My Thoughts as a Potential Buyer Going Through a Landing Page

I'm not 100% sure where to put this, but I'd like to point this situation out from my perspective as a buyer.

I found a domain name that I wanted to purchase.
Now, being a domainer I realize they're looking for retail value and I'm unlikely to pay retail, but I was willing to pay more than I normally would for this particular domain name. So the domain name is on a lander. It is not listed on Afternic, Sedo, ect - just the lander. It said to get a quote I had to fill out the lander.

The lander that I filled out was 3 pages long and asked me for my email, to verify my email, if i had a backup email, my use for the domain name, if it was for business purposes, my phone number, and a bunch more. To me it seemed like overkill. It also asked me for the price I'm expecting to pay of course. So, I looked up the Estibot and saw it says $280 (I know I can't just solely go off of estibot), and then I went to NameBio and looked up what some good comps which had almost all sold for around $300-750. So, I made an initial offer of $500.

The email response I got back said the following:

We received your quote request for ***********.com. Unfortunately, you
indicated a low budget and our quote for the single payment option will be
higher than that. If you're still interested, send us a reply and we'll continue to process
your quote request.

So from my buyers perspective here - I've filled out a 3 page lander which asked for a lot of info, given an initial offer about double the Estibot valuation and right in the middle of the NameBio similar sales range and they cannot even provide me a quote or counter offer? The page literally stated that I had to fill out the information (which I did) to receive a quote. They can't even tell me their asking price? The top available domain in this niche has a BIN of $3,288 to put this in more perspective, so I can't see it realistically being valued at more than $2,000 or so by the seller.

At this point I'm feeling like it's a hassle and that I'll just move onto another name. There are alternatives out there like the name for $3,288 which is looking much better now. I can imagine many other potential buyers would feel the same way after this initial process, but I'd like to hear the thoughts of others here.

How much info are you asking for from perspective buyers?
Would you at least counter someone's initial offer of $500 on a name that's realistically worth at most 2k? (I realize they could value it even higher)

Would love to hear some thoughts here as this isn't really adding up to me.

 

Wondering if you replied to their reply with a offer of $510..what the reply email would be?

3 pages of questions..I would have lost interest after 1 page, pretty sure that I wouldn't be the only one.

 

I actually stopped after 2 and then their system reached back out to me asking if I'd finish the form and I did a day later.

I replied and I pretty much said look, I filled out 3 pages on your lander that said fill it out for a quote and you still haven't provided me with one. I realize you may be looking for more money, but the least you could do is provide me with the quote so I know where I stand. I also cited the Estibot valuation and said I thought my initial offer shouldn't be seen as completely crazy due to it. I'm curious to see if I even get a response from them lol. In my mind they're almost not even trying to entertain a sale it feels like.

 

I agree with you that he should have given you a quote, at least for having filled out 3 pages of landers

Also, I have to say, that I would not rely on Estibot or any other automatic valuation site, to value a domain name.

 

I will never tell anyone what my intended use for a domain is. None of their business.

We can either come to a deal on the price, or we can't.

 

If you have a huge portfolio this literally makes sense. You get buyers that want that name and no other name and you know they will pay above market value for it. My portfolio is too small to do it.

 

Ops i wonder which lander is that....That's why I feel Epik is awesome, when a seller list their domain as "offer" let's say $500 min, on the form from a buyer point of view any amount offered below $500 will not be approved...simple and direct unlike ur case where u have to fill up the form again and again and again until you reach the minimum offer of that seller....If I were u I would give up on 2nd try😂

 

Just an update - I woke up this morning to a counter of $9,995.
I'm not even going to bother responding. I'd much rather just get the better name at BIN for $3,288.

 

Yes I know, I said that above as well To me NameBio with similar sales is a better indicator. Regardless there's just no way in the world I'd pay $9,995 for a domain of this caliber lol.

 

I agree with you in this case, but boy it just doesn't seem to be very user friendly. I'd rather just put a minimum offer and go from there as a way to weed out the not so serious buyers.

 

As a seller I want the persons name (real) phone number, email and offer. Their intended use is of no concern to me...just the amount they are willing to pay/offer.

If they shoot me a lowball number, I will respond with my lowest acceptable price with reasons/data why it is valued as it is. If they accept, fine. If not and they counter again, I thank them for their interest and tell them if they wish to reach out to me in the near future at the level I made my last offer they may do so...pricing effective for 7 days only. Then back up to full retail.

btw, all my names have a starting offer of 500 or more.

 

Lol we are talking about "Buyer prospective" then let me tell you that the person who quoted that's price thinking you are an 'end-user' to me it's seem fine and the best counter offer.

Reseller don't pay much money and every one want good name for cheap. The person not interested to selling it to reseller that's why he quoted you an end-user price. Accept it or counter it or just move on.

 

I hope my response comes across more as an observation than a critique of either party.

First. As buyers and sellers of domains we all have our own approach to selling I've found it's mostly very large portfolio holders that employ the extended inquiry approach . It's mostly to weed out low-ball offers, or indeed even just fellow domainers offers from the start. They are only looking for end user requests.

I can't help wondering would you have been so keen to incorporate an 'Auto-appraisal tool' valuation had the appraisal come back at $2000 or $3000. Obviously not if it had not supported your own $500 offer. You then move on to suggest that $2,000 probably would have been your own max valuation. Anyway the inclusion of that Auto generated figure probably was the 'Giveaway' .It was a fellow domainer

Personally I would always want to try to establish who the seller was before making any offer. Given this was an elongated form, I'm surprised you haven't identified the seller. Of course you probably already know this answer but quite rightly have chosen not to identify them here.

I agree that not been even given a ball-park figure in their initial response is bad form but, I would imagine if somebodies going to go through the process of filling in this form the seller is aware this is probably a genuine end user with a commercial budget

Bit like Fishing really. A large hook is usually well placed in a large bait, purely to catch a large fish. I'd love to see some of the answers they get in the "What is you intended use" field, Some of the answers must qualify for the height of Inventiveness.

I will add, It's funny you say asking "Intended use" is a bit OTT, When just about every inquiry I get always includes some fictitious 'low-profile' Use by the prospective buyer anyway.

 

I can see legitimate differences of opinion on this one, but personally I would find filling out a three page form intrusive. Yes, I realize most would like to know the intended use for their bargaining position, and it could be justified by reasoning like I need that in order to be able to help inform you on the benefit of this domain name to you, but I would not like to provide it as a buyer.

I fully agree that at the very least if it said you had to fill in this form to get a quote, the OP complied and deserved a quotation, even if it was order of magnitude outside offer.

I just thought I would point out that there is also a very active thread on whether potential buyers should have to pay to make an offer, which is I guess somewhat relevant to this discussion.

Bob

 

This is almost exactly what I say when they have low balled and expressed shock at price response...and I feel they are a genuine non-commercial buyer. I let them know that we have other names that may be useful but more in their price range...I recently referred someone to another domainers site for a name that was not quite as good as the one I had but it was more in their price range.

add...when I say 'feel' this is after I have put their info/ip/name/phone through my vetting process

 

why do you quote the lowest price you might want to accept?
that's exactly the purpose of a low ball offer

 

It is clear the person is not a commercial buyer or they are another domainer...I go ahead and drop to my lowest acceptable price to bring things to an end...it saves me time.

 

Instead of a webform, I post a link on all of my landers to a "Contact Us" page that provides a [email protected] email address and requests that the sender include in the email:

• Full name
• City and country of residence
• Company and professional title
• Domain of interest
• Offer price

When I get a gmail addy lowball offer on a name, with none of the other requested info except a (probably made-up) full name, is there any downside to just ignoring the email altogether?

 

Hi

sounds like a namepros member who read the "Price Upon Request" thread or somebody who read the "tweet", that was hot a couple of weeks back.

and they tried to imitate somebody else's method and overkilled it

for a name you want $9k for, those are unnecessary hurdles to put in front of a potential buyer.

imo...

 

I like Dan landing it so simple you only need to fill one field which is the offer field after you click submit you are taken to a page with small form where you need to enter your name, email and phone number.. and thats it life is easy!

 

Seems a bit sleazy to do business this way if you ask me. If you've ever wondered why domainers have a bad reputation with so many people, look no further than this example right here.

This is the sort of thing that makes it harder for all of us to be taken seriously by the outside world.

I'd like to see a new generation of domainers that conduct business in a way that we can be trusted and respected by other business professionals. If we can learn from examples like this thread has provided, we can start taking steps to do just that. It would help us all.

 

Realistically worth at most $2k? What does that even mean? The prices of domains are always completely subjective. You could offer somebody $1b for a domain, and if the owner is still unwilling to sell, that domain must be worth more than $1b to the current owner.

Now to answer your question, the best approach in my opinion is to create as little friction in the buying process as possible. Hence all I ask for is a name, an email, and an offer price.

 

That's why I always have a minimum acceptable offer listed on all of my domain landers. It saves my time and buyer's too.

 

The best practice for a lander contact form is it should be as short as possible, and auto fill as much information as possible. You can get the domain interested with the referrer URL and city/country from the client IP address.

The shorter the form the more likely someone will complete the form. I know people wanted to pre-qualify the leads, but you can easily achieve the same results with filters, rerouting rules to different email address, or hidden form fields with a qualification score, without risking prospects abandoned the forms.

 

I wonder what software they’re using that auto follows up with you to ask that you fill out the form completely. What is the URL?