discuss Outbounding issues

[topdom]

I wouldn't buy a domain if there are not multiple potential buyers (usually at least hundreds) already, or unless it would be a great choice for at least one party.

In the first case, when there are many potential buyers, how many would you contact?

Do/should you contact by email, or via their web site (messaging using contact us form), or live chat, or making a phone call. I'm strictly against phone calls. Which one works the best?

When there is only one potential buyer known, but for that buyer it is a great choice, is it a good idea to contact? Buyer may think: You bought this domain just to scam me. To avoid this, I would choose a low price, to create a win-win situation. So it would be more like a favor than a scam attempt.


When contacting potential buyers, should we use different emails? They may mark us as spammer, and then our legitimate messages may not reach inboxes of recipients. It is very time consuming to create new emails. Some require phone numbers, most require javascript which I hate, and Yahoo is also forcing it in since early 2000s.

How about using a broker. You tell a broker:find a buyer for this domain, and act as middleman. Maybe a potential buyer is a trademark owner, and you want to avoid tm issues; or it is a big company and broker knows how to approach that company. I think even a 50-50 deal can make sense, if the broker is honest and has good communication and negotiation skills.

 

[gilescoley]

The single most important thing to do in domaining IMO

Find out who the decision makers are (CEO, Business development manager etc)

Check the company exec team on their website, Google, Bloomberg, yahoo finance etc and find someone who can make the call on whether to buy the domain from you.

Don't just contact the WHOIS address of a company and think you will always get a reply, there are ways (Google, LinkedIn, Bloomberg, Yahoo Finance etc) you can find out who the top execs are and contact the right person

Once you have found that out, find out the company's email format (ie [email protected]) then its easy to work out their email address

It doesn't matter how good your name is or how perfect it is for the company, if you send it to someone who doesn't see the immediate value or doesn't bother forwarding the email to the correct person, it will end up the trash folder and the time and effort you have put in is wasted.

I made a 32K sale by getting the right person. 2 weeks before I had emailed the same company using the WHOIS email and got a "not interested" reply from her. I emailed the WHOIS contact because I couldn't find the right person to contact

Good Luck

 

[topdom]

Wow, this is what I never do. How about using live chat, and saying to the customer repsesentative, "I have this domain for this price which would be great for your company,..please submit this offer to your boss/ceo"?

People you mention can be very busy. They would receive 1000 emails a day and delete almost all without reading.
Who is the right person: sales dept, marketing dept, customer service, business proposal, legal dept, other? I would choose marketing, because a good domain means marketing advantage.

if I email L.Page or S.Brin will I get a reply: I'm sure not. Google doesn't even respond adsense inquiries, and sends publishers to their public forum, and only a generic useless responses can be received there, at the best.

What I would do: There is a contact us link at every web site. I use the form to send email, and not give a phone number, or address or even a name, just email, domain, and all info they need. I can't know know where the message goes to but I know one thing: it will be totally ignored, and most likely it won't be read.

 

[gilescoley]

Wow, this is what I never do. How about using live chat, and saying to the customer representative, "I have this domain for this price which would be great for your company,..please submit this offer to your boss/ceo"?

Live chat will just get some customer service person who more than likely wont have a clue about domains and who wont contact the boss about something he has no idea about. Dont use the contact form on their website, this will more than likely be ignored as well

Focus on these, Legal Dept, General Counsel, CEO, Marketing Director, Business Strategy, Business Development Manager, these are the people that can see the value in a domain. Even if they receive a 1000 emails a day, if you have the domain in the subject line and the domain can benefit their business, they will more than likely read it.

Say you wanted to email Cisco

Google "Cisco Exec team"

First results are these, everyone who matters,

https://newsroom.cisco.com/exec-bios

https://newsroom.cisco.com/ciscoleadership

Then google "Cisco Email format" and have a look at the first 3 or so results

Then you can work out the email address of the person to email

Hope that helps

 

[topdom]

Complicated but may be worth trying.

 

[gilescoley]

There is nothing complicated this, its googling a few words, it takes less than 5 minutes to do, thats not much when it could make the difference between a 5K or 10K sale or no sale at all.

A lot of time you dont have to google the email format, just look on their website, they often have the email format there, you only have to find one persons email to work it out, then just change the name

 

[Elad n]

Complicated but may be worth trying.

Complicated?
money dont fall from the sky , u got to work and got to work smart.

 

[topdom]

Difficult thing with the strategy above: I will have to guess emails using patterns instead of copy-pasting them.

I prefer selling many names quickly for 3 figures, to selling a few for mid 4 figures.
Also most of the time I will be dealing with an average size business rather than a big corporation.

There seems to be a lot more to learn, like what to say. I have my own way of saying things, but it may not work. I sold over 100 names in 15 years, but none as a result of outbounding so far.

I may consider hiring someone for this purpose, either because I'm not good at it, or because there is a tm issue...If this thing is easy, why doesn't everyone do it? For example Sedo could do it. Can we hire Sedo as outbounding broker? I don't think so. Does .global registry sell premium names this way..lots of questions come to mind.

 

[gilescoley]

Difficult thing with the strategy above: I will have to guess emails using patterns instead of copy-pasting them.

There is no guessing, companies use the same format for everyone, you are really making this harder than it should be, its a 5 minute job

So if you see [email protected] on their website, Google, LinkedIn, Bloomberg, Yahoo Finance etc and you are trying to contact Rick Gilbert, his email will be same, [email protected], try it, it works every time

The easy way to avoid TM issues is to just not register trademarked names

https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks-application-process/search-trademark-database

 

[topdom]

All generics are trademarked. I wouldn't buy microsoft.life, or apple.computer, but I would buy apple.online. So I buy TM names, and not (necessarily) with intention to sell to an owner of that keyword as TM. It is not a crime to register a TM keyword, but if you use it in an abusive way, like selling fake products, then it can be a crime. If you buy radisson.info this is ok, but if you also buy sheraton.info you can lose both.

 

[gilescoley]

All generics are trademarked. I wouldn't buy microsoft.life, or apple.computer, but I would buy apple.online. So I buy TM names, and not (necessarily) with intention to sell to an owner of that keyword as TM. It is not a crime to register a TM keyword, but if you use it in an abusive way, like selling fake products, then it can be a crime. If you buy radisson.info this is ok, but if you also buy sheraton.info you can lose both.

You need to read through the legal section. Registering something like Apple.online is what gives us investors a bad name, unless of course you are selling the fruit online, which is very unlikely

 

[Kate]

If this thing is easy, why doesn't everyone do it? For example Sedo could do it. Can we hire Sedo as outbounding broker? I don't think so.

Doing outbound is not the problem, the problem is inventory. Simply put, the vast majority of domainers do not own domain names that could interest Fortune 500 companies. So why even do outbound ? That would be spamming.
Don't put the cart before the horse.

 

[garptrader]

Before considering outbound marketing make sure the domain is of high quality so that the end user will be compelled to consider an acquisition. Yes, most end users don't value domains like they value other services. But if what you have to offer is comparable to what they could obtain for reg fee, why waste the effort?

On the other hand social media profiles are more likely to bypass the email spam filter and reach someone within the organization that at least has connections to a decision maker.

 

[topdom]

At least half of my domains is worth at least 1K to someone. Say I buy for 10, it can sell for 1K but if I don't do anything, this happens with 1 percent chance. So potentially I have 1K x 1/100 = reg fee worth of domains. Then it becomes a big dilemma whether to renew them or not. If instead of 1percent, I sell 10 percent, I make a very nice profit. Inventory is good, I mean there are a few which can sell for 5 figures but many which can sell for 4 figures and almost all can sell for mid 3 figures. So I try to sell average quality domains to average size companies, say ones with 10 employees and 1M profit per year. They would win if they buy, and my outbounding wouldn't be spam, althoughsome of them would think so.