Is there a way to find out if a biomass sale finalized? I am curious to find out if there is a publically accessible database for hemp transactions? I introduced the buyer to the authorized representative of the farm. The rep did not like the wording in the fee agreement (he admitted that he did not read past the first page). He proceeded to chew my ass and said NO FARM WILL GO FOR THE WORDING, or “inconvenience” fee for not upholding their word. It basically states that ALL parties (mutual) time is valuable and keeps the damn unicorns out of this industry. By the way, my company was willing to amend the agreement to accommodate all parties involved (I am willing and have accepted a few dollars more than my expenses in order to close the deal) rep refused to respond back, and the buyer’s rep denied the sale. Now i have very minimal communication with buyer rep (we spoke weekly). This was the first of many acts of f**ckery that our company has endured for 2.5 months. I was thinking that i was doing something wrong (we have very strick SOP for a reason), only to find out that many sales have taken place (minimum a dozen…maybe more in boththe CBD AND .L2L world). Yes I know, i have to be under BCC lic for L2L in Cali, I do contract with several distro and farms. I was consulting for a farm group in Cali. Helped increase profit, yield, year-round revnue, and decreased the $/pound rate. By the way FARM GROUP WITH MULTIPLE LIC…GEARING UP TO LEASR/BUY UP TO 20 BCC LIC BY SPRING OF 2020. You are quite welcome, and i hope you utilize my plan to the fullest. You will triple profit, better cannabis, and guarantee year round revenue for all your employees. 
Circumvention is a very easy thing to do and a very difficult thing to prevent. I’d let it go because there’s gonna be no real recourse even if some transaction took place behind your back, even if you had signed NCNDAs, even if you had a commission agreement really.
If you are consulting, be clear about the service you are providing and get your fee upfront.
Why didn’t you just have a commission agreement with your buyer, rather than asking for it from the farm?
If you are working based on commission, you’ve got to have an established relationship and agreement with at least one of the principals in the deal. The farm rep is right, no farm is going to agree to sign anything in which they commit to pay some stranger a portion of their income. If you have proven your value to them, I’m sure they’d be willing to work out a deal with you. Coming hard at anyone with some intense agreement about making sure you get paid, even if in your mind you are protecting all parties, is the last thing anyone who actually cares to close a deal wants to see. Your attitude will make all the difference because when you are sincerely adding value beyond an introduction, a farm (or buyer for that matter) would recognize that and be wanting to compensate you. It’s good to be willing to do things like introductions and conference calls without expectations for yourself, cause it’ll pay off in the long term with rapport building. Worth more than $$$.
Sellers and buyers just hate brokers who have no connection to the value chain. A simple introduction is not enough to warrant any significant compensation. Every industry selling anything has brokers, yet in order to actually operate successfully as a broker you really have to be doing significant work on behalf of whichever party you are representing. If you are simply introducing parties and setting up a couple phone calls, don’t expect anything in return as far as $$ goes. Better to just do those types of things without expectations as this will foster relationships as you go along, and this will lead to more opportunities. And you may just be surprised sometimes and get a fat check, too.
In any case, you can be successful as a broker only as you have boots on the ground.
Thats my 2 cents. And i admit i’ve chased the odd unicorn in my day lol.
Hey brother, thank you for the response. I fully agree with everything you stated. A few things i did leave out though… i am not a broker. Rather an adversary of cannabis. I go into every new relationship with all expectations clearly stated. I verify lic, money, and product are real and legal. I pair the farm with the buyer based upon eachothers needs and energy. I do verify that what i put my name (company name) on is what it states. The sad part is that since a monetary value is tied into the specific order (catering to both parties) that also includes the “MNCNDA”, the agreement is legally binding. Yes, my wife has spent (and continues) countless hours creating legal documents that can be upheld in the court of law (we do have attorney go over each one). I also agree that just because you connect a few numbers, you do not receive full share for no work performed. Compensation is based upon involvement and work performed. Our philosophy is a very simple, yet effective one: we create long term relationships, ones that not only pays the farmer (MOST IMPORTANT), processor, and all directly involved parties accordingly. We aim to create and foster a family-style relationship for all of our future generations to come. Leaving this fucked up world in a better state than we know it today. I have gone to multiple hemp farms (with intent to procure poduct for whatever client that I feel is mutually beneficial to eachother) and ended up helping the farmer (for free, which I do not mind) save as much of their crop and maximize profit, Increase drying capacity with appropriate environment, peak harvest time, removing and killing mold outbreaks (and reccomend propor remediation processes) and whatever I see that will give the farm a higher rate of success. It really rubs me wrong that some consultants do not lead their client in the right dirction. For instance, I spent 5 hours (left farm at 1130PM) in the field teaching and showing the farmer (his first year being a farmer) everything i can that will help him. He had moldy flower in the same bins as “not moldy” flower, etc. This farmer has called several times since then and i even told him to properly store all the clean material in his temperature controlled warehouse for 6 months (i have major issues selling product less than $1pp (down to .53 cents pp was offered yesterday on 750k unit of bio in the Rosenberg area).
I used to be an account manager and although I’m a complete newbie in terms of cannabis industry having a long relationship with clients were your actively looking to increase thier profits and lower margins through consultation and creative ways can factor into what we called MFR merchant fee revenue…where you take a percentage of the deal or sales if you did the left work in setting it up and it went through…think of it like your client is outsourcing the sales responsibility to you for a percentage and the contract has an indemnification clause on your behalf incase something goes awry…with multiple clients it can get pretty lucrative but I’m probably just telling you something you already know…also if possible (if it is possible in this industry at this point) provide market research such as metrics for your clients info they could use in terms of hard numbers such as average pricing of hemp farm supplies or anything of note idk a newsletter of laws regarding compliance or some or if there are new laws a easy to digest FAQ… that’s sort of thing I did in the start up industry but it should translate to every type of business
The “MFR merchant fee revenue” agreement is basically what we have the client (seller/buyer) sign in the beginning. This agreement give us full authorization to represent the client’s best interest. It gives our conpany a specified amount of time to fulfill our end of the agreement, including a “monetary penalty” for not upholding or non-compliance" within the agreement ( i.e. falsifying product/funding information, inability to provide proper authorization of representation, etc). Also guarantees that the client will ONLY work with one company at a time (I despise when a client sends their order to a multitude of brokers), only for an appropriate agreed upon time frame. We do perform a FULL market analysis, with projections according to the market (any good and legitimate consultant should already have an idea for market predictions). Educate clients about laws, regulation, and whatever the client asks for or what we feel will benefit.
I use to police my last companies exclusivity partners for breach s and it’s a head ache and we rarely followed through with charging them penalty…didnt matter since our mfr averaged 30-50 million a month…idk how you can work out a compensation plan that doesnt have exclusivity as that was a separate partnership agreement from our default one…as far as I can tell in this industry people are passionate but they also want to make money while spending the least amount doing it just like everybody else…I’m basically someone in floaties telling a dolphin how to swim and your the dolphin…idk man that’s gonna take some out of the box thinking because you just cant keep people from gravitating toward a cheaper deal regardless of whether it’s a worse qaulity outcome for them…if its possible take on more clients have a written “SOP” of your services and methods etc and hire someone trustworthy to take on more business training materials for how to be an effective consult in this industry and become a manager of these individuals and make money off them…you’ll probably have turnover if people get experienced and want to work for them selves but you basically have to grow…heck here’s a novel idea start an accounting firm tailored for cannibus or take notes from the shipping industry and try to develop some sort of vendor supply info repository and charge a monthly license or something…
Do we know eachother brother? Almost 5 months ago i was on a conference call with a couple brothers talking shop (one owns a hemp farm and L2L farm, the other owns a consulting firm that consulted on over 30k acrea). We were on the subject of shark brokers, one of the guys said “shark Killa…naw we are dolphins”. I call it “Dolphin Syle”, family
I too broker/consultant. I work hard and long, but my services are not tangible so some may have issue seeing my worth. However, I have continued and amazing clients- some with contracts, others with no agreement other than a few text messages, but what they all have in common is they understand how I benefit them. They won’t circumvent me because they know I can and have brought value- be it in terms of money, clients, products, knowledge, and/or legal support. They choose not to bite the hand that feeds them and they know that when I am happy I will make them happy. I have lawyers and contracts and all of that- but I am a realist. These contracts aren’t worth more than the paper they are written on. I am sure there are people that have circumvented me but these are also the people that I will not be working with again. You could use your lawyer and try and sue them and MAYBE they would be scared and it would work- but do you really want to get into bed with these type of thieves? Do you want to be known as a “sue happy” broker? It sucks. Trust be I KNOW. But my suggestion would be to look forward. Find positive wonderful relationships and choose to say “no” to the less than desirable ones. Keep learning, keep getting better, keep providing great service and your reputation will begin to stand for itself. I feel your pain. If I tried to grow Cannabis I would most likely kill it. If I tried to process it, I would probably burn the lab down. I stick with what I am good at. There are those farmers and chemist that are perfectly fine at finding their own clients, marketing, and making their own connections- great for them! But despite what some think- the industry DOES need us. Don’t forget that.
Pleasure to have an intellectual conversation with brothers that actually understand. Our “FAMILY” has been “weeding” out the incompetent and bogus imposters claiming the respectable title of “CANNABIS BROKER” who are undeserving of such a title because of their deceitful and gluttonous characteristics. Unfortunately, these people have not only degraded, but tarnished the character of thre true professional cannabis brokers/facilitators who stay true and are both genuine and authentic with the know how of the services that we provide out of the love of the plant and the medicinal purposes it provides. I am grower at heart, with love and understanding of the science behind this amazing versatile plant. At the same time studying and learning the art of concentrating and isolating the many different types of cannabinoids. This is why we “marry” each client according to eachothers personal needs.