🏴‍☠️ How to Spot Information Control in 12 Seconds (and Flip It Back on Them)

A Short Story

My stomach dropped as I watched the seller casually pull up reports that had been "unavailable" for months during due diligence.

Twelve seconds. That's all it took once I had the login credentials.

For months, I'd heard every excuse in the book. "The system is down." "We're updating the database." "It would tip off the team that we're selling."

But the truth was sitting right there in their antiquated system, accessible in under 12 seconds. Agent performance reports. Revenue tracking. Everything I'd been asking for since signing the LOI.

This taught me something critical about information control that most sellers get backwards.

When buyers ask for data, how long does it take your team to produce it?

If the answer is "let me get back to you" or "we'll have that next week," you're failing the 12-second test.

The seller I was acquiring wasn't dealing with system limitations. They were making strategic choices about what I saw and when I saw it. This information control game cost them credibility and nearly killed our deal.

Here's what most sellers don't understand: information delays destroy deal value in predictable ways.

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The Strategic Impact

Information control games destroy deal value in predictable ways:

Buyer Suspicion Multiplies: When simple data requests take days, buyers assume you're hiding problems. They start digging deeper into areas you never intended to scrutinize.

Valuation Discounts Compound: Buyers price "discovery risk" into their offers. If they can't verify basic claims easily, they automatically reduce valuations by 15-20% to account for problems they assume exist.

Due Diligence Extends Indefinitely: What should be 30-day processes stretch to 90+ days when information flows slowly. Extended timelines kill buyer urgency and create opportunities for deals to die.

Competitive Dynamics Shift: Buyers who can't get answers move to other opportunities. Your deal becomes the "backup option" instead of the priority.

The Advanced Strategy

Smart sellers flip information control from defensive to offensive:

Prepare everything upfront. Every possible data point buyers might request should be ready. Financial reports, customer analysis, employee records, system documentation, operational metrics. Make everything accessible within seconds, not days.

Build your data room early. Start organizing 18 months before going to market. Set up your virtual data room exactly how buyers want to see it. Include executive summaries that tell your story proactively.

Provide context, not just data. When you share revenue numbers, include the methodology. When you present customer analysis, show the underlying assumptions. Make it impossible for buyers to question your numbers because they can verify everything independently.

Use speed as competitive positioning. When multiple buyers are evaluating your business, whoever gets answers fastest develops confidence first. Information speed becomes deal velocity.

Your Implementation Framework:

Start simple: Audit every data request from the last 12 months. Anything that took longer than 24 hours to produce needs systematic improvement.

Build systems: Create information response protocols. Assign ownership for different data categories. Create templates that answer common buyer questions before they're asked.

Go strategic: Design your information strategy to tell a compelling story. Don't just respond to requests - anticipate what buyers need to believe about your business and provide proof points proactively.

Information asymmetry works both ways. Use it as a competitive advantage, not a defensive shield.

Before You Go

Currently preparing for market? Reply with “strategy session” where we'll audit your information accessibility and build systems that create buyer confidence.

See you next week.

-Kinza