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The negotiation mistakes costing your business more than you think

22nd Jul 2026

This article was written by Daniel Freeman, Senior Negotiation Consultant at Scotwork.

How often do the people in your organisation negotiate? The answer is probably more often than you realise.

Every day, you and your colleagues might negotiate with customers, suppliers and stakeholders, but do you ever analyse or reflect on your own negotiating performance?

None of us are perfect, but the reality is that small negotiation mistakes can have significant consequences.

Unnecessary concessions under pressure, poor preparation with unclear objectives and missed opportunities can quietly erode margins, increase costs, and leave value on the table.

While most businesses invest heavily in sales, operations, and strategy, many overlook negotiation as a critical skill that directly influences results.

Here are some common mistakes negotiators make that could be impacting your deals.

Preparation isn’t a process; it’s an afterthought

Some people prepare extensively for a negotiation; others ‘wing it’. What are you and your organisation doing to prepare for your negotiations?

Many businesses fail to have any sort of preparation structure in place or understand what their people are doing when they are preparing. For example, are they clear on what they want to achieve, are they aware of how much power they hold in the negotiation or what their trading variables are?

There are many aspects to preparation, but the mistake is that we think we’re preparing effectively without actually being aware of what good preparation looks like.

A solid approach to preparation can transform both internal alignment and the impact on external deals.

Conceding too much for too little in return

Many negotiators fail to get the most out of their concessions. We’re quite good at giving things away when we need to gain favour with the other party, but we don’t consider how valuable that concession might be and what we could have potentially got back in return for it.

Building value for your business is measured by how we can take advantage of trading opportunities that are presented to us.

If we fail to see where we can grow value and continue to concede without an appropriate return, then we not only lose out on better deals but also risk setting a precedent of giving in too easily when we are faced with pressure.

Negotiating on assumptions instead of facts

The trap we can fall into before even entering into a negotiation is that we think we already have everything figured out. We know what the other party wants, why they want it, and we know what their problems are because we work within the same industry.

The truth is we operate on our assumptions rather than the facts. We then start making decisions or building proposals on those assumptions, and suddenly everything unravels because we’ve built the deal on what we’ve assumed about the other party rather than the reality.

Instead of relying on your assumptions, test them. Ask questions, be curious and confirm your thinking; it could save you a lot of time and frustration.

Negotiation is a game to be won or lost

The traditional way of thinking is that a negotiation is successful when I’ve bled the other party dry and given them absolutely nothing: I’ve won, and they have lost.

If you’re in a one-off transactional negotiation, then there is no future relationship to damage, and you can be as competitive as you like. However, if a longer-term partnership is the goal, then this mindset can have deeper consequences.

We should of course aim to be as ambitious as we can when negotiating, but if we’re taking everything and the other party gets very little out of the deal, then that will likely damage the way you work together and their view of the partnership. What good is a partnership if only one side profits from it?

Even some of the most experienced negotiators who have spent years building up their skills can make mistakes. It’s easier to be complacent and just keep doing what’s comfortable rather than shining a light on your own habits and behaviours.

Skills improve with practice over time; the better we are at spotting the mistakes, the more that we can do to learn from them, adapt and focus on growing the value of our deals.

About the author

Daniel is a Senior Consultant at Scotwork based in Ireland. Specialising in negotiation training and consultancy, he has trained and advised a wide range of global and local organisations across multiple sectors and experience levels to advance the negotiation skills of their teams.