What do people find is the best way to respond to approaches?

[domsaleuk]

What is the best way to respond to a potential buyer when they approach you out of the blue and say they are interested in acquiring a domain and there has been no mention of price ?

Do you ask them for an offer

Do you give a price

I have my own ideas and realise there may be various answers to this but would like to gather opinion on what people think is the best way to go about things in order to sell domains in this scenario.

 

[websaway]

What is the best way to respond to a potential buyer when they approach you out of the blue and say they are interested in acquiring a domain and there has been no mention of price ?

Do you ask them for an offer

Do you give a price

I have my own ideas and realise there may be various answers to this but would like to gather opinion on what people think is the best way to go about things in order to sell domains in this scenario.

If someone enquires about a name and simply says, I am interested in your domain,as they do, they often keep it vague.

I just say you are welcome to make an offer.

Works every time, they either make an offer in which case they are serious, or you don't hear from them again, in which case they were not.

 

[Bailey]

I usually wait at least two days before responding.

1. Just not to appear too keen to achieve a sale
2. It makes sense to build up a picture of who wants the domain and why, nothing too deep but, you don't want to find out after the sale that the "word" or "term" had suddenly acquired a particularly high profile.
3. Obviously who owns the other extensions, dates of registration etc
4. come to a conclusion about what I would be happy to accept for the domain before responding.

Then I very rarely name an opening price. I emphasise the domain is 'Not listed for sale'
but am happy to consider an offer.

If it comes in way to low, I thank the enquirer for his interest in the domain, stating his offer is way below even my acquisition costs let alone the cost of purchasing a replacement in the secondary market. - Brings everything to a nice, quick close - without further $20 increases in his opening offer.

If the offer is good, - I'll revisit the domain in terms of it's potential and marketing awareness etc. Just to make sure I haven't missed anything. Then proceed in agreeing that his/her offer is close to my expectations etc

I then make sure, I'm the one in the driving seat, dictating terms sale, method of payment and acceptable time-scales

 

[domsaleuk]

Thanks for the above two replies - they were helpful and also quite similar approaches - would be interested to see if others give the same type of response

 

[Murray]

I'm pretty new to domaining.

I've sold a couple of domains in the last two weeks to end users who contacted me pretty quickly after I caught the domains.

They both offered me around £100 via the contact form on my site, I replied asking what I wanted for the domains which was a few x's their offer, they agreed and we completed the sales.

So low ball offers can turn in to sales in my very limited experience, I'm sure bailey has a much more extensive history of dealing with interested buyers and maybe his version is the typical rule.

I think it's natural for people to offer low though when they don't have a guide price to go off.

I would just be straight forward and ask them for how much you would be happy selling it for.

But again I have limited experience so.

 

[foz]

Request offer always. It certainly weeds out the buyers who are not prepared to pay an aftermarket price. Otherwise you'll waste hours of your time researching and replying with values that aren't in keeping with the buyers outlook which turns out to be beer money tokens ($10-$100).

 

[domsaleuk]

Yes - I thought asking for an offer was probably best but I always think it is just a hard call knowing what is the best way as you don't want to frighten potentially good buyers off by making them think you are messing them about by asking for an offer as opposed to setting a price.

There again if you believe the name potentially has a value of say high x,xxx figures but you would actually be willing to take say low x,xxx it is difficult to name a price as you don't want to sell too low but on the other hand don't want to lose out on a sale.

It is the bit I have to say I find very hard - but the responses to the question so far do seem to point in the " let them make an offer first" direction.

I guess if people are serious then they will make reasonable offers and if not then you probably just save time this way as if they go they go and otherwise you probably just would spend ages haggling over £20.

 

[domsaleuk]

I would just be straight forward and ask them for how much you would be happy selling it for.

I think this is probably the way to go when approaching people for a sale direct - well that's what I do anyway - but when they come to you I never know and I think it looks like the general opinion seems to be towards letting them make the first offer. I would still be interested to see what others say.

 

[foz]

There again if you believe the name potentially has a value of say high x,xxx figures but you would actually be willing to take say low x,xxx it is difficult to name a price as you don't want to sell too low but on the other hand don't want to lose out on a sale.

Selling from a position that you don't need a sale (or sales) will yield higher value transactions.

 

[domsaleuk]

Selling from a position that you don't need a sale (or sales) will yield higher value transactions.

Now that would be a very nice position to be in - I do totally see what you mean and I am sure you are right

 

[Edwin]

On the other hand, if you price every name appropriately, and make the price clear up front, you may see more sales.

Having tried it both ways, I can certainly say our total sales volume (£) increased by pricing domains, though we may have had to sell more inventory in bringing about the increase.

The only way to find out what's right for you is to test, test, test... Test landing page text, test email messages, test everything. There's no one answer fits all.

 

[MikeJDS]

I'm now taking the approach of trying to price most of my names.
I've started listing them on my site and working my way through the list.
Where I can I'll set a BIN price, but still leave the name open to offers.
This should give potential buyers at least a good starting point if they want to make a deal + hopefully stop wasting time with offers I consider low-ball as it sets a range to negotiate.

I'm finding trying to price some names isn't always that easy.
Obviously I don't want to sell them too cheap, but I want to be realistic to help achieve sales.

Will see how things go over the next few months.

 

[Bailey]

The only way to find out what's right for you is to test, test, test... Test landing page text, test email messages, test everything. There's no one answer fits all.

Indeed Edwin, You hold an inventory that is geared for the market, and therefore you can't be cagey. For others like myself its a welcome distraction or supplement

 

[Bailey]

The end game for any potential sale - is cut to the chase (are we nearly there or not) once a repoire is struck

Over the years - I've put up with loads of "So what is your price ? responses" they'll always lead to nothing worthwhile - so cut them dead, politely (their aggressive stance being a low-ball tactic) If they were looking for cut-and-dried, they'll make an offer

learn to love those that tell you they have a 'half-a-dozen names under consideration' For they only ever wanted yours.

Always be polite - even when the enquirer doesn't know how

 

[domsaleuk]

The end game for any potential sale - is cut to the chase (are we nearly there or not) once a repoire is struck

Over the years - I've put up with loads of "So what is your price ? responses" they'll always lead to nothing worthwhile - so cut them dead, politely (their aggressive stance being a low-ball tactic) If they were looking for cut-and-dried, they'll make an offer

learn to love those that tell you they have a 'half-a-dozen names under consideration' For they only ever wanted yours.

Always be polite - even when the enquirer doesn't know how

Thanks - that's helpful info