SIGNALS OF CREDIBILITY

When setting up a food business in the Philippines—whether as a manufacturer or an importer—you are required to secure a License to Operate from the FDA.

And getting that license isn’t just paperwork.

The FDA will actually inspect your declared office/warehouse. They want to confirm that your business physically exists—that you’re not a fly-by-night operation that disappears the moment something goes wrong with your product.

This principle isn’t unique to the FDA.

Banks operate the same way. Opening a checking account—especially for foreigners—is not automatic. Banks perform due diligence and, in many cases, require a period of employment history. Why? Because they carry real risk: someone could issue checks, default, and disappear.

The system is built to filter for accountability and traceability.

So what does this have to do with RE?

In RE, you’re constantly dealing with strangers—buyers, tenants, brokers—often in transactions involving millions of pesos. The risk isn’t just whether they can pay, but whether they can still be held accountable after the deal.

One small—but telling—signal is the type of mobile line a person uses.

A postpaid line, unlike prepaid, typically requires identity verification, billing history, and a certain level of financial credibility.

A prepaid SIM, on the other hand, can be discarded easily. It’s not uncommon for workers numbers to change frequently.

Is this a perfect filter? Of course not.

But from experience—even in the ads we run—postpaid numbers tend to correlate with more serious, legitimate inquiries, while prepaid numbers more often lead to dead ends or spam.

Globe understood the signaling power of mobile lines early on. They introduced the “0917” brand as a premium prefix—something associated with postpaid users and a more established customer base.

In an industry where deals fall apart, people go ghost, and accountability matters, you learn to pay attention to signals—especially the small ones.

Case in point: if you want to come across as more credible, start with something as simple as getting a postpaid line—or even providing postpaid lines for your staff. You'll be taken more seriously.