The cannabis industry is rapidly evolving. From mega-acquisitions and banking reform to celebrities building their own brands, but there’s one big way that the industry is evolving that’s directly impacting would-be licensees everywhere: competitive applications.

As more and more states and municipalities are legalizing cannabis, and as more and more entrepreneurs attempt to cash in on the green rush, officials and governing bodies are taking agency into their own hands. Rather than allow just any company to open up for business, states and cities are expecting companies who want to do business within their jurisdiction to prove that they’re in it for the long haul and have the good of the community in mind. Enter competitive applications.

“The competitive cannabis landscape is driving applicants and would-be businesses to have far more polished applications. Similar to college applications or a job search, cities and states have the right of refusal and are seeking out only the best applicants that truly stand out from the pack. This is a great benefit to the plant-touching industry in that it forces all of us to deliver exceptional work, and it benefits the communities that these companies call home,” MMLG founder, Aaron Lachant explains.

States and cities alike are understandably getting choosier

In the old days, anyone who wanted a cannabis license basically just needed to apply and get an approval from state or local officials. However, with this period of relative ease of license acquisition, a lot of bad actors and companies who were only focused on profit showed up and staked a claim. Unfortunately, as we all know, bad actors and companies driven sheerly by profit have pretty short life cycles in cannabis. Short life cycles means a lot of licenses being revoked by regulators. Regulators, trust us on this one, do not love revoking licenses. It’s a lot of extra paperwork and, to an extent, lost costs with the time they spent on initially approving the now revoked licensee on top of the time they’re spending on revocation (and the extra paperwork that comes with). So that in short is why state and local officials are implementing competitive applications to serve as a control in the face of increasing demand for licenses and as a way to work towards more effective licensing.

This emerging trend has gained steam rapidly within the Golden State. California cities are taking matters into their own hands via competitive license applications. In California in the past six months alone, West Hollywood, Commerce, Pomona, Riverside, Pasadena, Culver City, South Lake Tahoe, and others have all announced competitive licensing processes. Not to toot our own horn, but now’s a good time to mention that MMLG has secured competitive licenses and approvals for clients within jurisdictions such as West Hollywood and Commerce.

But it’s not just in California. Zoom out to the national level and you would notice that states such as Missouri, Florida, New York and New Jersey have all gone to competitive licensing applications. Notably, Missouri, as we explained recently, has been rather transparent with how their scoring rubric and qualifying questions will work during its pre-application phase.

What are officials looking for in competitive applications?

The trend of competitive applications has forced multi-state operators and home grown shops alike to focus on crucial matters such as:

• Qualifications of the owners: Jurisdictions are placing a premium on who will own the cannabis business and what regulated cannabis experience the owners have.  They want businesses that have a track record of success.
• Security: While cannabis has made great steps towards becoming mainstream, security of cannabis goods remains a prime concern of state and local regulators.   A well thought out security plan makes an applicant stand out.
• Employee training: A business’s employees should be extremely well trained and educated about everything their job entails. From knowledge of cannabis goods to customer service training, a structured employee training program is essential.
• Product procurement: Sourcing is obviously a big deal in the plant-touching industry, cities and states are taking major strides in establishing firm regulations of product and where it is sourced from.
• Odor management: Odor was of particular note with Pasadena, but odor management and mitigation is becoming a bigger and bigger issue within more densely populated states across the Midwest and Eastern seaboard as well.
• Being a good corporate citizen: This is one that the MSOs have routinely whiffed on. States and cities are very serious about what intrinsic good canna-businesses are bringing to their communities. It can’t just be lip service, either. Licensing boards expect a meaningful and realistic benefits program.
• Differentiation: Be prepared to explain exactly how and why your business deserves this license against the field you’re applying against.

Additionally, some of these applications come with strict word or page counts. This is to ensure that all license applicants deliver concise and effective applications that drive home exactly why their business deserves that license and not the competition.

Competitive applications are the future

As the interest in cannabis grows, and as more and more regions legalize, officials and regulators see competitive applications as an easy first step in vetting. Think about it this way, cover letters, those archaic footnotes of the corporate world, are still requested by a huge amount of companies seeking job applicants. The logic being that anyone not willing to write a convincing case for why they deserve a given job probably doesn’t want that job as much as the person who did write the letter. Same goes for cannabis licensing. You’re not willing to take the time to nail your competitive application against other companies? Maybe you don’t want that license.

If you do want that license? Talk to us. MMLG is a national leader in competitive applications.