Our leadership team is highly execution-oriented with strong Follow Thru and Implementor profiles on the Kolbe Index, and we are getting frustrated by the buyer's slow, research-heavy Fact Finder approach during due diligence. How do we manage this friction during the transaction process without showing our frustration and damaging trust?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When your leadership team is dominated by Follow Thru and Implementor profiles on the Kolbe Index, your natural instinct is to build efficient systems, take action, and close deals quickly. The buyer's due diligence team, however, is often dominated by high Fact Finder profiles who need to study every historical document, analyze raw data, and research minor details before moving forward. This mismatch can create intense friction, leading your team to view the buyer as slow or untrustworthy.

To prevent this cognitive clash from damaging the transaction, you must recognize and manage these different striving instincts. Do not let your team take the buyer's exhaustive questions personally. Instead, treat their Fact Finder needs as a standard business requirement that simply requires a structured process.

Take the following steps to bridge the gap:
- Acknowledge your team's natural instinct to push for quick closure and deliberately schedule time for thorough data gathering.
- Assign a team member with a high Fact Finder profile to act as your primary liaison with the buyer's diligence team, matching like-minded instincts.
- Use the Trust Creation Process from the Trusted Advisor framework to engage, listen, and frame their data requests as a collaborative effort rather than an adversarial interrogation.

By managing these behavioral dynamics, you can keep the due diligence process moving forward without exhausting your leadership team or signaling defensiveness to the buyer.