How to know if a marketer is legitimate?

13 replies
This is an add-on from my previous thread http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ally-rich.html

I have received PM's of people asking me to split my commission with them if they help find my uncle a client to build a home.

To be honest, I like that idea (after all there are very seasoned marketers here, whereas I would have to begin from the groundfloor) and I am willing to do this, but I'm not sure how I can trust someone (one member ended up trying to sell me something irrelevant).

Therefore, I have not disclosed any information such as my uncle's website, etc, since he is already constantly being bothered enough by media, promos, advertisers, etc.

So my question is: how should I go about partnering with an experienced marketer(s) (preferably in high-end real estate)?

What questions should I ask to find out if he/she is committed and willing to put in the effort?
#legitimate #marketer
  • Profile picture of the author nicolasmd2112
    I would suggest requesting a portfolio of some sort or past references. This way you aren't running in the dark so blind.
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  • Profile picture of the author Peter Lessard
    A marketer that is specializing in high end Real Estate and that is successful at it and is getting a piece of the action really does not need the work so he/she works generally with referrals or very warm leads that have raised their hand in response to some sort of marketing piece.

    They will generally NOT take on the job with promise of commission later without either a sizable retainer against those commissions or a baseline fee and then commissions.

    Again to be clear I am ONLY talking about folks with a proven track record. If they know what they are doing then when they take on a new "partner" it is that partner that is not proven so generally they will not risk their time on driving leads to a back end they know nothing about. From your point of view you want to minimize your risks but so do they. They have no idea if your back end can close the deals or if they will ever get paid. Generally the ones that jump on opportunities with no guarantee are not at the top of the food chain in that niche.

    You may want to consider reaching out to non compete but similar businesses and see who they are using that they would vouch for.
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    • Profile picture of the author Kay King
      Of course you like the idea - someone else would be doing it and you would profit. That's exactly how people sell scams!

      I was in the real estate market - worked with high dollar builders as an agent and a broker- and this smells really bad.

      All you are doing is looking for ways to leverage his wealth with little effort on your part. You say you are living on his property and acting as his personal trainer - he obviously likes you but do you think he has any respect for your business sense at this point?

      how should I go about partnering with an experienced marketer(s)
      People can be anything they say they are here. If you have someone saying they are experience in real estate IN THAT geographical AREA - meet them at their real estate office to verify who they are.

      You've been posting about your uncle's wealth - how much commission he's willing to pay - etc...not surprising some here would see $$$ signs and jump on board. Do you have the authority to "partner" with a marketer to sell your uncle's property?

      You were advised in the past to research real estate laws in that state - to get your own RE license so you could act as agent for your uncle's properties. That would be the smart thing to do....but obviously not going to happen.
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      • Profile picture of the author dog8food
        Originally Posted by Kay King View Post

        Of course you like the idea - someone else would be doing it and you would profit. That's exactly how people sell scams!
        How is it a scam if no one loses? I mean, if I'm actually creating an opportunity to easily score 20 grand if they're doing what they're already used to doing?
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        • Profile picture of the author Kay King
          creating an opportunity to easily score 20 grand
          Easily? If it were easy you'd be doing it and you're not. You want to partner with someone who will find a buyer for a high end house in NM and get the sale...then you give him $20k and you keep $30k.

          Never mind the laws of the state - or that people PMing you here have no idea where these homes are.

          Amazing...good luck.
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        • Profile picture of the author kk075
          Originally Posted by dog8food View Post

          How is it a scam if no one loses?
          Let's say I partner with you....skip over all the "can you trust me" stuff for a moment and let's just say that you trust me 100%.

          So you want to do a partnership on a business. Your contribution is an idea.

          My contribution is building the site, getting it indexed, building links and relationships, driving it on social media, setting up paid campaigns, dealing with customers, creating an email funnel, writing all of that....and about a thousand other things.

          So tell me...what's a fair split for this idea? 50/50? You're out of your mind. 70/30? I still wouldn't even consider it. 90/10? Maybe, but only if it's a billion dollar idea. Because the bigger it is, the more work it's going to take to implement it. And people have great ideas every single day.

          And that's the problem...you want me to take 100% of the risk, invest my time and money while you sit back and tell me what you think. Very few legitimate marketers will even consider that unless you're grinding it out right beside me. So my advice would be to either (a) sell the idea, (b) work with someone that has some skills but very little background or (c) tell your uncle to hire a developer.

          I hope that helped.
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    • Profile picture of the author roger h
      Originally Posted by Peter Lessard View Post

      A marketer that is specializing in high end Real Estate and that is successful at it and is getting a piece of the action really does not need the work so he/she works generally with referrals or very warm leads that have raised their hand in response to some sort of marketing piece.

      They will generally NOT take on the job with promise of commission later without either a sizable retainer against those commissions or a baseline fee and then commissions.

      Again to be clear I am ONLY talking about folks with a proven track record. If they know what they are doing then when they take on a new "partner" it is that partner that is not proven so generally they will not risk their time on driving leads to a back end they know nothing about. From your point of view you want to minimize your risks but so do they. They have no idea if your back end can close the deals or if they will ever get paid. Generally the ones that jump on opportunities with no guarantee are not at the top of the food chain in that niche.

      You may want to consider reaching out to non compete but similar businesses and see who they are using that they would vouch for.
      So, i have no intention of commenting on this thread which seems a bit unreal to say the least, BUT.. that is a damn good answer and damn good advice quoted above.

      Just had to be acknowledged really.
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  • Profile picture of the author DWolfe
    [QUOTE=dog8food;10014211]

    I have received PM's of people asking me to split my commission with them if they help find my uncle a client to build a home. "A fool and his money are soon parted"


    QUOTE] If people on this forum are sending you private messages here on this forum, I would stay far away. The quote above may actually happen to you if you hire the wrong person. Why would a business that deals with the Upper Class seek you out ? Ask that question and let it sink in. They most likely wont !!.

    If they are any good they most likely have more work then they can handle or limit them selves to certain customers only. Unless they are just starting out they wont deal with just anyone. What is in it for them ? I'm not saying legitimate marketer's do not exist on this forum, but they wont be the ones that will send you PM's here. Peter and Kay gave you two posts that are full of gold. Your Uncle may be testing you and so far you are failing if you are asking questions like this here.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ryan W Milligan
    I don't see why people are putting the idea of a marketer promoting this down.

    A marketer isn't just someone who does things online or helps a business promote their product - anyone who does anything to try and promote anything is essentially a marketer. People walking round the streets handing out flyers for you to join their religion and promoting/marketing that religion.

    They want you to have the same beliefs as them. A real estate agent in a way is a marketer, they promote property in order to hopefully make sales and get commissions. That's exactly what someone who does IM living does with products in their niche.

    The best kind of marketers are those who can persuade people to do what they want and make that person think they are doing what they want. Marketing is manipulation no matter what way you look at it.

    Manipulation and persuasion are the same thing, people just tend to label 'manipulation' as something dirty and if you are manipulated you have been tricked but at the end of the day they acted on whatever it is the manipulator wanted them to do.

    Anyone who has ever wrote any kind of copy has tried to persuade people to do whatever it is that the copy is actually being written for, maybe to make the reader buy something or to make the reader sign up to a list, all in all this is for the writers personal gain one way or another. Creating urgency, having a hook, telling people THEY can have what they want they just need to do what you want - all of that is manipulation.

    The best sales man I have ever worked with used to actually be a con-man. Naturally he was used to selling things that didn't actually exist, he was just selling ideas (characters with story lines that were not actually true) but he could read people better than I have ever seen anyone do it. I met him when he tried to actually pull one of his own cons on me - little did he know that I had about 6 years worth of knowledge in social engineering and persuasion selling - in the end I actually invited him to work with me and gave him a % of whatever deals he could close.

    The guy could guide a conversation in any direction he wanted and make you believe that you guided the conversation in that direction and you would come out the other end thinking you got exactly what you wanted but he always did.

    He used to hire himself out to businesses to collect information and most of the time it was five figure pay outs for things that would take him either a few phone calls of pretending to be other people and extracting information from company staff and getting enough information to get someone in that company to give him whatever it was he was hired to get (Examples: financial documents for a company looking to buy another company, they wanted to make sure they were being given all the financials and there were no secrets before the bought over - Or information about rival companies new products.)

    I don't know if what he actually did was illegal because he never stole anything, he just knew how to convince people to provide him with things which he could then use to be given whatever it was that he was told to get. He played on human error, it was essentially conning people because he would tell them what they needed to hear even though he was using there own psychology against them.

    When he actually had a product to sell that was real and already had leads of those interested he was closing every single sale he wanted. He did totally manipulate every single situation but the people got what they wanted. He couldn't force anyone to buy something they weren't interested in to start with but when you gave him leads to follow up on of someone who had shown interest he knew the exact mind-set that potential buyer was in.

    It was pretty incredible. He taught me a lot about how to actually sell in real life, I'm pretty confident I could sell that house if I was in your area and only because of what he taught me and we met with him trying to pull a con on me to get me to give him a designed marketing campaign for a company I was doing work for at the time.

    What I'm trying to say is that you don't know if anyone is 'legit' and a previous record means very little with something like a house, why don't you just let people you think would be good at it do it? Asking questions won't do much, another reason I brought up that whole story was that this guy could tell you everything you wanted to hear to get the job but that didn't mean there was no ulterior motives.

    How do you know someone doesn't already know someone in the market who will buy the house but has very little experience but would make the sale by bringing you the potential buyer if you gave them the opportunity?



    Why don't you just let people who say they can sell the house try sell it? Just tell them they don't get paid until the house is sold and the money is in the bank. Most people won't be able to actually produce buyers then close the sale on the house so I would personally go with letting people bring buyers to the house and have someone who can close the sale of the house.

    Either that or you will have to go hire real estate agents and hire whatever ones you think can get you the best price on the home. There is absolutely no way to know if someone is 'legit' or not. Anyone can be desperate and pull one over on you at any moment in time so the best thing to do is let their skills do the talking. If they sell the house the get what you offer, if they don't they get nothing.

    They could ask the question 'How do we know you are legit?'. They could bring you the buyer, you could tell the buyer you will knock ten grand off if they do the buy direct through you and then you don't have to pay 20 grand and you get to keep 10 grand.

    You are probably best off getting a realter to do the work for you in this case, you can't work directly with people if you can't trust them.
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  • Profile picture of the author icoachu
    Very simple. Ask for W-9s. That should shut out a lot of the posers. Also, ask for his/her REAL LinkedIn page. You can see who's faking it until they make it and who's the real deal.
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    • Profile picture of the author Kay King
      I don't know how many in this thread are sending the OP offers - I know I'm not one of them.

      After you present all your w-9s and other stuff - ask the OP for proof that he has a right to advertise, sell, take on partners, collect commission and pay out commission ...on these properties he does NOT own. I'd also verify the uncle (the builder) is agreeable to the plan...and that the properties are not already listed with a real estate agency.

      To me, this is a shame. There is such opportunity here for a career with a good start - and the goal instead is a quick score.
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      Please do not 'release balloons' for celebrations. The balloons and trailing ribbons entangle birds and kill wildlife and livestock that think the balloons are food.
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      • Profile picture of the author joseph7384
        Originally Posted by Kay King View Post

        I don't know how many in this thread are sending the OP offers - I know I'm not one of them.

        After you present all your w-9s and other stuff - ask the OP for proof that he has a right to advertise, sell, take on partners, collect commission and pay out commission ...on these properties he does NOT own. I'd also verify the uncle (the builder) is agreeable to the plan...and that the properties are not already listed with a real estate agency.

        To me, this is a shame. There is such opportunity here for a career with a good start - and the goal instead is a quick score.

        I totally agree and anyone who pm's the op with an offer would most likely be a newbie, a loser or a scammer because ethical marketers don't chase after cleints in this manner, only desperate fools do.
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        • Profile picture of the author talfighel
          Originally Posted by joseph7384 View Post

          I totally agree and anyone who pm's the op with an offer would most likely be a newbie, a loser or a scammer because ethical marketers don't chase after cleints in this manner, only desperate fools do.
          I see it this way:

          People who PM you through this forum are just people who are desperate for your business and are no experts. You are probably going to waste your time with them.
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