Assume The Other Party Knows

Whether you’re a child telling a parent you didn’t eat the bag of candy or a parent telling a child the bag of candy must have accidentally been thrown away, getting caught telling a lie is uncomfortable. In a business situation, such as a negotiation, being caught in a lie can create distrust and kill a deal.

While some people may feel like stretching the truth or outright lying during a domain name sales negotiation is acceptable, I always assume the counter party has more information than they may have. To me, this means I assume they know prior sale prices, listing prices, and other pertinent information about the domain name. Even though it’s not possible, I also assume the counter party knows about previous offers I received. With that in mind, I won’t say something the counter party knows to be untrue.

On a recent phone call sales negotiation with the most obvious best buyer for a particular domain name, I discussed the valuation of the asset. The prospective buyer proceeded to ask a couple of questions about a previous sale listing for the domain name. Apparently, the former registrant or a domain broker reached out to him to try and sell the domain name. As a result, the prospect knew the approximate price I paid to acquire the domain name and was not willing to pay more. I don’t really blame him since it was a recent acquisition. We couldn’t come to terms on a deal.

In general, most people don’t do much research before trying to buy a domain name. This is a big reason for the $100 offers for domain names that are worth five or six figures. Many people see a domain name they like and submit an inquiry without much thought. For high value domain names, these casual prospective buyers probably aren’t great prospects.

Serious buyers, on the other hand, will perform due diligence before submitting an inquiry. Someone who is serious about buying a domain name will arm themselves with intel. Many will spend time evaluating domain names – sometimes this takes months or even years. Oftentimes, this means they know about prior sales and comparable sales. They will use this information to their advantage much like a domain investor will do the same.

If a prospective buyer has a brand or service that matches the domain name, it is also likely they have been pitched the domain name by someone, particularly if it is or was listed for sale on a platform or with a sales-focused landing page. Whether it was a legitimate broker for a platform doing outreach or a frontrunner, the prospective buyer may have additional intel about the price history of a domain name.

Being untruthful to a serious buyer could be a major setback for a negotiation. I don’t want to do business with someone who is straight up dishonest. I always assume prospective buyers know the history of a domain name, and I negotiate with that in the back of my mind.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

1 COMMENT

  1. As I said many times when you get a low baller, s/he already knows who you are and they know the domain business.
    No idea why you waste the time and energy to explain the value of the domains to the so called fake “ignorant buyer”

    Tell them to buy at this price or F OFF!!

    plain and simple.

    Most probably those low ballers are someone you know in the domain industry and they are trying to test you out

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Recent Posts

Delete the Verification 3rd Nameserver

0
This morning, I received an email from Atom notifying me the nameservers for one of my domain names was not correctly set up. I...

Team Internet and CCI Partnership to Operate .CO ccTLD

0
According to a post on Team Internet's corporate LinkedIn page, the company has been awarded the contract to operate the .CO ccTLD registry in...

45.com Reportedly Acquired for $1.8 Million

0
According to a post on X linking to a press release on CoinDesk, the 45.com domain name has been reportedly acquired for $1.8 million. Lucky45...

Atom Hiring Manager of Registrar Operations

0
Last month, Atom.com announced that has become an ICANN accredited domain registrar. In the blog post announcement, the company briefly shared its big vision...

Jason Calacanis Acquires Begin.com (Update)

2
Serial entrepreneur and investor Jason Calacanis announced the recent acquisition of Begin.com. Jason didn't share the acquisition price, but he did mention this is...