Hiding The Truth - And Searching for It

Years ago, when I first started my career in purchase order financing, I was evaluating a prospect and I asked him if his business taxes were OK and up to date. His answer was "Don't worry, we have a CPA handling all our taxes". I initially took her answer at face value but felt uncomfortable with it later that evening.

The next morning, I asked the prospect for permission to speak with her CPA and ask questions. "Go ahead", he hesitated. "I'll give the CPA a heads up".

I called the CPA, who tersely informed me that he would answer anything I ask, but could only answer Yes or NO questions. He was not willing to volunteer anything. That was a bad sign. And pretty creepy too. I was able to find - by asking 4 question - that the prospect had serious tax problems and was facing a criminal inquiry. Needless to say, we declined the deal.

That prospect answered my initial question with a weasel answer. Not technically a lie. But clearly trying to deflect being straight forward from the get go. I am surprised he let me speak with her CPA rather than declining to proceed.

Most people in the business financing industry deal with weasel answers everyday. Not as blatant as the situaiton I just described - but weasel answers nonetheless. Personally, I value prospects that provide direct answers, even if they think they are not what I want to hear. Many times we can work with challenges - such as liens and judements - if we know of them ahead of time. Being direct about a major issue shows honesty and willingness to work - in my view.

Whenever I find myself dealing with someone that gave us a weasel answer (i.e. deflected a question or hid information) I find myself double checking everything I do. Why? I have no idea if previous answers or information was also incomplete, thus we move cautiously and start asking lots of questions. It's only good dilligence to do so.

I can't speak for everyone, but I suspect anyone that offers any finance product (a business loan, factoring, invoice financing or other) has a similar view. In my humble view - honesty is a good policy.

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