Since moving to our home, my wife and I have undertaken various home improvement projects. I am far from a “do it yourself” type of person, so we’ve had a number of contractors come to our house to give estimates for the different projects.
Here’s how the process has gone. The contractor will look at the area that needs work, and we’ll bring the discussion about the job and pricing to the kitchen table. More often than not, there will be some small talk before getting to business, and invariably, the contractor will ask what I do for a living, followed by more probing questions about my business.
Generally speaking, I try to downplay my business as much as possible for obvious reasons. The first time it happened, I had a painter who thought I owned a big Internet company (my “you’ve never heard of my company” line fell on deaf ears). His price was almost 3x the price of the painter we selected who ended up doing a fantastic job.
I can’t criticize contractors for trying to size me up to see how much I can afford and quote a price accordingly. I do the same thing when a buyer inquires about a domain name, although my methods seem far less intrusive, and most buyers wouldn’t even know I am seeking out this information. Sometimes I feel a bit guilty about doing it, especially because there are many people with great jobs who are looking for a particular domain name to go out on their own, but it’s a part of doing business.
If you want to get the most for your domain names, you need to do your research on the buyer, just like most other businesses.