When you have confidentiality agreements in place and a mid-level manager baulks at answering your reasonable questions about what accomplishing your shared goals is worth to them (“value”) you have two options: revert to your economic buyer (assuming you have a relationship) and ask for their advice on how best to proceed or ask the mid-level manager “why”?

In a great many organisations, particularly those with managers less experienced in partnering externally, they have a natural defensive culture (a set of beliefs that informs their attitudes and behaviours) that can quickly stifle a potential collaboration. The “fear of getting blamed (FOGB)” for releasing information that they are genuinely not authorised to share or they believe might be used against them by others (self-esteem). It is not personal and it is not you. Recognise it and respond intelligently.