Negotiation strategies (1.Viewing)

So, I generally prefer to set a price and eliminate or at least seriously minimize the back and forth. One concern when dealing with brokers (especially large brokerages like the godaddy/sedo/etc that generate a lot of inquiries) is that they have your past negotiations at their fingertips and learn your patterns. If I'm setting a pattern, I want it to be "this guy doesn't negotiate" and prevent as much time-wasting back and forth as possible - so cut to the chase. My biggest sales I've ever made, I've rarely negotiated even a penny away. I can think of only one where he literally countered at small increments right up to my price. That's almost contrary to what might be intuitive - that you aren't going to walk from a 6-figure offer for a .CA over another $25K or whatever the price difference might be. However, I flip that perspective back onto the buyer, if they're willing to counter somewhere in your ballpark, then they're not going to take the ball and go home when they're already on 3rd base. I mean it has happened, but rarely.

I see many negotiations go like this:

1. They're not even in the ballpark of my price - so I have no incentive to negotiate down anyways.
2. They are in the ballpark of my price, so they're seriously committed to it already and aren't going to walk away over a relatively small incremental price.

In either situation, I have no incentive to negotiate down. I can think of only one sale in the maybe $10K range where the guy got within $1K and walked away because I didn't negotiate anything. The vast majority of times it works out in my favor.

So there are always going to be buyers who feel like they need to get a "win" in a negotiation, even if its a small one. So my question is, do you:

a) price firm from the start
b) price with willingness to negotiate a small win (less than 30% discount)
c) price with willingness to cut price in half
d) go even less and take whatever you get when you feel the buyer is tapped out?

I feel like there are people who routinely go with something like option (c) - which I assume means they always double their real price to start a negotiation and let the stubborn buyers feel like they came out with a win. The only problem I have with that is that people seem to expect that out of ALL domainers.

So I'm curious, what do other people do? Are you concerned about setting a negotiating pattern that can be used against you in the future? Do you generally follow the same pattern every time or mix it up based on desperation for a sale?

Nowadays I'll take most anything I can get, I typically price my domains so I can discount up to 50%. It's no different from the old Bay Days, the client is more inclined to buy if they think they're getting a deal.

I send a buy now link in response to any negotiation. If I receive a second or third email I direct them back to the buy now link stating it's bottom line. I've got better things to do than chatter back and forth.

rlm said:

Do you generally follow the same pattern every time or mix it up based on desperation for a sale?

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Yep, my negotiating strategy depends on how I feel that day.

I sometimes discount my price to make a deal, pay hardball at a very sticky price, or if the guy ticks me off, renew the domain for 2 years and then take it off the market for a year. Mercurial might be an understatement.

I'm the Gus Hansen (poker player) of the domain game.

I find many domains are hard to price, I go off comparables as best I can. Once priced, I usually would leave room for negotiating. Depending how well I am doing financially overall, I would be more or less inclined to negotiate. For example, if I sold a name for $150k US today I am probably less flexible in negotiating for a while.

I like it when the buyer is just willing to pay the asking price, nice and simple, but that is a low percentage of sales.

I have a lot of domains that are just make offer, and I'd probably let some go for a say $1000 offer, but I find I get the $800 or $1000 offer on a name I might want $2000 - $5000 for and for some reason am stubborn about letting it go. Many of us have hundreds or thousands of domains, the other thing to think is do you still want to have all those domains at 65, 75, 85 yrs old?

Most potential buyers I've had in the last few years didn't want to go $500 or $1000 higher on their initial $500 to $1500 offer. Just no willingness to go up at all. I've slowly started adding more of my lower range names at DomainEasy with BINs of $1250 to $1999, with option to contact me, to see if that generates anything. A few sales per month in that range would be just fine for me.

Good discussion. For higher-quality names, I would rather be consistent and let the buyer come up. For lower-range names, BIN with a little negotiation room probably saves time.

NiceNIC said:

Good discussion. For higher-quality names, I would rather be consistent and let the buyer come up. For lower-range names, BIN with a little negotiation room probably saves time.

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But as RLM will tell you, that delineation is all in the eye of the buyer.

IOW, there a lot of seemingly-crap domains that sell for a lot of money because the buyer wants it and has a lot of money. And a tons of ultra-premium domains just sit and gather dust.