I received this message today...

And it p*ssed me off for a few reasons.

‍First, the person reaching out clearly didn’t bother to do any research. They assume we’re a sales agency. We’re not. We do partnerships. No disrespect to sales agencies, but this just screams lazy, mass-blasted outreach.‍

Second—and by far the worst part: “We work on a 100% commission model.”‍

Excuse me? As an agency, that’s almost insulting. You’re basically asking me to work for free—only getting paid if you happen to make money. That’s your pitch? Seriously?

Here’s what this message tells me about their company:

• No product-market fit. If you had one, you’d be investing in partners, not begging them to sell for free.

• No partner investment. Good luck finding serious partners when you offer zero upfront commitment.

• You treat partners like Zara treats garment workers in Bangladesh. (No exaggeration.)

This is one of the worst partner outreach messages I’ve seen in a long time.

The only good thing about it? It’s straight to the point—so I immediately know I’ll never partner with them.

How I’d do it instead:

Message 1:

Hi there,

Nice to connect with you.

Do you work with real estate developers or have clients in the real estate industry?

Message 2 (If yes to message 1):‍

Great!

We’ve developed a powerful 3D visualization platform for real estate developers.

Since the pandemic, there’s been a huge shift to the countryside, and housing construction has exploded—creating massive opportunities for tools like ours.

We work with a small group of partners who promote and resell our solution, and we think you’d be a great fit.

There’s strong revenue potential for you, plus we have an in-house process to prioritize leads from our website and route them to our partners first.

Here’s a product demo: [link]‍

We’re closing applications in a couple of weeks—let me know if you’re interested.‍

‍

See the difference? Instead of desperate commission-only pitches, this approach makes it clear why the partnership is worth it.