advice Outbound Buyer Psychology

[Domaindogged]

Hello Forum

Here's the frustration. I have been outbounding the domain name surelock.homes

Sourcing a lead is not difficult

For example surelockhomes.us

No response despite finding founder contact email

Many other examples, same result

So when I find https://www.surelockathome.com/ it seems the stars align but you start to second guess, and ask why they wouldn't buy

I have not approached yet its frustrating to start to be gun shy on a name and process

Also would consider profit share someone could bring success to this one

currently at a marketplace Bin $580

I need an assist on buyer psychology

Thanks

 

[Hootsifer]

n/m

 

[Domaindogged]

Here's the frustration. I have been outbounding the domain name surelock.homes

?

 

[Bob Hawkes]

I think, no matter how perfect we think a domain name will be for a certain end user, many end users are simply not open to consider an upgrade or change or use for an additional domain name. Other than reaching the right person (sounds you have one that), being professional in the outreach (sure you have done that), I am not sure there is a lot more to do. I think that is why it is important to have multiple reasonable end parties, and/or a huge value to the end user. It is not really under psychology, but ever since I was at NamesCon I have been mulling around the idea of capturing a story in a concise first contact in the way that @Kate Buckley talked about in her keynote. It is a powerful idea, but difficult to implement in many cases. The idea of in a sentence or two encourage them to think of what this name could help them express the idea of what their company is, or could be.

Bob

 

[NickB]

Drop the price to more of an impulse purchase price $235 - $335 range

What is your email template like? Is it on point? To long winded? Not getting your USP message across right?

Hi (first name),

I am the current owner of xxxxxx - which is now for sale.

I feel the above would create excellent value for your company.

Insert USP here (one line)

Insert USP 2 here (one line)

Insert USP 3 here (one line)

I am only reaching out to a select few companies and would appreciate a quick response if there is any interest from your side.

If you wish to purchase this name please follow the below link:

(insert link here)

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to get in touch via email or phone.

Kind regards
Name
Number

 

[NickB]

Also if you are emailing within the same country it might be worth following up with a phone call.

Did they get the email?

What are their thoughts on the name

What was stopping them going ahead with the purchase - price, lack of understanding on the benefits, not sure of the process etc

Any issues raised answer them clearly and concisely and reiterate the USP's and explain why it would benefit them

Ask if they want to ahead (if you don't ask you don't get) and see what happens.........

At least this way you get some closure

 

[Bob Hawkes]

I agree with @MrAcidic first post suggestions but not the second (for most part). I don't think end users owe it to you to say what their thoughts are on the name or what is stopping them from going ahead.

If following up at all I would simply tell them that prior to approaching other potential end users you wanted to provide opportunity in case they had any questions. Something very low key.

Bob

 

[Domaindogged]

https://www.flickr.com/photos/21728045@N08/4350825465/in/photostream/

Different lead. Maybe the USP is just an extra decal "surelock.homes" and a redirect/resolve to main business url

Thanks for the support @Bob Hawkes @MrAcidic

 

[equity78]

I think, no matter how perfect we think a domain name will be for a certain end user, many end users are simply not open to consider an upgrade or change or use for an additional domain name. Other than reaching the right person (sounds you have one that), being professional in the outreach (sure you have done that), I am not sure there is a lot more to do. I think that is why it is important to have multiple reasonable end parties, and/or a huge value to the end user. It is not really under psychology, but ever since I was at NamesCon I have been mulling around the idea of capturing a story in a concise first contact in the way that @Kate Buckley talked about in her keynote. It is a powerful idea, but difficult to implement in many cases. The idea of in a sentence or two encourage them to think of what this name could help them express the idea of what their company is, or could be.

Bob

Spot on Bob and even with the perfect story many end users don't care. Fact #1 is no one cares more about domain names than domain investors, no one else really cares that much and many don't care at all. I remember doing a deal in 2010 where the CEO said unfortunately you are a poison I have to deal with, the fact that domain names cost more than $100 is a failure of the United States government, I look at people of your ilk the same as I look at drug dealers. That line blew me away, I said drug dealers? He said what they do is illegal and this should be illegal.

Now I want to be clear, the name was registered since 1998, was not a tm, no mention in the USPTO database and the company contacted us about the name not the other way around, the name was not even parked.

A lot of people even if they want or need the name, despise being contacted about purchasing a domain name for anything more than a nominal amount.

 

[NickB]

Every no brings you closer to a yes.....it takes thick skin to call people and handle rejections

I speak to/ have spoken to people on the phone for years (B2B & B2C) from one man bands up to C-Suite executives of multi national companies selling a myriad of products and services a lot of these were not thought by potential clients/customers as must haves or even had entered their minds before that initial call.

They are all the same, if you can engage with someone and build that rapport before going in for the close then that is half the battle people buy from people.

All you need is one person to take the bait, see the benefits and the deal is done - you might need to wade through a few numbers/leads but depending on the sales price it can be worth the effort. Not everyone has the same personality (thankfully)

I have always preferred talking to people than sending them an email which does not give you the chance to respond instantly and on point

If they say no, big deal thank them for their time and move on, if they hang up even better as it gets you on to the next call even quicker!

If the name is shi* then you have no chance, but if you have one that matches their needs then it is a viable avenue to explore as long as the sales price is matching up to the work involved

Just my opinion...

 

[equity78]

Every no brings you closer to a yes.....it takes thick skin to call people and handle rejections

Just my opinion...

Exactly and that's an important point you made. A lot of people have attitudes, thin skin, nobody will talk that way to me, I will go apeshit on their ass, etc...

If you are going to do outbound, you need a certain mindset, you need to be prepared for people to just drop f bombs on you, call you a pig, a squatter, a criminal, all kinds of things. And to fuck with you, years ago, a friend in the biz was going back and forth with someone to be fair he was not acting mature in the situation either. But it turned into the other person researching him and telling him where he lived, how much is house cost and a bunch of other things, every time the guy replied to an email that night my friend was raising the price by $10,000 and this enraged the guy and the night basically ended with me recommending he contact Sacramento PD which is where the prospective buyer lived as the emails were now turning threatening.

If you feel no one is going to disrespect you or talk to you a certain way, stick with inbound because things can escalate quickly.

 

[NickB]

Exactly and that's an important point you made. A lot of people have attitudes, thin skin, nobody will talk that way to me, I will go apesh*t on their ass, etc...

If you are going to do outbound, you need a certain mindset, you need to be prepared for people to just drop f bombs on you, call you a pig, a squatter, a criminal, all kinds of things. And to f*ck with you, years ago, a friend in the biz was going back and forth with someone to be fair he was not acting mature in the situation either. But it turned into the other person researching him and telling him where he lived, how much is house cost and a bunch of other things, every time the guy replied to an email that night my friend was raising the price by $10,000 and this enraged the guy and the night basically ended with me recommending he contact Sacramento PD which is where the prospective buyer lived as the emails were now turning threatening.

If you feel no one is going to disrespect you or talk to you a certain way, stick with inbound because things can escalate quickly.

Nailed it!

You need to take it all in your stride......

That is one hell of an extreme example, probably scared away a lot of people thinking about giving it a try (which is probably a good thing) as most people can not handle it.

 

[equity78]

Nailed it!

You need to take it all in your stride......

That is one hell of an extreme example, probably scared away a lot of people thinking about giving it a try (which is probably a good thing) as most people can not handle it.

Yeah and to be fair my friend was wrong too, it should have never escalated and he was texting me at the same time and I kept saying, DUDE stop. Either try to make a sale or just move on, instead he just replied to each email raising the price by $10,000 it was totally stupid, because he is not someone who wants to deal with the back and forth and the potential nastiness, he is a shy and nice person, so he is not cut out for something turning into a psychological mindfuck where he is going to be victorious, he was very unnerved by the situation, I do not believe he took my advice to contact Sacramento PD, but it could have gotten ugly.

 

[FolioTeam]

It's sad that the average person (potential end user) out there either hates or doesn't understand the domaining industry. So as a result, selling a domain name is just plain hard irrespective of whether it's inbound or outbound.

Now as a rule, I don't outbound at all. All my deals till date are all inbound deals. This is because my job doesn't afford me the time required for outbound. I also think the time put into outbound is just not commensurate to the rewards you may get out of it.

However, even concluding a deal from an inbound lead can prove difficult sometimes. Just 2 weeks ago, I sold a name for xxxx. I had the name put up for BIN with a make offer option. So this buyer came in with a 1k offer which I refused. Instead of countering, a lot of stuff was said on how investigations would be carried out to find out how I got the name, since they bought it less than a year ago for 1.5k.

From my own findings, they allowed the name expire which I picked at Godaddy's expiry auction for xx. I also checked Namebio, and the sale from last year was actually reported there.

So I went back to the buyer, calmly explaining the situation to them that investigations would show that I didn't steal the name (or whatever was going through their mind) but rather, I bought it at an auction fair and square.

Buyer seemed to appreciate the manner in which I responded and offered 1.5k. I still refused and insisted on my initial xxxx which they finally paid after much deliberations.

All this happened 2 days after the domain got into my GoDaddy account. So, I only had it for 2 days before I made the sale. (One of my fastest sales I must say)

Now, the reason why I told this story is to reimagine what the situation could have been like in an outbound scenario. I doubt the outcome would have been the same. But then, what do I know?

 

[NickB]

It's sad that the average person (potential end user) out there either hates or doesn't understand the domaining industry. So as a result, selling a domain name is just plain hard irrespective of whether it's inbound or outbound.

Now as a rule, I don't outbound at all. All my deals till date are all inbound deals. This is because my job doesn't afford me the time required for outbound. I also think the time put into outbound is just not commensurate to the rewards you may get out of it.

However, even concluding a deal from an inbound lead can prove difficult sometimes. Just 2 weeks ago, I sold a name for xxxx. I had the name put up for BIN with a make offer option. So this buyer came in with a 1k offer which I refused. Instead of countering, a lot of stuff was said on how investigations would be carried out to find out how I got the name, since they bought it less than a year ago for 1.5k.

From my own findings, they allowed the name expire which I picked at Godaddy's expiry auction for xx. I also checked Namebio, and the sale from last year was actually reported there.

So I went back to the buyer, calmly explaining the situation to them that investigations would show that I didn't steal the name (or whatever was going through their mind) but rather, I bought it at an auction fair and square.

Buyer seemed to appreciate the manner in which I responded and offered 1.5k. I still refused and insisted on my initial xxxx which they finally paid after much deliberations.

All this happened 2 days after the domain got into my GoDaddy account. So, I only had it for 2 days before I made the sale. (One of my fastest sales I must say)

Now, the reason why I told this story is to reimagine what the situation could have been like in an outbound scenario. I doubt the outcome would have been the same. But then, what do I know?

This scenario is the exception rather than the rule

If you have a name and have sent say 20 highly targeted emails and had no response then imo it might be worth the time following up on these as the recipient may not have read it, failed to grasp the offer, was dismissive, uninformed etc etc

In this case you have to weigh up if the value of the name is worth the follow up and do you have the time, inclination etc but if you do/can and are more proactive then I believe it could provide you with extra opportunities to close a sale

Alot of people make their money solely through outbound targeted emails, this is just another option for this group. If your name is good enough for inbound only then it is a moot point.

Again it comes down to if you are comfortable with rejection, aggressive attitudes and can engage with people via the phone....if not wait for those offers

 

[Kate]

Probably there are not many potential end users for this one, and it's a NTLD. Is it surprising it is not selling ? I don't think so. Domain sales are the exception and not the norm.

And the leads already have a domain name, so they don't understand the value proposition. Their names might suck, but are you offering them a domain that could be considered an upgrade from what they are currently using ? You must be alone thinking this.

 

[FolioTeam]

This scenario is the exception rather than the rule

If you have a name and have sent say 20 highly targeted emails and had no response then imo it might be worth the time following up on these as the recipient may not have read it, failed to grasp the offer, was dismissive, uninformed etc etc

In this case you have to weigh up if the value of the name is worth the follow up and do you have the time, inclination etc but if you do/can and are more proactive then I believe it could provide you with extra opportunities to close a sale

Alot of people make their money solely through outbound targeted emails, this is just another option for this group. If your name is good enough for inbound only then it is a moot point.

Again it comes down to if you are comfortable with rejection, aggressive attitudes and can engage with people via the phone....if not wait for those offers

I agree with you. But generally, people don't like been sold to. That's why even traditional ads aren't as effective as they used to be.

Now, companies either go the route of influence marketing to sell their products or they rebrand as lifestyle brands, making you feel like they are part of your life while beneath it all, it's always about the sale.

People prefer to feel like they are incharge of their decisions. And outbound just doesn't give them that in the way inbound does.

Having said that, this is not to discredit one method over the other. It's just about finding out what works best for you and streamlining your investment and marketing strategies towards that.

 

[karmaco]

Not trying to be a downer but why would they want it when they have the dot com? Stick to dot coms. From their perspective they have a solid name allready.

 

[NYJimbo]

--

 

[NickB]

I agree with you. But generally, people don't like been sold to. That's why even traditional ads aren't as effective as they used to be.

Now, companies either go the route of influence marketing to sell their products or they rebrand as lifestyle brands, making you feel like they are part of your life while beneath it all, it's always about the sale.

People prefer to feel like they are incharge of their decisions. And outbound just doesn't give them that in the way inbound does.

Having said that, this is not to discredit one method over the other. It's just about finding out what works best for you and streamlining your investment and marketing strategies towards that.

I am not talking about corporate imagery or long term branding metrics here

I am talking about picking up the phone and selling - I had several contracts last year with companies which had great products/services , they all had great social media drivers, press awareness, superb email campaigns and amazing brand awareness etc etc BUT when it came to crunch time and they needed to see a tangible ROI they called for a salesperson.....someone who could close inbound enquires, someone who could initiate contact (outbound) explain the benefits and close the deal over the phone or via video chat.

these were in the mid xxxx to high xx,xxx range, you very rarely get people completing these deals without some kind of human interaction. (EDIT! non domain sales here!)

As you say everyone has their own methods and what works for person will not always work for the other.....

I previously posted that following up your email with a call might be worth looking at, so the below might be helpful for people thinking about this strategy.....very basic but a good starting point

https://entrepreneurhandbook.co.uk/telemarketing-vs-email-marketing

 

[BaileyUK]

Probably there are not many potential end users for this one, and it's a NTLD. Is it surprising it is not selling ? I don't think so. Domain sales are the exception and not the norm.

And the leads already have a domain name so they don't understand the value proposition. Their names might suck, but are you offering them a domain that could be considered an upgrade from what they are currently using ? You must be alone thinking this.

Kate has pretty much hit the nail on the head with this one. (and my thoughts also, from the first post) This is hardly a golden opportunity domain even with someone/business using something similar. You can play around with these kind of re-wordings until your blue in the face any still never sell one. It's not a domain upgrade for anyone and it certainly doesn't have any traffic. Then we can move on to the fact that it has virtually no associated value. i.e the business being approached own domains don't really have any real value, so why should they see value in your configuration.

I'm sorry to say but, this is a classic example of a domainer going down all the wrong roads in understanding what makes a good domain/proposition for a perspective buyer. + profit potential for the seller

I could go on and on about other misses in this one but I'll leave it there

 

[Bob Hawkes]

https://www.flickr.com/photos/21728045@N08/4350825465/in/photostream/

Different lead. Maybe the USP is just an extra decal "surelock.homes" and a redirect/resolve to main business url

Thanks for the support @Bob Hawkes @MrAcidic

I think that is a fruitful approach in this case. Quite possibly the owner has never heard of .homes and maybe even any ngTLDs. They also are probably not open to idea technically moving websites to a new Domain name. But if you concisely express idea that new gTLDs allow companies to elegantly use a domain name that precisely matches their service or name mentioning examples like online.casino or home.loans, and secondly that initially only a few minutes literally of work can have the new name redirect to their existing website, the latter point may get over one point of concern. Best wishes.

Bob

 

[Tatiana Bonneau]

Generally forget templates. People (not saying it's the case here but a very common case) have that superstar syndrome when they think of approaching potential buyers, they are scared of talking to them, scared of saying the wrong thing, scared of not impressing them, scared of hearing No etc. You are approaching a human being, they woke up this morning, probably had a coffee, came to their office, opened their mail etc etc they do all the normal stuff normal people do. And there they see your email. So *any* template screams template. Talk to a human, if you meet them on the street you wouldn't speak in templates would you? Just talk, see who they are - would you approach a person like that with "Hi John" or "Good afternoon Mr. Smith"? Would you chat with them in a friendly or more formal way? Do they have an account with crazy pics on instagram or just a very sober profile on linkedin? Once you have an idea of who they are forget you are trying to sell a domain, nobody cares but you. They care about their business. So ask questions. Everyone likes talking about their business. "Hi John, do you get a lot of direct traffic to your site? Do you spend on the keywords X and Y? I have the domain name xy.com and I'm taking offers for it at the moment, I do believe it will be of great benefit to your marketing efforts, will you be up for a chat about it?" Questions, questions, questions. And don't be scared of any feedback, even ask for more - if it's a no - ask for the reason, then you can adapt to the market better. And don't get any sneaky contact details, only use what is available so the person put out willingly to be used. If you can't find anything like that try other contacts in the company, get on the phone etc. If you don't want to be treated as a spammer don't act like one.

 

[biggie]

Outbound Buyer Psychology?

I think many aspiring domainers have psyched themselves up...
into believing and following the hype of outbounding , which is still considered spamming.

the feed on stories of success and follow in the paths laid down before them

their expectations are high, because there is plenty of encouragement
where nobody questions what names are being solicited,
there is only talk of the "how to do it"

they feel their name is better than the one that the unsuspecting victim has.
and....
that that victim should realize this opportunity presented to them, out of the blue.

but when rejected or ignored, then they wonder why...
why didn't the victim see their domain, as one they should buy.



but had they waited, even a year or maybe 4
waited until that potential buyer, came a knocking on their door

by then that crummy extension,
may have gained some traction.
then you've have leverage in negotiations,
and perhaps get more money from that sales transaction

puff puff puff'n


imo…

 

[BrandEntrance.com]

https://www.flickr.com/photos/21728045@N08/4350825465/in/photostream/

Different lead. Maybe the USP is just an extra decal "surelock.homes" and a redirect/resolve to main business url

Thanks for the support @Bob Hawkes @MrAcidic

It would be so east for them to add the . without rebranding.

That is a part of the USP as well.

At the same time I think they see that you just want to cash in on their hard work. I didn't know there was a company with that actual name when I saw you present this name the first time.