interviews Expert Exchange: How To Contact The Right People to Sell Your Domain

This is not an exact science. Every company is different. Sometimes the right person is the CEO or CFO. Sometimes it’s the CMO, brand director, or the legal department. All companies are different and have different access points. More often than not, tools such as Linkedin, PeopleSmart, Manta, Crunchbase, or Corporate Wiki tend to be helpful to establish corporate structure and the correct point of contact.

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We prefer to approach C-level representatives via phone, email, or LinkedIn introductions by our preexisting contacts. In our experience, an introduction converts much higher than a cold call or email.

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From my perspective as a buyer’s broker, the people that make decisions about acquiring a high-value domain name for a company are usually in the marketing department or in the CEO's office. You're unlikely to get much traction speaking to someone in IT or legal.

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We get in touch with the right people via mutual connections, social networks, search engines, companies directories, etc.

The right person to contact is the highest ranked decision maker in the company who understand the importance of a domain name. Typically this person is the CEO or CMO for startups and certain large companies.

The wrong person in a company (especially a large company) to contact might be the whois contact of the company’s domain name or customer service staff of a company.

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There is no “one answer fits all” piece of advice: it really depends on the size of the company and the area of responsibilities. For a smaller company, the CEO might be the best contact, but for larger corporations, you need to qualify who are the appropriate people to speak with.

Rather than saying that specific roles are better to contact than others (e.g., saying that the digital marketing manager is worse than the CEO), my suggestion is to research within the company you want to contact to find out who has the authority to make domain purchases. Obviously the higher the price tag of the domain name, the higher up the corporate ladder you’ll want to go.

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We have landed direct lines into top-level executives and CEOs, but this is only half the battle, or even a quarter of the battle.

The price has to fit their budget, both in terms of actuality as well as what they deem the asset to be worth to them even *if* they have the funds. That process is much harder, and for that, you need a receptive person(s) on the other end. Ideally, you find the team members that see the vision of the asset you are representing.

The CMO, CFO, and CEO are all good people to make contact with, but so could the customer support person or assistant that may screen their bosses’ email. It varies case-by-case.

I would say it, more importantly, comes down to the value a prospect places on the asset you are representing and your ability to deliver a compelling case why they should have it.

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Back in the day, before the internet, we called it direct marketing or direct response. We weren’t selling domain names, and we used phone, snail mail, and overnight delivery to reach gatekeepers, influencers, instigators, and of course decision makers. Today, there are fewer gatekeepers, and email, social media such as LinkedIn, and phone are critical to succeed. In person, when feasible, can be very effective and is recommended for high-valued domains.

Generally speaking, the CEO, marketing, digital, IT, public relations, investor relations, and sales executives are the right targets. The CFO and accounting people are not the best targets unless the domain name is specifically for their functional responsibilities.

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Marketing, for sure. With exceptions, of course, domain acquisitions usually derive from a marketing budget. I'd stay away from the CFO as their decision will be cost-determined vs. need-determined. Also, don't ping legal. They'll be roped in by the C-level if necessary.

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