This morning, I discovered that DomainNameSales.com has a translation tool, allowing users to translate domain name inquiries that aren’t in English. Although I have received inquiries via email that were in foreign languages (to me), this was the first inquiry I received like this via DNS landing page.
The inquiry I received was from someone in China, and the translated message was “how much?” It was nice to be able to see what the prospective buyer said to me, but having a discussion with the prospect will likely be an issue for me, as I do not speak Chinese. I suppose I could use another translation tool to compose a reply, but I don’t have much faith in the accuracy of translation tools.
Given the fact that the domain name in this negotiation is an English word, I replied in English to let the prospect know he will need to make an offer in order to advance our discussion. Hopefully he will be able to translate my response and submit an offer for the domain name.
One suggestion I have for DNS and DNS-listed domain brokers is to list the foreign languages spoken by their domain brokers. If this prospect does not respond to me, it would be good to know I can hand off this lead to someone who is fluent in Chinese.
I could always reach out to a couple of friends who are Chinese and ask them to intervene on my behalf, but I would rather be able to hand off a lead like this to an experienced domain broker to try and close this deal.
When you receive an offer or an inquiry for a domain name this is in a foreign language, how do you respond?
Hi Elliot,
Thank you for mentioning this feature. Great article as usual.
We try to streamline the process for our clients. When reassigning a lead to DomainNameSales Brokerage there is a comment box.
In that box you can write please assign to Broker who speaks Mandarin, German, Taiwanese, Spanish etc. We will do so internally.
Thank you again.
Jeff, so I can set all inquiries to come to me but I have the option to send them to a DNS broker once I review them?
That’s how I have it set up.
I review all inquiries, and depending on a few factors, I either manage the leads myself or send them to a broker.
Andrew,
Yes you are correct. You can email me @ Jeff@DomainNameSales.com, and I can make sure that is setup for you or you can call me:
1-800-818-1828 x6261
Jeffrey Gabriel
Google Translate
Do you trust Google Translate enough to close a 6 figure transaction without having anything “lost in translation?” I don’t!
Same with me. I get some Chinese emails regarding domains from people searching the whois lookup contact info. I copy and paste their message into Google translate and get their message… http://www.translate.google.com
Translating what they say is the easy part.
Figuring out how to correctly reply is what I find challenging.
Don’t You Worry
The U.S. Dollar is Universal
Just quote the number
I hadn’t set a price for the domain name, and I requested an offer.
Having a Chinese friend is still the best way to go, because there are all these subtle differences in languages. Sometimes a phone call in Chinese can speed up things.
Re. Chinese “How much’/’I want to buy’ type queries.
I get up to 10 per week for certain groups of Dot-Coms and have done so for at least a year.
Before you rush to answer, look at the domain they are writing from.
They are rarely more than a month old since registration, sometimes just a few days old, and all are mass mailings, not just for your ‘special’ domain.
They seem to pick up a reg.-fee drop, use it for a while, then move on to another mail-out domain.
Seems like they expect to get their domain shut down for spam.
Often I get up to 4 or 5 identical worded/misworded solicitations in a batch, for different domains.
I invariably don’t bother to reply. There’s some scam going on, but I don’t have time to work out what it is.
Chinese Pot of Gold ? I don’t think so.