End User Approaches - How do you run the sale?

[accelerator]

I'm going to start marketing my domains to end users properly, I'm building a "sales site" and I'm going to start sending out letters. I want to invite offers over a given amount from end users. I was just thinking of the mechanics of handling the sale. I'm thinking of giving end users a month to reply with their initial offer, then contact all end users and notify them of the high offer so far. It's the mechanics of the sales process I need to decide upon. What do people find works best?

Thanks

 

[Edwin]

I haven't done much in the way of approaching end-users, but you might want to try specifying a fixed price and stating "first come, first served" while also emphasizing which of their competitors have also been approached. Make the price on offer available only for a "limited period" e.g. 2 weeks.

That way, they have a sense of urgency, they also know who might beat them to the domain name, and they know exactly how much they will have to get the management team/board of directors/partners/whoever to agree to spend on the name...

 

[accelerator]

I will definitely include in my letter a page that says "This domain is being marketed to: ..." and then include a list of all parties I am contacting.

I think I am going to go with an "offers over" approach, rather than a "fixed price" approach. This is because I don't want to discount the possibility of a bidding war. I think going for a "fixed price" could be bad for long term profitability and if I say "offers over", at least they know what my minimum price is. Perhaps I should include in the letter that I am prepared to sell at this offer price if no further offers are received.

I'm not in a hurry to sell anything, but you are right, setting a time period is a good idea. I think maybe a month would be required to allow time for this to reach the directors and a decision to be made. Anything less and I wonder if the company would have time to prepare their offer, I'm not sure.

My main concern is handling the end stages of the bidding process if multiple parties are interested.

Rgds

 

[doodlebug]

When I contact end users I either get a reply within a few days or non at all so maybe shorten your time limit to 2 weeks, it could save you hanging around for nothing :|

 

[Edwin]

If you can find a process that yields steady sales with relatively little effort, you're almost certainly better off going with "fixed price". Saves 99% of the administrative stuff, since it's a yes/no decision, then all you have to do is invoice and take their money.

Assuming you're starting with a large pool of generics, you're almost certainly going to make more from multiple fixed-price sales (assuming decent initial pricing) which can be set up and managed very easily, rather than spending all your time juggling offers, questions, counter-offers etc. at different stages of the "close" (I assume that if you run things for a month, for example, you'll have to be managing several sets of enquiries at different stages in the process)

 

[accelerator]

Thanks guys. At the moment, I am thinking of doing just one domain sale at a time. I do think you have made some good suggestions, but I do have the luxury of not really needing to sell, unless at what I feel is the right price. One of the things I am doing is building a site on each domain as well, so if I sell it, all well and good, if I don't, it's another site added to the long term revenue portfolio.

If anyone is interested, you can PM me for the first url I am going to try to sell using this technique, and I'll let you know my initial "offers over" price as well.

Rgds

 

[whiterabbit]

I guess it depends who you're targetting for sales. If its large corporates then you may need to allow more than 2 weeks. Nothing moves quickly in large corporates - even if they really want it they may take 6weeks+ to get relevant approvals, etc.

Smaller firms can have a quicker deadline as the decision-making process will be much quicker. So, you may want to allow duration of sale to be a variable that you can change depending on the domain.

WR

 

[accelerator]

I guess it depends who you're targetting for sales. If its large corporates then you may need to allow more than 2 weeks. Nothing moves quickly in large corporates - even if they really want it they may take 6weeks+ to get relevant approvals, etc.

Thanks for your thoughts. Yes, I will be contacting large corporates, and I agree that such companies will need longer.

Does anyone else have an opinion on how long after approach a large corporate needs to make their offer on a domain for sale?

Rgds

 

[JMOT]

Thanks for your thoughts. Yes, I will be contacting large corporates, and I agree that such companies will need longer.

Does anyone else have an opinion on how long after approach a large corporate needs to make their offer on a domain for sale?

Rgds

Would it not be better to actually build the site up and market it before approaching the end user? If you are in their space making sales & visible to their organisation you will get a far better response than simply a "for sale" letter...

Not to mention domain value + earnings multiple.

Just a thought.

 

[accelerator]

Would it not be better to actually build the site up and market it before approaching the end user? If you are in their space making sales & visible to their organisation you will get a far better response than simply a "for sale" letter...

Not to mention domain value + earnings multiple.

Just a thought.

A site has been up for many years, but it has just recently been worked on to indicate the domain is for sale and to increase its visibility. I am going to link to a lot of the potential buyers from the site, so if they are alert they may notice it in their logs.

For the first url, the earnings multiple isn't such a good indicator here because it's not really a consumer product, more a specialised industry.

Thanks for the comments.

Rgds

 

[whiterabbit]

Having worked in a large corporate doing this sort of thing for years, I can tell you that linking to them won't reach the right people in most instances. You'll probably only alert Brand Protection who will send you nasty legal letters.

Getting to the right people will be quite difficult, and I think you may have to end up cold-calling and asking for the people in the firm who look after their website. Be prepared for this to be multiple teams often media relations, recruitment and other areas are completely separate to the main web team.

I'd suggest that you might be better off finding out the name of someone you're sure is in the right department and then potentially sending that individual a letter (formal headed paper, etc) make it clear within the letter that it's not a bulk mailing and that you have researchd them and their competitors. Give them a simple call to action that doesn't commit them, e.g. send an email if you may be interested.

This is all they'll really be able to do in a shortish time period (2 weeks) but will at least give you a steer if you're flogging a dead horse or a go-er. Then its up to you what the next steps are but for the corporate in terms of working out how much they want to pay and getting approvals, etc. I'd allow them 2 months for the larger corporates (it really is that slow).

Hope this helps,
WR

 

[accelerator]

Hope this helps,

Yes it does, many thanks.