Do you hear it? The quiet after a buyer says no. You refresh your inbox, stare at the thread, and move on to the next thing. That's where money gets left on the table.
I'm guilty of it too. For years I'd get a rejection and just... absorb it. File it under "people are cheap" or "they don't get it" and keep scrolling. Somewhere around 2019 I started actually writing them down. Now I write down everything. Not because I'm organized, I'm really not, but because I kept making the same pricing mistakes and couldn't figure out why.
Turns out rejections are data. Good data. Not the kind that changes your day, but the kind that changes your next price, your next conversation, your next renewal decision.
The Five Flavors of No
I sort rejections into five buckets. Nothing fancy. I just need it to be consistent enough that I can spot patterns later.
Budget mismatch. The classics: "too expensive," "we're bootstrapping," "can't justify that spend." I write down what I quoted and what they countered, if anything. Do this long enough and you'll notice certain niches balk at $7,500 but convert at $4,950. Others live above $25k or they're not serious. You won't see it in one rejection. You'll see it in twenty.
Not the right fit. This one sounds vague because it is. "We went with a shorter name." "Legal flagged it." "The team just isn't feeling it." But vague doesn't mean useless. These tell you about market preferences—length, spelling risk, whether a two-word brandable even competes in that vertical against acronyms or dictionary words.
Timing. "We'll revisit next quarter." "Fundraise first." "Just changed direction." Timing isn't a loss. It's a calendar entry. Honestly, a third of my later wins started as timing rejections. The trick is logging them properly and following up without being annoying. Which I'm still working on.
Operational friction. Procurement hoops, payment rails, escrow aversion, "we can't buy without a PO." These aren't objections to your domain. They're objections to your process. Fix the process—offer familiar escrow, payment plans with guardrails, a clean transfer checklist—and these flip more often than you'd think.
Trademark concerns. If their counsel is nervous, I don't argue. I note the concern, make sure my own risk screen is solid, and move on. Get enough of these in a niche and I stop acquiring that pattern entirely. Life's too short.
What I Actually Log
I keep it short. For every serious inquiry that ends in a no:
Buyer type (founder, agency, broker, corporate counsel, or "no idea")
Industry or niche, however they described themselves
What I quoted and what they countered
Which bucket it falls into
A few signals, "preferred -ly suffix," "asked about trademark twice," "pushed hard on payment plan"
Next action, "follow up Q2," "lower BIN to $4,950," "archive and forget"
I use a CRM for this, but I'll be honest, I fought it for years. A spreadsheet works fine. The point is turning rejections into something you can sort through later, not a vague feeling that "people don't like longer names" or whatever story you're telling yourself.
What Pricing Lessons Actually Look Like
Budget pushback is obvious. The nuance is what matters.
Here's something I've noticed: SMBs respond better to odd-priced anchors. $4,950. $6,750. Funded buyers are the opposite. Round numbers read as confidence to them. If I get a string of "too expensive" at $8,000 from small teams in a vertical, I'll test $7,500 with Make Offer visible. If I get "too expensive" at $25k from PE-backed rollups, I raise to $35k and remove Make Offer. Totally different game.
Another pattern that took me way too long to learn: the first counter on a quality two-word .com usually predicts the ceiling. If they open at $1,500 on something I've sold similar names for $9–12k, this is either a six-month project or a pass. I don't waste calendar time anymore. I offer a respectful floor and move on. The no goes in the pile, and the pile shapes future BINs.
Fixing Your Landing Pages with Rejection Data
"Not the right fit" is usually a landing page problem. If I hear it twice on the same name, I rewrite the page.
I keep it to three things now:
What the name signals. "Short, clear, pronounceable. Reads well in pitch decks, easy on the phone."
Where it plays. "B2B SaaS, fintech, operations tooling."
Some kind of proof. "Similar names from my portfolio were acquired by companies in [category]."
That's it. No hype, no jargon. One tight paragraph and a clean call to action. If I'm getting "legal flagged it," I pull the category examples and keep it generic.
The rejection told me what to fix. I just had to listen.
When No Should Change Your Renewal Decision
We all have blind spots. A string of rejections helps cut through them. Here's how I think about it at renewal time:
If I keep getting budget pushback at low anchors like, the name can't clear $2–3k after real attempts, it's probably not a $10k asset. Either reposition it or let it go. I've held names for years hoping the market would "get it." The market got it fine. I was wrong about the price.
If I keep getting timing rejections with strong signals,same buyer type hitting the name multiple times over six months, I carry it. That activity beats comps every time.
If multiple unrelated buyers raise the same trademark concern, I don't renew unless organic traffic is unusually strong. Three separate people don't all have bad lawyers.
If the only obstacle has been payment friction or contract language, I keep the name and fix my process. Not my price.
Rejections give you the courage to drop average names. And sometimes the conviction to hold winners a little longer than feels comfortable.
Following Up Without Being Annoying
I'm still figuring this out, honestly. But here's what I do now:
90 days out, a quick check-in. "Still relevant? Happy to hold the price we discussed through [date]." Short. No pressure.
If they mentioned a fundraising round, I note the month and congratulate them when I see the news. No pitch. Just the congrats. The domain in my signature does the reminding.
If they ghost after that, one final note: "Moving a few names to Buy-It-Now at month end. If you want a courtesy hold, reply by [date]."
That's it. Polite, not needy, gives them a path to say yes. Also keeps me from living in my inbox refreshing threads that aren't going anywhere.
A Few Real Examples
The $7,900 lesson. I had a two-word .com priced at $7,900, perfect for SMB software ops. Three founders in eight weeks came back with $3–4k counters. I kept trying to negotiate each one up. Wasted a lot of time.
Finally I just set BIN to $4,950 and removed Make Offer. Sold in thirty-two days.
The rejections were the market talking. I was just too stubborn to hear it for two months.
The trademark pattern. Had a trendy health-adjacent name. Good cadence, decent traffic, I liked it. Four solid inquiries. Three of them explicitly mentioned trademark concerns.
I wanted to keep it. The pattern was undeniable. I sold it wholesale and stopped acquiring that naming construction entirely. Probably saved myself from renewing a whole cluster of similar risks I would've talked myself into.
The agency feedback loop. Twice in a row, an agency passed on a snappy two-word because "client wants shorter." Stung a little, but I wrote it down.
I relisted three similar names with cleaner consonant clusters. Tightened the copy to "ideal for product lines and campaigns"—something they could put in a deck for their client.
Same agency came back six months later for a related project. Closed in a week.
The no told me how they pitch. So I wrote for their pitch, not mine.
What Actually Changes
You stop guessing. Your prices start making sense to buyers, not just to you. Your landers say more with less. Your renewals get less emotional.
And your pipeline develops a rhythm. Timing rejections become scheduled opportunities instead of threads you vaguely remember from last quarter.
Most people keep rejections in their head as a feeling. "Buyers are cheap." "Nobody gets it." "Agencies are flaky." I did that for years.
Feelings don't turn into better decisions. A few lines of notes do.
Look, I still screw this up. I still hold names too long because I like them. I still price based on vibes sometimes. But I screw it up less than I used to, and the rejections are why.
A no isn't the end of the conversation. It's just the part where you start paying attention.