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discuss How do you deal with buyers/sellers playing games during a negotiation?

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I hate playing games during a negotiation. I'm not talking about trying to sell as high as possible. Today I have a "potential" buyer who countered a lower price after four weeks of moving toward the middle. I generally ignore buyers who are not serious or don't have a budget. But I guess some people just like to waste other people's time.

What's your experience dealing with semi-serious buyers/sellers?
 
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I don't waste my time with games. With domains, people or anything else.

Focus on situations that are positive and don't create stress or problems.

For example, if a buyer contacts me about a domain and agrees to a price and comes back later with some nonsense... then I'll just ignore them. Then I'll raise the price for wasting my time.

Reward good behavior, punish/ignore bad.
 
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Here is the full story:

- I received an offer for $500 for a 5 letter .com brandable
- I countered with $25k
- It was declined
- I countered with 10k
- Buyer countered with $1000
- I countered with $8000
- The buyer waited 1 week, countered with $1500
- I countered with $5000
- The buyer waited 1 week countered with $3000
- I countered with $4500
- The buyer declined.
- The buyer waited 1 week, countered with $2000

Looks like DomainAgents is such a crappy platform that it allows buyers to set any price at any point without any rules.

Since the buyer could lower the offer at any time, It means the seller could increase the price at any time as well. So I countered with $100,000

This triggered a big reaction from the buyer.
This buyer claims he tried to buy the same domain name 3 years ago and I refused to lowers my price. Since the domain was not being used, the buyer accused me wasting his time.

Whatever. Now I’m certain this domain name is a great brandable and I definitely will not sell it lower than 5 figures.
 
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Here is the full story:

- I received an offer for $500 for a 5 letter .com brandable
- I countered with $25k
- It was declined
- I countered with 10k
- Buyer countered with $1000
- I countered with $8000
- The buyer waited 1 week, countered with $1500
- I countered with $5000
- The buyer waited 1 week countered with $3000
- I countered with $4500
- The buyer declined.
- The buyer waited 1 week, countered with $2000

Looks like DomainAgents is such a crappy platform that it allows buyers to set any price at any point without any rules.

Since the buyer could lower the offer at any time, It means the seller could increase the price at any time as well. So I countered with $100,000

This triggered a big reaction from the buyer.
This buyer claims he tried to buy the same domain name 3 years ago and I refused to lowers my price. Since the domain was not being used, the buyer accused me wasting his time.

Whatever. Now I’m certain this domain name is a great brandable and I definitely will not sell it lower than 5 figures.
How is this ”games”? I would have took the $1K.
Thanks for the added context!
 
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"We don't drive in reverse".
 
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For every new offer, DomainAgents.com sets a 7-day limit to respond. The buyer waited until the last day to respond. It is a game because the buyer is acting as "Well, I like the domain name, but I'm playing it cool and acting like I don't care."

I, too, play the same game sometimes: "Well, I don't have to sell the domain name, but if you offer me enough money... I will consider it". Just because I play the same game does not mean I like playing it.

I actually like dealing with corporate lawyers more. They are very straightforward, and usually, after a few back-and-forths, they will tell you either the client doesn't have the budget or they are moving on in a different direction.

Even more context: the domain name is a 5 letter word .com, it was used as a startup name (the founder wanted to buy it at the time but could not get approval from the VC, and it later went out of business), The name was used as a marketing agency, and it is a somewhat well-known Italian name.
 
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I move on. I only deal with serious buyers.

The second they play games, I am done.

Brad
 
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Here is the full story:

- I received an offer for $500 for a 5 letter .com brandable
- I countered with $25k
- It was declined
- I countered with 10k
- Buyer countered with $1000

When you reduce your offer from $25K to $10K in the next move, it's a bad strategy, imo. The buyer gets a hint that they can negotiate up to a few thousand. Plus, your time gets wasted. In the meantime, they find another domain or have a change of mind. I suggest you price your domains reasonably in the beginning, with a 15% to 20% negotiation scale.
 
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I move on. I only deal with serious buyers.

The second they play games, I am done.

Brad
I have this preconceived notion all brokers outside the best of the best Andrew Miller, Andrew Rosener’s do it.

The worst is if they cant give an exact figure. $1,000 is a firm offer for a 5L.com, unless it’s dictionary word IMO! Need more info.
I’m surprised OP couldnt come to terms. I’d only ask for $25K if dictionary 5L word; even jargon; but must word.
 
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"We don't drive in reverse".
In UK they drive on the left side of the road.
It almost feels like the same.
I can never drive there :/ Cant die old habits die hard
 
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When you reduce your offer from $25K to $10K in the next move, it's a bad strategy, imo. The buyer gets a hint that they can negotiate up to a few thousand. Plus, your time gets wasted. In the meantime, they find another domain or have a change of mind. I suggest you price your domains reasonably in the beginning, with a 15% to 20% negotiation scale.
Yeah, I don't think this is very good negotiation strategy.

The buyer offered $500. You countered $25,000.
They declined then you offered $10,000.

You are basically negotiating against yourself at that point.

Then they only moved up to $1,000, likely sensing weakness from a $25K to $10K drop.

I think there is a mistake either asking too much to start with, or dropping down too quickly.

Brad
 
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I specialize in Brandables. It is also not an English dictionary word.

Starting the offer at $25k was called “price anchoring”, I was testing the buyer’s conviction. I WAS willing to sell it at around $5000, before the buyer told me he )or she) also made an unsuccessful bid 3 years ago.

Domaining requires a lot of patience. I’ve turned down many 4 figure offers for domains that were sold in 5 figures. Sometimes it can take more than 10 years.
 
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Other domainers and sometimes brokers are the “buyers” through Domain Agents. Nothing but time wasters comes through there. They played you like a fiddle.

Your first mistake was giving away your price AND lowering your price so easily repeatedly .

You should have just declined and not countered. Let them keep making the offers not you. Keep declining and if you have to say something say your offer and my price expectation is too far apart.

Also its not an anchor price when you easily lower it by what 75%…..
 
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Other domainers and sometimes brokers are the “buyers” through Domain Agents.
Looking back, I was only contacted via DomainAgents twice in the last 5 years, and they were both by the same person.
 
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IMHO for the most part they didn't play games. They just negotiated. And unfortunately, sorry to say it, but they negotiated better than you did. As has been mentioned, dropping your price by so much, and repeatedly, was a poor strategy. Yep - their lower offer of $2,000 is annoying - I find a lot of buyers do that when they don't like your price. But you just say no and move on.

Usually, if I am trying to negotiate, once I have dropped the price a couple of times and they are still too far away, I just decline any offer after that, otherwise they will expect you to keep on dropping the price.

A potential solution from here is to just put up a lander with a BIN of $5k. Stop any communication with them. If they want it they pay the price. Otherwise they will move on too.

Anyway, take it as a learning experience. There are plenty of them in this profession!! All the best.
 
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It was definitely a moment of weakness and a little bit of curiosity. I guess I'm also guilty of playing a game to try to pull more information from the potential buyer. It takes guts to ask for 5 figures and stick to it.
 
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It was definitely a moment of weakness and a little bit of curiosity. I guess I'm also guilty of playing a game to try to pull more information from the potential buyer. It takes guts to ask for 5 figures and stick to it.
Yep. I've missed out on a lot of sales because I've stuck to my price. I've 'won' the negotiation by not giving in, but I have not 'won' the sale! But of course you never know how much someone will pay unless you try. Some of those domains I have sold for a better price later, and some I still hold. Domain pricing is very much a subjective thing, so there is never necessarily a 'right answer'! It's all part of the job, and the skill of pricing and negotiating can be constantly fine-tuned.
 
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I guess I'm also guilty of playing a game to try to pull more information from the potential buyer.

That's an interesting comment and a question of course we would all love to know when selling our own domains But, it's generally one you do not ask. Your creating that "What can you Afford ?" angle to the sale which is always going to put a buyers back-up. I agree with the above comment. That buyer was looking for you to slip-back and agree to the $3K offer. It probably was their final offer. I don't see it as being off the table if you wanted to revisit them, A little bit cap-in-hand
 
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In UK they drive on the left side of the road.
It almost feels like the same.
I can never drive there :/ Cant die old habits die hard
so you still love Rob.Monster?
 
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Starting the offer at $25k was called “price anchoring”, I was testing the buyer’s conviction.
Could just be me but this could be the reason why the deal stalled.

if I get an offer at $500, I counter at $25k and the buyer rejects it, my next move will not be to send a lower offer, even if I was willing to part with it for much lower. Usually I'll either ignore it or send a message to feel the buyer out. Regardless of negotiation tactics, countering your counter can be viewed as a weak or desperate position to the buyer. Once a buyer senses a weak position, they'll start playing hard ball, like lowering their initial offer.

They may have been playing games all along and weren't serious buyers but imo, going from $25k to $10k didn't seem to help the situation either.
 
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Regardless of negotiation tactics, countering your counter can be viewed as a weak or desperate position to the buyer. Once a buyer senses a weak position, they'll start playing hard ball, like lowering their initial offer.

What surprised me was the DomainAgents platform allows both buyers and sellers to make offers without limits. If I remember correctly, Afternic does not allow buyers to reduce offer prices once the negotiation has started.

I'm calling it a moment of weakness, but perhaps subconsciously, it was a "head fake."

While I was willing to sell it for $5000 at that moment, in my gut, I knew it was worth more to me, and I would not sell it for under $5000. I kept negotiating just to find out what the buyer's upper limit was. 4 weeks for a $2000 offer is just not my style. "No soup for you!"
 
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Afternic does not allow buyers to reduce offer prices once the negotiation has started.
They may not allow that. But what they do allow to "buyers" is to back out once they've already made an offer and the seller has accepted their offer, which I think is even worse...
 
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- I countered with $5000
- The buyer waited 1 week countered with $3000
- I countered with $4500
- The buyer declined.
- The buyer waited 1 week, countered with $2000
Been there, and a few times. Not with domain agents, but directly dealing with buyers.
There are simply people out there who are not very serious, to say the least, when they start negotiations to buy a domain name...
 
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Afternic also allow sellers to counter offer you with a price higher than the bin price, that the domain is listed…
 
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I tell the low baller buyers who know the value of the domains and trying to play dumb to F off.

Most of these low ballers could be your so called domain friends that know you..backstabbing you
 
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