Mystery shopping your domains?

[Kyle Tully]

If you’re using a 3rd party lander / broker do you mystery shop your domains?

E.g. fill out the lead form with an anon contact and see what a prospective buyer would experience.

I’ve been running a few experiments and so far the gap analysis of what I’m seeing Vs what a world class conversion process looks like is pretty far apart.

For example:

- questions used during lead collection not respected nor leveraged by the broker
- 30-60 minute time for broker to respond
- email templates a little clunky and repetitive (feels robotic not like talking with a human)
- very transactional responses (linking to cart instead of giving price info) and not using info given during lead collection to build a relationship, engage, or sell.

Interested to hear what others have experienced. But I can see why many people choose to broker their own names.

 

[Kyle Tully]

I have dozens of leads in AN where it appears the buyer never responds to a single broker email.

This is INSANE. I self broker my .com.au and maybe 10% of people ghost after first contact.

AN appears to be more like 50%+ but as you can see from this thread it’s possible responses are being received but never updated in lead center.

 

[DN_Hunter]

The status "Buyer Call Logged" is probably meant to trick us into thinking the BUYER called in -- but in reality it seems in some cases it's just made up stuff by the broker, or the broker tried calling the buyer. They should have a status that says "buyer called Afternic"

I've got a couple names negotiating since Mach 2023 (assuming that broker no longer works at AN???)
Names "Qualifying" since June/early July -- how long to Qualify???

 

[Kyle Tully]

I assumed "buyer call logged" was the broker calling the buyer. You can see the classic 2-call pattern of outbound sales quite often. But I entered 911 as my phone number so I'm pretty sure in this case these calls were not being made.

 

[phaethon]

I assumed "buyer call logged" was the broker calling the buyer. You can see the classic 2-call pattern of outbound sales quite often. But I entered 911 as my phone number so I'm pretty sure in this case these calls were not being made.

It's the broker's attempt to call to the buyer. Did you make an enquiry from the same IP? Maybe the broker saw it and ignored you. I don't think you are the first that tried to mystery shop Afternic or they are not aware that domainers do it. I bet some of my stalled leads are other domainers doing research..

 

[Kyle Tully]

It's the broker's attempt to call to the buyer. Did you make an enquiry from the same IP? Maybe the broker saw it and ignored you. I don't think you are the first that tried to mystery shop Afternic or they are not aware that domainers do it. I bet some of my stalled leads are other domainers doing research..

I used different VPNs and based on the replies I did receive the broker was not treating it like he knew he was being mystery shopped.

And the similarities between this “lead” and all the others that are stalled or never appear to respond to the broker leads me to believe this is a widespread issue.

Even today when the broker did acknowledge the offer was in his spam there was no reply to the potential buyer apologising for the delay or otherwise nurturing the sale.

If I was an actual buyer I would have picked another name a few days ago.

 

[Kyle Tully]

The big G Daddy has reached out to me regarding this and are looking into it. Will report outcome.

 

[Synozeer]

I used different VPNs and based on the replies I did receive the broker was not treating it like he knew he was being mystery shopped.

And the similarities between this “lead” and all the others that are stalled or never appear to respond to the broker leads me to believe this is a widespread issue.

Even today when the broker did acknowledge the offer was in his spam there was no reply to the potential buyer apologising for the delay or otherwise nurturing the sale.

If I was an actual buyer I would have picked another name a few days ago.

I don't understand how they can have sales emails end up in spam. They either should have the emails accessible in the GoDaddy interface itself for them to read or set a filter to never send emails from inquiries made from their own inquiry forms to spam if the brokers are using regular email.

 

[Future Sensors]

I don't understand how they can have sales emails end up in spam. They either should have the emails accessible in the GoDaddy interface itself for them to read or set a filter to never send emails from inquiries made from their own inquiry forms to spam if the brokers are using regular email.

Yeah. If it’s true, the design is flawed. If it’s not true, it might have been used as an excuse.

 

[Kyle Tully]

I don't understand how they can have sales emails end up in spam. They either should have the emails accessible in the GoDaddy interface itself for them to read or set a filter to never send emails from inquiries made from their own inquiry forms to spam if the brokers are using regular email.

Yeah especially when this is a direct reply to the brokers message and one of a few emails back and forth.

 

[phaethon]

I'm waiting to collect some more data, but most likely from next year I will switch to HD style landers as they are offered by AN now.. I don't think the AN brokers have contributed that much to my sales till now and what's the point really having so many stalled leads. If there is a serious buyer, he knows what to do..

 

[Molly]

Are these inquiries you’re speaking of on Make Offer domains? I presume with buy now this would be a non issue?

 

[Kyle Tully]

Are these inquiries you’re speaking of on Make Offer domains? I presume with buy now this would be a non issue?

Price inquiry.

 

[GoDaddy]

Hi @Kyle Tully
Understanding the buyer's experience is certainly a consideration for domain investors when choosing a platform to sell your names.

Since the testing you performed was through Afternic, we took the opportunity to connect with you to learn more. On review, there are aspects of timing and communication that could have been improved, and will be, moving forward. Thank you for sharing your experience.

Afternic's brokerage team powers a significant number of sales on behalf of domain investors, and we take the constructive feedback onboard to improve the service provided.

 

[Timkh]

Hi @GoDaddy, could you please share how many brokers there are in Afternic?

 

[Kyle Tully]

Hi @Kyle Tully
Understanding the buyer's experience is certainly a consideration for domain investors when choosing a platform to sell your names.

Since the testing you performed was through Afternic, we took the opportunity to connect with you to learn more. On review, there are aspects of timing and communication that could have been improved, and will be, moving forward. Thank you for sharing your experience.

Afternic's brokerage team powers a significant number of sales on behalf of domain investors, and we take the constructive feedback onboard to improve the service provided.

Thanks I appreciate it.

And to be clear, while I had a specific case I shared, it was never anything to do with this specific broker or interaction.

Based on some comments on X from Josh.co and others I don’t think this is an isolated incident. Many report offers not responded to, emails to/from brokers going to spam , unclear info in lead center etc.

Hopefully the holes in the bucket can be identified and patched

 

[dirk]

I suspected AN was the one being being questioned as soon as I read your opening post.

AN is going downhill.

I had a lead, broker was messing about basically (slow, unresponsive), closed in private at 1.7x I quoted them through AN. Zero commission.

 

[Kyle Tully]

After a quiet few months on Afternic with plenty of leads but no sales, and partly due to the results of this mystery shopping, I switched all my inventory under 9888 to the new custom lander a few days ago and have already got an "on hold" name.

Will stick with this lander for the time being and see how things go.

May move higher priced names off Afternic and self broker them. I'm 1/1 self brokering in the past week

 

[Recons.Com]

After a quiet few months on Afternic with plenty of leads but no sales, and partly due to the results of this mystery shopping, I switched all my inventory under 9888 to the new custom lander a few days ago and have already got an "on hold" name.

Will stick with this lander for the time being and see how things go.

May move higher priced names off Afternic and self broker them. I'm 1/1 self brokering in the past week

you mean custom lander by AN? Wasn't it reported to be still buggy? Does it show the bin price?