Enjoy unlimited access to all forum features for FREE! Optional upgrade available for extra perks.

Successful tips to market domains

Discussion in 'Selling Domain Names' started by DomCollect, Sep 14, 2010.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. DomCollect Germany

    DomCollect DomCollect Staff

    Joined:
    Jan 2007
    Posts:
    244
    Likes Received:
    3
    After reading some of the questions in this section I think I may be able to guide some of you asking the question of the best way to present your domains to endusers.

    The biggest problem we face is that the end user has no idea of how a domain can help them and in most cases is likely to fall of his chair when the price is revealed. There is no way to educate them without revealing your price and by revealing your price you risk the chance of losing them altogether.

    My background is in sales and not domains and the biggest issue with this market is that the enduser needs the domain but just does not know it, unlike other industries the enduser knows they need but cannot afford it or at least understands how the product could make a serious difference to their business.

    When I market a domain the first thing I do is put an expose( PDF format) together listing Google search results, traffic, PPC, similar sales with price, links to independent evaluations and explanations (Edwin Hayward has some excellent material), similar businesses using keywords in their URL - how that has helped, market trends with graphs, ROI, a list of domains that could also be of interest, Yahoo stats as well as Google stats- keywords etc, short info on the company and client testimonials, SEO influences & potential lead generation…the list goes on :)

    I sometimes contact other domainers and ask if I can add there domains in the sales pitch - you never know and if I sell their domain I can arrange a finder’s fee.

    My exposes are about 4 to 5 sides of information, guides and graphs bullet noted at the beginning highlighting the most prominent arguments, for top generic domains that may well extend to 7 or 8 sides.

    List your price at the bottom of the Expose.

    I now create a call list and qualify the leads.

    Now I am ready to start!

    As a golden rule I do not try and sell the domain(s) I work on what is called the open door policy, don’t ask them to buy and they will not slam the door in your face. If the call is a success the door is not closed and the potential is still there. The only goal you should have is to keep that door open.

    Avoid the word sell and domain.

    My company has decided to market one of their internet addresses laptop.co.uk, would you be the right person to speak to?

    Would this be of interest?

    I am just putting some information together as we are just looking to see if there would be an interest. Can I send you an expose with some information that might be useful and I can contact you next week, or you could come back to me if you have any questions, would that be ok?

    Ask for email address "Ok I will send this out to you today and hope to hear back from you, do you mind if I call you next Tuesday, would you prefer am or pm"

    The above is the perfect scenario, the door is left open, the opportunity to say no to the purchase is removed by not asking and your enduser has an interest in knowing more, the expose will give him everything without you trying to teach them and with the right links he can investigate himself.

    Only try and sell on Tuesdays, Wednesdays & Thursdays and ensure emails arrive on Tuesdays. – Fact is most people have more to do on Monday and can’t be bothered on Fridays. Tuesday is statistically the best day.

    Inevitably when you are speaking to the enduser they will ask you something that will force you to answer, this is not bad but the more you talk the chance of discouragement are higher as you are teaching and without all the facts in front of him teaching rarely works.

    The best cure is to steer the enduser towards what percentage of searchers click on the top organic listing- 56% click on the top listing as you already know the exacts for the domains you can provide him further information according to the top position in Google and perhaps the tenth position and the “potential return on investment” and in what time period this could be achieved.

    We are now moving into the serious selling techniques with open questions as well as situation, problem and implication questions.


    • Do not try and sell, you are only looking to see if there might be an interest.
    • Do not teach, if they are interested they will verify your stats and info and as a result will already be making subconscious decisions regarding value to the company
    • Even if they say no (Unless abruptly) ask to send it anyway and if they do by chance find it interesting they can call you.
    • Read your expose – could someone outside the domain industry understand it? Would a stranger in the street understand it?
    • Get on and off the phone as quickly as possible, as soon as you try and sell the enduser will start to hear the typical telesales and will look for the exit
    • Examples examples examples, if you sell a specific benefit the buyer will only be able to understand examples that relate to them or their business.
    • only about 4% of your calls will result in a sale - do not see the sale as a result see the door still open as a result. I recently sold escan.com and it took me 9 months to get the sale, for every argument the buyer used I quoted the expose, the buyer already knew the expose and so had trouble countering with arguments, and his only objection was price!

    Lastly, the buyer often finds excuses not to buy and often these excuses come at the very end of the negotiations, in 90% of the cases the buyers only objection is price but in the end they add a new issue and the sale is lost.

    “Besides the price are there any other concerns?”
    “No”

    “So if I can do something that brings this within budget we will have the sale?”

    It is either a yes or a no; do not speak until you have the answer. If it is a no then you need to deal with the objections if it is a yes then you are 99% there all you have to do is drop your price or sell the advantages.

    I hope this is of help and wish you every success, if there are positive results due to this I would love to hear about them. This is a guideline and each call justifies a different technique but this is what I use and it is also what I teach my team, it works!


    Use full link:

    http://www.seoresearcher.com/distribution-of-clicks-on-googles-serps-and-eye-tracking-analysis.htm
    http://www.memorabledomains.co.uk/


    My Group:
    http://www.linkedin.com/e/-74718g-gdwxitlz-16/vgh/3392814/
     
    • Like Like x 2
  2. Domain Forum

    Acorn Domains Elite Member

    Joined:
    1999
    Messages:
    Many
    Likes Received:
    Lots
    IWA Meetup
     
  3. grantw United Kingdom

    grantw Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Mar 2005
    Posts:
    4,694
    Likes Received:
    93
    Great post Phil.

    Grant
     
  4. accelerator United Kingdom

    accelerator Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 2005
    Posts:
    7,435
    Likes Received:
    115
    Some very useful advice there, thanks.

    I have a page which summarises the benefits of a generic domain. If anyone thinks I've missed anything, let me know.

    Rgds
     
  5. GreyWing

    GreyWing Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Aug 2006
    Posts:
    4,033
    Likes Received:
    56
    Nice one for posting that, some good tips there.
     
  6. DomCollect Germany

    DomCollect DomCollect Staff

    Joined:
    Jan 2007
    Posts:
    244
    Likes Received:
    3
    Thanks for the positive feedback, now lets see if anyone gets a result on the back of it;-)
     
  7. ukdomains United Kingdom

    ukdomains Active Member

    Joined:
    Jan 2007
    Posts:
    499
    Likes Received:
    6
    Bril post

    I will give this a try.

    I haven't tried direct marketing before so i will try this
     
  8. Edwin

    Edwin Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 2005
    Posts:
    9,851
    Likes Received:
    617
    Some excellent material, and I'm gratified that you picked my site as an example of a useful resource. I'll have to see about how I might work this whole "expose" angle into my sales process...
     
  9. Pred United Kingdom

    Pred Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jul 2006
    Posts:
    7,145
    Likes Received:
    71
    Brilliant post Phil
    Thankyou
    backs up most of the things i have learned through trial and error

    having a pdf or info pre preoared to pump through email is a good idea

    gauging interest and putting out there, not offering to sell blatantly is best tip
    we all dread telesales, and best not to sound that way

    also make a point of saying brokering for client , who has first put on market since 10 years or something works well. remind them this is a one off chance. once get further into discussion

    anyway. think will bookmark your post as reminders on what to do/not to do
     
  10. willbon

    willbon Active Member

    Joined:
    Mar 2006
    Posts:
    523
    Likes Received:
    14
    Great Post.... Thanks Phil

    Makes me glad I'm an Acorn Member!
     
  11. DomCollect Germany

    DomCollect DomCollect Staff

    Joined:
    Jan 2007
    Posts:
    244
    Likes Received:
    3
    Brokering

    Many thanks for the feedback.

    Please remember that as soon as you add on "One off", "10 years first time" or "Brokering" you are selling.

    It is casual and relaxed and if there is an interest that is great but all you are doing is asking the question. The people you are selling too get loads of sales calls and "we" hate them, don't sell and you increase your chances of selling.

    Once you are in the negotiations you remain the same. Empathy is more important than knowledge.

    "It is too expensive"

    WRONG

    "But it gives you great return on investment and it is a marketing move the competition cannot follow"

    RIGHT

    "I agree it is a big investment,do you mind me asking how much you invest in marketing"

    "Does that investment give you the kind of return you hoped for"

    I just wrote a few hundred words to explain why, how and when etc but the problem is it is never ending so i deleted it and leave you with this.

    I could preach about techniques for hours and no doubt it may help but the biggest tip is to relax smile and do not try and sell. No special offers, no deals, no pushing.

    Phil
     
  12. DomCollect Germany

    DomCollect DomCollect Staff

    Joined:
    Jan 2007
    Posts:
    244
    Likes Received:
    3
    Excellent Material

    Edwin i have used a lot of your material and see it as the idiots guide, it is written in such away that it can be understood by everyone and not just the domainer.

    In fact i have seen your material used a few times by others presenting to a larger audience and i also know the tomorrow at 12 pm a presentation is being made where your adwords study is being used as an example to a German audience;-)

    http://www.memorabledomains.co.uk/ppc-generic-domains.html
     
  13. Brassneck United Kingdom

    Brassneck Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 2005
    Posts:
    3,092
    Likes Received:
    31
    Thanks Phil - excellent post.

    Obviously the telephone approach works well for those domain names likely to secure £X,XXX and above.

    Any thoughts for a cost-effective approach to domains likely to sell for mid £XXX.

    Thanks
    Stephen.
     
  14. DomCollect Germany

    DomCollect DomCollect Staff

    Joined:
    Jan 2007
    Posts:
    244
    Likes Received:
    3
    Hi Stephen,

    The problem with the low value domains is that they are just that...low value to this industry and as they are low value the enduser is unlikely to be convinced.

    We have a very large portfolio and as such the small domains sell themselves and the big ones we push.

    Small sales big effort email blanketing no calls (Balance time against effort) and for this i found the perfect solution = Estibot lead generation tool.

    I had limited success but it does the work for you, i gave up as we have bigger domains that create larger ROI and with the balance against time and ROI it was just not worth it for us but if this is your market i would recommend giving it a go;-)

    Other than that there is always Google and try your luck but honestly unless you have hours and hours of time and can put weeks into it the chance of return is low.

    Best of luck though

    Phil
     
  15. Bailey United Kingdom

    Bailey Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 2009
    Posts:
    3,399
    Likes Received:
    73
    A very nice and easy to digest piece of reading - always the art is be able to put ideas across succinctly.

    Phil you clearly enjoy selling and as we know if people 'buy into you' then everything that follows is a genuine pleasure.
     
  16. DomCollect Germany

    DomCollect DomCollect Staff

    Joined:
    Jan 2007
    Posts:
    244
    Likes Received:
    3
    Any one been successful with this method?
     
  17. Pred United Kingdom

    Pred Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jul 2006
    Posts:
    7,145
    Likes Received:
    71
    i gotta make a call tomorrow tomorrow and will be rereading this thread Phil
    if comes off, i'll be buying you a beer :D
     
  18. DomainManagement

    DomainManagement Active Member

    Joined:
    Mar 2010
    Posts:
    522
    Likes Received:
    5
    And Thanks

    Thanks for the sale of DomainDevelopers.co.uk to me for such a great

    price this is now going to be the bedrock of our services that will be available

    to domain investors develop, maintain, provide ,content seo. social medial services a potential for full 360degree managed development solutions at cost`s

    better than you imagined

    that we will be launching soon

    so please give feed back on any services you may be interested in

    best of British to you phil and thanks for such a great steal £400 :p
    ,
     
  19. DomCollect Germany

    DomCollect DomCollect Staff

    Joined:
    Jan 2007
    Posts:
    244
    Likes Received:
    3
    Send me your Expose, i will give it the once over.

    Phil@domcollect.com
     
  20. Bailey United Kingdom

    Bailey Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 2009
    Posts:
    3,399
    Likes Received:
    73
    Phil - I hope you don't mind me making a comparison, but it's nice to get your comparatives to someone like say Rick Schwarz, (still take his DNjournal writings to bed - for a repeat laugh) maybe talking-up markets went 'his far' (successfully) - shame he dosen't acknowledge good sense and luck as part-and-parcel

    The day-to-day realities of domaining are rarely seen for the effort/finance and understanding required.
     
    Last edited: Oct 14, 2010
  21. nicedomains United States

    nicedomains Active Member

    Joined:
    Oct 2010
    Posts:
    69
    Likes Received:
    3
    I'm excited to try this approach Phil. Thank you for the insightful post. I have been trying to figure a way to come off less and less like a sales person. Getting the e-mail address is important, I figured that part out at least.
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.