discuss Counter or no-counter on an opening offer?

[Soofi]

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.

 

[Kostas]

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.

 

[Domainuu]

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?

 

[Soofi]

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!

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

 

[Rob Monster]

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.

 

[eurorealtor]

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.

 

[November]

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

 

[frank-germany]

sold for 250 €

 

[Soofi]

I always accept the first offer, I have similar experience of losing deal because of counter offer.

What has been your soft spot, pricing your domain names and how much price-wise do you counter?

 

[Soofi]

Most of my sales are low XXX, my sweet spot is $150- $199.

and these are 2 -3 keyword, hand regs?

 

[Soofi]

It all depends.I look at keywords and companies that names would benefit.The higher the number of companies or enduser needing a upgrade determines some of my prices.Some if its brandable,i do my deep research and counter.I dont mind waiting if name surely is worth more and my need for cash for next purchase.

Received an offer of $1k on dan and countered.Buyer asked all these questions and I answered and then be went silent.Contacted dan for the contact info to revive the deal.Next offer was $5k and Thanks.I countered again that it was too low as name is worth 5 figures as there are many companies needing the upgrade and .co was already built into a good company.On further research,I learnt it was a company operating the niche using blockchain and they secured a series funding.I then knew i did the right thing countering.Deal goes on and name has been renewed for extra years.Yesterday i got a a starting offer from bodis $500.Countered $1100 as it was a .net and buyer simply told me to wait till next week where he would need to discuss purchase as he is interested.He never said no it was too high.I made a not too crazy counter.Fingers crossed,sale would be reported when deal is closed and money hits my account.

I always counter except its a bin and no make offer options.I know some sales take time and deals surely gets lost but experience is learnt from any lost sales.

2 words dictionary is the first domain..Net is a one word ending in "ing".

Your experience sharing is invaluable and with detailed examples make it all the more valid.

Though, we can counter all we want, there are times when you need to crack some sales to be financially even as you stated above "my need for cash fr next purchase" or renewals.

Also it is important to note that if the domain does not benefit plenty of endusers and limited in number, we might be better off taking the initial first offer which is reasonably set at our minimum ask. Thoughts?

 

[Avijit Roy]

and these are 2 -3 keyword, hand regs?

Yes.

 

[Skyvisum]

I have been switching some names to bodis and efty and leave on dan as well as other markets but i like to see the number of views so i can adjust my prices from time to time.

 

[Soofi]

I have been switching some names to bodis and efty and leave on dan as well as other markets but i like to see the number of views so i can adjust my prices from time to time.

I would like to try Efty and its marketplace. What do you suggest? Reviews?

 

[Soofi]

... because those 5 and 6 figures takes a lot of guts.

enough said

 

[Soofi]

If the minimum set is the lowest you would accept that will save a lot of time and frustration.

Working for me now, and helps to save time + frustration as we go along.

Setting a higher minimum shall help on the names we want to hold for larger sums tbh!

 

[Soofi]

Efty is good but facing spam or non responsive buyers is also not uncommon there, besides handling everything by myself felt like a task and not smooth as i expected if you are ok with it then go for it, i am myself planning to try epik in near future.

I am trying to setup my own marketplace if I go efty way, as I also got plenty of requests for brokering their names as well.

This will be first attempt to fully jump in to the brokerage bandwagon tbh.

 

[Soofi]

Never for me.

Just one example...
I can recall some NL buyer on Sedo with opening bid of 100 EUR for 4L.in (handreg, nothing special) - I countered...
Then were few other bids - and few other counter offers from me...
Few days of bidding overall...
Finally I closed this sale at 2,400 EUR.

Was that one in plenty case?

Doesn't happen too often in my strong opinion.

 

[Soofi]

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

You know how to negotiate in that case.. Not an easy part for me or most of us!

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

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.

 

[Michael Ehrhardt]

FullertonLawFirm,com

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

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

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

Was that .One domain name? Interesting

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

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

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

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

 

[Soofi]

FullertonLawFirm,com

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

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

haha

I took it instantly

 

[Soofi]

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.

1. Your best estimate of fair market value for the domain name based on such things as prior sales, importance of term, advertiser stats, etc.
2. The price that you would be totally happy with.
3. 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

 

[Soofi]

"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!