How To Lose A Six-Figure Deal

I am helping an awesome startup that is looking for a new domain for their company. They just raised a significant funding round and now see themselves in the position to spend into the mid six-figure range for a good domain name. The founders are some of the nicest and passionate people I’ve ever met, and this week they told me an interesting story that I thought would be good to share with all of you.

This is the story of how you can lose a six-figure deal and it extends beyond domains to just about anything. I spent nine year closing monster deals for Sonos and if there was one mantra I heard time and time again it was, “Businesses don’t do business with businesses, people do business with people.”

The company was going back and forth between two names before they contact me, once they reached out to me they had narrowed it down to one. The reason why they had dismissed the other domain wasn’t because they no longer liked it, it was one of their two top choices, it was because of how rude the owner was.

When the startup first approached the domain owner it was their first time ever emailing someone about a domain. So they sent a friendly email asking the owner if they were willing to sell and what price they might be looking for. Here’s the response they got:

“If you really wanted to buy this domain you would have made an offer, you should find another domain.”

So they emailed back an offer of $25,000 which to them seemed like a good starting point. Here’s the next response:

“I do not want to waste my time negotiating with you so please find another domain.”

If the owner had just responded back asking them for an offer in the six-figure range, they would have done it, but instead they decided that life is too short to work with people like that. They bought the other domain they were looking at and even spent a bit more than they had planned but they bought it from someone that they were comfortable doing business with.

And that’s how you lose a six-figure deal.

Whether you are selling domain names, rare coins or fine art, turning an interested buyer into an uninterested customer is about as bad of a business mistake as you can make. There are a lot of great people in this industry who represent all of us well and make the rest of the world see us in a better light. However it just takes a few people like this to make smart founders and investors assume that most Domainers are bad business people.

As always I’d love to hear from you, comment and let your voice be heard!

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton