discuss Is Cold-Calling more effective than Emailing Buyers?

[GoWebnames.com]

My head spins in amazement when I see some five-six figure domain sales concluded by Brokerage firms.
Many of these are only average domain names but fetch an awesome price. Is this some secret kept from the average joe domainer?

Recently there was a post by Hobi Michalec, a broker at DH, about how he sold BlueStar.com for $90k by talking to some over phone.

This raises a question: Is Cold-Calling more effective than Emailing Buyers?

People generally hate to be mailed about anything they are not concerned with. Call those emails SPAM, moreover email filters ensure that 80% of your emails go right to SPAM folder. So, it's pretty tough emailing.

When I started domaining about 18 months back, I tried cold calling a very long tail domain to a motor car business in VA and it worked like a charm, the domain sold for $750. But after that, somehow, I just stopped calling because calling can get really tiring.

Now, I have a few very good domains and wondering if I should resume calling for selling? Just listing on Sedo can be an endless wait and I can't be certain about the fate of emails but I would always know the fate of the Call.

Would you care to share your experience:

1) How was your experience in cold calling someone to sell your domains?
2) Do you feel you got a better price for your domain on Call than on Email?
3) Do you still Cold-Call?
4) Have you ever been threatened or abused by those you Called?​

 

[cocaseco]

IMO, Most domainers are passive sellers. They post on Sedo or Afternic etc, and then they just set back and wait for the phone to ring. I know I too am guilty of that from time to time. Especially when I get busy or other projects take me away from domaining. This can work, but as you say it is a long wait.

Then you have a group of domainers who like to send lots of emails. There are lots of threads here for the lengthy debate of whether it is good to be a spammer or not. All of the things you mentioned about email are true. But what is good about it is that you can cover a lot of people with only minimal effort. It can still take a lot of time, but probably not as much as total passive selling. It helps tremendously if you are articulate and can write a compelling business letter. That means concise and to the point, without spelling errors, poor grammar, slang etc. Many people simply can't write a good letter for a variety of reasons. These include non-native English speakers and people who simply have no skill in this area. It helps even more if you have done research about who you are emailing. Having the name lets you direct the email to them by name and improves the chances it will get read by a decision maker. Most blanket emails written through a contact form or "info" address will never make it past the receptionist. I like to write (in case nobody noticed lol) and am most comfortable doing most of my outbound marketing this way. Still, it can be slow.

But without question the best method is to call someone up and connect by phone. Like with email, having done the research to have a name will make you much more successful. A lot of the big sales you see posted were likely done by phone, but more importantly they were connected to the buyer through the broker's/seller's network. If you are well connected, this helps. If you are not, it will be harder. Start by building and leveraging your LinkledIn network. It's much harder for people to say no to you by phone than in an email. Plus you have immediate responses to overcome objections, so there is less "I'll get back to you" lost sales. Lastly, the phone helps you establish a rapport with the buyer. that makes them more comfortable in doing business with you. of course just like with email, you need to be articulate and have good verbal skills. A pitch full of "you knows" and "uhhs" just won't go very far. Lastly, you can hit all stages of the sale in one call, from pitch to close. It respects your buyers time and it saves you time. Unfortunately, not everyone is comfortable with this and nobody likes to be rejected, especially by a voice on a phone. But, if you can get over that and develop your skills you can do well. A good salesman will always have work and can make very good money in almost any industry. I'd say cold calling is the least used by domain hobbyist and most used by professional brokers.

 

[GoWebnames.com]

IMO, Most domainers are passive sellers. They post on Sedo or Afternic etc, and then they just set back and wait for the phone to ring. I know I too am guilty of that from time to time. Especially when I get busy or other projects take me away from domaining. This can work, but as you say it is a long wait.

Then you have a group of domainers who like to send lots of emails. There are lots of threads here for the lengthy debate of whether it is good to be a spammer or not. All of the things you mentioned about email are true. But what is good about it is that you can cover a lot of people with only minimal effort. It can still take a lot of time, but probably not as much as total passive selling. It helps tremendously if you are articulate and can write a compelling business letter. That means concise and to the point, without spelling errors, poor grammar, slang etc. Many people simply can't write a good letter for a variety of reasons. These include non-native English speakers and people who simply have no skill in this area. It helps even more if you have done research about who you are emailing. Having the name lets you direct the email to them by name and improves the chances it will get read by a decision maker. Most blanket emails written through a contact form or "info" address will never make it past the receptionist. I like to write (in case nobody noticed lol) and am most comfortable doing most of my outbound marketing this way. Still, it can be slow.

But without question the best method is to call someone up and connect by phone. Like with email, having done the research to have a name will make you much more successful. A lot of the big sales you see posted were likely done by phone, but more importantly they were connected to the buyer through the broker's/seller's network. If you are well connected, this helps. If you are not, it will be harder. Start by building and leveraging your LinkledIn network. It's much harder for people to say no to you by phone than in an email. Plus you have immediate responses to overcome objections, so there is less "I'll get back to you" lost sales. Lastly, the phone helps you establish a rapport with the buyer. that makes them more comfortable in doing business with you. of course just like with email, you need to be articulate and have good verbal skills. A pitch full of "you knows" and "uhhs" just won't go very far. Lastly, you can hit all stages of the sale in one call, from pitch to close. It respects your buyers time and it saves you time. Unfortunately, not everyone is comfortable with this and nobody likes to be rejected, especially by a voice on a phone. But, if you can get over that and develop your skills you can do well. A good salesman will always have work and can make very good money in almost any industry. I'd say cold calling is the least used by domain hobbyist and most used by professional brokers.

You do have good writing skills, no doubt about it!!

Any personal cold-calling experience you'd like to share?

 

[indiegrind]

I haven't done cold calling, but I have ended up on the phone with the decision maker for a company on a few different occasions, and each time it ended in a sale. Matter of fact, I had a negotiation stall on Sedo in the last week after a "FINAL OFFER" that was not what I was willing to accept. I thought I knew who the enduser was due to the country the inquiry was coming from and the name of the domain, and the fact that they had recently shortened their domain to the .ca version of my .com I was selling.

I was at home this week due to the flooding in South Carolina the first two days of the week and decided to shoot an email to the owner of the company pretty much letting them know that if they are the party I am negotiating with on Sedo, I would like to continue negotiation directly. Not 10 minutes later my cell phone rang with a call from Canada. We had a very pleasant conversation. We talked a little bit and built a rapport, which is an element missing from email, and especially negotiating through domain sales platforms. We moved on to the business of the pricing. I threw out a high number, he threw out a number at least twice as high as their "final offer", I told him, that still wasnt a price I would be willing to sell for at this time. He started asking me questions about valuing domains, I talked to him a bit about domain investments and how I got into it, and the .com as the way to go if he is looking to establish a global presence. He indicated that he had wanted the domain for years, but another company had been using it for the last 10 years or so.

I asked him to meet me at a number, and he agreed on the phone then proceeded to ask me how the transaction would work. We hung up, he emailed me and copied his IT guy and we are completing the transfer today with a price I am happy with and a he is thankful to become the owner of a domain he has wanted to acquire for awhile.

 

[GoWebnames.com]

I haven't done cold calling, but I have ended up on the phone with the decision maker for a company on a few different occasions, and each time it ended in a sale. Matter of fact, I had a negotiation stall on Sedo in the last week after a "FINAL OFFER" that was not what I was willing to accept. I thought I knew who the enduser was due to the country the inquiry was coming from and the name of the domain, and the fact that they had recently shortened their domain to the .ca version of my .com I was selling.

I was at home this week due to the flooding in South Carolina the first two days of the week and decided to shoot an email to the owner of the company pretty much letting them know that if they are the party I am negotiating with on Sedo, I would like to continue negotiation directly. Not 10 minutes later my cell phone rang with a call from Canada. We had a very pleasant conversation. We talked a little bit and built a rapport, which is an element missing from email, and especially negotiating through domain sales platforms. We moved on to the business of the pricing. I threw out a high number, he threw out a number at least twice as high as their "final offer", I told him, that still wasnt a price I would be willing to sell for at this time. He started asking me questions about valuing domains, I talked to him a bit about domain investments and how I got into it, and the .com as the way to go if he is looking to establish a global presence. He indicated that he had wanted the domain for years, but another company had been using it for the last 10 years or so.

I asked him to meet me at a number, and he agreed on the phone then proceeded to ask me how the transaction would work. We hung up, he emailed me and copied his IT guy and we are completing the transfer today with a price I am happy with and a he is thankful to become the owner of a domain he has wanted to acquire for awhile.

Great story, care to share the price at which it sold? You don't need to reveal the domain name, if you don't wish to.

 

[indiegrind]

Great story, care to share the price at which it sold? You don't need to reveal the domain name, if you don't wish to.

Dont want to disclose the name. Initial offer through sedo $200, I countered at 7,500.
They countered with $300, I countered at 7,400 (since we were doing $100 increments lol) and a custom message that we were still far apart, I hope we can bridge the gap but please make a much stronger offer if you are serious about acquiring this domain.

They came back with $500 and the set sedo "final offer" message.
I rejected the offer over the last weekend. Since I was trapped at home on tuesday, I decided to send the email.

His first offer on the phone was either $1200 or $1500, cant recall. At the end of our conversation asked him to meet me at $5000 and we agreed there.

I handregged the name less than a month ago on the day it dropped. They setup a godaddy account for the push.

 

[GoWebnames.com]

Dont want to disclose the name. Initial offer through sedo $200, I countered at 7,500.
They countered with $300, I countered at 7,400 (since we were doing $100 increments lol) and a custom message that we were still far apart, I hope we can bridge the gap but please make a much stronger offer if you are serious about acquiring this domain.

They came back with $500 and the set sedo "final offer" message.
I rejected the offer over the last weekend. Since I was trapped at home on tuesday, I decided to send the email.

His first offer on the phone was either $1200 or $1500, cant recall. At the end of our conversation asked him to meet me at $5000 and we agreed there.

I handregged the name less than a month ago on the day it dropped. They setup a godaddy account for the push.

That's the sweet part.
Solely through Sedo (passive approach), I guess it wouldn't have gone anywhere near $5k.
Probably, talking on phone brings a real-world element to domain sales which otherwise seem quite unreal to non-domainers while communicating solely over email.

 

[paul79]

great article thanks although slightly depressing on a personal level as am terrible at selling verbally - to the extent that I would probably actually lose sales if I tried seriously. so, with that in mind, would someone like me be better trying to find a broker to do that for me rather than relying on emails/auction sites as I currently do?

 

[GoWebnames.com]

great article thanks although slightly depressing on a personal level as am terrible at selling verbally - to the extent that I would probably actually lose sales if I tried seriously. so, with that in mind, would someone like me be better trying to find a broker to do that for me rather than relying on emails/auction sites as I currently do?

So, do you have a story on it?

 

[indiegrind]

I don't have much experience with brokers on the selling end. I am currently utilizing one on a .co.uk name. I don't really like having to give leads away and use middlemen because it doesn't really help me improve as a negotiator and I like to learn who my buyer is and build relationships in case there is the opportunity to do business again.

I don't see myself resorting to phone calls as first contact, but I might start doing it more often to follow up and try to close more deals where there is an indication of interest.

 

[D. Wells]

Believe it or not, a lot small to medium-sized businesses have no clue what a domain name is... I stopped cold calling because I frequently found myself in awkward situations explaining what a domain name is, etc...

So I figured if these people have no clue what a domain name is then they would not understand the purpose of a premium domain name.

Long story short, I wouldn't call anyone unless we already had a relationship.

 

[Argentum]

Call in times more effective as you can reach real decision maker, in case of email your chances is about 10% to reach such person.

 

[GoWebnames.com]

Believe it or not, a lot small to medium-sized businesses have no clue what a domain name is... I stopped cold calling because I frequently found myself in awkward situations explaining what a domain name is, etc...

So I figured if these people have no clue what a domain name is then they would not understand the purpose of a premium domain name.

Long story short, I wouldn't call anyone unless we already had a relationship.

Quite right there. I already never call businesses that don't have a domain.
That's double work: first you got to convince them to get online, then you may need to convince them that COM is king and why they should buy your COM.

 

[D. Wells]

Quite right there. I already never call businesses that don't have a domain.
That's double work: first you got to convince them to get online, then you may need to convince them that COM is king and why they should buy your COM.

Ironically, they have domains but they have no idea what they are. Lol

Explains why they go with FrankandSonsRoofinginDallasTX.com for example instead of FrankandSons.com or DallasRoofing.com, etc...

 

[greggb]

My head spins in amazement when I see some five-six figure domain sales concluded by Brokerage firms.
Many of these are only average domain names but fetch an awesome price. Is this some secret kept from the average joe domainer?

Yes, there is a secret. But it's not going to be a secret much longer. Because I'm going to see that it doesn't. I'm going to let the cat out of the bag (move along now kitty kitty...you're free to go now).

It's the mafia. Please understand that my saying so puts me in grave danger. It's just a matter of time before the mafia hackers find me. And when they do...

I can only hope that they don't.

 

[GoWebnames.com]

Yes, there is a secret. But it's not going to be a secret much longer. Because I'm going to see that it doesn't. I'm going to let the cat out of the bag (move along now kitty kitty...you're free to go now).

It's the mafia. Please understand that my saying so puts me in grave danger. It's just a matter of time before the mafia hackers find me. And when they do...

I can only hope that they don't.

Are you having a "lol" moment? Howz mafia related here?

 

[DomainGist]

I once did a full day of cold calling firms that I thought would be interested in my domains, and sold 4 domains in one day for a total of a few hundred dollars. I only got told to f*ck off once.

I'm looking forward to hitting the phones again in the future, it was fun.

I should add that I'm British with a British accent and was selling UK domains to British companies.

I suspect it would be much more difficult to get your all important opening line in if you are calling an American or Brit with an Asian accent, simply because people get so many of those sales calls they instantly zone out and hang up.

 

[GoWebnames.com]

I once did a full day of cold calling firms that I thought would be interested in my domains, and sold 4 domains in one day for a total of a few hundred dollars. I only got told to f*ck off once.

Glad to see your efforts bore fruit. Of course, rejection on Phone is much harder to handle when compared to rejection on email. I mean, someone telling you to F*CK OFF affects the self respect very badly.

I suspect it would be much more difficult to get your all important opening line in if you are calling an American or Brit with an Asian accent, simply because people get so many of those sales calls they instantly zone out and hang up.

Those sales call orginate in the OUTSOURCING backyards of Phillipines / India. And they do the callings for all these top international banks. Of course, it's a little difficult to initially click and connect with someone of a different accent but the lines of accent differentiation are quite blurred in today's world compared to that of a world 30 years back. I mean America day by day is getting less white and more spanish. Same with Britain which is full of Indians, Paki and other asians. Europeans don't care much about English, you gotta know French / German to suceed there.

FYI, I am Indian, living in India, have travelled to USA and other countries. My company's head office was in NJ, so used to travel there while I headed their tech dept in India. Later on, I quite the job thing entirely and now landed up in domaining / startup scene. I faced no difficulty in chatting up people in the states or other countries.

 

[DomainVP]

I've only ever sent eMails.

If the buyer wanted to chat, I made myself available via phone and closed the deal.

 

[DomainGist]

Being told to f*ck off doesn't bother me, I've got a thick skin.

My point about Asians cold calling is that people in the UK (and probably USA) get so many sales calls from Asia that most will just hang up now because they automatically know that the person is on the phone to sell them something.

I get 4 or 5 calls a day from Asia, and actually in the UK it is mostly Indians who call me, most of them about domain names I've purchased from godaddy actually. I don't have any Indian friends so as soon as I answer my phone and an Indian is on the other end I hang up, not because I have anything against Indians but because I don't have time to waste listening to a sales pitch.

I do actually have a Sri Lanken associate who calls me, but I have his number saved, so obviously that doesn't count.

Also "Paki" is a very offensive word in the UK..... its like the 'N' word.

 

[Pattern]

If you're unsure of which one to use, why not go for both

 

[GoWebnames.com]

I get 4 or 5 calls a day from Asia, and actually in the UK it is mostly Indians who call me, most of them about domain names I've purchased from godaddy actually.

About getting those type of calls, we do get them as well here in India. There are services that provide the WHOIS info for freshly regged names and website development businesses buy that and do the calling.

I too hang up on them.

 

[GoWebnames.com]

If you're unsure of which one to use, why not go for both

Just trying to find out Daniel, what gets you the best bang for your buck !!

 

[DomainGist]

About getting those type of calls, we do get them as well here in India. There are services that provide the WHOIS info for freshly regged names and website development businesses buy that and do the calling.

I too hang up on them.

By the way, please don't misinterpret my post, I'm not saying that cold calling couldn't work for you because you are Indian, clearly it does work otherwise companies wouldn't outsource their coldcalling to India.

My point was that I think you'd have to put a lot more work in to get the sales, simply because a larger proportion of your calls will result in somebody hanging up straight away.

Purely made up numbers but I suspect if you were to call 100 British people trying to sell them something you may find that 50 put the phone straight down, purely because this has become the automatic response for many when they pick up the phone to an Indian, purely because they instantly know that it is a sales call if they don't know any Indian people.

Whereas if I were to call 100 British people trying to sell them something I'd probably find that less than 5 people will hang up immediately, I'd at least be able to get my first couple of lines in.

I just think it would mean you'd need to make a lot more calls to get a sale, so a much lower conversion rate, but things are all relative and if you look at it from a business perspective then you could also argue that I'd need 3 times more sales than you to have what I'd consider profitable day considering the vast differences in living costs.