybe we’re not ready for the “seat at the table” we keep asking for.
“We work for the same company. But we act like we’re in different worlds.” – Karima
That’s not a soft problem. That’s a strategic one.
Until we shift our mindset, language, and methods, we’ll keep winning supplier battles—and losing the war inside our own walls.
Final Thought: Procurement Isn’t Just a Function. It’s a Translation Layer.
Karima ended her post with three truths:
Internal alignment is not a process. It’s a negotiation.
Co-creation beats confrontation.
Influence beats control.
But there’s one more idea that sums up this whole debate: Procurement must become the translation layer between business needs and external value.
If we keep shouting about savings while our stakeholders care about something else, we’ll stay in the back office. But if we start listening, adapting, influencing—we’ll finally start leading.
Let’s stop negotiating with stakeholders. Let’s start negotiating for them.
Let’s discuss:
Where do you face the most internal resistance?
What’s worked—or failed—for you?
What would you add to Karima’s list?
 | A guest post by
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