Our leadership team is dominated by high Quick Start and low Fact Finder profiles, which is causing us to get defensive and impatient during the buyer's exhaustive due diligence process. How do we restructure our deal team's responsibilities to ensure our natural instincts do not blow up the transaction?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Due diligence is an grueling, data-heavy process designed for high Fact Finder and high Follow Thru profiles. If your leadership team is dominated by high Quick Starts, your natural instinct is to move fast, experiment, and skip the fine print. When faced with endless spreadsheets and repetitive requests from buy-side accountants, high Quick Starts easily become defensive, impatient, and tempted to walk away or make verbal concessions just to keep the deal moving. To protect your transaction, you must restructure your deal team's responsibilities based on their Kolbe profiles. Keep your high Quick Start visionaries out of the daily diligence pipeline. Their role should be limited to strategic vision meetings where their strengths can shine. Appoint a high Fact Finder and high Follow Thru team member, such as your Integrator or finance director, to act as the primary point of contact for the buyer's diligence requests. This individual's natural inclination is to study the data, organize files, and establish methodical procedures to ensure project closure. By aligning your deal team roles with natural Striving Instincts, you prevent emotional friction. The buy-side team gets the precise documentation they need, and your leadership team can stay focused on hitting their quarterly Rocks, maintaining the operational momentum that justified your valuation in the first place.