Company’s CEO says valuable .com domain gives it more credibility and help it grow sales.
TeamworkPM recently bought the Teamwork.com domain name for $675,000 and is rebranding its business around the domain name.
I previously caught up with Alex Lerman, who sold the domain name. This week I also had the chance to speak with Peter Coppinger, co-founder and CEO of TeamworkPM, to understand why his company spent $675,000 on the domain name.
Coppinger said it took a couple years to finally settle on a price, but he’s confident the domain will help his company market the first truly-integrated suite of business software.
A couple years ago the company reached out to Lerman about buying the domain. It offered $10,000, then $20,000, all the way up to $100,000. Each time it was rebuffed.
About six months ago, Coppinger reached out to Lerman again.
“I said c’mon, tell me how much you’ll sell it for,” Coppinger said.
Lerman pointed Coppinger to domain comps in the millions of dollars. Coppinger balked, and asked Lerman to just give him a price. Lerman came back with $675,000.
After conferring with his management team, Coppinger accepted the price.
“Owning Teamwork.com gives credibility to our brand,” said Coppinger. “We have a great product but we haven’t been concentrating on marketing as much as we could. This domain is part of strengthening our marketing efforts. I think we can quadruple our sales in the next year with better marketing, and using this domain name is part of that.”
It’s certainly an upgrade from the company’s previous domain name, TeamworkPM.net.
“If you’re talking to someone at a bar about your company, they just won’t remember TeamworkPM.net,” he said. “One of our competitors is Basecamp, which has Basecamp.com. If someone is comparing Basecamp.com against TeamworkPM.net, many will choose the .com because it has credibility and the right image.”
Coppinger said owning such a great .com shows that the company isn’t a flash in the pan and it will be around in the future.
He is aware that new top level domain names, including .software, are being introduced. But he still thinks owning Teamwork.com is a solid investment.
“I don’t think the credibility factor of owning a great .com domain will be eroded, at least anytime soon,” he said.
Owning Teamwork.com is just one part of the company’s increased attention to marketing. Ireland-based Teamwork.com is looking for a Chief Marketing Officer to help lead the company’s efforts.
I bet owning Teamwork.com will help the company in more than just sales; the credibility will also help it recruit a good CMO.
They should receive the “We Get It” award this year, if there is one.
Very valuable insight into why end users pay a lot of money for domain names. It’ll be included in my archived file for future reference. Thanks Andrew.
A business owner and actual buyer finally put in clear terms what many of us have been saying all along about the emerging new TLDs and “.com” going forward. They will serve to strengthen “.com” as the defacto TLD with all the confusion and noise. It’s a no-brainer.
Like WQ eluded above, he really gets it.