strategy Mock Negotiation - Let's negotiate here week #1

[abstractdomainer]

Hi All,

We know how tricky negotiations can be. It is a part and parcel of the domain name business. Even if we get the price for the domain name, that we were expecting, we feel like we left money on the table. And it happens time and again. So why not practise negotiation here:

Step 1: Members share the name which they would be willing to offer for sale
Step 2: I will be the buyer, the member whose domain is chosen becomes the seller
Step 3: We appoint 1 member who doesn't belong to either party. Let's call him referee
Step 4: Both buyer and seller share their minimum and maximum prices which they are willing to accept/offer respectively for the domain name
Step 5: We negotiate here on the thread with proper emails/texts. Everyone can view how you and I respond.
Step 6: Buyer and seller can re-adjust their offer - buyer can increase the maximum that they are willing to offer, and seller can decrease the minimum that they are willing to take
Step 7: Either a deal is made or not
Step 8: The appointed representive (referee) will share the buyer and seller minimum maximum
Step 9: We draw conclusions from the negotiation and the learnings

This is going to be extremely amazing and I am super excited.
Please share your names so that we can pick one and start the process. The negotiation should last 1 week or less. Let's do this. The shortlist will be done tomorrow if we have ample entries.

 

[Soofi]

Buyer sounded like a domainer which isn't the case for the majority of end-users out there. The whole conversation sounded like a domainer trying to buy a domain from another domainer. Just my opinion

some parts, I can agree.

most of the times, endusers aren’t that research savvy tbh @abstractdomainer

 

[Soofi]

Thanks for this @abstractdomainer

more people should join and participate. It’ll be worthwhile learning’s!!

Thanks for this. Here is what I learnt:

1) Seller had a minimum of $18,888. Buyer had the maximum of something like $3000, maybe $4,000 at max if the seller had budged.
2) There was no overlap involved. Since there was no sweet spot between what the buyer was offering and what the seller wanted, the deal didn't happen
3) @FolioTeam I take that as a suggestion. In the next negotiation, I will make sure that doesn't happen.
4) Sometimes, it is not possible to make a deal. It is alright. That is a negotiation too! Atleast we learned why sometimes something may not work. The buyer didn't have the budget. Seller didn't want to sell low. NO one is wrong! The best output here was NO DEAL.

More suggestions and learnings are welcome. Cheers for being a sport @Soofi @kartikahuja

 

[abstractdomainer]

Cheers guys! I will start off with the second negotiation.
@Soofi Would you be the REFEREE this time? You have seen the seller side. And such a sport. If you agree, I will start the next negotiation bit.

Let's do some deals

 

[lock]

At point of negotiation i already know where i need to be. The idea is not to start negotiating but to keep encouraging offers. If give out a price at high end keep asking for offer closer to asking price. This half price drop your pants in minutes isn't negotiating.

 

[Soofi]

A big tip is find out who buyer is as "John Smith" at hotmail will renge on every deal beating down on price kicking your tires. No name no service. I will know your dogs names before i negotiate.

..but that may kill a lot of anonymous deals tbh

 

[Soofi]

@JordanH are you ready bud?

Share it here. @JordanH Would you want to be the referee?
After @Soofi shares his name, we will both quote this:

1) Soofi will share the minimum that he is willing to sell at - Should be realistic with proper reason given (via DM to you only)
2) I will share the minimum and maximum that I am willing to pay for the domain name. Again this will be confidential and you would be the only person knowing.

Both of us will negotiate here like it's a real deal. After the negotiation, you share the screenshot of our messages and the community discusses the way the negotiation went.
We will derive a conclusion and learning from this sample negotiation.

 

[abstractdomainer]

Is anyone willing to volunteer as a referee? This is going to be super interesting.

 

[abstractdomainer]

@Soofi I have shared the quotation with Kartik. Let me know once your quotation is submitted. As soon as Kartik confirms, we begin.

 

[Soofi]

@Soofi I have shared the quotation with Kartik. Let me know once your quotation is submitted. As soon as Kartik confirms, we begin.

Apologies for the delay. I have communicated my part

 

[abstractdomainer]

Perfect. @kartikahuja Please confirm. Let us begin.

 

[kartikahuja]

I have received the message from @abstractdomainer and @Soofi ; let's start

 

[Soofi]

Hi @abstractdomainer,

Thanks for reaching out to inquire about ViraGroup.com

We do have a buy now price, however please feel free to make a reasonable offer for us to consider.

thanks

 

[Soofi]

Was thinking of not responding again due to a low-ball opening offer from the enduser however, respecting his first move plus understanding that he has somewhat research involved behind his offer. Going to try and better educate him with my bit of research.

---my email response starts here---

Hi @abstractdomainer

Thank you for writing once again.

While we do respect your low-ball offer of $500 which is backed by research somewhat however, would love to point you to some of our research work as-well, which shows that there have been plenty of "group" domain sales in five figures or more. For your reference: https://namebio.com/?s==kTNycDO5MzM

As we stated earlier, we do have a buy now price which is considerably reasonable. Please let us know if you have any further questions or queries to quickly close this one through escrow.com

Thank you once again for your interest in our asset.

After waiting for 2-3 days, responds:

Dear @Soofi

I did not get any response from you.
I did some research myself about the domain name and its potential, and I see that most domain names ending in 'group' keyword typically sell for low to mid 3-figures.
In that light, I would like to make an offer of $500 for this domain name.

 

[Alop]

And I think you are better off waiting 4-6 days before attempting to communicate the seller again

 

[abstractdomainer]

Was thinking of not responding again due to a low-ball opening offer from the enduser however, respecting his first move plus understanding that he has somewhat research involved behind his offer. Going to try and better educate him with my bit of research.

---my email response starts here---

Hi @abstractdomainer

Thank you for writing once again.

While we do respect your low-ball offer of $500 which is backed by research somewhat however, would love to point you to some of our research work as-well, which shows that there have been plenty of "group" domain sales in five figures or more. For your reference: https://namebio.com/?s==kTNycDO5MzM

As we stated earlier, we do have a buy now price which is considerably reasonable. Please let us know if you have any further questions or queries to quickly close this one through escrow.com

Thank you once again for your interest in our asset.

Hi @Soofi

Thanks for the information. I definitely see what you are referring to. In terms of what you have quoted, if we look at the top 100 sales by date, with names like MarsGroup, you would see that not 1 name has sold for more than mid XXXX, let alone XX,XXX. Most are high XXX and very few are low XXXX.

In light of the same, I would still be fair and increase my offer to $999 for this domain name, which I believe is a fair price. I see that the search volume and CPC here are not very significant as well.

 

[abstractdomainer]

Reads through @abstractdomainer's email and politely ignores it.

Though I have one very important point to justify my asking price (have mentioned it to referee) but I am not going to waste my time with low-ball offers and the reason why I have set my landing page of ViraGroup.com as BIN.

Thanks @Soofi
After waiting for 3 days, replying back.

Dear Soofi,

I did a little research and with the price you have put for the domain name, we may be looking in the ballpark of Vira.com. I was trying to go through NameBio sales and here is where I am referring to: https://namebio.com/?s==cTNyEDMwQzM
Although I haven't reached out to Vira.com owner, I suppose the prices would be in the ballpark of what you are asking, and hence, I would rather get Vira.com for that price/extend some budget to get that name.
Therefore, I would make my last offer of $1,800 which is the maximum budget that I have for the domain name, before looking out for alternatives.
Let me know if we can meet around this price or if you have a reason why this name is worth the price you are asking.

 

[Soofi]

Waits out a day/two before responding.

Hi @abstractdomainer,

Thank you for trying again and again but I believe you are better off trying your hands @ Vira.com, which in my strong opinion will be nothing below mid-high five figures.

The reason we are asking $18,888 because we have previously received dozens of offers on ViraGroup.com from dozens/multiple interested parties due to the significance of the term “VIRA”. Refer https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vira

I’m afraid we’re going to stay at our asking price and wish you to the best in your domain search.

Best,

Soofi

Thanks @Soofi
After waiting for 3 days, replying back.

Dear Soofi,

I did a little research and with the price you have put for the domain name, we may be looking in the ballpark of Vira.com. I was trying to go through NameBio sales and here is where I am referring to: https://namebio.com/?s==cTNyEDMwQzM
Although I haven't reached out to Vira.com owner, I suppose the prices would be in the ballpark of what you are asking, and hence, I would rather get Vira.com for that price/extend some budget to get that name.
Therefore, I would make my last offer of $1,800 which is the maximum budget that I have for the domain name, before looking out for alternatives.
Let me know if we can meet around this price or if you have a reason why this name is worth the price you are asking.

 

[Alop]

This was horrible

 

[abstractdomainer]

You guys didn’t make a deal :/

Isn't that what's negotiation is all about? That's what makes it real, my friend. I had a budget, the seller had an expectation. They didn't match and we didn't have a deal. Simple as that.

I think what we hear as negotiation is only a part of the deal. There are numerous others where the deal didn't go through. And it's alright

 

[kartikahuja]

Here are

Thanks @Soofi! The negotiation ends here.
The result is NO DEAL.

@kartikahuja Would you mind sharing what our conversation was, from both side?

Here is the conversation from @abstractdomainer

I am the owner of a small boutique construction company called Vira Group. Our group deals in land purchase/resale, construction, and sale of commercial as well as residential properties.
Number of employees: 90
Annual Turnover: $20 million

My budget for this domain name: Maximum as of now $2000 (can change as the negotiation progress, by 33%). Post that, it is off the table.
Considerations:

1) Vira.com is not developed and can be negotiated at low xxxxx (like $20,000 or so). We don't have the budget though.
2) Do not see many potential competitors for the name
3) All other major extensions taken
4) Group names typically sell for mid xxx as per NameBio
5) I am building an online presence to consolidate all my projects, build my presence online as we foray into multiple other markets, and expand our revenue by 100% in the next 2 years

Here is the conversation from @Soofi

I would not be willing to go lower than $18,888 as I have received dozens of (lowball) offers on this domain name.

There are multiple meanings of the term VIRA and use cases as well. Most of the reasons are listed here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vira

 

[kartikahuja]

Thanks for this. Here is what I learnt:

1) Seller had a minimum of $18,888. Buyer had the maximum of something like $3000, maybe $4,000 at max if the seller had budged.
2) There was no overlap involved. Since there was no sweet spot between what the buyer was offering and what the seller wanted, the deal didn't happen
3) @FolioTeam I take that as a suggestion. In the next negotiation, I will make sure that doesn't happen.
4) Sometimes, it is not possible to make a deal. It is alright. That is a negotiation too! Atleast we learned why sometimes something may not work. The buyer didn't have the budget. Seller didn't want to sell low. NO one is wrong! The best output here was NO DEAL.

More suggestions and learnings are welcome. Cheers for being a sport @Soofi @kartikahuja

Thanks for arranging this, it is nice to see kind of negotiation, I was thinking things in my head as well.

Let's do more @abstractdomainer

 

[Soofi]

Referee

Cheers guys! I will start off with the second negotiation.
@Soofi Would you be the REFEREE this time? You have seen the seller side. And such a sport. If you agree, I will start the next negotiation bit.

Let's do some deals

 

[Soofi]

Yes, this is still valid. Please share your domain name which you would want to negotiate over.

Would you want me to share it here or pm?

 

[JordanH]

This is honestly a great idea. Regardless if it helps with the real deal, this will allow people to at least learn.

 

[Soofi]

ViraGroup.com

Share it here. @JordanH Would you want to be the referee?
After @Soofi shares his name, we will both quote this:

1) Soofi will share the minimum that he is willing to sell at - Should be realistic with proper reason given (via DM to you only)
2) I will share the minimum and maximum that I am willing to pay for the domain name. Again this will be confidential and you would be the only person knowing.

Both of us will negotiate here like it's a real deal. After the negotiation, you share the screenshot of our messages and the community discusses the way the negotiation went.
We will derive a conclusion and learning from this sample negotiation.