Two days ago, I wrote about a company called Heron Global Partners. Between January and October 2016, the company raised £10.8 million in “investments”. It did so, not by cold calling, but using “inbound marketing”.
Yesterday, REDD-Monitor received a response from Richard Wood,director of Six and Flow, the firm hired by Heron Global Partners’ to run the inbound marketing campaign.
Wood seems keen to distance himself from Heron Global Partners. But at the bottom of Heron Global Partners’ website is a note explaining that Six and Flow built the website:
And Six and Flow’s website gushes about the Heron Global Partners’ sales campaign:
And the end result? A rather impressive £10,853,000 in investments raised and a healthy ROI of 3616%, thanks to HGP’s very efficient, now-10-strong sales team. Happily for us, they love using HubSpot’s sales dashboard and CRM to manage all their activities. This alignment between sales and marketing makes everyone’s lives easier, and enables ongoing campaign analysis and improvement.
HubSpot is the software that Six and Flow used for the marketing campaign.
Self-certified sophisticated investors and High net worth individuals
In his response, Richard Wood mentions sophisticated investors and high net worth investors. The Financial Conduct Authority has a very specific definition of a sophisticated investor. In order to self-certify as a sophisticated investor, you have to be able to sign on to the following statement:
I am a self-certified sophisticated investor because at least one of the following applies:
- I am a member of a network or syndicate of business angels and have been so for at least the last six months prior to the date below;
- I have made more than one investment in an unlisted company in the two years prior to the date below;
- I am working, or have worked in the two years prior to the date below, in a professional capacity in the private equity sector, or in the provision of finance for small and medium enterprises;
- I am currently, or have been in the two years prior to the date below, a director of a company with an annual turnover of at least £1 million.
Similarly FCA’s definition of high net worth investors is precise. To qualify you have to be able to sign the following:
- I had, throughout the financial year immediately preceding the date below, an annual income to the value of £100,000 or more. Annual income for these purposes does not include money withdrawn from my pension savings (except where the withdrawals are used directly for income in retirement).
- I held, throughout the financial year immediately preceding the date below, net assets to the value of £250,000 or more. Net assets for these purposes do not include:
(a) the property which is my primary residence or any money raised through a loan secured on that property; or
(b) any rights of mine under a qualifying contract of insurance; or
(c) any benefits (in the form of pensions or otherwise) which are payable on the termination of my service or on my death or retirement and to which I am (or my dependants are), or may be, entitled; or
(d) any withdrawals from my pension savings (except where the withdrawals are used directly for income in retirement).
Richard Wood agrees that some of the statements on alternative-investing.uk and Heron Global Partners’ twitter account are “potentially misleading” or “a hugh oversight”.
Wood has removed the video from the alternative-investing.uk website, because “the line highlighted is potentially misleading”. Here are some screenshots from the video:
While you’re considering whether or not this could be misleading, bear in mind that this is an unregulated, high risk investment, and that it is only suitable for sophisticated investors or high net worth investors. But only in the small print on alternative-investing.uk do we learn that anyone who isn’t a sophisticated or high net worth investor should “exit the Website immediately”.
Name: Richard Wood
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://sixandflow.comComment: With reference to your article: http://redd-monitor.org/2017/02/18/alternative-investing-with-heron-global-partners-and-renwick-haddow-inbound-marketing-is-the-new-cold-calling/
My name is Richard Wood, the MD for Six & Flow, the inbound marketing agency working with Heron Global Partners.
If possible, I’d like to respond to a few of your points and if at all possible remove my name from your post as our work with HGP is limited to a supplier basis and unfortunately, my name was used when registering the domain.
In response to your comments about inbound being the new cold calling, part of the strategy used is to only target users who fall into High Net Worth of sophisticated categories by utilising the data available through channels such as Facebook and then also those actively searching for investments across Google PPC. Remarketing, the process in which site visitors then see the ads after originally visiting the site is also used.
Data lists aren’t used in the process and any calls are requested by virtue of the user filling in a request for contact. This is essentially where our involvement stops.
However, I do know that before any bond introduction is made to the user, they must first self-certify. Although this is very much something you would be better positioned speaking with someone on the HGP team.
With regards to some of your marketing points, there are some very valid concerns raised. I’ll try to respond to each but if I miss anything, please do ask and I’ll try to clarify.
1. Images used with the quotes – While these are genuine quotes, and we have explicit permission to use them, we did not have permission to use photos of those quoted. Our design team took the decision to find stock imagery available for re-use. I appreciate this may seem misleading, however that was not our intention and we have now removed those images from all relevant landing pages – just retaining the written quotes.
2. With regards to the video, while this was signed off by the client, we appreciate that the line highlighted is potentially misleading. Again, this is not our intention, so we have removed it and will re-edit.
3. While it’s not really for us to say, the addresses highlighted in your article for HGP, they are actually serviced offices, not just virtual. I would be happy to introduce you to a member of their team to arrange a tour?
4. The Tweets you mentioned, this is a huge oversight and have now been removed. All other channels are now being scanned for anything else that may be seen as advisory. Thanks for bringing this to our attention.If you have any questions or would like to speak on any of the above, please do get in contact. I’m happy to help or clarify where needed.
Cheers,
Rich
Time: 20 February 2017 at 10:18 pm
Contact Form URL: http://redd-monitor.org/contact/
Sent by an unverified visitor to your site.
Whatever the case the clients of these companies are all there for only one reason – to make the people behind the company and the investments mega amounts of money.
However, there is a very strong correlation between how much they make and how much their clients make. The more the clients LOSE the more the people behind the firms make. Why do you all think these firms all say cliched rubbish like – our clients are important to us. Yeah, you don’t say when their losses become your profits via stuffing them up in ridiculous deals that NO proper established regulated broker would ever dream of offering their clients.
Anyone can argue as much as they want about the above but history will prove them wrong almost every time.
In January 2016 HGP raised the £10 million using a MinI Bond for a business called Diamond Global Trading and Investments Ltd and a subsidiary called DCRL. It is run by two men Paul Dougan and Liam Ward. The money was to be used to purchase three sites in Scotland and to build wind farms on them. Investors were promised they would ‘go live’ at the end of March 2016 and coupon payments would be made twice a year from then on. I have clear written evidence that Dougan and Ward knew three months before they launched the Mini Bond offering that on two of the sites, planning consent would not be granted because of the effect they would have on the National Air Traffic Control network, yet they still went ahead with the Mini Bond launch, knowing that their scheme had been dealt a fatal blow. There is irrefutable evidence that they trousered the money but have not built the wind farms. They refuse to answer any questions about what they have done with the money or where it is now. They will not deal with investors in any meaningful way, and are now (April 2017) facing a Winding Up Petition from HMRC for unpaid tax, to be heard in Belfast on 27th April 2017. If this succeeds, investors face losing the whole £10 million. Readers will draw their own conclusions about the possible criminal nature of this venture and the behaviour of Liam Ward and Paul Dougan. It is open to question whether of not Heron Global Partnership is part of this enterprise; what they cannot deny is that they appear to have done nothing to protect the interests of the investors they introduced to this scheme.
I am concerned because when I asked to speak to someone – no one would come back to me.
@Gillian Spiers – Who did you ask to speak to?
By the way, there is a much longer discussion about Bar Works following this post:
Bar Works: The return of Renwick Haddow
We are looking for Heron Global Partners and their sales staff who stopped answering the phone in May. They have vacated their offices and left no forwarding address.If anyone can give us information about them or their whereabouts we would be grateful.
They are deeply implicated in the sale of Barworks and Diamond Construction and Renewables.
To investors in DCR, we have an action group with 55 plus members. A law firm has been appointed. If you would like to join our group telephone James on 03330064870.
@[email protected] – City Wire reports that the Diamond Global Trading and Investments Ltd has (surprise, surprise) unravelled:
Cold called investors left high and dry by £3m wind farm scheme