The buyer is raising unexpected objections about our customer churn rates during late-stage negotiations, and our leadership team is reacting defensively, which is stalling the transaction. How do we use the Trust Creation Process from the Trusted Advisor framework to address their concerns transparently while protecting our valuation multiple?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When a buyer raises unexpected objections about customer churn late in the deal, your team's natural instinct is to get defensive. Under the Enneagram framework, some leaders may respond as Challengers by pushing back aggressively, while others might withdraw. Both reactions damage trust and give the buyer an opening to discount your multiple.

To handle this, use the five-step Trust Creation Process from the Trusted Advisor framework:
- Engage: Openly acknowledge their concern about customer churn without getting defensive or dismissing their data.
- Listen: Let the buyer explain their perspective fully, listening to their underlying worries about post-close stability rather than just the numbers.
- Frame: Reframe the issue by putting the churn data in context, showing that the lost accounts were low-margin clients you intentionally offloaded to focus on higher-value enterprise customers.
- Envision: Walk the buyer through a future state where your automated onboarding and retention systems stabilize customer accounts.
- Commit: Agree to a mutually acceptable solution, such as a temporary post-close transition support period, to mitigate their perceived risk.

By applying this systematic approach, you transform a tense negotiation into a collaborative problem-solving session. This protects your professional relationship, maintains your leverage, and keeps your valuation multiple secure.