The double negotiation is Emma Pacey's term for the two negotiations senior commercial leaders manage at the same time: the external negotiation with suppliers, and the internal negotiation across marketing, finance, supply, operations and retail needed to align a business behind one commercial strategy.
Having held senior trading roles at two of the UK’s largest supermarket chains – leading a team of between 20 and 50 people, depending on the size of her category – Emma argues that commercial performance depends on winning both negotiations, not just the one at the table.
Key takeaways
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Preparation is the foundation of negotiation – suppliers usually prepare more than buyers do, so buyers need to match that level of research and data.
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The best suppliers “talk your language” – they understand the retailer's strategy, visit stores, and tailor their offer accordingly.
- Price matters, but it's rarely the whole conversation – range, marketing support, exclusivity and promotional timing are all negotiable.
- Every commercial decision should start with the customer, not personal preference or category ambition.
- Internal alignment across marketing, supply, operations and retail is what turns a negotiated deal into real business performance.
- Relationships are tested not when things go well, but when something goes wrong.
- Honest, timely feedback – even a clear “no” – protects trust and future negotiations.
What is the double negotiation?
In commercial roles, negotiation is often pictured as something that happens across the table: a buyer and a supplier, a price and a margin, a deal to be won, protected or walked away from.
But in this episode of Mastering Sales & Negotiations, Emma gives a more nuanced view. For senior commercial leaders, the external negotiation is only one part of the job. The other, often more complex, negotiation happens internally: aligning marketing, finance, operations, supply, retail teams and category colleagues behind a shared commercial strategy.
That is the double negotiation – the ability to manage competing priorities externally with suppliers and internally across the business, while still keeping the customer, the commercial goal and the long-term relationship in focus.
Why does preparation change the outcome of a negotiation?
Preparation is what changes the quality of a negotiation, according to Emma. When a negotiation has stalled and she is brought in – or “wheeled in”, as she puts it – her first step is to understand what has already happened: what conversations have taken place, where the disagreement sits, what the supplier's position is and what data is available.
Her advice to buyers is simple: suppliers will often prepare more than you do, so you have to raise your level of preparation to match theirs. That means understanding the history of the relationship, the data behind the decision, the commercial pressure on both sides and the reason the conversation is not moving forward.
For any commercial team, this is a useful reminder. Negotiation is rarely won by confidence alone. It is strengthened by facts, context and clarity. The more prepared a team is, the better equipped it is to explain its position, understand the other party's constraints and move the conversation beyond a narrow discussion about price.
What makes a supplier great rather than good?
The best suppliers don't just sell – they understand. Emma describes the strongest suppliers as those who have done their homework: they know the retailer's strategy, understand how products are executed in store, recognise the customer proposition and tailor their offer to fit the business.
That homework typically includes:
- Visiting stores to see how products are executed
- Understanding category performance and where the retailer is winning or losing
- Presenting a solution that supports sales growth, customer growth or differentiation
In her words, the best suppliers “talk your language”.
This point has relevance well beyond retail. In any B2B environment, commercial performance improves when sellers stop leading with what they want to sell and start showing how they understand the customer's priorities. The strongest propositions are not just commercially attractive – they are relevant, timely and aligned to the buyer's wider objectives.
Is price the most important part of a negotiation?
Price matters – but it is rarely the whole conversation. Price is particularly important in a low-margin retail environment, where volume, availability and competitiveness are critical, and Emma is clear that some negotiations can become very hard when price reaches a breaking point. In some cases, the business may need to walk away.
With strategic suppliers, the conversation can extend well beyond cost, covering:
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Range
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Marketing support
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Online support
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Availability
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Exclusivity
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Promotional timing
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Customer relevance
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Long-term growth
That is where skilled negotiators create value. They identify multiple negotiable issues, not just the headline cost. They understand what matters to each side, and they know when to take the conversation up to a strategic level – and when to bring it back down to close the deal.
For commercial leaders, this is a crucial distinction. A narrow negotiation may protect margin in the short term. A more sophisticated negotiation can protect margin, improve execution, strengthen the relationship and create better conditions for future growth.
Why should every negotiation start with the customer?
Every commercial decision should start with the customer, not personal preference or category ambition. Emma explains that when balancing suppliers, ranges, promotions, space and pricing, the starting point is always the customer: who they are, what they buy, who the business is trying to attract and what role the category plays in the wider strategy.
This customer focus helps simplify complex commercial choices, informs the range and shapes supplier conversations. It helps the business decide where to create differentiation, where to protect value and where to invest. It also gives commercial teams a stronger internal argument, because decisions are positioned as a response to customer behaviour and business strategy – not personal preference or category ambition.
That matters because commercial performance is not only about getting a better deal. It is about making better decisions. Customer insight helps teams choose the right products, the right partners, the right offers and the right commercial trade-offs.
How does internal negotiation turn strategy into execution?
Internal negotiation is what turns a commercial strategy into real execution. Emma explains that commercial teams have to work with marketing, supply, operations, retail and other functions, each with their own priorities and KPIs.
Each function brings a different priority to the table:
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Marketing is focused on footfall
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Supply is focused on availability and stock risk
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Operations needs simplicity in store
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Trading is focused on sales, profit, range and supplier performance
The challenge is not to override those priorities, but to understand them. Commercial leaders need to speak the language of the functions they depend on. They need to show how a category plan supports the wider business strategy, how it attracts customers, how it grows basket size, how it can be executed in store and how it creates competitive advantage.
This is where the double negotiation becomes commercially powerful. A deal is only valuable if the organisation can execute it. A promotion only works if marketing supports it, supply can deliver it, stores can implement it and customers can see the value. Internal alignment is not a soft layer around the commercial strategy – it's what turns the strategy into performance.
How is a supplier partnership really tested?
Relationships are tested not when things go well, but when something goes wrong. It is easy to talk about partnership when sales are strong, products are available and both sides are happy with the deal. The harder test comes when availability fails, performance dips, a product does not land as expected, or the market moves in an unexpected direction.
In those moments, the strongest suppliers:
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Work with the retailer to solve the problem, rather than assign blame
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Stay close to performance and monitor sales themselves
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Care about execution, not just the deal that was agreed
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Remain engaged after the deal is done
That is a useful commercial lesson. Strong relationships do not remove tension from negotiation, but they make it easier to solve problems constructively. When both sides are committed to the outcome, the conversation moves from blame to recovery. That protects performance and helps preserve long-term value.
Why does honest feedback matter in supplier negotiations?
Honest, timely feedback protects future value – particularly when a supplier has not been selected for an event, promotion or opportunity. Emma makes the point that the worst thing a buyer can do is leave a supplier hanging. If the answer is no, the supplier needs to know why.
A clear “no” usually comes down to one of a few reasons:
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Price – the supplier simply couldn't get there
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Customer relevance – the offer doesn't fit what the customer wants right now
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Timing – the offer isn't right for this event, but may be right for a different one
That honest feedback allows both sides to move forward. It avoids wasted time, reduces frustration and gives the supplier a better chance of improving the next offer.
For commercial performance, this matters because relationships are built over multiple conversations, not single transactions. A clear “not now” can be more valuable than a vague maybe. It protects trust, keeps the relationship productive and creates the conditions for better future negotiations.
Does cross-functional experience make stronger commercial leaders?
Emma describes her own career path as “squiggly”, with experience across operations, e-commerce, marketing and customer proposition as well as commercial roles. Her view is that this has made her a stronger trading director because she can understand and speak to the pressures of different functions.
That cross-functional understanding is a clear commercial advantage. It helps leaders anticipate barriers, build stronger internal relationships and avoid plans that look good on paper but fail in execution. It also helps teams move away from siloed thinking and towards shared ownership of the outcome.
Her advice to buyers is practical: get into stores, see how products come to life, build relationships with support functions, understand what is stopping colleagues from acting and work together to unlock the problem.
That same principle applies in any commercial organisation. Sales, marketing, operations, finance and delivery teams cannot drive performance in isolation. The best results come when they understand each other's constraints and work from a shared view of the customer and the commercial goal.
What does this mean for commercial performance?
The commercial lesson from this episode is that negotiation is not just about securing better terms. It is about creating alignment – alignment with the customer, suppliers and internal functions, as well as alignment between strategy and execution.
For commercial teams, the double negotiation is a reminder that performance depends on more than the moment at the negotiating table. It depends on preparation, customer insight, internal influence, honest feedback, relationship quality and the ability to find common goals.
As Emma puts it, no good negotiation should leave one side feeling like they have lost. The aim is to find the common goal and create a position where both sides can win.
You need to aim for:
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Better preparation
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Sharper customer insight
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Stronger internal alignment
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More honest supplier conversations
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Clearer shared goals
Build these habits into the way your organisation negotiates, and commercial performance becomes less dependent on isolated deals and more rooted in the quality of the conversations that shape them.
This episode of Mastering Sales & Negotiations is available now. Follow the full series here or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Emma Pacey is a senior commercial leader with more than 20 years' experience across customer proposition, trading, ecommerce transformation and retail operations. Having held executive leadership positions at two of the UK's largest supermarket chains, she has led major commercial, customer and transformation programmes, helping organisations deliver growth, improve customer value and navigate complex change.
