Selling a domain to a corporation: You must work harder

Having just closed the escrow for a domain sold to a corporation, I can only attest to this: selling domains to a company takes more effort, than when the buyer is an individual.

In my days as an employee of corporations, I experienced the events of “Office Space” almost verbatim; middle management was always in disconnect with both the top and bottom departments.

While I can’t complain about the sale outcome, it still took a week from the day of the agreement at Frank Schilling’s Domain Name Sales, until we closed at Escrow.com.

Parenthesis: Escrow.com is probably the single most important service asset for domain investors and the entire industry.

Back to the corporate efficiency issue, or lack thereof.

When middle managers have to communicate with web masters and account administrators, there is definitely lag; if, like me, you are used to doing things at the speed of fiber, get ready to slow down.

Negotiating with a savvy manager is always refreshing, and in this case, money wasn’t the issue. Still, it’s frustrating when you hear the words “I’m not really in a rush” and you have to go with that. 😀

TGIF!

Comments

  1. A week? That’s lightning fast for a domain transaction outside a forum. I’ve had individuals take a few weeks, even a couple months, to complete a deal.

  2. Domains – Trust me, I close deals in a lightning fast fashion, and a week past the agreement is far too long in my book. 😀 Unless there is a specific mention to delay payment to a preset date, I’ve closed deals as fast as Escrow can handle it.

  3. It happen to me too. One big company wanted to buy my premium domain, and we agreed with the price….but takes 2 months to get approval from the head department…… At that point, I became frustrated….. I decided not to sell to them and developed the site instead…..

    They keep on emailing to me to want my domain…I refused to sell to them….unless if they offer me 5-10 times the price….just to chase them away.

  4. The mechanics of internal liaison within corporations are much slower – no doubt about that. Often, a number of different people, in different departments, need to get involved…

    This really shows itself when negotiating the sale of the domain….Often, there has to be several people that have to sign off on the budget for the purchase. Often, the ‘internal corporate champion’, that wants the corporation to buy the domain, needs to persuade several other people up the line that it’d be a good buy for the company. This takes time.

    I’ve heard of high-end sales taking up to a year to agree, close, and complete the transfer….

    Be realistic, people….If you want the deal – work with them, help them – and, be patient.

  5. @Rayy.co: Imho, that doesn’t make any sense. Why not complete the deal especially since a price was agreed to? Wow.

  6. @SL
    We only have preliminary agreement on the price on emails with one of the departments, but I haven’t issued a copy of “sale of contract agreement” for final sign up.

    For about 2 months, I was sending emails to find out when they would like to go ahead with the deals, but they keep on saying the “big boss” are interested, but I have to wait for the head department to give final approval.

    At that time, I waited and waited and waited for next 2 months, no news…..then, I assumed they changed their mind or they were not interested….so I decided to develop the mini site to monitize the site or to get Google indexed instead.

    Because it was too long to wait for the deals and I lost interest in selling the domain….. At the same time, I am very interested to develop the site for my real online business.

    I will sell it at a higher price as the dot com premium domain value will always increase over time….

    I am glad I didn’t sell the domain as I like to keep it for my own use for real online business.

Speak Your Mind

*