sales I fumbled a domain sale every way possible

[enterscope]

I'm not going to reveal the domain, but it's a 5L .com on Atom premium that was listed for $5k. It was on sale for $4750 and I received an offer through Atom broker for $4000. I haven't had a sale in over 6 months (I average 1 every 50 days), and it was close to the asking price so I figured why risk losing a sale over a few hundred bucks...

So I told the broker, the same day, that the offer is fair and I accept.

Well, days go by and then a week, and I was beginning to get impatient. So I asked for an update, no word yet..

After a few more days I had enough so I told the broker to close the deal and if the buyer wants it they can pay the listed price.

Who knows, they may have had second thoughts and backed out or they may even still want the domain. I was just frustrated at the lack of communication and I was fed up with waiting around for the deal.

I know I broke a few rules of domaining, mainly:

1. Never accept the first offer even if it's close to or above the bin.

2. Don't reply within first 48 hours to an offer. It shows desperation.

3. Patience is a virtue.

If I could do it again, I would wait 1-2 days before replying. Then I would ask the broker to confirm the buyer's payment timeline before I accepted their offer. Then, if they buyer was able to pay in 3 days or 1 week I would accept the offer on the conditions that the payment be made in the agreed time frame.

I'm not big on outbound, sales or negotiations for that matter. I've decided for myself, that I'm no longer doing payment plans, make offers, discounts or outbounding. The listed price is the price you pay, no questions.

I feel like this will cut out a lot of the riff raff moving forward.

 

[alop]

How do you offer through atom anyways

 

[enterscope]

How do you offer through atom anyways

Both times I received offers a broker contacted me through the Sales & Offers section of the site, even though I did not have Make Offer enabled on the listings. I'm guessing the buyer called Atom support and negotiated an offer price that way.

You can enable Make Offer on your listings through Settings, but I don't use it.

 

[s1m]

You are harming your future sales by reading this situation as representative of a mistake you made rather than the natural outcome of many inbound offers.

1. There is no disadvantage to responding to an inquiry quickly, in fact, a quick response is better. Many domain buyers are acting on impulse, or evaluating multiple options to purchase. That's why buy it now is so important. As an end user, I recently passed on a domain because it took weeks to get a response during which time I found and bought an alternative domain. The seller eventually got back to me with a very good price, but they had already lost the sale because of their delay.

2. Accepting the first offer is, as above, advantageous because you're seizing the opportunity. An offer in hand is an offer, it's second best only to a payment... a counter offer is almost worthless, in fact, counter offers are less than free because a counter offer invalidates the prospect's offer, counter offers are expensive.

Every counter offer is a prompt to the prospect to re-evaluate the domain's worth to them. A buyer may have made a $4,000 offer on impulse and when you counter with $4,200 a few days later, they re-evaluate and decide, "what was I thinking offering $4,000 let alone $4,200?" and now they have an out.

3. Patience is a virtue but patience doesn't mean artificial delays. The patience you need is utilised when waiting months, years or even decades for a buyer to be interested. The patience is utilised when turning down an offer below your sell price, knowing that you may need to wait months, years or decades for that same buyer to come back.

Sometimes, someone without much internet knowledge, will visit a domain, see an offer button, click it, type in a number, and with no intention of buying, submit the offer. You will get junk offers sometimes. You acknowledge in your post that you're not big on negotiations: that's okay, that's why brokers like Atom exist, to handle that for you.

The lessons from this situation are:

1. An offer is not necessarily serious, do not assume an offer is serious until the agreement is signed and payment is made

2. Let the brokers handle negotiations, set a sensible floor price for the domain (I'd usually say between 1/2 and 2/3rds of the Buy It Now price) so that the brokers can negotiate without your approval

3. Understand your price for a domain long before an offer comes in: your price is the amount you will sell it for without any further thought. You will accept any offer at or above your price. A negotiation needs to be between the buyer and the seller (or their representative): don't start negotiating with yourself.

4. Junk offers are just the cost of doing business. If you make it difficult to buy your domains, you will lose buyers. Let the brokers deal with the junk offers, that's what you're paying them for! The riff-raff making the junk offers are the same riff-raff buying domains.

If you enjoy negotiations, the advice would be different, but if you don't feel comfortable negotiating, that's okay, just don't harm your sales by overreacting. You got a junk offer, that's okay, it happens. Life moves on

 

[enterscope]

You are harming your future sales by reading this situation as representative of a mistake you made rather than the natural outcome of many inbound offers.

1. There is no disadvantage to responding to an inquiry quickly, in fact, a quick response is better. Many domain buyers are acting on impulse, or evaluating multiple options to purchase. That's why buy it now is so important. As an end user, I recently passed on a domain because it took weeks to get a response during which time I found and bought an alternative domain. The seller eventually got back to me with a very good price, but they had already lost the sale because of their delay.

2. Accepting the first offer is, as above, advantageous because you're seizing the opportunity. An offer in hand is an offer, it's second best only to a payment... a counter offer is almost worthless, in fact, counter offers are less than free because a counter offer invalidates the prospect's offer, counter offers are expensive.

Every counter offer is a prompt to the prospect to re-evaluate the domain's worth to them. A buyer may have made a $4,000 offer on impulse and when you counter with $4,200 a few days later, they re-evaluate and decide, "what was I thinking offering $4,000 let alone $4,200?" and now they have an out.

3. Patience is a virtue but patience doesn't mean artificial delays. The patience you need is utilised when waiting months, years or even decades for a buyer to be interested. The patience is utilised when turning down an offer below your sell price, knowing that you may need to wait months, years or decades for that same buyer to come back.

Sometimes, someone without much internet knowledge, will visit a domain, see an offer button, click it, type in a number, and with no intention of buying, submit the offer. You will get junk offers sometimes. You acknowledge in your post that you're not big on negotiations: that's okay, that's why brokers like Atom exist, to handle that for you.

The lessons from this situation are:

1. An offer is not necessarily serious, do not assume an offer is serious until the agreement is signed and payment is made

2. Let the brokers handle negotiations, set a sensible floor price for the domain (I'd usually say between 1/2 and 2/3rds of the Buy It Now price) so that the brokers can negotiate without your approval

3. Understand your price for a domain long before an offer comes in: your price is the amount you will sell it for without any further thought. You will accept any offer at or above your price. A negotiation needs to be between the buyer and the seller (or their representative): don't start negotiating with yourself.

4. Junk offers are just the cost of doing business. If you make it difficult to buy your domains, you will lose buyers. Let the brokers deal with the junk offers, that's what you're paying them for! The riff-raff making the junk offers are the same riff-raff buying domains.

If you enjoy negotiations, the advice would be different, but if you don't feel comfortable negotiating, that's okay, just don't harm your sales by overreacting. You got a junk offer, that's okay, it happens. Life moves on

Thank you for the detailed response. Would you mind sharing how you might've handled things different upon receiving the $4000 offer? I do agree that I was overthinking it all a bit. Upon reflection and considering your suggestions I set the option "Atom can negotiate on my behalf and do what it takes to close the sale at the best possible price." That way I don't have to worry about it. If this option was selected I'm sure the deal would have went through at 20% off without any hickups from me =/

 

[s1m]

Would you mind sharing how you might've handled things different upon receiving the $4000 offer?

You did exactly what I would have done. You didn't do anything wrong. The only mistake you've made is beating yourself up over the "lost" sale. You didn't lose the sale. If you immediately accept the first offer and it doesn't complete then you can say with almost complete confidence that the offer wasn't from a genuine buyer. The only mistake you've made is taking this to heart and decided to change your strategy based on it.

I am not familiar enough with Atom's service but I assume there is an option to specify the amount at which an Atom broker can accept an offer on your behalf without your input. Assuming that option exists, the only change you should make going forward is to specify that amount for all of your domains so that your broker (Atom) doesn't need to ask you about offers -- no more getting your hopes up because the riff-raff clicked a button, you will only hear from them when a sale actually completes and the money is on its way to you.

(If Atom don't offer this, you may want to consider using a platform that does, such as Afternic. Afternic call this the "Floor Price".)

 

[Future Sensors]

I am not familiar enough with Atom's service but I assume there is an option to specify the amount at which an Atom broker can accept an offer on your behalf without your input. Assuming that option exists, the only change you should make going forward is to specify that amount for all of your domains so that your broker (Atom) doesn't need to ask you about offers -- no more getting your hopes up because the riff-raff clicked a button, you will only hear from them when a sale actually completes and the money is on its way to you.

At Atom.com, it can be set in general settings, like this.

 

[Ostrados]

I am in favor of fast response to a good offer. When someone starts a new project he is usually very enthusiastic and wants to start now, so it is better to response fastly to the offer before impulse cools off.

The rule of always countering is not a rule, but it is better to always counter if the offer is 50% or less of BIN to prevent price confusion (like for example thinking that your domain was overpriced or it is not worth the asking price) in such case it would be better to counter.

I don't see that you did anything wrong you accepted a good offer if the buyer is serious then I think he will buy.

Good luck

 

[enterscope]

Thanks for the reply, that was my thinking. The offer seemed like a reasonable one, not like they low-balled with 1k.

 

[rh2000]

I don't think you fumbled. I have closed sales in a day or two. The buyer might not have had the money.

 

[biggie]

I know I broke a few rules of domaining, mainly:

1. Never accept the first offer even if it's close to or above the bin.

2. Don't reply within first 48 hours to an offer. It shows desperation.

3. Patience is a virtue.

Hi

only #3 is true

#1 and 2 are false and #1 doesn't even make cents.

unless you can see the future, then
the first offer, may be the best offer you'll ever get
also
as a buyer, are you going to wait 2 days for a seller to respond, when you want a quick transaction?
best to respond asap, so buyer gets impression that you're monitoring incomings.

in 20 years, i've accepted many 1st offers and moved on to the next one.

imo....

 

[likemike]

I gotta agree with Biggie here. The first is crazy! Sometimes the buyer will be so impatient that they can't wait to get the name. They're acting on emotion. Other times they'll change their mind. That means #2 is also nutts. Only #3 is right. Sort of! I've had names sell quick and names sell so SLOW!!!!

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

I'm always in favor of responding the buyers quickly even if they think I'm desperate. It's their choice to think whatever they want. You're still in the power by holding the domain and can ask whatever price you want, remain firm and negotiate according to your will.

Good luck!

 

[bmugford]

I don't think you really fumbled it.

Serious buyers make payment, especially in that price range.

Sometimes it was just not meant to be.

In general, a better offer will get a faster response from me.

A bad offer might not even get a response.

Brad

 

[enterscope]

I'm always in favor of responding the buyers quickly even if they think I'm desperate. It's their choice to think whatever they want. You're still in the power by holding the domain and can ask whatever price you want, remain firm and negotiate according to your will.

Good luck!

You are right that we can't control what other people think, only what we think.

Thanks for stopping by

 

[ThreeD]

I'm not going to reveal the domain, but it's a 5L .com on Atom premium that was listed for $5k. It was on sale for $4750 and I received an offer through Atom broker for $4000. I haven't had a sale in over 6 months (I average 1 every 50 days), and it was close to the asking price so I figured why risk losing a sale over a few hundred bucks...

So I told the broker, the same day, that the offer is fair and I accept.

Well, days go by and then a week, and I was beginning to get impatient. So I asked for an update, no word yet..

After a few more days I had enough so I told the broker to close the deal and if the buyer wants it they can pay the listed price.

Who knows, they may have had second thoughts and backed out or they may even still want the domain. I was just frustrated at the lack of communication and I was fed up with waiting around for the deal.

I know I broke a few rules of domaining, mainly:

1. Never accept the first offer even if it's close to or above the bin.

2. Don't reply within first 48 hours to an offer. It shows desperation.

3. Patience is a virtue.

If I could do it again, I would wait 1-2 days before replying. Then I would ask the broker to confirm the buyer's payment timeline before I accepted their offer. Then, if they buyer was able to pay in 3 days or 1 week I would accept the offer on the conditions that the payment be made in the agreed time frame.

I'm not big on outbound, sales or negotiations for that matter. I've decided for myself, that I'm no longer doing payment plans, make offers, discounts or outbounding. The listed price is the price you pay, no questions.

I feel like this will cut out a lot of the riff raff moving forward.

If you felt 4k was close enough and accepted the buyers initial offer - you did the right thing.

I've never cared for all the mind game stuff. If a good offer comes along, I'll accept it. Accepting early offers is not about showing desperation, it's about being professional. Why play mind games or put the buyer "on hold" if you think the offer is ok? Sure, in some cases you may leave a little money on the table, but when I feel an offer is ok I'm not going to waste the buyers time or my own time by squeezing more money out of the pockets of any buyer.

Personally - all the things you mentioned in bullet points 1-3 (1. Never accept the first offer even if it's close to or above the bin. 2. Don't reply within first 48 hours to an offer. It shows desperation. 3. Patience is a virtue.) would annoy me if I was the buyer. I prefer swift and professional sellers with great and direct communication. That's why I also love to negotiate directly with sellers and avoid brokers at all cost.

Most buyers I've delt with over the years (both in 3,4 and 5 figure transactions) have always appreciated my quick response. All this psychology nonsense is just a waste of time. I, like many others, have sold many domains by accepting offers within the first hour of the initial offer. There could be a million reasons why the buyer hasn't responded after you accepted their initial offer. Most likely it has nothing to do with you accepting their initial offer though.

Don't blame yourself for being professional. Best of luck to you! I hope the buyer returns to finalize the deal.

 

[DediRock]

Thanks for sharing this—super relatable. Do you think setting firm prices will help with peace of mind, or might it cost you some potential deals?

 

[Mister Funsky]

Yes, I too respond quickly upon getting ANYTHING from a buyer.

My response is short, basically 'I'll get back to you', and I do that so they know there is someone paying attention. I NEVER discuss money in that first contact.

You did nothing wrong...the buyer either got cold feet, found another name (probably cheaper and not as good) or realized he/she could not afford the name.

 

[silentg]

Counter offer:
I received a 5-figure offer. Atom advised counter offering, so I did. The buyer never responded. After a week, the buyer told Atom their initial offer was final. I agreed to close the deal, but the buyer vanished.

Accepted first offer:
I had another five-figure offer, so I accepted it since it was a good deal. However, the buyer disappeared after accepting the offer. He never responded, and after a month, he finally responded saying he wasn’t interested.

Tire kickers

 

[ThreeD]

Counter offer:
I received a 5-figure offer. Atom advised counter offering, so I did. The buyer never responded. After a week, the buyer told Atom their initial offer was final. I agreed to close the deal, but the buyer vanished.

Accepted first offer:
I had another five-figure offer, so I accepted it since it was a good deal. However, the buyer disappeared after accepting the offer. He never responded, and after a month, he finally responded saying he wasn’t interested.

Tire kickers

Does Atom do anything about these "moody" bidders? If bidders can't honor their offer, and Atom doesn't do anything about it, it definitely doesn't make Atom look like a professional and reputable platform.