How do you accept initial offers without looking too eager?

[bluebox]

Just yesterday someone offered $1000 for the name that I have for sale for $995 somewhere else.
I decided not to risk losing this deal by making a higher counter offer and accepted it outright (within 10 minutes or so).
I guess it seemed a little too eager because he answered that his budget is actually $150
At the end we agreed on $800 + escrow fees (that's what I would get if I sold it via afternic or godaddy) but I really need better strategy.

What is your answer to offers that you are happy to accept?

 

[Maxwell]

This is a great question and I have the answer..

"I have it listed at a marketplace for $1200, but I think that is fair enough. Deal."

Also don't respond 10 minutes later, or even the day of. Wait one day or maybe two so they're on the edge if you're even going to respond or not.

 

[Kate]

Sometimes waiting a bit can be profitable.

Very recently I sold a short ccTLD for 2.5K to a Chinese. Here is what happened.
That morning I opened my mailbox and I had hundreds of mails as usual. So I saw an offer of 2K on a domain. Good. But I didn't respond immediately. I continued to sort and clean up my E-mail. Then I saw another E-mail from the same party, this time with a 'corrected' offer of 2.5K.

You get it: had I responded to the first mail immediately, I would have accepted an offer below his actual offering. I would have looked eager to sell.

 

[angela ketty]

i want to buy a new domain.
can you tell me how to buy and which website is best for domain.

 

[ben pedri]

This actually worked and it was true,I have used variations of it many times after that.
we were having a good two weeks sold about 9k in domains.{you know feast or famine } So when I got an offer my partner at the time was out of town in a 3rd world country where phones were basically on top of poles and hard to reach. Anyway I had a 1500 offer for the domain and it was a good name,but I though it was worth less ,anyway ,I told the buyer that this one was part of my partners original portfolio and the price was 1788 but I didnt know what he was in it for because it was 10 years old. I let him know that the price was stale and has not been updated for 2 years so it may be higher or lower than the current price listed. I told him that the best I could do is add 4 years renewal to the expiration,if he bought now, and that would save him 55 bucks ,or he can wait for my friends return we may be able to knock a couple bucks off,instead of the renewals for 4 years ,anyway the buyer probably felt that the price may go higher when he returned ,so he said ill just take it at 1788,so I added the reg which cost us only 34 bucks.we still netted over 1700 after split escrow.

 

[ben pedri]

There is nothing wrong with accepting a great first offer. Some people actually seem to get turned off by a counteroffer, even when there is not much of a difference from the initial offer. Just give it a little more time before firing off a response next time. That way, you appear to have put some thought into it while anticipation builds on the buyer's end. You should spend that time doing a little research anyway. What you find out in your research may change your opinion of the domain.

I really dont agree with this ,but I respect it ,I find that when I do accept decent offers too fast ,as much as I like to sell at that price,the buyer disappears and returns as someone else,or an afternic or sedo price request,it then obvious who it is. Thanks

 

[ben pedri]

i want to buy a new domain.
can you tell me how to buy and which website is best for domain.

Let me know what you want ,ill try to help you ,if you are opening a restaurant I own AngelasRestaurant.com

 

[ben pedri]

on the flip side this is how I handled a $20 bid.just now which was probably nominal to make the form valid ,but a lot of times people think im GODADDY if you know what I mean. Everything in my response is true except for the 5-6 buck monthly parking fees ,which is probably 15 bucks for the year, but that holds its own at 8.47 renewals. heres the details ill leave a couple thing out;

hello mike,thanks for your interest in the domain ,I owned it about 10 years , You bid 20 dollars for this domain , I have a couple hundred into it over the past few years minus the monthly income from visitors clicking on the ads at the site ,about $5-6 a month but ads up to a nice amount at the end of the year. With a portfolio of abut 2800 domains we have to sell domains at a reasonable price to pay for renewals and make a reasonable profit that both sides are happy with. I am assuming the 20 bid was a nominal bid to send the form through. I think being the amount of end users that have the same name as this domain it is sell-able ,I have received offers up to 255 for the domain, but am not interested. If you are in the 450 plus range id like to sell this to you. My competitors would start at 3000-5000 and take no less than 2000



But I like to move domains so at my prices and with my portfolio I have enough interest to keep the domains cheap enough to make everyone happy.. If you would just like a 20 domain I think the .org may be open ,the .net is taken. good luck Ben xxx-xxx=xxxx in ny ,ill be up till 1230 my phone goes on airplane mode when I sleep so call anytime,, Thanks ben

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

NEVER accept the first offer if you want to show you aren't desperate to make the deal. Always counter offer.

 

[HUKU]

NEVER accept the first offer if you want to show you aren't desperate to make the deal. Always counter offer.

I agree....

(1) Always counter, even if its just a bit higher.

By accepting it right away without a counter offer, you may have told the buyer that you're desperate or that you would have accepted a lower offer, which sows a seed of doubt in the mind of the person making the offer and which in this situation actually proved to be the case. I also would add:

(2) Never respond to any enquiry (initial or otherwise) on the same day or during weekends.

Responding in 10 minutes is something I personally would not advise. Take your time and think about it.

(3) Seller should NEVER chase a buyer whether they came to you or you went to them.

A lot of people will say that you should follow up with a lead if they haven't responded and I always wonder if there absolutely must be something to this because I've heard so many people talk about doing a follow up in that case. I maybe can see a good reason to follow up with a lead that *has* shown interest but if I'm absolutely certain that the potential target got the email and it went to the right place, I don't see any reason to chase it up if they didn't respond, in the case of pitch.

That comes from my basic premise that all buyers are motivated to some degree. If they're not motivated enough to respond, then they're not motivated enough to make a decent offer. If I chase it up with a non-response, I immediately look desperate and in that case I'm actually chasing any potential offer lower.... still, everyone has their own thinking and strategy, I suppose.

The key thing to learn about Buyers is that although you have an asset, they have cash and cash is King. Buyers can sense a desperate seller a mile off and they, over time, become very experienced at leveraging it to their advantage in negotiations. This industry is filled with much more sellers and inventory than there are buyers for that inventory.

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

@[URL='https://www.namepros.com/members/huku.985126/']HUKU[/URL]
I agree to most of the past but personally I have been responding to almost all inquiries within couple of hours time. I never felt the buyer is thinking that I am desperate unless I follow-up too much (I don't follow at all though) or use language/wordings which show clear cut eagerness to sell the domain quickly.

 

[matrigaldo]

I tell you something happened to me a pair of years ago.

I received a direct call from an italian guy (i'm italian too) asking me if a domain i owned was available for sale. I replied "yes, of course, but it depends on what amount we're talking about, because this domain is related to a small project i've developing and, you know, changing it in the middle of something would be kind of expensive".
Obviously there were no project or something, i just figured out he didn't do his homeworks, and he confirmed me that when i heard his offer of low €1,xxx , while the domain (a brandable and not great 5L.com) was listed at €499 on Sedo, GoDaddy and Flippa.
In the meantime i was luckily at the computer, and already opened all three marketplaces, logged in and got ready to change the BIN price.
I asked him why he was interested in this domain while i set all the BIN prices at €2,199 . (i know, it might be considered unethical, buuuut if the buyer doesn't do his homeworks.....)
He told me something about his project with his small business, which i replied with interested "a-ha". After that, i told him this:
"Look, your project is way more interesting than mine, more ambicious, and i'm willing to give you my domain with pleasure. I already priced it at €2,199 on most important marketplaces, Sedo, GoDaddy and Flippa, because it is the amount i would give it away. However, i feel like your project would be difficult to develop and starting with the right domain is a huge step, so i can meet you halfway, and sell it to you for €1,800, what do you think?"
We negotiated some more and closed the deal for mid €1,xxx .

I know, a phone call is quite more effective for the negotiation, but while we were talking after closed the deal, he told me something: my domain wasn't his first choice, and tried to negotiate for another domain earlier that week, through email first and phone call later.
He had the feeling the other guy was going to "scam" him, because he replied to the email like instantly, with a way higher counteroffer, and after the buyer told him it was too over his budget, the other guy decided to lower his counteroffer until he basically reached the buyer offer over the phone call, but this behaviour made the buyer suspicious since he wasn't into the domaining world (he wasn't even aware there was a domaining world).

You can answer within a couple of hours but first at all decide your strategy and be coherent with it.
You can also accept the initial offers, but just remember to spend more time with some random talks, make the buyer feels like he's convincing you.

 

[HUKU]

I replied "yes, of course, but it depends on what amount we're talking about, because this domain is related to a small project i've developing and, you know, changing it in the middle of something would be kind of expensive".

I would add another advice:

(4) Keep chat to an absolute minimum.

I include that you should never take any call from anyone about a domain and if you get a call, ask them to send an email. If you take a call, you're extremely vulnerable because its far more difficult to control your response on the moment than it is through a carefully drafted email. Believe me, sales people who are experienced in phone calling can make you agree to things you will later regret.

The enquirer is only looking for one thing during the initial contact email and that is to know the price so my response is usually just to quote a price. Everyone has their own approach, but personally I don't bother with Dear or Hello or signing a name. Unless there is some requirement, I usually just put a price and press reply.

The more chat goes into the email, the more information I am passing to a potential buyer. Buyers can sense an inexperienced or desperate seller from a mile off or they can simply discern your willingness to part with the domain for a much lower number. Remember, you don't necessarily know much about the buyer (unless you google them and pull up some info) and if you don't know anything, you could be dealing with someone MUCH more experience than you.

Not everyone will agree with me but, in my experience, if I send out a purchase enquiry and get a chatty response that usually bodes well for a getting a lower final price.

 

[Nick]

Unless you they are paying a BIN price you listed, never take the first offer. I like to respond quickly, while the idea of buying is on their mind. They could easily start looking around and find a better/cheaper name.

 

[matrigaldo]

(4) Keep chat to an absolute minimum.

Well, yes. It's a useful advice, but not too generic, because there are a lot of cases where empathy helps to complete a sale (and i'm a sales person, had worked as salesman in the insurances for some years).

I can assure you, even experienced domain investors are unconsciously vulnerable to some kind of empathy.

About the phone calls, i tend to agree with you , they're more difficult to handle, but if you have a price in your mind you just need to be coherent.

 

[HUKU]

I can assure you, even experienced domain investors are unconsciously vulnerable to some kind of empathy.

Sure, but the problem is it goes both ways.

About the phone calls, i tend to agree with you , they're more difficult to handle

However, for me that depends on who is on either side of the fence. It could be anyone.

It's feasible that a buyer is a novice and could be persuaded.
Or it could be some guy representing a fortune 500 company.

It's feasible that the buyer could be highly experienced in acquisitions.
Or it could be a single mom who's not tech savvy and just needs help with domains.

Overall though if you're young and inexperienced, know your limits and in that case I would stay away from the phone (generally speaking). Since everything can be done via email, it seems unnecessary to me. My experience is above average but I consider the phone deadly from a negotiations point of view.

I especially find that those who are very experienced in negotiation and persuasion are ALWAYS the ones who will insist on a phone call because they know they can convince you and manipulate the situation to their favour. As soon they hear the voice on the other side, they're forming judgements about who they're dealing with.

 

[Bullock]

I already had situations when I countered with ~10-20% higher price and never heard from them again. That's why if the offer is near (or higher than) my BIN I rather just accept it.

If the bargain is a win-win situation it should be accepted without any hesitation: "... for a quick sale I accept a price cut".

 

[ben pedri]

i once made an initial offer of 700 for a domain for a friend. Instead of the person just accepting it he said id love to charge you more but the listed price is 595 we cant sell higher or lower ,of course i had to pick up fees which almost came out to that anyway ,this could have been their stategy for deadbeats

 

[Omar Negron]

How do you accept initial offers without looking too eager?

say .... "i accept your offer"

why play games?

if they are serious, then they will pay,
if not, then they were faking anyway.

Yep, this is true.

Don't worry to much about looking eager or trying to "outsmart" the other side. If they contact you, they want a response. It doesn't make much sense when I read about some people who ignore an offer or wait a certain amount of days. Maybe it works for them, I dunno.

If the initial offer is fair and you're going to make the profit you want, just take it and keep on going.

-Omar

 

[JudgeMind]

just wait, wait 2-3 days before replying or accepting

 

[biggie]

How do you accept initial offers without looking too eager?

say .... "i accept your offer"

why play games?

if they are serious, then they will pay,
if not, then they were faking anyway.


now if you want more, that's another question

imo...

just a reflection, on the direction..... of my previous suggestion ^^

as when the scenario, manifested in reality a week ago.

coincidentally,
an initial offer was presented, at a price i could take.
so without hesitation, i thought, why do a negotiation?

so i replied..... "i'll accept your offer" .


the deal went thru escrow and this time, we split the fee's

cuz, considering the difference between what i paid and what they offered..... i was quite pleased!

a hand registered .com acquired 10 months ago,
that had a hyphen too!

if you got a 4 fig offer, what would you do?



drops the mic and walks off stage

imo....