The art of knowing when to trust a source of information is very important when you are making business decisions based on some or all of this information.

1. COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE
HOW TO SPOT A LIAR
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The art of knowing when to trust a source of information is very
important when you are making business decisions based on some or
all of this information.
When possible it is always best to use multiple points of data to
corroborate the information, but this is not always possible. Therefore it
is important to know what to look for when someone is being
deceptive.
As a resource that is regularly employed by larger businesses deception
detection experts, usually former CIA agents, are used to assess the
honesty in key business negotiations. Here are some of the things to
watch out for to ensure that your direct competitive intelligence gather
can produce better results.
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FIDGETING
Most people aren’t natural liars, and even after careful practice
everyone aside from true sociopaths will have thoughts of the truth as
they are trying to lie.
Depending on the skill of the party trying to tell the lie as well as the
perception of the other party these squirmy or fidgety motions can go
unseen.
The person trying to lie will feel a sense of physical discomfort that you
will be able to see or hear if you are paying close enough attention.
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CHOICE IN LANGUAGE
In business, when the language is vague it can be a signal of
intentionally trying to mislead the other party. Phrases and words such
as expected to, probably, basically, should be, etc., all leave the option
open for misinterpretation.
While this is not always the strongest indicator, when added to the
other behaviors of deception it strengthens your ability to suss it out.
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NOT ANSWERING OR REDIRECTING
A tactic that many skilled business people use to get around answer
difficult questions is to redirect or go into an parallel topic.
This technique is used to give you an answer without giving you the
truth and it usually means that they have something to hide, in regards
to the original question.
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COMPLAINTS
When the meeting is going into topics or discussion areas that the other
party doesn’t want to tell the truth or would like to avoid altogether,
they may start complaining about the time, food, water, or other things
that will derail the meeting.
Sometimes even asking to go to the bathroom at an opportune time
could be a sign that they have something to hide.
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MEMORY FALLACY
When someone is trying to mislead while maintaining room for
misinterpretation they may start saying things like, ‘to the best of my
knowledge’ or other tactics that leave the answer open to
interpretation.
By not being frank about certain things and deferring to a foggy sense
of memory people think that they are being less deceptive and
therefore feel less guilty.
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Use all of these tools to understand your competitors and staff
members so that you have a better sense of when people are telling the
truth.
The best competitive intelligence is truthful and actionable information.
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9. For additional information about Competitive Intelligence
please visit www.Intelligence2act.com