interviews Expert Exchange: What Are Your Top Tips for Successfully Closing a Domain Deal?

Persistence pays the bills. Successfully selling more than $60 million in domain names over the past eight years requires a skill-set not held by most [people]. Make sure you stay on top of the buyer or seller. You cannot close a deal without some sense of urgency. Timing is everything, and sometimes it's also beneficial to push the clients for answers or feedback.

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Be timely, transparent, and respectful in all your correspondence. Always use a reputable escrow provider and make sure your legal contracts are up-to-date and comprehensive. Remember that end-users are generally not very familiar with buying, selling, or valuing domains, so be patient and willing to guide them through the entire process.

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I recommend three P's: Persistence, Patience, and Professionalism. It's important to keep the communication flowing, even if that means you have to keep nudging the other party to respond. That's the Persistence part. For Patience, you have to understand that some deals might take weeks, months, or even years to close, and rushing the other party could tank the deal. As for Professionalism, if you don't act in a professional manner, the other party may lose faith in you or the process and walk away from the negotiating table. I highly recommend picking up and reading some books on negotiation; "Getting to Yes" should be first on your reading list.

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Understand the client's circumstances and needs. Be ethical, transparent, consistent, and have the client's best interest in mind. Do solid research on the domain name, market condition, and interested buyers to provide educated options for the client.

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1. Qualify the buyer.
   
   
2. Timing is important; each day that passes between the agreement to the escrow closure greatly increases the chances of the deal falling through.
   
   
3. Never stop looking for options.

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1. Usefulness to the potential buyer.
   
   
2. Price efficiency.
   
   
3. Speaking to the right people and crafting the conversation around how this will help their business.
   
   
4. Persistence.

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Have the right domain for the right buyer(s). Try to understand the needs and motivations of the buyer and seller. Think about needs-based selling, and don’t try to force a square peg into a round hole or vice-versa. Relate to parties as they relate to you (and where possible) in the channels they use to relate to you. Build trust. Set and promote realistic expectations all around with keeping your client’s desires and instructions top of mind.

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Persistence and following up. The reason I close more deals is that I'm relentless. Keep in mind there's a big difference between overbearing and consistent follow-up. I recommend that you invest in or make use of a CRM. You may have the best memory in the world, but there is absolutely a limit to what each person can handle on their own. Using and sticking to a CRM religiously takes it to the next level.

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I think the single most important tip I can offer is patience. As they say, "Good things come to those who wait." I've worked on some deals, both on the buyer and seller side, that have taken over twelve months to complete. It's those deals that have been some of my biggest to date, especially on the sell side. Following on from this, in order to extract the most out of sales negotiations, you need to say, “no” and hold firm with your price/valuation. If the buyer is serious, they will eventually come (back) to the table.

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