CONFIDENTIALITY

Confidentiality is critical to the success for a Business Intermediary, as well any Buyer-Seller relationship.  Cobalt Business Brokers will take great care in protecting each party’s confidential information, including the knowledge that a particular business may be for sale.  Cobalt realizes that competitors, employees, and customers will all be impacted by a selling event, and that this information should be held in the strictest confidence until the appropriate time for release.

Cobalt will take these certain steps to insure each transaction is handled with firm confidence.  One, Cobalt will prepare all listings to be presented with no specific information.  These are called blind ads and they are used to create buyer interest without disclosing too much information about a particular business.  Two, we register all buyers before any information is disclosed.   At this time, all buyers are required to sign a Non-Disclosure/Confidentiality Agreement that protects our sellers from unauthorized release of information (please click on Confidentiality Document).  Third, we pre-qualify buyers before we release any information.  It is essential that we determine that each buyer is truly interested in buying the business they are asking about, and not “fishing for information or ideas”.  Finally, all information is released in phases.  As the buyer becomes more interested, we release additional materials as we learn that the prospective buyer is becoming more serious about a potential purchase.

During the process, we routinely remind all parties about confidentiality and urge everyone to rehearse general statements and responses about the business; this is to prevent an accidental “slip of the tongue” when and if vigilance may weaken.

Ultimately, between strict policies, procedures and awareness, Cobalt Business Brokers will work closely with each party to protect confidence with every transaction.