discuss Counter or no-counter on an opening offer?

Soofi · Oct 13, 2019

After over almost 2 decades in this industry, at times, I still fail to understand the endusers/buyers during negotiations and lose quite a few sales to the counter-strategy.

My question at hand is; Should we really counter to an opening offer or accept as it? What do most of you do?

So to build this discussion up and see what others have to say or suggest about this, recap on why I am interested to know what most of you do is because of this below mentioned situation/story:

Sold: FullertonLawFirm,com
Sale Price: $520
Venue: DAN
Listing type: Make Offer with Buy Now Price.
Sale type: Inbound

Registered for $5.49 at Epik from the daily drops list I prepare. Domain was held for 14 days.

Accepted an opening offer of $520 which came in this midnight/early morning (IST) via Dan where it was listed as make offer (minimum $500 which is my extreme lowest and minimum acceptable price) with buy now price of $1488.

I woke up a few moments ago, looked at the offer and sat thinking should I counter or accept this opening offer on a 2 week old domain name? You must be wondering why in the world was I thinking and should have countered for-sure since its an opening offer and my quick research also suggested the same, that it seems like a serious and genuine buyer who is operating on a+mydomain.com so he/she would be happy to have my asset for negotiated high $xxx to low $1xxx price point.

But let me share with you why I didn't counter, and I will literally think dozens of times before countering in the near future as well, at least to my daily drops hand-registered domain names, especially on DAN platform. This is because I have lost over 8 potential sales of similar names to a counter-strategy last month where buyer lost interest or disappeared. And guess what, my countered price was only mere $xxx price higher than their initial offer in most cases.

Oh and I think this is quite a fair price for 3 keyword domain name. Though I suck at negotiations, thoughts and suggestions here or through pm are genuinely welcome.

Jurgen Wolf · Oct 13, 2019

Another example from my past experience...
Was mid $xxx opening bid for my local ccTLD .com.ua
After negotiations - it was sold for $4.5K

Soofi · Oct 13, 2019

Jurgen Wolf said:
Another example from my past experience...
Was mid $xxx opening bid for my local ccTLD .com.ua
After negotiations - it was sold for $4.5K

What was your initial ask and how long did the negotiations go on for? How much did you reduce and how much buyer increased with every step? Thanks

Jurgen Wolf · Oct 13, 2019

I just rejected this mid $xxx bid...
And then negotiations started in 4F range...

Jurgen Wolf · Oct 13, 2019

Regarding duration...
Speed depends on the buyers... some of them are (very) fast, another - (very) slow...

For example, in Feb I sold .ONE for $5K to some US company inbound...
Less than 1h of negotiations with their CEO...
Initial offer was $1K.

Kostas · Oct 13, 2019

I always counter, if the initial offer is close to my asking price (which is not common) I will counter less aggressively.

For many buyers, this(buying a domain name in the aftermarket) is a new process and in general they have no point of reference, it's not like a house or a car where you can easily find what's that asset's value. If you accept the first offer, it might make them feel that they offered too much and that you would likely have accepted less so there is a chance they might get cold feet(unless we are talking about a $xxx first offer which I think the majority of buyers would honor).

I also think that every serious buyer is prepared to offer more than their initial offer, so if a deal falls through due to a marginally higher counter offer(5%-100% depending on the offer, the higher it is the lower the %), I think chances are the buyer wasn't serious in the first place and not ready to make a commitment and buy the domain name even for their initial offer.

Rob Monster · Oct 13, 2019

Two thoughts:

1. Bulls make money. Bears make money. Pigs get slaughtered. If the opening offer is great, and your research indicates that the domain is useful but not mission-critical, then don't be a pig. Take your win.

2. If your research indicates that the domain owner has plenty of resource and the domain you own, e.g. .COM is absolutely strategic, then I would offer a lease and let the buyer reply.

Process-wise:

1. If you list your domains on Epik, we will show you all the contact details of your prospect as well as their IP address. This is helpful for researching who the buyer is.

2. If you want help closing deals that come through Epik, just ask me and will be happy to engage. As some folks here know, I have a decent close-rate.

Good luck!

Domainuu · Oct 13, 2019

https://negotiationsworkshops.com/n...hy-You-Should-Never-Take-the-First-Offer.html

Must Read Article- by Roger Dawson

Domainuu · Oct 13, 2019

Jurgen Wolf said:
For me it happens regularly...
Negotiations - the most important part of any sale, not landers or something else.

Yes i strongly believe, Negotiations are the most important thing to crack a deal. IMO
Btw would you mind sharing your detailed case study to reinforce this point?

Jurgen Wolf · Oct 13, 2019

Even when I did my 1st enduser sale (.com.ua) in 2009 - opening offer of $200 was denied by me.
~2 days of negotiations - and the buyer agreed on my $600 BIN.

Jurgen Wolf · Oct 13, 2019

Rob Monster said:
If the opening offer is great, and your research indicates that the domain is useful but not mission-critical, then don't be a pig. Take your win.

Few years ago some US individual offered $10K for one of my .PROs
Within few hours I replied to confirm that his offer of 10,000 USD is correct - he confirmed.
Then I accepted it... and asked him to provide his Sedo username (to initiate this escrow transaction)...
And that's all. Then this US bidder disappeared.

Michael Ehrhardt · Oct 13, 2019

FullertonLawFirm,com

there is a , ( komma , not a dot . )

5$ to 500$ is nice
why not take it ?

Soofi · Oct 13, 2019

Jurgen Wolf said:
Regarding duration...
Speed depends on the buyers... some of them are (very) fast, another - (very) slow...

For example, in Feb I sold .ONE for $5K to some US company inbound...
Less than 1h of negotiations with their CEO...
Initial offer was $1K.

Was that .One domain name? Interesting

Jurgen Wolf · Oct 13, 2019

Soofi said:
Was that .One domain name? Interesting

3L.ONE
Latin word.
It was reported by Sedo.

Jurgen Wolf · Oct 13, 2019

Michael Ehrhardt said:
5$ to 500$ is nice
why not take it ?

$5 to $500 is nice - only if portfolio contains just 1 domain.

Bob Hawkes · Oct 13, 2019

This is a really valuable thread that I just stumbled on. Thanks for great views and contributions everyone.

I see some virtue in always countering to an offer, even if it is not that much above offer.

I guess the other thing that I would emphasize is the importance for each domain BEFORE you get an offer and have to decide determine in your best opinion each of these prices.

Your best estimate of fair market value for the domain name based on such things as prior sales, importance of term, advertiser stats, etc.
The price that you would be totally happy with.
The lowest price that you can see accepting and still feel you did OK with the domain name. This probably is based on many factors, including your costs and holding time, what similar names have sold for, how many potential users you see, etc.

If the price first offered is above the 1 and 2 price, then possibly accept without counter. If it is below 3, then absolutely don't even consider accepting without counter.

Bob

Soofi · Oct 13, 2019

Kostas said:
I always counter, if the initial offer is close to my asking price (which is not common) I will counter less aggressively.

For many buyers, this(buying a domain name in the aftermarket) is a new process and in general they have no point of reference, it's not like a house or a car where you can easily find what's that asset's value. If you accept the first offer, it might make them feel that they offered too much and that you would likely have accepted less so there is a chance they might get cold feet(unless we are talking about a $xxx first offer which I think the majority of buyers would honor).

I also think that every serious buyer is prepared to offer more than their initial offer, so if a deal falls through due to a marginally higher counter offer(5%-100% depending on the offer, the higher it is the lower the %), I think chances are the buyer wasn't serious in the first place and not ready to make a commitment and buy the domain name even for their initial offer.

Thanks, nicely summed up!

Though, mostly small and medium businesses have limited budget and walk away rather than engaging in negotiations when countered to their initial offer, per my experience.

Soofi · Oct 13, 2019

Rob Monster said:
1. Bulls make money. Bears make money. Pigs get slaughtered. If the opening offer is great, and your research indicates that the domain is useful but not mission-critical, then don't be a pig. Take your win.

Loved this one Rob!

Rob Monster said:
2. If you want help closing deals that come through Epik, just ask me and will be happy to engage. As some folks here know, I have a decent close-rate.

On my way.. will give you heads up through private msg in a day or two

Soofi · Oct 13, 2019

Domainuu said:
https://negotiationsworkshops.com/n...hy-You-Should-Never-Take-the-First-Offer.html

Must Read Article- by Roger Dawson

Good one, thanks for sharing!

Soofi · Oct 13, 2019

Michael Ehrhardt said:
FullertonLawFirm,com

there is a , ( komma , not a dot . )

5$ to 500$ is nice
why not take it ?

haha

I took it instantly

Soofi · Oct 13, 2019

Bob Hawkes said:
This is a really valuable thread that I just stumbled on. Thanks for great views and contributions everyone.

I see some virtue in always countering to an offer, even if it is not that much above offer.

I guess the other thing that I would emphasize is the importance for each domain BEFORE you get an offer and have to decide determine in your best opinion each of these prices.

Your best estimate of fair market value for the domain name based on such things as prior sales, importance of term, advertiser stats, etc.

The price that you would be totally happy with.

The lowest price that you can see accepting and still feel you did OK with the domain name. This probably is based on many factors, including your costs and holding time, what similar names have sold for, how many potential users you see, etc.

If the price first offered is above the 1 and 2 price, then possibly accept without counter. If it is below 3, then absolutely don't even consider accepting without counter.

Bob

Thanks Bob, those 3 points are spot on for me.

I work keeping those in mind, but again, at times, you are never sure of some domain names and the offers you receive on the. Also, the enduser making an offer

frank-germany · Oct 13, 2019

Soofi said:
After over almost 2 decades in this industry, at times, I still fail to understand the endusers/buyers during negotiations and lose quite a few sales to the counter-strategy.

My question at hand is; Should we really counter to an opening offer or accept as it? What do most of you do?

So to build this discussion up and see what others have to say or suggest about this, recap on why I am interested to know what most of you do is because of this below mentioned situation/story:

in that scenario
accept

but often times
negotiation is the way to go

"God grant me the serenity to accept the inbound offers I cannot change, courage to change the inbound offers I can, and wisdom to know the difference."

Rob Monster · Oct 14, 2019

frank-germany said:
in that scenario
accept

but often times
negotiation is the way to go

"God grant me the serenity to accept the inbound offers I cannot change, courage to change the inbound offers I can, and wisdom to know the difference."

That was pretty inspired @frank-germany.

Domainer wisdom to live by.

Soofi · Oct 14, 2019

frank-germany said:
"God grant me the serenity to accept the inbound offers I cannot change, courage to change the inbound offers I can, and wisdom to know the difference."

If we all are able to achieve that "serenity", I'm sure we'll be known in the history of domain names!

eurorealtor · Oct 14, 2019

Soofi said:
My question at hand is; Should we really counter to an opening offer or accept as it? What do most of you do?:

I do counter offer, when the initiate offer is worth it to negotiate. But the counter must be realistic, not way too far from the initial offer. That's what I do.

Jurgen Wolf · Oct 14, 2019

Initial offer must be also realistic.

discuss Counter or no-counter on an opening offer?

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