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 14, 2019

Most buyers start at least 3 times below their actual budget.

Soofi · Oct 14, 2019

eurorealtor said:
...not way too far from the initial offer.

This works the best imo..

Soofi · Oct 14, 2019

Jurgen Wolf said:
Most buyers start at least 3 times below their actual budget.

Not all the time..

Jurgen Wolf · Oct 14, 2019

I said: MOST

Jurgen Wolf · Oct 14, 2019

Overall, I don't care what they offer...
I always keep in mind my own appraisal... and if the buyer's Best Offer is suitable for me - I sell...
In other case: Bye... Next buyer please...

Soofi · Oct 15, 2019

Jurgen Wolf said:
Overall, I don't care what they offer...
I always keep in mind my own appraisal... and if the buyer's Best Offer is suitable for me - I sell...
In other case: Bye... Next buyer please...

Yeah thats how it should be in most cases as well.

As discussed earlier, most of this also depends on your current financial situation, with the domain names.

November · Oct 15, 2019

I received an offer of $1500 for one of my brandable domains at Squadhelp 5 days ago. Countered $3500 and there is no result, no answer from the buyer

Soofi · Oct 15, 2019

November said:
I received an offer of $1500 for one of my brandable domains at Squadhelp 5 days ago. Countered $3500 and there is no result, no answer from the buyer

Is it November already? lol

See this is where it becomes a little iffy when we put the initial offer on line in order to try and fetch some more and in turn we lose the initial offered interest as well.

4better · Oct 16, 2019

Depending on the domain, most of the time I make a counter offer. End result: 60-70% buyers walk away, 30-40% nice deal.

lock · Oct 18, 2019

After receiving offer you don't have to do anything as an option or you can put a buy it now on the site and and ask for an offer closer to asking price. You don't have to counter to get more money.
I wonder why people half their price in 5 minutes.

frank-germany · Oct 18, 2019

Rob Monster said:
That was pretty inspired @frank-germany. Domainer wisdom to live by.

I guess you liked the term "God" most ...

Soofi · Oct 19, 2019

4better said:
Depending on the domain, most of the time I make a counter offer. End result: 60-70% buyers walk away, 30-40% nice deal.

Buyer walking away is quite high for most of my leads.

Soofi · Oct 19, 2019

lock said:
After receiving offer you don't have to do anything as an option or you can put a buy it now on the site and and ask for an offer closer to asking price. You don't have to counter to get more money.
I wonder why people half their price in 5 minutes.

I love this approach.

Let buyer do most of their work!!

winst · Oct 31, 2019

I've had an offer started at $500, but I countered $30k. We negotiated and the domain name was sold for $20k. It was above buyer's budget but the buyer was able to get additional funding after I refused to go below 20k.

In another negotiation, we eventually agreed to $7k, the "CEO" tried to get the funding but denied by the board. I still have the domain name, but I will not sell it for less than 20k today.

Counter/not counter really depends on the quality and types of the domain name. Most of my names are brandables and generic terms, and I will only sell for a specific price range.

I'd say you should always counter, unless you don't have time to negotiate. Every serious buyer have room for negotiation, will likely have some room, or they will wonder if the first offer was too high to begin with. If you worry about buyer walks away for mere $xxx, the buyer might not be serious in the first place, or was never authorized to make the offer anyway.

Soofi · Oct 31, 2019

winst said:
I've had an offer started at $500, but I countered $30k. We negotiated and the domain name was sold for $20k. It was above buyer's budget but the buyer was able to get additional funding after I refused to go below 20k.

In another negotiation, we eventually agreed to $7k, the "CEO" tried to get the funding but denied by the board. I still have the domain name, but I will not sell it for less than 20k today.

Some know how to negotiate, like negotiate real well and some just cave in to get whatever they can.. I believe I am one of the later ones lol but nicely done there

winst said:
Counter/not counter really depends on the quality and types of the domain name. Most of my names are brandables and generic terms, and I will only sell for a specific price range.

I'd say you should always counter, unless you don't have time to negotiate. Every serious buyer have room for negotiation, will likely have some room, or they will wonder if the first offer was too high to begin with. If you worry about buyer walks away for mere $xxx, the buyer might not be serious in the first place, or was never authorized to make the offer anyway.

i totally agree with you that counter/no-counter depends on quality of domain names, but its actually tough to figure out in the initial stage on whether the offerer is serious enough or not.. what say?

winst · Oct 31, 2019

A lot of negotiation is trial and error and read-about what others have done. I'm in the middle of a negotiation right now and this thread actually helped me put my thoughts in writing and cleared my head, helped me realize what was important to me: getting as much as I can from the limited inventory I have.

Today I can afford to wait longer for the best offer vs years ago I had to sell some domain names cheap to pay bills.

I value a domain names with 3 criteria:

recently sold domain names of similar length/extension/keywords
brand recognition if it were being used in a commercial
prices of similar domain names by others

In addition, I'd also adjust my negotiation strategy based on who is making an offer. for example, if the buyer is an investor, then it is likely he or she is looking to buy at below market. A start-up with funding may be more flexible and offers more. A corporation may have a fixed budget but a quality name may help save marketing spend.

Sometimes a corporate buyer might be hiding behind a gmail account. But often the buyers' IP addresses gives clues who they are. Sometimes you can even google the email address or names to find the buyer's Linkedin profile. However, I'd caution that just because a buyer is from a big corporation, it does not mean big budget for domain names.

Soofi · Oct 31, 2019

winst said:
I value a domain names with 3 criteria:

recently sold domain names of similar length/extension/keywords

brand recognition if it were being used in a commercial

prices of similar domain names by others

This is gold, thanks for sharing! I am sure this would help everyone sort out their negotiation strategies.

frank-germany · Oct 31, 2019

sold for 250 €

Soofi · Oct 31, 2019

frank-germany said:
sold for 250 €

Show attachment 133521

What does that even mean Franka?

frank-germany · Oct 31, 2019

Soofi said:
What does that even mean Franka?

he offered 10€ ( 12 usd )
I told him he can rent it for 20 € / month forever

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