sales Call for offers - A realistic pricing strategy?

[Paperhand]

Hi,

I am in the situation that one of my kw+AI.com domains has attracted substantial interest. The kw is the name of the niche in which the prospects are operating. I started a cold outreach email campaign, basically a very brief, no-fluff notice about the domain's availability and the question if they are interested. It generated a couple of leads, one of them being a venture backed startup, and at least one other a big established company. So far, every answer was "what's the price". I also have some inbound leads from domain parking.

I went through big threads here, including the domain pricing for end users - cheat sheet, and I still don't want to make the first call. Mostly because I am not convinced about how to price it, but also because I want use the generated interest to my advantage.

I am leaning towards asking them for a first bid, to get some data points for a more realistic price estimate. Do you have any experience with such a sales campaign, and how would you approach the cases where they insist on my BIN price? I tried a similar approach with other names before, but almost all prospects wanted me to name the price. Which I have done in other cases, but here I don't really want to. I think the biggest risk would be to undersell it, more than not selling it at all, but at the same time I want to stay balanced and make a fair and realistic deal that is also beneficial for the buyer.

Thanks for your feedback! Maybe it is relevant for other members as well.

 

[Andreas B.]

Hi,

I am in the situation that one of my kw+AI.com domains has attracted substantial interest. The kw is the name of the niche in which the prospects are operating. I started a cold outreach email campaign, basically a very brief, no-fluff notice about the domain's availability and the question if they are interested. It generated a couple of leads, one of them being a venture backed startup, and at least one other a big established company. So far, every answer was "what's the price". I also have some inbound leads from domain parking.

I went through big threads here, including the domain pricing for end users - cheat sheet, and I still don't want to make the first call. Mostly because I am not convinced about how to price it, but also because I want use the generated interest to my advantage.

I am leaning towards asking them for a first bid, to get some data points for a more realistic price estimate. Do you have any experience with such a sales campaign, and how would you approach the cases where they insist on my BIN price? I tried a similar approach with other names before, but almost all prospects wanted me to name the price. Which I have done in other cases, but here I don't really want to. I think the biggest risk would be to undersell it, more than not selling it at all, but at the same time I want to stay balanced and make a fair and realistic deal that is also beneficial for the buyer.

Thanks for your feedback! Maybe it is relevant for other members as well.

Physical Ai .com sold for $50k,
Travel AI .com for almost $50k.

If you have a category-killer domain, ending in Ai, this is the price level you should look at.

But:
a) not all categories are the same!
physical Ai (analog Ai) for ex. has its own development at this very moment, aiming to put Ai into our everyday life (aside from the PC).

b) not all companies, therefore have the same budget.

But, as you say there are prospects, venture backed / est. company, a bit of research could tell you, how big their wallets are...


Good luck!

 

[Andreas B.]

and btw: countering with a price is actually a good idea, as it gives the relevant people in the company time, to get used to the price & have something to work with...

it may take weeks to close the deal, but at least something evolves in the background.
and you have time to negotiate with various parties, then pick the best price.

 

[alcy]

Hi,

I am in the situation that one of my kw+AI.com domains has attracted substantial interest. The kw is the name of the niche in which the prospects are operating. I started a cold outreach email campaign, basically a very brief, no-fluff notice about the domain's availability and the question if they are interested. It generated a couple of leads, one of them being a venture backed startup, and at least one other a big established company. So far, every answer was "what's the price". I also have some inbound leads from domain parking.

I went through big threads here, including the domain pricing for end users - cheat sheet, and I still don't want to make the first call. Mostly because I am not convinced about how to price it, but also because I want use the generated interest to my advantage.

I am leaning towards asking them for a first bid, to get some data points for a more realistic price estimate. Do you have any experience with such a sales campaign, and how would you approach the cases where they insist on my BIN price? I tried a similar approach with other names before, but almost all prospects wanted me to name the price. Which I have done in other cases, but here I don't really want to. I think the biggest risk would be to undersell it, more than not selling it at all, but at the same time I want to stay balanced and make a fair and realistic deal that is also beneficial for the buyer.

Thanks for your feedback! Maybe it is relevant for other members as well.

did u reg it? when? there were no category killers to reg for many years... and unless u have one of those dont get greedy. or u end up with nothing

as example I regged casey,ai,com few months ago and
recently sold for 1k... I didn't negotiate much..sure in few years maybe I'd get 5k or 10k... or nothing or 1k again.

 

[Paperhand]

Exactly - both are valid arguments and examples and I struggle to find the right strategy in between these two poles.

The name in question is definitely not a killer category name, like photographyAI or the ones you mentioned @Andreas B., but still a widely used name for a certain niche or category that is relevant in the AI sector.

As I have met my CF goals for renewals, my main concern is not losing a sale, but being naive about the price - or being too greedy on the other hand.

@alcy - I did hand reg a ton of worthless domains in the beginning of 23, and already dropped most of them. I guess that is the entry price of many overly enthusiastic domainers, who are soo clever and start by finding one nugget after the other… but I also put many hours into combing through category keywords, Google trends, new research findings etc. and ended up with some that have buyers interest and that are the common representation of their niche / area of interest or activity. Interestingly, more interest started to show after the first renewal of the handregs, but that was also expectable I guess.

For smaller domains I do say a price and let all parties have the fun of a hustle, but here I struggle to find the right strategy. My guts tell me to be super transparent, telling the prospects that I cannot or do not want to make the price, that I am in the price discovery stage. Maybe have a sales process in the style of a Dutch Auction?! But this might overwhelm and frustrate most, and maybe many already won’t tolerate that I am not naming the price in the first place.

We are seeing unprecedented times with the AI suffix being somewhat an X factor, and maybe it is time for a less common approach..? So far the only way that I know to let the market directly determine the price are the dom auction platforms, but they are flooded now with expired ai names, and I guess they wouldn’t be the right place anyway for newer domains that hold some value.

 

[alcy]

yeah domain sales aren't what they used to be before say covid
.. not for all but imo for most. me too
so many quit domains.. and more will quit.... those who stay like me have no choice but to downsize folio to save on renewals.. I've domained almost 10yrs now and to this.day I.make errors to.handerg unsellable stuff... like few month back went.on metaverse and ai reg spree.. maybe 4k total...sold only couple.. so that's negative so far..

anyway.. we see how it goes... offers matter most cause u can go.from there and talk... so dont be greedy take nice 4fig price and be happy... cause getting 5fig on handreg non cat kill name is about same odds as lotto. gl

 

[Kuffy]

The biggest risk is not underselling it, but not selling it at all. I've undersold many names, but at least I made substantial profits on all of them.
I'm coming to the conclusion that the best ploy may be to have a list of names with high prices, and to indicate that you may be prepared to accept offers under certain circumstances. Bitcoin payments for example.

 

[Paperhand]

yes, you're absulutely right @Kuffy. but in this case I am not sure even about the number of zeros that I should attach to my asking price... and if there's maybe another way, of saying who am I to push a number and let the market decide instead...

and of course, not making the sale is and will be the biggest loss. another surprising and painful learning: no matter how much the buyer wants a certain domain, you can lose them if you don't give them the feeling that they are respected. while exchanging short messages revolving around money, in a zero sum game. what can go wrong... one guy went up to 1k coming from a ridiculous lowball-offer, but after my initial refusal did not buy the domain even after I went down to 700... the lander is still active with a bin price, for 1 month now. hehe.

one short question to add: I just can't get google analytics to work with dan.com landers, although it worked fine initially. I switched tracking numbers once, then back, but nothing. is it just me or do you also have issues?

 

[Kyle Tully]

Josh did an interview on his old josh.co podcast with the guy who sold CognitiveAutomation for $300k. You might want to give that a listen as it has some good ideas and mindset for this type of situation. e.g. Perhaps giving a price range rather than specific number.

 

[biggie]

Hi

if you're soliciting sales, then you should already have a price in mind, before hitting the send button.
alternatively, you can put the name on a marketplace and send them a link to place a bid.

if you're not scared of them walking, then ask for it.

imo...

 

[Paperhand]

Hi

if you're soliciting sales, then you should already have a price in mind, before hitting the send button.

hold my beer...

(but I know your're right)

and I have too much sympathy with my domain to put it up for auction, in a sea of drowning, expiring handregged AI and GPT names. but I will do a campaign with outreach to possible buyers and sending them a link to a starting 1$ auction. just not with this one

 

[NameMaxi.com]

Here are some of the kw+ai.com sales. Check the comparables and ask for a justified price. Remmeber you did the outbound so you are at a disadvantage now. What I woudl do is

1) List it for a high price on a marketplace
2) Go cold. Don't reply the emails and wait for a followup or offer. It's a .com so holding it is cheap.
3) When you get the first offer, Start a auction with all previously interested buyers with the offer as the base price.

 

[Paperhand]

Thanks, @NameMaxi.com. It is a name of a subcategory that is relevant for AI. Just the .com name was registered in 97, and I am not sure how much more or less my +ai suffix means. I can only check the 25 limit on namebio, but could not really find comparable precedents. But it is already a long thread, and I don't mean to overcomplicate it.
I plan on going cold for maybe 2 weeks, just as you mentioned, with the leads that I already have, and wait if inquiries come in, but also check the open rates of those emails, to get something like a heat map of those conversations. Then I'll get back with a steep but reasonable ask that is open for negotiation.

I am about two weeks into the email campaign, with just one follow-up so far and only about 5-15 contacts per domain, promoted 6 domains of very different value and quality. the main takeaway for me is that it is effective to create a sense of urgency - companies sometimes have to be reminded that domains are for sale that might be relevant to them and that those have other prospects as well. as a first result, I have a pending sale that *would* go for 700, which is a bit above prior incoming offers.

 

[VadimK]

Chances that someone offers you a price higher than you would BIN otherwise are 0,00000... you get the point ))

Also, here is a psychological aspect - trying to make him make an offer to you shows him that you don't really know the value of your name (or not sure about it), then why would he offer any decent price for it?

You should BIN it, period. And whatever you BIN it - I can assure you the bottle between ''it's too cheap'' and ''he'll walk away'' never ends. Just don't let emotions in and stick to the decision, whatever it be.

On a separate note: a practical solution to your dilemma. You can PM name to every participant of this thread, get the same way (in private) everyone's estimation, summarize and divide by number of participants. That's the price to BIN. Then at least if he walks away you can blame it on us.

 

[Paperhand]

@VadimK: With the better domains, maybe I will BIN them after a first contact and evaluation of who is most interested in the domains and what their background is. Also another marginal advantage is the lower commission with imported leads, resulting from direct negotiations.

And I had exactly that in my mind, but I already asked around about a year ago, mostly in direct contact with experienced members of this forum (nobody involved in this thread so far), and it just showed that handregged domains just don't have a great image... to say it in friendly way. And for now tbh, I am too deep in the ongoing negotiations to go through similar conversations again.

 

[VRdommy]

Everyone is afraid to leave money on the table. Including me.

Don't let this bother you. Do not second guess yourself.
The first guess is the one that counts.
The goal is to make money, and/or perhaps limit losses when you adjust.
I do not do this to make friends. But they are sometimes a byproduct.

Only you can create an effective strategy that works for you. Learn form others ?... well... yes !
Everyone's circumstance is different. You may have a lot more long shots that provide to much overhead where others do not.

You get what you can get or what you think the market will fruit and sometimes you have to weigh 'when' that will happen and balance that with your willingness to add to that overhead and wait or sell discounted to someone else that will carry it over the finish line. Allow yourself flexibility.

Satisfy yourself, not others. Set your own goals based on what you know and adjust as needed.
It is a learning process and you will really only learn by making mistakes. They call it experience.

 

[branding]

Imo... KW+ai and ai+KW have a limited shelf time. They make terrible brands.

It might be trending now but for how long?

Price to sell.