guide Outbound process for beginners

[rohitgoyal]

Hi All,

A lot of people struggle with outbound or complain about having no sales via inbound or marketplace. Well domaining is not a get rich scheme and it takes lots of time , hard-work , capital and luck to succeed in the same.

Though everyone would love to have xxxxx sales however you cant have such big ticket sales without pouring thousands of dollars and wait for long time for the right end users to approach you. This post is for the beginner who wish to have regular xxx or low xxxx sales and keep their domaining journey going on.

3 words Geo/keyword domains has very low chances of getting sold via landing page or marketplace even if you hold them for years. Such domains can be sold via outbound easily however you have to follow the practice properly.

There are number of steps and factors in the same. I will try to list few of them here for your understanding.

Let me first share the basic..

1. Outbound is a volume game. It may happen that you wont receive any response for your first 20 domains and than your 21st domain may get sold.

2. Price is big factor . $200-$499 is a sweet spot for normal geo domains.

3. Searches and cpc matters in case of Geo/keyword domains and its easier to sell domains with good metrics.

4. Follow up matters a lot as it hardly happens that you would sell domain in your first mail itself.

5. Certain niche sells faster than other niches. Location and country matters a lot as well.

6. One need to have lots of patience and a proper schedule to succeed in outbound.

Now back to the outbound process:-

1. Find leads:- There are basically 5 ways to find lead for your domain.

a) Google.com :- You can find the list of existing companies which are presently ranking for your keyword.You can use semrush.com to get first 100 result of google.com if you wish to avoid manual work.

b) Google map/yellow-pages:- You would find names and details of the companies which are registered for that keyword in that region. For geo domains , google map works better than google.com. There are automated tools which can fetch the google map results .

c) ZFbot.com/Domainiq.com :- Both these tools provide you list of the domain which are related to your domain or have same keyword like yours.

d) Socal media:- LinkedIn etc can be great source for finding potential end user for your domain.

e) Advertisers:- It makes sense to contact the advertisers who are advertising for the keyword of your domain. You can find the list of the same from semrush.com.

2. Finding email id:- There are 3 ways to find email id for the leads you have collected from above sources.

a) Whois.com/whoxy.com :- After gdpr whois is no more openly available however you still find email ids in 20-30% cases as compared to earlier days as few registrars still shows whois detail. Whoxy.com is a portal from where you can fetch whois details in bulk.

b) Hunter.io/adapt.io :- Such paid tools are great way to find email id of potential leads. However be aware that even though they are paid tools but still email id accuracy would be 60-70% only.

c) Website:- Lastly you may directly visit the website and collect email id from there.

3. Sending mails:- This is a tricky step as it is very difficult to send mails these days. Free email id provider like gmail , yahoo etc have strict spam policy and most of your mail would land in the spam folder. Now you have 2 options:-

a) Free email providers:- You can create multiple email ids with free email providers like gmail , yahoo, outlook etc.

b) Logicboxes panel based registrar:- There are some registrar which uses logic-box panel and they provide 2 free email id along with every domain. You would have to set up email id there and use their server to send mail. It works like charm as i have tried Bigrock.com and nettigritty.com.

c) Own server:- You can set up your own smtp server and purchase multiple ip for sending mails. It is a complicated and expensive way so wont be suggested in the initial days.

4. Pricing & follow up:-

a) Pricing:- Pricing plays a very big role especially in case of geo domains and 3 words emd domains. If you price them in $200-500 range than you can easily sell them. If it was a hand registered domain or purchased from go-daddy closeout than its a great roi.

b) Followup :- Now follow up can further be divided into 2 parts:-

1. Initial mail:- Suppose you collected 50 leads of end users for a particular domain and you sent mail to them. You may have received 1-2 response and no response from other leads. You can send a follow up mail after 2-3 weeks as its highly possible that many of them may have missed your initial mail or were out of office. Though never send more than 2 follow ups or else you would be spamming in general. Further be very careful not to send mail again to the same person who has already responded "No".

2. Price inquiry:- You have sent 50 mails and have received 3-4 price inquiry. You have sent them the details regarding the domain as well as your asking price. You should follow up every week or 2 regarding their interest. Under normal circumstances it takes 4-5 follow ups to finally sell a domain. It would hardly happen than you send them price and they immediately closed the deal.

5. Closing the deal:- You again have 3 options in this.

a) Paypal:- You can send a paypal invoice to the client and they can make the payment via them. I personally transfer the domain first and than ask for payment. It has never happened with me that client didn't make payment though their were delays in couple of cases. When you first transfer the domain and than ask for payment than it create trust factor in the eyes of end-users and deal closes faster. This works best in case of xxx deals as your risk factor is low.

b) Escrow :- You can create escrow account and ask the client to complete the transaction via that. Be aware that creating account at escrow is a tedious process and many times deal gets cancelled as end users do not want to take so much of headache. Escrow is recommended in case of xxxx and xxxxx deals and not at all recommended for xxx deals.

c) Marketplace:- If your domain is registered with Godaddy than you can ask the client to directly purchase from there or via landing pages like undeveloped.com. It works very well as these marketplace have high trust factor among the general public.


Some personal suggestions based on my experience of outbound.

1. Registrar:- If your domain is with Godaddy than it is easier to sell them . Godaddy is world's largest registrar and due to their massive advertising campaign everyone is aware about them. Most of the end user have account with godaddy or they dont mind opening account at Godaddy. If your domain is with any other registrar tha always do outbound after 60 days transfer lock is over.

2. Response time:- xxx purchases are normally spontaneous decision and end users immediately pay the same. If you receive a offer or end user agrees to your price than try to close the deal instantly. If you delay than their is high possibility that end user may change their mind or look for alternative options.

3. Related domains:- If you have a singular version than always purchase plural version as well if available. Further in case of Geo domain if you are marketing .com domain than always acquire cctld version of the same to be on safe side.

4. Calling :- If you receive a price inquiry than always try to call up the client as the possibility of leads getting closed increases manifold in case of calls rather than on mail.

5. Promo offer:- If you are into hand registered game than keep a keen eye on promo offers offered by various registrar. If you can grab promo offers for .com at $3-4 range than its always a winning game.

6. Expireddomains.net:- Thousands of domains expire on daily basis and you can find lots of decent domains in daily drop list which can easily be sold in xxx range via outbound.

Last but not the least , there is a very thin line between marketing and spamming and majority of newbies dont understand the difference. Outbound is great to have regular sales and to keep the cash register rolling but most of the time we end up doing spamming. Even though i am into outbound but i am strictly against spamming.

 

[rohitgoyal]

When a potential buyer goes to one of the 100 domains used for outbound emails to check you out what do they see? Can you give 1 or 2 examples of the types of domains you use for sending outbound emails (not the actual domains, just similar examples)?

No end user actually have the time and interest to go and check the email I'd. Just to answer your query when end user goes to that email I'd than they do not see anything as nameserver of registrar is being used...
Couple of example of email I'd are:-
[email protected]
[email protected]

 

[Windoms]

Can I have a clue of your headings??
If I want to outbound
Losangelesdesignfirmer
What I personally did was just to write
Los Angeles design firmer as the subject of the mail.
Does it makes sense this way?

@Kamaldeen here's my guess.
He said

4 things actually matter...
1. Domain name which u r selling
2. Asking price of the same
3.Subject line as that would make the end user open your mail
4. Signature , as it creates trust factor.

If you are not spamming and you are contacting the right end user like a Boston plumber. If the subject is BostonPlumber.com, he is obviously going to open it because he's going to see it's something relevant to him, or someone in his industry trying to link up with him. If you are not spamming and contacting the right user than I guess the best subject is simply the domain name.
With other companies you might change it. Like if you are contacting abccompany.com's CEO because you own abc.com, obviously the title could be abc.com is for sale! I guess thats just logic and creativity.
Adding for sale might not be good if you are just fishing for leads in a particular industry as they might just skip and not be interested.
@rohitgoyal please confirm.
I wouldn't personally share my own exact subject line templates if they are sophisticated. Might issues with spam filters.

Don't ask too much. So much information was given that you guys are resorting to ask silly questions.
<<Should I add my photo as signature?>>
<<How can contact an end user whom their email has already full?>>
+ people asking 10 point questions with ANYTHING THAT CROSSES THEIR MINDS..
@rohitgoyal if you answer anything it will only get worse.
''What font should I use.''

 

[rohitgoyal]

If I have a domain which would be a great purchase for a company, and I send an email about it to that company, what would be the response rate. I don't mean sale, just a response. In my experience response rate is like 1 percent, and doesn't lead to a sale. But as long as I can get a response (a measurable reaction), I don't care whether there is a sale, because a response would count as valuable feedback.
If someone says everything is ok but price is a little bit high, then this is almost equal to a sale. Or if the buyer says, how much did you pay for this domain, how much profit do you plan to make, is all this fair... still I can discuss it. There is no communication at all. I suspect this hapens because spam filters don't correctly.

I don't like giving unnecesary info. For example I don't give a phone number, or address, or even name. Just domain name, email, and how to make an offer, and why this domain is good for them, and why they don't need to trust me at all etc. Is this why I don't receive any response. They will buy my domain, not me. They will get the same thing at the end whoever is selling it.

Thats not a right approach. You need t understand a simple thing that you are a salesman and you are approaching others to sell your product. If they dont trust you than they wont buy from you. Lets be practical that trust is major factor especially in online transaction as there is no face to face conversation.

 

[rohitgoyal]

Hello @rohitgoyal

Lets Say You Have More Than One Domain For The Potential Customer...

Example:
NewYorkSeo
NewYorkSeoAgency
SEOAgencyNewYork

Would You Include All Domains In The 1st Email?

Thanks In Advance.

No first mail would be for one domain only. Once deal is finalized than we can offer them other domains related to their niche. If multiple options are provided in first mail than client gets confused and reduces the chances of closing the deal.

 

[varmuk]

Title need to be changed
Rohits's Method of outbounding,
So that people can search easily

 

[rohitgoyal]

This needs to be pinned somewhere. Great post and info for questions we see repeatedly.

Thank you. Please feel free to add any additional points which i may have missed out.

 

[NamesNewbie]

@rohitgoyal This should come in handy when I next try my hand at outbound again.

However, I don't understand one thing. You talked about calling prospects, but being from India, isn't the accent a problem when calling people in the US or other western countries?

 

[rohitgoyal]

Very interesting business process you’ve set up.

Taking your business a step further, have you ever thought of providing outsouring service? I would be your first client. Just a thought.

No I haven't planned or thought of providing outbound service and there are couple of reasons for the same.
1. Outbound has a fixed cost involved irrespective of the fact that whether domain gets sold or not and most people want to work on commission basis which is not commercially viable.
2. If you outsource outbound than you start expecting to have sales right from first day. Outbound doesn't guarantee sales , it just makes the process faster ..
3. Couple of people have started outbound process in the past and for whatever reason they haven't continued for long.

 

[Windoms]

Well if I train them to start of their own than who gonna take care of my bread and butter... one got to be realistic in such cases....
I have helped lots of guys in namepros and among my friend circle to set up their own outbound set-up but I don't mix business with personal relation

Well if you are training them to find leads with the domain in mind you are already teaching them how to buy the right domains for the right customers lol. Perhaps you're still early and it hasn't happened yet but it's inevitable as all they need is a prepaid card and little money.

 

[rohitgoyal]

Very well-said. This is basically the secret to outbound. The difference between those who are successful at it and those who are not is that experienced investors feel comfortable negotiating starting with "no."

It also helps to analyze your "no" response, and to consider all the details. With experience, you can imagine a profile of the buyer and attempt to work it out from there.

Be polite and concise. Always thank the buyer for responding, end things amicably by respecting their choice if it doesn't work out, and leave your contact details. You never know who might come back in the future.

I completely agree that we should respond professionally even if there was no deal. It has happened with me that client came back to me after couple of months inquiring if i have any other similar domains related to their niche. I did have few sales this way.
Further when we are professional than client remembers you and there is opportunity for working out some other deals in the future or cross pitching other products.

 

[rohitgoyal]

When the target price is low to mid XXX I always include the price and I always include that the price is negotiable. You may leave a little on the table but most potential buyers won't even respond if there is no price because they think you are just another domain squatter asking $50,000 for a $500 domain.

Include a reasonable price and watch your sales increase.

Normally i dont include price in the initial mail and only send price along with details regarding the domain when they inquire about the price. As per my experience it helps in keeping spam level low. Further if i send mail to 50 people than hardly 2-3 people would enquire about the price so personally i dont find it right to send price to everyone.

As for negotiation well i mention that only when client says that they are not interested at my price.

 

[rohitgoyal]

You can have your opinion but I have sold hundreds and hundreds of domains using this exact strategy. As they say there are many ways to skin a cat.

I havent tried your strategy yet but i guess it may work. Everyone has their own strategy and different strategy work for different people.
I have couple of friends who price geo domains at $1000-$4000 range and even he makes decent sales. I tried the same but it didnt work out for me so i now i stick to my own strategy.

Though thanks for your suggestion and i would surely try your strategy next week just to see hows the response. I will surely update you regarding the same as well.

 

[rohitgoyal]

Which fires me a question... How do you handle emailing? I suppose, you have some sorta system where your staff sends emails from your company email box, but only you have an access to the incoming emails?

I have already mentioned that in my main post. I use multiple customized email id created at bigrock.com to send mail. All the mails are forwarded to my primary mail id and i receive all the responses.

 

[rohitgoyal]

@rohitgoyal - Great thread thanks for sharing!

Couple of questions....

1) What do you consider to be a reasonable monthly volume?
2) Do you share the above number in your first email that is sent to the prospect?
3) What (if any) promotional info is provided in the first email?
4) Do you share any benefits of them owning the name? If so what are they?

1. I am not clear on your first query.. are asking about monthly volume in terms of sales , mails or domains ??
2. No my first mail do jot have any price.. I share price along with details regarding like domain like registrar , search , cpc etc when they enquire about the price.
3. Well first email should be short and to the point. You can surely promotional like you also provide web development , seo etc etc.
4. Well yes sometimes I do provide benefit of owning the domain especially when end user is not sure whether they should purchase your domain. There are few case studies related to benefit of having emd domains and I share the same.

 

[Windoms]

This is the most helpful thread I've read in my life

 

[loredan]

This is a great thread with lots of useful info for people starting with outbound! I think it should be sticked somewhere here for future reference.

Great work @rohitgoyal , thank you for sharing!

 

[rohitgoyal]

When the target price is low to mid XXX I always include the price and I always include that the price is negotiable. You may leave a little on the table but most potential buyers won't even respond if there is no price because they think you are just another domain squatter asking $50,000 for a $500 domain.

Include a reasonable price and watch your sales increase.

Hi,

I am experimenting with your idea of including price in the first mail itself. We are experimenting with 30 domains right now and would update the outcome which should be there in my hand by friday.

 

[UmerK]

Just thought would she some light on 60 day lock being a deal killer, I have had several deals which have been or still are dead due to the lock and confusion surrounding transfer procedure.

However, recently I started using Undeveloped and their pages, I have not been doing much outbound for a month or two but have already sold 2 domains through outbound that were still in transfer lock.

For anyone who is trying to do outbound for the names still within lock, I would recommend to try them for few names, interestingly end users instead of replying to my email decided to go to the page and make an offer or click buy now.

@rohitgoyal The email you are basically domains that are hosted with bigrock? So you use their servers and everything? You mentioned 100 custom emails, are these on different domains? If yes, are these on specific domains you are trying to sell or more of portfolio websites? Another registrar that works great for free personalized emails is Alpnames!

 

[rohitgoyal]

I am sorry to bother, but I do not understand why you have created 100 emails to use for contacting buyers, can I have some made up examples to understand better, are the emails utilizing the domain name your selling ? or does using so many different emails avoid spam issues. or is it so you have industry related domains for various sectors related to the ones your marketing.

I have purchased 100 domains separately just for outbound purpose.

 

[rohitgoyal]

When a potential buyer goes to one of the 100 domains used for outbound emails to check you out what do they see? Can you give 1 or 2 examples of the types of domains you use for sending outbound emails (not the actual domains, just similar examples)?

Let me be frank and straight forward in this matter.... Email I'd doesn't matter at all in case of normal domains where your asking price is xxx or xxxx , it is important just to convey your message to the right end user.. 4 things actually matter...
1. Domain name which u r selling
2. Asking price of the same
3.Subject line as that would make the end user open your mail
4. Signature , as it creates trust factor.

You can use any customised email.I'd and in any extension apart from extensions like .xyz etc as it's famous for spamming

 

[Domains - Wanted]

...I don't like giving unnecesary info. For example I don't give a phone number, or address, or even name. Just domain name, email, and how to make an offer, and why this domain is good for them, and why they don't need to trust me at all etc. Is this why I don't receive any response. They will buy my domain, not me. They will get the same thing at the end whoever is selling it.

With your attitude, keep your day job. Don't even think of starting up any kind of business

FYI: business, trading, sales is all about the seller, trader. Especially in services, online sales and selling... domain names, which, to most people out there, amounts to selling them... nothing! Asking to pay an outrageous price to boot!

 

[Domains - Wanted]

@rohitgoyal if you answer anything it will only get worse.
''What font should I use.''

Yeah, been waiting for someone to ask that!

 

[rohitgoyal]

I have emailed over 10 companies regarding my domains that they should be very interested in.

Didn't get any answer from anyone yet ( it's been a week )

what am I doing wrong?

I just email the mail I can find and this what I send -

Title - XXXXXX.com Domain is Available

Text -

Hey,

I own the domain XXXXXXX.com and I decided to sell it, came across your company and thought maybe you would want to purchase it.

Let me know if you are interested.

Thanks,

Yair.

Pray to God , thats all you can do....

 

[Domains - Wanted]

Thanks, I never get offended and I didn't get offended now. That guy who I quoted was very irreverent and just laughed at my question for no reason at all.

Well, to start off, lets clarify iconology... I was crying , not laughing. FYI, this is laughing: And this icon (the facepalm) symbolizes helplessness, despair. Irreverent? Well, now that you mention it, yes, I was being irreverent. Perfect word to describe your example outbound email, you'd posted.

This thread is here to help people with outbound, isn't it? that's the reason for why I commented.

Fair enough. The help, as I understand it having spent a few years here, is to be frank and critical, not to pat newcomers on the back (or revere them), nor to spoonfeed them.

And again, my communication skills is great..

Which brings us to the point very nicely. IMHO, your communicatiin skills are anything but! From starting off your sales letter disrespectfully with "Hey"... to your unprofessional signature, the tone of this great communication of yours makes me want to cry. There's nothing to laugh about here.

No sense in my going into how to do this halfway properly. There's another one of Rohit's great threads kicking around here, one where he'd actually posted pretty good samples of outbound emails for different occasions and audiences (targets)

 

[Domains - Wanted]

For non-U.S. folks attempting to sell lower quality domain names like these at low, sub-$500 USD prices:

Most American business people do not enjoy receiving unsolicited emails from people who are clearly not American. Regardless of the domain name being offered, most of the example email copy in this thread would quickly be dragged to the trash, deleted, and/or otherwise marked as spam simply because of the non-American English language and grammar used that sounds very awkward to an American business person. If you use too many British English spellings, stilted grammar or phrasing, or awkward punctuation and run-on sentences, your unsolicited email is dead on arrival. In short, the American business person is not going to trust you at all. Whether or not you think you are spamming, you surely read like a spammer to such an American. Say goodbye to your U.S. sales!

Pro tip: Draft up the email templates you want to use for your outbound program. Then, hire a U.S.-based editor for $750 to $1,000 (an investment in your business!) or ask an educated, U.S.-born-and-raised friend (ideally, someone who works in sales or marketing in the U.S.) to edit or re-write entirely your draft email templates for you. Then, use those email templates in your outbound communications to American business people. Even if you sign off with a non-"American sounding" name in your signature (always have a complete signature to help build trust!), the well-crafted, American English should help you build more trust with the recipient and make more sales, at the margin.

Until you do, more and more of your outbound emails will simply be deleted or manually flagged as SPAM and your business aimed at American companies will not grow.

Call it racial profiling, language profiling, unfair profiling, but that's about the nuts and bolts of it! This is one of the best pieces of advice in this thread

Earlier here, I had already tried to explain the importance of employing native English as opposed to conversational, but broken English variety. People here seem to know better and then keep on posting, asking why no response to all those dozens or even hundreds of email they'd sent out

Hopefully, this new voice will give you all much needed food for thought

Will you get results if you ignore this piece of advice? Sure, you will. But you could achieve so much better response rates if you take pains to craft a message in Native English, preferably Native American English...