From a $90 buy to a $12,000 sale on Concert.io, the education behind the sale |171
selling on concert.ioThe third article in our Behind the Sale series on the Efty blog is now live. I interview domain name investors who reveal all the information on a recent sale in this series. You’ll discover how they made their purchases and sales, how the talks worked, and much more.
Zach Bard, a developer and domain name investor from the American city of Williston in North Dakota, and I are conversing right now.
Zach, give me a little introduction to yourself.
Although I have always focused more on the development side of the business, I have been developing my domain portfolio intermittently over the past eight years. That being said, I’ve always preferred.io as my “weapon of choice” since it was constantly in my field of attention. I know that.com is “king” and nothing else, but all I can say is, to each their own. I still prefer.com and own a number of them, but I’ve bought and transferred a lot of.io’s to GitHub for start-up campaigns, customers, and major corporations with high ROI’s, so it’s been a nice match for me. It’s similar to an unsaturated market in terms of acquisitions, and as a result, I’ve been able to purchase what I consider quality brands early on and even now for a reasonable price, reducing my risk of loss. using this CCTLD specifically.
What is the name of the domain you sold?
On April 23, 2017, I sold Concert.io via my efty marketplace www.io.domains.
What did you pay for the domain and how much did it bring in when you sold it?
On August 1, 2016, I placed a straight backorder for it for $90 via the registry (NIC.io), then I sold it for $12,000 eight months later.
Can you describe the process used to negotiate this domain name?
The first proposal was for $1,000. I replied, informing them that if the offer was at the upper limit of their budget, it would, regrettably, be too low to accept, but that I would be open to talking if their budget allowed for a greater offer. Responses on this form were helpful. I needed to know who I was speaking with (a domainer or end user). They replied by informing me that the pricing wasn’t at the high end and by requesting additional information about what I wanted in exchange for the name. I responded at this point with $18,000 and a succinct reason for the asking price based on some prior premium.sales connected to io. They responded to my reply with a convincing $10,000 offer. I replied thanking them for their strong offer, stating that my target price for the domain was $15,000 and that we were almost there. I then inquired as to whether there was any more opportunity for negotiation. They reacted by saying they thought their offer was “fair” and that they would maintain their position at $10,000. I replied one final time, accepting their hard offer and restating my “target price” of $15,000, and I then requested if we might equally compromise at $12,500 in order to divide the difference. They offered $12,000, which I accepted and paid for. Escrow.com was used to complete the deal since that was how the buyer preferred it.
Zach, thanks for sharing. Would you want to add anybody else, please?
In the end, it turned out that the buyer was a big corporation, and they did an excellent job of hiding that while we were in escrow. Instead of a business email, a disguised/personal email was used to contact me. In my experience working with these larger corporations, this is a standard practise, but it’s important to know if you’ve never closed a contract with a customer of this size. The start-to-finish procedure you put in place for your negotiations has a significant part in your ability to close a transaction, as I have discovered through time via trial and error. Having tools like minimums installed in your workflow established on your “make offer” pages to aid in determining who is on the other end as an illustration. A greater price tag may be obtained by being approachable and building credibility with the asking price using sales history, statistics, etc. I always aim to price the domain fairly and make it clear in my sales pitch that if the customer decides to move their emphasis later on and sell the asset, they should have no trouble recouping their investment. Once more, I’m sharing a sale and some strategies that, for me, have repeatedly worked in the hopes that they may do the same for others as they move on with their own endeavours. Ultimately, you must invest the necessary time and Through forums and chat groups, conduct some research, study, and pick the brains of other domainers. I have respectable sales to back up my strategies, but I never consider myself an expert or even vaguely assert that I know it all because I am constantly learning new things. If you are not a member of NamePros, I urge you to sign up so that you may read and learn from the forums. Participate and pose inquiries. There is an abundance of experience available. Observe DomainSherpa’s video’s/interviews. The bottom line is to participate in your classmates’ practices and do your homework. It would have saved me a ton of time and money if I had done it sooner. Last but not least, I want to express my gratitude to you for giving me the chance to share this sale and to the team at Efty for creating such an excellent platform that enables individuals like myself to create a fantastic PROVEN marketplace with a commission-free platform.
Disclaimer: Efty is not in possession of user sales information. Therefore, we only provide data on sales that have been made public. Read about our complete governance here.