Domain investing is not just about building a keyword list and buying domains; it is also about sales, negotiation, communication, and more. People say good names sell themselves. Yup, that’s true in some cases, especially on a BIN; oh, we domainers love BIN sales, don’t we 🙂 no back n forth required; you woke up, check your inbox, and BOOM. Your domains have sold easy peasy money in the bank.

But, not every sale is going to be BIN; in most cases, a potential buyer will come knocking on your door, and then two things will happen:

 A – They will make a lowball offer.

 B -Ask you how much.

And that’s where a real salesperson in you needs to chime in, and if you are good at it, then again, a few things will happen:

• Either you’ll end up getting what you need.
• You end up selling short.
• You messed up the deal – No deal
• The buyer was a jerk, or maybe you are the jerk;-) ( Yup! it happens too)

Also, there are several reasons you might get an offer well under your asking price. Sharing few:

• They are not serious.
• They are unfamiliar with the market.
• They are investors
• You are overpriced

Now I’m not an “expert” salesman or negotiator, but I have been part of many domain sales from 3 figures to 6 figures price range, and based on that experience, I’ll be sharing some sales and negotiation tips in this blog post, so strap in.

Handling lowballers

Nobody likes to receive a $100 offer on a domain that is listed for sale with a 4, 5, or even six-figure price; it’s annoying, but this is what it is 

Everyone has a different approach to tackling them; some might ignore them and move on, while others tell them their asking price is too low and make a counteroffer, and there are few among us who will reply like this( I know few);-)

Oh, how dare you to make me this offer, piss off, haha what a loser, tire kicker blah blah

Instead of criticizing them and slamming the door on their faces, I believe it would make total sense to engage with them, and maybe with a little bit of effort from your end, you might get something going.

I love getting offers, and I do respond to all offers despite how low they are, whether it’s $100, $1000, or more, because I have seen $100 offers turn into $500, $5,000 to $50,000 deals. I take every offer seriously, and there are reasons for it, and one of the critical reasons IMO is the lack of education and lack of knowledge about the domain valuation among these buyers.

We, those who are in the domain industry, know the trade; I mean, we know how it works, and based on that, we sometimes mask the reality that most of these end-users are actually not aware of the actual value of a domain.

This is how I reply if I get a low offer –

uh-oh! I appreciate the offer, but we are far apart. I’m willing to negotiate, but I need to see a serious opening offer.

Or –

I appreciate the offer, but the price of this domain is ($) for the right buyer. Are you the right buyer?

People use different tactics to respond to offers in negotiation; my priority is to keep the conversation going, build a rapport and leave a door open for further communication. The worse can happen; they’ll say no, or if not now, maybe they’ll come back in the future.

How much do you want?

People use many different strategies to reply to how much; you can ask them to make an offer or share your asking price.

I have tried both, and based on what has worked for me, I like giving away my asking price for the domain, especially if I’m doing outbound, because if I’m reaching out to them and I ask them to make an offer, they’ll say – You reach out to me so how much are you asking? Or Give me your price and I’ll decide.

You can try this approach:

I’m asking for XXXX. Here’s my analysis(share the value)

Don’t just throw numbers. Always back up your numbers by justifying your price because it is much easier for them to ignore an offer that does not come with analysis, and don’t write an essay; keep it short and up to a point.

If they reply, this is too much; this is out of my budget, try this:

If we could find a way to agree on the price, I think I may have some flexibility in the price. BTW Off the record, what were you hoping to spend?

Using this approach, either they’ll say Nah or share their numbers, and if the other party has given you their numbers – Bingo! Now you have opened a price negotiation, so now it’s up to you to see how far you can stretch their offer.

One important thing I would like to share is in outbound, how the prospect’s reply to your email can give you a hint of how interested they are. 

I did some my data digging, and this is what I found:

Prospect 1 – How Much? 

𝐀𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 – 𝟓𝟎/𝟓𝟎 

Prospect 2 – I would like to get more information regarding this domain. How much are you asking?

𝐀𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 – 70-90%

More deeper engagement and more questions asked = More interest, and more interest means the deal will most likely get close, and in the end, it all comes down to pricing.

Closing the deal

Selling and closing are two separate things, anybody can sell, but only a few can close. Let’s get into the weeds on this:

There is no exact way to close a deal; the closing approach will change depending on the prospects you’re engaging with and how engaged they are.

I remember selling a domain name to an end-user, it was an outbound sale, and the buyer was interested, but he was running low on funds, and his reply was:

“Yogi, I want to buy this, but I don’t have money.”

Me: Does that mean you have no money this month or all year? 

Prospect: Not sure 

Me: If I could offer you this (domain)at XXX only for today, would we have a deal? Would you buy it right away? 

Prospect: YES! and I sold the domain. These tactics sometimes work and sometimes don’t, but it’s worth trying.

As I mentioned earlier, to succeed in domain investing, it’s not just about buying good domains; if your communication and negotiation skills are good, your portfolio STR will increase.

You should invest in yourself and read books and follow Chris Voss. He is the master negotiator; check out his book – Never split the difference.

That’s it for now. I hope you like it.

Namaste🙏

Please don’t hesitate to share this on your social media, and if the response is good, I would love to write a part two version of this post with a more in-depth analysis🙂