If you’ve had deals fall through in the legal cannabis game, you’re not alone. The Kush Marketplace can help ease the hassle of wholesale, but there’s still some very common reasons that deals fall through.
Here’s our ‘Top 10’ list and how to avoid them.
#10 – Wrong (Missing) Contact Info
You can edit the contact info for your Kush Marketplace account! Most websites want your company / contact information for nefarious reasons, but at Kush we really need to know what company you work with, and how to reach you when deals start to close.
Please make sure your Licence Number, Email, and Phone Number are always up to date.
#9 – Unorganized / Too Many Changes
Chaos tends to go hand in hand with growing cannabis. We all know keeping everything perfectly organized in our developing traceability system isn’t easy or realistic. Being said, this is still a common hurdle both buyers and sellers face when trying to complete orders. The more that details of a deal change, (whether it be the payment method, total quantity available, price, ext..) the more likely one side will back out.
As a seller be sure to have everything organized before you start negotiations. For example if a buyer is interested in a 100lb buyout at X price, but then you look into your inventory and there’s actually 60lbs, or 150lbs available. Now the deal might have to be re-negotiated and the buyer wont want the price to go up either way..
As a buyer, let your intentions be clear from the start. You’ll see the most success with giving all the details with your offer. Example.. “I’ll take all 100lbs at X price between Strains X, Y, and Z. If you can cover delivery charges I’ll pay with check upon delivery, preferably, next week.”
In this case the seller knows exactly what to expect. As long as they can make a delivery happen and the price makes sense, there should be no questions about accepting your offer and moving forward.
#8 – Slow Introductions
On the Kush Marketplace, we do have an introduction process for all deals made over the platform. To keep the site up and legal we must follow the process which includes getting our ‘Seller Forms’ signed for each sale.
This extra step in closing a deal can slow things down if we can’t reach the seller or if they don’t want to fill out our seller forms. The forms cover everything from Liability agreements, company/contact information, and even a pesticide agreement. If the seller cannot complete these forms, then we cannot make an introduction!
If you’re a buyer then you should appreciate this extra step. By gathering our seller forms we are able to give you 100% up to date and accurate company/contact information for your seller. We also included the pesticide agreement with every sale so you can be assured no illegal pesticides were used on your purchased material. In most cases when we can’t get these forms signed, you’d probably prefer to avoid the deal anyway
#7 – Pesticides / Missing QA’s
Pesticides have been a hot topic lately in the legal cannabis market and this has both buyers and sellers on edge. One problem in the WA market is the existing regulations that allow pesticides up to a state designated limit. Deals can fall through when a seller sells their pesticide tested and passed flower to an extractor and the flower tested for trace, but passing, pesticides. Even if the flower is way under the legal limit, further processing and extractions can concentrate the pesticides to the point of failure.
If you do have pesticide tested flower, try to be clear about anything the material tested positive for (even trace). And on the other side, if you do have 100% clean results, be proud and market the fact!
Another problem with lagging traceability systems has been missing QA results. If everything was working correctly, test results should be transferred automatically with your sale of product to another processor. When the system isn’t 100% functional, things can slip through the crack and you’ll need to do your due diligence to make sure the buyer gets their QA’s so they can re-sell the flower. I recommend ALWAYS sending both physical QA’s with a delivery, and emailing any files you have for every purchase.
#6 – Bad Payments
In WA all sales are COD, this makes having cash ready, or a valid check on hand crucial for a smooth purchase. Everyone’s heard the horror stories from bad checks to no payment at all. This puts sellers on edge when doing large deals and if everything doesn’t go just right expect the seller to want their product back.
To make this extra smooth, make sure the 3rd party transit confirms the payment before leaving after a drop off. Cashiers checks are also a welcomed sight, and if your a seller, try to cash your personal & business checks as soon as you’ve received them to give it the best chance of clearing. Eventually as banking becomes more accepted within the industry we may see solutions to these problems, but for now its going to be an issue.
#5 – Too Many Offers
Things move fast. We see deals fall apart all the time because either the buyer has a ton of offers going on at the same time, or a seller accepts multiple offers at the same time.
It’s easy to get in the mind of a buyer. You come on the site looking for flower at X price, and place offers on everything that fits the bill. The next day you come back to a few accepted offers, but you really only wanted to move forward with the best option. From here we have one closed deal, and several others that fall through. In this case from sellers point of view, they’ve accepted an offer but were ghosted from there. Even worse, if the buyer doesn’t let anybody know, then we may go through with the introduction and even get a quote for delivery before knowing that the offer is no longer valid!
For a seller, this is a nightmare. You may have gone as far as getting the team weighing out lots for the order, only to find out that the buyer moved on. The best way to avoid this is to immediately call your buyers once a deal is confirmed and introduced. Before you start working on the order make sure to contact the buyer, discuss a delivery schedule, and confirm the purchase in general. And if your a buyer that uses the ‘shotgun technique’, try to be polite and let the sellers know when an offer is no longer valid.
Not to put it all on buyers, a similar case can happen when a seller accepts multiple offers on the same lot of flower. Again, try to be polite and inform your buyers!
#4 – Unrealistic Photos / Inconsistent Material
This is a big one for buyers. When purchasing off the marketplace based on a phone call and some pictures, a buyer has to trust that a seller has representative photos. If what shows up at the door doesn’t look like the pictures, then expect rejections!
Another big problem can be the consistency of material. If a buyer purchases 100lbs of B’s and Popcorn, they don’t expect 80lbs to be popcorn as pictured, with a few lots of trim or shake added on at the same price.
To combat this issue on the Kush Marketplace we do encourage all deals to have the seller pay for delivery cost. This way if what shows up isn’t what was advertised, the buyer can reject upon delivery and there’s no skin off their back. This puts the pressure on sellers to just be honest and think about what they are selling vs. what actually gets shipped.
Read more about WA Returns & Rejections in our other blog, Link Here.
#3 – Delays & Vague Delivery Plans
We’re all in a hurry, and delays can cost a deal. This play’s a large role in deals where the seller prefers to do the delivery themselves. If they aren’t quick to nail down a delivery date and time, then a buyer might move on. On top of scheduling, changes in the plans are much more likely than when dealing with a third party transport.
Every delay or change in the plans gives the buyer another reason to back out. Even if the plan is slow moving, try to come up with a plan and do your best to stick with it! And we can always help, when setting up a deal feel free to ask us to schedule the delivery for you.
Same goes for the buyers, if you change your order or delivery date the seller could get frustrated and sell to someone else. Being easy to work with is a plus in this industry, don’t loose out on big deals just because you weren’t able to stick with a plan.
#2 – Miscommunication
As you’ll see, the #1 & #2 reasons why deals fall through are both related to communication. In most industries companies devote entire departments towards communication and sales. In the cannabis industry, it’s fairly rare you deal with a ‘communications’ expert, and this causes a ton of issues on the wholesale marketplace.
When it comes to miscommunication, there’s possibilities at every step of the way. One we see all the time comes down to popular terms like ‘Popcorn‘, ‘Trim‘, ‘A Grade‘, and even ‘trimmed‘. All these are examples of terms that seem simple, but could be stretched one way or the other to benefit the seller during price negotiations, or the buyer during returns.
#1 – No Communication
And finally the #1 reason why deals fall apart in the legal cannabis market; no communication at all. How many times have you called a industry professional and gotten a voicemail not yet setup?
We’ve come a long way since the days of burner phones, yet it seems like communication is just as reliable. Whether it’s because our industry people are just too busy for phone calls, or if it’s because of the lack of specialized communication positions (as mentioned in #2), reaching a buyer or seller can be a challenge.
Lets say your a seller and you’ve just accepted an offer, filled out our seller forms, and received your introduction to the buyer with an email. From there you have the email and phone number, and the easiest thing to do is follow up with an email to initiate the delivery. What happens when there’s no response? Within 24 hours if there’s no delivery set up the Kush team will reach out and try and get things moving. The only problem is that we have the same email / phone number that the seller does! Now if we can’t get a call back from the buyer, and the seller can’t confirm their delivery, the deal falls through due to lack of communication.
Again, being easy to work with adds value in itself. It’s OK to be difficult, but if your a buyer don’t try to also get rock bottom prices, and if your a seller you might see deals fall through..
If you have any questions, let us know and we’ll reach out and see how we can help! You can always reach us at deals@kushmarketplace.com
Tyana Daley
