offers Dealing with very low offers: Flat out reject or offer/counter ?

[NYJimbo]

When dealing with a domain that you have up for BIN on a sales platform and that is priced below $1,000 and you get a pitiful offer like $50 or $100, do you find it better to just flat out reject and wait for a counter offer or to respond with a lower price than BIN ? I mean what do you find to be best response to the buyer on average.

I'm not talking about a hot or liquid domain, but something you think has value but does not look like big money.
This is also for a platform where you do not have the ability to talk to the buyer, but just do the offer/counter offer thing.

Any comments, ideas, etc appreciated.

 

[xynames]

I did get one of these 50 offers up to 4000 and closed the deal but in general the lowball offers end up going nowhere.

I do respond to all offers politely.

 

[Mister Funsky]

If they offer me $50 for a name that is worth twenty or more times than what they have offered, I block them, their ip, their email, their kids email, the neighbors phone number, their great aunt bessie's twitter, the local mayors mistresses contact info...

If their offer is remotely in the ball park I will respond with data/stats justifying my pricing and hope they have the capacity to understand the info and open a dialog. If they do not respond in a positive manner I just move on...as the wise sage of recent fame has said "I aint got time for that".

 

[Brands.International]

The best way to deal with low-ball offers is not allow them to happen in first place...they will only annoy you.

Put minimum 500 or 1k at your settings (for example, I use undeveloped for many of my domains, and I simply setup 500 minimum for all my names there, period). This eliminates fellow domain investors giving you $50 offers on your best names, you can live without that easily

 

[MediaCode]

We test different portfolio-wide strategies every three to six months.

The best strategy so far in terms of profitability of our entire portfolio has been all names at BIN prices with no negotiations at all. It's the "take it or leave it" strategy.

Other strategies we have tested include:

– Putting all C and D grade domain names in our portfolio at BIN prices below $1,000 (usually $995 or $750) and all other domain names with no BIN price shown on landing pages with 'make offer' showing $1,000 minimum offer
– All domain names with no BIN price shown on landing page with 'make offer' showing different minimum offers (e.g., $1,000 or $5,000 or $10,000 or $20,000, etc.) based on our different valuations of each name
– Show BIN price on landing page and include 'make offer' showing $1,000 minimum offer
– Show BIN price on landing page and include 'make offer' showing different minimum offers (e.g., $1,000 or $5,000 or $10,000 or $20,000, etc.) based on our different valuations of each name

It's hard to beat all names at BIN prices with no 'make offer' available because buyers have no other options. No chance to negotiate. They can only look at the BIN price shown and decide to buy at that price or walk away. If you BIN price high enough, you only need one or two buyers to decide to buy at that price and you've paid for all renewals in your portfolio plus a profit. Yes, life is very quiet with this strategy but after two or three months go by, all of a sudden you get an email that says, "Congratulations! You sold XXXYYYY.com for $34,488!". We got such an email while standing eight people deep in an Indian restaurant's buffet line at lunch one random day.

For the past five and a half months we've been testing all 'make offer' with different minimums and no BIN price shown, and it SUCKS. So many unprofessional end user buyers being deceitful, lying about who they are, behaving nothing like they would behave if they were trying to buy or lease real estate from a property owner. Other buyers lying about their initial offer -- they'll enter the $5,000 minimum offer in the offer box and then in the comment box say, "My offer is actually $500. That's the most I am willing to pay." Why do business with liars and people hiding behind anonymity just because they can? We'll keep this test going until the end of the year, as planned, but we cannot wait to switch back to all BIN pricing – it's a much happier, more positive way to monetize your portfolio of domain names and it gets better portfolio results!

 

[Bob Hawkes]

I would respond even if to simply say that i could not accept an offer at that level and to invite them to reconsider.

 

[Kpett]

I always give a response to all offers - you never know where it will lead, and it only takes a minute of my time. I had an initial $100 offer finally close at $1500. You never know how bad they really want the domain - so it's worth a minute of my time.

 

[BrandPlease]

Here is an actual response I sent yesterday to a low-ball, but I felt "real", offer. Because this person took the time to write a few sentences about why I should consider their price - I believe they deserve a thoughtful response. If it is clearly non-sense fishing offer I wouldn't take the time, but I would never waste an opportunity to be be professional and offer as much as I can to anyone who reached out, sincerely.

(identifying info removed & price shouldn't matter, but it was xxx offer for a xxxx name, typical.)

"Thank you for your response & all the best in your search - we are a bit too far off on price to come to an agreement, it seems.

As a start up, your domain will make a huge initial and ongoing impact on your business. The cost to promote, advertise, & market your new business, your brand, and give yourself a good shot at success - changes (greatly) based on your domain name. Just a big big point that many overlook, & I am not trying to pitch you on this name - you have made you cost constraints clear - just passing on something to work into your launch/marketing budget and make sure you are not, possibly, overlooking your brand name as a true top level marketing line item.

Good luck and keep my site around, there are tons of free resources, geared towards start ups, even free SEO tools that you are welcome to check out and use. & Feel free to touch base anytime in the future if I can assist in any Domain, Branding, or Design efforts.

Thanks,
Brian"

 

[BaileyUK]

If it's on a sales-platform, then best you counter or reject otherwise you'll just keep getting reminders. I tend to just reject anything below $xxx. the potential buyer will just submit a higher offer anyway, If he is that interested

 

[karmaco]

Or you could raise the lowest offer allowed and then you won’t get those low balls at all.

 

[bmugford]

I will generally not respond to terrible offers. If I do it will be maybe a "No Thanks" or "Please make a serious offer if interested" type response.

If they double down on their offer with a comment that enforces it like - "I will offer $50. You have owned it for many years and no one else will ever buy it", then I will not respond to that type.

I focus my time and energy on the ones that have the highest likelihood of panning out.
Really bad opening offers rarely do.

Brad

 

[MapleDots]

I do not respond to any offers under 1k, it says so specifically when inquiring about a domain on my site.

 

[DeliDomains]

I usually respond to low ball offers because they buyers are also testing how deep the water is and how experienced the sellers are. I quote my price and if the second incoming offer is a lowball, then I do not respond else I keep the dialog going.

 

[J Sokol]

I just had a domain listed on Undeveloped for $1250 and Make Offer on GD. I received an offer of $150 on GD the same day the listing appeared on Undeveloped (I have a feeling the buyer saw that listing and thought s/he would try to get it cheaper on GD. When I countered with $1250, they jumped to $750, and we settled on $815. So in this case it was worth negotiating. Once they saw I was serious, they got serious too.

 

[wizard]

When dealing with a domain that you have up for BIN on a sales platform and that is priced below $1,000 and you get a pitiful offer like $50 or $100, do you find it better to just flat out reject and wait for a counter offer or to respond with a lower price than BIN ? I mean what do you find to be best response to the buyer on average.

I'm not talking about a hot or liquid domain, but something you think has value but does not look like big money.
This is also for a platform where you do not have the ability to talk to the buyer, but just do the offer/counter offer thing.

Set a min bid that your happy to accept

Any comments, ideas, etc appreciated.

All depends on the quality of names and how much the investment was as soon and what your end plan is far too many people are too greedy with poor quality domains if you want to make money sell some of the poor quality at low end prices it all adds up ! use your profit to buy more

 

[topdom]

I was offered 100 usd for an .info. I countered 5k. After one week they accepted it. Many years ago I was also offered something for it, and my counteroffer was again 5k, but offers didn't get close to a sale at that time.

It would be good if you have this kind of image:
-I know what my domain is worth. I don't plan to increase the price to get more, or decrease it because I'm desparate.
This image may work if you are dealing with an enduser.

But if your counteroffer is 5K, and you drop it to 500, even if the buyer was normally willing to buy for 500, wouldn't buy it and expect you to drop the price to 50, or just quit, assuming he was originally interested in low quality product, and the seller is a scammer.

 

[likeslikes]

In general I respond, but make it clear we're not even close and they have to come up to even be considered. I had an offer go from $100 up to $600 on a name I own just recently (I was looking for $800 minimum) but at least it got to a respectable amount.

This is probably obvious, and what most people do, but I try to put my prices a bit higher than I want and give myself some wiggle room so they can feel like theres give and take.

 

[ResoluteDomains]

When dealing with a domain that you have up for BIN on a sales platform and that is priced below $1,000 and you get a pitiful offer like $50 or $100, do you find it better to just flat out reject and wait for a counter offer or to respond with a lower price than BIN ? I mean what do you find to be best response to the buyer on average.

I'm not talking about a hot or liquid domain, but something you think has value but does not look like big money.
This is also for a platform where you do not have the ability to talk to the buyer, but just do the offer/counter offer thing.

Any comments, ideas, etc appreciated.

I always counter with my honest price - that is the best response I can make. However I have never closed a deal with anyone who began negotiations at low-ball amounts. I think I need to begin rejecting or ignoring because countering has not worked in nearly 2 decades now.

 

[J Sokol]

That's a nice note @DnameAgame - informative and respectful. I also like the fact that you offered other resources to the buyer.

 

[BrandPlease]

Hi @Bob Hawkes, Yes, based on the (how to say) domain savvy the person displays in their initial message ,it will change how I respond. I try to respond in a way that is helpful to what I can guess is important to them and not try to sell them, rather offer to help, and let them tell me what they need (to close the deal). I am not a pushy sales person - really I'm not a sales person, but have been pretending to be one for a while now. hahahaha.

In this case, if the offer were within , say 65+% of my BIN, it would be a far more detailed response. Including comps, market info (if applicable), initial TM, & analytics stats (if appropriate - maybe not in a pure brandable, for example.)

I think I have a template that I had posted (on NP) sometime back. I will look for it and update (its been a while) if needed, and post back to this message. Ill try to dig it up later tonight.

Thanks for the feedback, it is very much appreciated.

Brian

 

[Bannen]

My magic response is:

"I wouldn't sell this domain for anywhere near that price range, but thank you, I do appreciate every offer."

I type that in, like a broken record repeating itself, to every lowball offer. No long explanations, I don't want to waste my time or theirs. I call it my 'magic' response because it includes everything needed: One very short sentence, polite and gracious, lets them know they're not in the ballpark, leaves the door open for them to ask what the price range is or to come back with a higher offer.

If they're truly only interested in their lowball price, they don't email back. If they're a serious buyer, they'll email asking what price range I'd sell for. Usually that does not end up in a sale either... but occasionally it does.

*Note that the above only applies to when they're WAY off the mark, like making a $20 offer for a domain I've listed at x,xxx. But if they send a lowball offer for a domain that I have listed in the low or mid xxx range, then I'll tell them that price and try negotiate a little. Getting a $50 offer up to $400 isn't unrealistic, so it's worth a little effort;

But trying to get a $50 offer up to $5,000 is pretty much a waste of effort, so I don't even try, I just type in my magic sentence

 

[Jay Ha]

This is also for a platform where you do not have the ability to talk to the buyer, but just do the offer/counter offer thing.

My opinion is that countering their offer with something like $999,999 is always better than not replying to their enquiry at all. Since you can't use words this would show them that their offer means nothing just like the counter offer that you sent to them.

Or you could always use 1337 language?

 

[cuni.co]

My opinion is that countering their offer with something like $999,999 is always better than not replying to their enquiry at all. Since you can't use words this would show them that their offer means nothing just like the counter offer that you sent to them.

Or you could always use 1337 language?

Exactly what I did, someone thought he could get a good quality domain of mine for 100$ I replied back with 99,999$ loll. Never heard from him

 

[Kate]

I think it is perfectly acceptable not to respond to such lowball offers, especially when your price expectations have been made clear on the lander page.
Lack of response is a response.
Your time is valuable, by not replying you are telling the other party you have no time for games. This is not the flea market where you argue about the price of an old chair or some item that is easily replaceable.

If the buyer is motivated, he/she will make another approach, because it's also possible the first E-mail didn't reach the domain holder.
In addition, you can still put a link to Sedo or escrow.com so that the buyer can proceed with purchase at BIN price without interaction from you. Make it easy for the serious buyers to buy your domains, and maintain a barrier for the tire-kickers.

Sure, people are testing the waters, but how many times are those lowball offers going to convert to meaningful offers. It's not like people are simply getting the ball rolling here, the asking price is already known.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Fantastic letter @DnameAgame - thanks for sharing! Things I liked in particular:

1. In first sentence it points out far apart in price, but note that it does not assign who is wrong on price. I think the respect this shows is smart!
2. I like the generic nature of the paragraph on why the right domain name is important. Strikes just the right tone to me!
3. As @J Sokol says, your site offering general resources really works well with the third paragraph.
4. The final sentence nice positive non-pushy way to end letter. Leaves door open.

It is great! Thanks!

When the offer is closer to your expected price, would you add information on comparator sales that support the price asked, or do you not share that sort of detailed information via email?

Bob