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Sending New Counter Offers To Old Offers

Chris.C

Top Contributor
Like all investment decisions I like to size things up before I go ahead and outlay my money, and this is no different when it comes to domain renewal costs. I often find myself asking questions like:

  • How much revenue is this domain currently earning me?
  • What are the chances I'll develop this domain in the near future?
  • What are the chances that someone will be willing to buy this domain for my asking price next 24 months?
  • If I was to put this domain on the AMA tomorrow what are the chances it would sell for at least the cost of renewal?

And obviously if the answer to all the above questions is "low" then I need to seriously question if I renew a domain.

However sometimes I have domains which aren't earning a great amount presently, aren't high on my development priority list and I don't think would do well on the AMA, yet I have had someone who has previously made a semi-reasonable offer on the domain in the past 2 years except we didn't find middle ground on price at the time.

Anyway, a few days ago I had a domain that was coming up for renewal which I was uming and ahhing about, but I decided to email a buyer who had contacted me 18 months ago via email and made an offer.

At the time he was offering $300 for a domain that I wanted $900 for. So we didn't reach agreement.

Anyway with the renewal coming up I guess you would say I was more willing to sell than usual so I sent him an email saying I'd be willing to sell the domain for half of what I was previously asking at $450 if he bought before I renewed the domain.

Long story short he agreed and both parties were happy.

This got me thinking, I received dozens of offers via NetFleet in 2012 that didn't result in sales, but I know when it comes to renewal time I always reflect on past offers and start thinking "I was probably being a bit greedy counter offering with that and I sure would like to send them a new offer to see if they are still interested"...

And I figured now that NF makes commission on catalogue sales it would be AWESOME if we were able to send those people new offers if we decide to drop our selling price at some point in the future so that we might be able to salvage the deal and make it a win win win situation for the buyer, seller and NetFleet.

As it stands if negotiations stall on NetFleet that is usually the end of it, which I think is really unfortunate for everyone - the buyer, seller and NetFleet.

And I think there is real potential for many of these past leads to be rejuvenated if the seller is willing to come down on price not to mention that over time it seems that the perceived value of domains tends to increase probably making past buyers even more willing to buy.

Thoughts?
 

AnthonyP

Top Contributor
I'd put the domain into an aftermarket auction, with a reserve price of $450 and a buy now price of $600
 

snoopy

Top Contributor
I'd put the domain into an aftermarket auction, with a reserve price of $450 and a buy now price of $600

Think it is probably a bad idea for it to put put into an auction in that situation unless it is really going to get strong bidding from other people. Better off just contacting the buyer with a new price.
 

Chris.C

Top Contributor
I'd put the domain into an aftermarket auction, with a reserve price of $450 and a buy now price of $600
Whilst I see what you are getting at, as I mentioned, not all types of domains sell well at auction.

:cool:

In my experience there are very few industries that get retail buyers turning up regularly to auctions, and if retail buyers aren't turning up then the low price bids create bad perceptions about a domain's value.

And a lot of retail buyers don't want to buy at auction and you make them very unhappy when you try to force their hand by pushing it to auction.

Not to mention there is a lot of potential for that strategy to blow up in your face if you push the domain to auction with no current offer on it, as most retail buyers tend to first sit back and watch the auction (or worse don't watch it at all because they don't have time to sit there and watch domain auctions because then need to tend to their businesses).

Then if the retail buyer doesn't bid meaning that the domain obviously doesn't meet the $450 reserve because just a couple of domainers are bidding on the domain (or worse it gets no bids at all) then you have a buyer who was previously willing to pay $450 deciding that they are now only willing to pay $50 - $100 because they know you can't sell to anyone else in the short term or worse they are questioning whether they should be buying it at all if others aren't willing.

Trust me, I've tried the "pushing domains to auction" strategy before in the hope of fast tracking and maximizing the sale value of a retail buyer and in both cases I tried it I got less than what I was originally offered AND I pissed the buyer off A LOT.

If I've got a domain that I know there are lots of buyers for who are happy to bid at auction it's a completely different story.

But these days if someone wants to make and offer via email or netfleet's catalogue that's the way I do the deal.

Anyway, this doesn't solve the problem of wanting to contact previous bidders to rekindle their interest.
 

Chris.C

Top Contributor
OK once again I'm staring at a domain whose renewal is coming up, and for which I received a modest $XXX offer about 10 months ago, but at the time the buyer and I didn't find middle ground.

Either way, once again I'm feeling "very negotiable" AND before you tell me to put the domain on the AMA with a reduced reserve, I'll have you know I have already done exactly that a couple of months ago with no interest.

It's decent domain, but it's in a non-tech field, so it's the sort of domain you have to go hunting for a buyer and as a result will never get a result on the AMA and I'm seriously regretting not being more negotiable with the last buyer.

Can you PLEASE allow us to submit counter offers to people who have previously made offers on domains!

It's such a simple change but I reckon it will double your sales in the catalogue because sellers will be able to recontact buyers when they are willing to sell for less.
 

AnthonyP

Top Contributor
I have just finished updating the loading of the auctions so that if a domain attracted interest in the Catalogue or previous bids in a turned in auction then all the interested parties are made aware that it has just been added to the auction and they can have another go. Perhaps this will help

Remember retail buyers get alerts when keywords or domains they are interested in are added to the auctions or the catalogue so they don't need to be logged in daily to get to the auction.
 

bunstar

Top Contributor
oh really. how do i get notifications of specific keywords?
I can't seem to find it in the options anywhere? maybe i'm blind
 

Chris.C

Top Contributor
I have just finished updating the loading of the auctions so that if a domain attracted interest in the Catalogue or previous bids in a turned in auction then all the interested parties are made aware that it has just been added to the auction and they can have another go. Perhaps this will help
Great to hear!

That said, it still isn't a substitute to being able to send an offer to a previously interested party.

How come sellers don't have this option?
 

Chris.C

Top Contributor
This very simple feature would get NetFleet dozens, if not hundreds of sales in its first week!

Any update?
 

eBranding.com.au

Top Contributor
From a buyer's perspective, this can be annoying though.

I have brokers contacting me several times inviting me to make a new offer as the seller may have 'reconsidered their pricing expectations'.

The reality is that if we couldn't reach agreement on price a year ago, I've very likely moved on (purchased another domain etc).

I think it's sensible having a time limit on offers.
 

Chris.C

Top Contributor
The reality is that if we couldn't reach agreement on price a year ago, I've very likely moved on (purchased another domain etc).

I think it's sensible having a time limit on offers.
Oh I agree.

It's more a case of often I look back over my old offers and my counter offers and 12 months later I'm like "I'd do it for much less than that today" or even "I would have accepted their final offer today", yet there is no way to inform the previous buyer of this.
 

Chris.C

Top Contributor
With @Jonathan Gleeson arrival at NetFleet I thought I would bump this thread back up to both offer some food for thought and restart the conversation on some of these past NetFleet projects that stalled.

Would love to hear people's thoughts or if it is in NetFleet's development pipeline.
 

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