A couple days back I wrote about the importance of the domain sales email. It’s how I’ve made the majority of my sales. It works. It’s not easy, but it works, sometimes. I’m always surprised when I send out a batch of emails on a domain name and get no takers. I’m convinced I worded something poorly or titled the email in a way that was not intriguing enough to bother clicking on. Email is a great way to reach many people at one time. Or is it?
According to HubSpot, 76% of sales emails go unopened.
Plan B
I am no salesman, let me be honest with you. Never have been and never will be. Not in the traditional sense. I just don’t have that type of personality. I’m in the wrong business, right? I have to let the product and facts speak for themselves, which is what I did when selling a couple of geo business names. Since the names were local towns, I decided to pick up the phone for a more personal touch. Instead of sending out a couple dozen emails, I picked up the phone and started calling. I used my land line because I thought it might be more appealing for the prospect to see a local number coming in.
The first time I tried this was for a GeoPlumber.com name. I decided to pick those plumbers that were paying for Google Ad Words for the term and give it a shot. I called about 5 businesses in the area. I talked to administrative assistance, voicemail boxes, one guy I’m not sure spoke English, and finally a plumber. We talked for about a half hour and I explained to him why I thought he could benefit from the name and some options he could leverage using the name. He asked me to come by so I swing into his office for about another half hour. When I left, I had a check in my hand and a new contact in my list.
According to Grasshopper.com, “Phone calls are 10x more likely to lead to sales.”
I took the same approach with some geo chiropractor names. It worked for a couple of names but not for a few others. In one case, I was invited into the office to pick up a check for the name. While I was there, I noticed on his paperwork that he had a practice in another town nearby. I went home and registered that name. I called him back a week later and made a second sale. I’m not sure if I’m ashamed of that or proud of it. I think I’m proud of it. Grabbing ahold of an opportunity and doing something with it!
I’ve had luck with this approach with geo names, especially those local to me. I plan to implement this approach more often for all my names, no need to limit it to geo names.
I came across a domain called SorryNoCalls.com. It’s an article about a guy who doesn’t often take or make calls. Some of the reasons he gives for not taking calls are the exact reason why you should be making calls. Here are a couple:
3. I have a really hard time saying “no”. – Well, yes, of course. That’s why I want to talk to you on the phone and ask for the sale. Most people have trouble saying no. It’s easy via email, just delete it. But on the phone, there is a real live person on the other side.
4. I’m pathologically polite, and just can’t get the timing right. – Yet another perfect reason. It’s easy to be mean via email. Mean by not reading it, mean by not responding, mean by writing bak with some type of sexual insult about my grandmother and prehistoric animals. But on the phone, people tend to be nice. They “hear you out.” You actually get to make your point. You can talk about monthly searches, Google Adwords, type in traffic, building out another site. You can provide examples of what other companies are doing and the person is actually more likely to listen than if you were to send an email
There are times when a phone call just isn’t going to work. If you’ve been breaking rocks at the day job from 9 to 5 (or longer) you probably have missed the window of opportunity to catch someone during business hours. You don’t always have the option to leave a voicemail or message and to be honest, it’s just not the same as talking directly to someone. The weekend might be another time that phone calls don’t work as well. It’s the weekend and although you’re hustling your ass off, most people are not. There not going to be sitting by the phone waiting for you to call on Saturday afternoon. In these cases, an email is a great alternative.
Give the phone a try. Work on your pitch. Fine tune it. Revise it. Master it. Let me know how you do and your thoughts on this approach.
If you want to catch up on this series, visit 21 days to becoming a better domainer.
