A couple of other ways to respond to a perceived “low-ball” offer.
Yesterday, Konstantinos Zournas published his response to an offer from Marksmen for one of his domain names. Konstantinos asked for $12,500 and Marksmen responded with:
Thank you for your email. Unfortunately, your price is well above our budget for the ********* domain.
We have done some research and cannot find justification to pay that much money for *********. Godaddy appraises the domain at $1035.
[Link to GoDaddy appraisal]
We would like to offer you $1500 for the domain. This is our max budget and final offer. Can you please let me know if this is acceptable and we can have a deal?”
You can read Konstantinos’ response here.
Let me suggest a couple of other responses he could have made.
Response 1: The I-don’t-think-we’ll-do–deal-so-I-won’t-waste-my-time response:
$12,500 is my final offer. Please let me know if you accept or not.
Response 2: The maybe-they-are-just-posturing-so-let’s-talk response:
You probably overlooked it when you sent your first email, but this is Konstantinos Zournas from the blog OnlineDomain. Marksmen is familiar with my blog and has retweeted some of my posts. I understand the value of domain names.
I know you’re aware of the limitations of automated appraisals. If $1,500 is your final offer then we won’t be able to make a deal. My asking price is still $12,500.
Of course, Konstantinos can respond to emails however he’d like. These are just some other suggestions that might work for you.
Jed says
Always take the high road in communication-style during negotiations, folks — Always.
Perfectname.com says
I was happy to read that story to find out that someone in the domain world is a bigger asshole than me.
Daniel says
Worse than low-ball offers are those “Do you consider to sell?”-mails without any numerical indication of interest that still have a fair share of all inquiries I get.
Maybe it’s my fault as a businessman, but I have always thought it to be a no-brainer that virtually every domain is for sale once the right amount of money is put on the table – except perhaps vatican.va
John says
Seek to acquire and practice wisdom, yes, but also be true to yourself. At least without crossing any lines.
Andrew methinks you are high on left-hemispheric, low on right. To each his own.
Mike says
If they lowball me I just tell them to FOAD. Cannot be bothered with those offers.
Pippaz says
You can also simply not respond.
Anonymous says
Could have also said, “We cannot accept your offer. We simply value owning the domain name more than you do at your offer level. If your budget changes, feel free to come back and make a higher offer.”
Steve says
Marksmen has negotiated and purchased IP from my companies on behalf of its clients for 20 years. The company and its staff always have been professional. Some negotiations lasted weeks,.One took 7 weeks. If Marksmen contacts me, II know its client is very serious about wishing to acquire the domain or some other IP asset I own.
C.S. Watch says
Losing your equanimity just tells the other party how much you need the money. It’s literally poor negotiation strategy. Second, if you make yourself unpleasant, the other party will work to see you fail. ‘What could’ve been conducted in a collegial atmosphere has now been f***ed into a cocked hat.’ -David Mamet
How about, ‘Thank you for your interest, but automated estimates are not taken seriously.’ You don’t know if the person on the line is a whipping boy or a 65yo living in constant fear of being fired. What you do know is that they’re going to get blamed if the negotiation fails. Be gentle. Everybody’s got a sack of rocks.
Donny says
Yeah keep it short- (12,500 offer expires in 48 hours) That is it. Not hard.
Snoopy says
I think the 48 hour stuff sounds desperate though. It is a bit like saying you have another buyer about to pull the trigger.
Scott says
Your alternate response, Andrew, is unquestionably, the wiser, more thoughtful choice. However, for those of us curmudgeonly, bullshit-resistant old timers, whose inbox has been pounded for decades with low-ball offers by anonymous bottom-feeders and tire-kickers, it seems somehow fitting that domain professionals behaving badly deserve a kick-in-the-ass response and, in this instance, a public outing.
I ignore 99% of low-ball offers and anonymous inquiries received. If the senders want/need a domain, they’ll return by phone or email with a more reasonable offer and reveal their identity.
In this instance, I might be inclined to do a ‘Konstantinos’ on the offender.
Nick says
I likes Konstantinos’s response better, but that’s just me. Lowball offer for
Marksmen.com made me laugh
mansour says
Andrew,
To make your article worth reading, you should let us know what the domain name is. I do not see that anyone will get hurt. I spent 5 minutes reading the article, and it was waste of my time.
Andrew Allemann says
He didn’t reveal what the domain was
snoopy1267 says
In my view the actual discussion that takes place in these negotiations is mostly meaningless. They’ll have a budget and it has been given by someone “far far away”. Just state a price and me done with it, ignore any questions or requests for explanation about price when you have a large corporate broker inquiring.
All they want to do is fill you with long winded emails and try to convince you the price is way too high (that is their job, to get the lowest price possible)
Konstantinos has got himself in a tizz for no purpose, I doubt the other party care.
Mark Thorpe says
The problem is that they knew they were low-balling him and didn’t care, i’d be upset as well.
Snoopy says
Unless the name was something quite good it is unlikely to be a “lowball”, sounds like he paid a lot less than $1,500 himself, I’m guessing it is a reg fee name or not much more. This is just about expecting more because it is an corporate broker in my view.
Steve says
I don’t want to speculate on the “lowball” offer, but I know Marksmen negotiates to acquire assets from parties, and its client base comprises some of the largest companies on the planet. The clients that purchased IP assets from me via Marksmen were Fortune 50 companies, and another was a startup that recently had closed a Series A round. The final sales prices were high 6 figures and low 5 figures for .com(s), and high 4 figures for an .ai domain.
What’s the cost of filing a UDRP, excluding legal costs? Of course, we can’t make any assumptions without knowing the domain.
Snoopy says
We’ll soon see, because if the buyer does have a 5 figure budget the name will sell given the $15,000 ask.
I tend to think Marksmen acquires a lot of 4 figure (and lower) names as well where it is mainly for brand protection rather than usage.
Robert McLean says
IMHO, domainers are grossly discounting domain names. Endusers have been stealing domain names, at such ridiculously low prices, it’s laughable.
The abject abuse that I have experienced from domain buyers coming from the mindset that domainers are squatters and scum is evidence of a systemic, chronic attack on the domain name sales industry.
Recently, I was offered $5000 Euro for 3DSigner.com
I countered with $25000 Euro. The buyer then offered $10000 Euro.
I accepted $10000 Euros and then received the “I spoke to my partners, and we have decided on another name.”
I can not tell you how many times I have been assaulted by lying domain name buyers.
Robert McLean
steven says
kiss principle… just ‘agree to disagree’
…. and put an expiration on your quote so you can raise it if/when they come back
jmo
Patrick Cowan says
I just recently had an enquiry on a short, brand blockchain dot com that I’ve received many offers on, agreed on a mid four figure price was waiting for escrow when the buyer came back and said we will only give you $150 I graciously thanked them for their interest and walked away,they opened their business with a dot IO not anything wrong with that but this company had secured $1.8 million in seed funding and now .IO may become defunct. Where or if they return for the dot Com the price will be in the high four figure range.