Two people, one company : A fun negotiation technique

It’s not rare for inquiries to arrive in waves, for the same domain name.

Perhaps the domain became popular overnight thanks to the news, or a technological breakthrough.

Researching one’s domain prior to sending out a quote, is a must.

What is rare, however, is for two or more people from the same company sending out inquiries about the same domain.

This is often a sign of internal miscommunication, and once you realize that, you can use it to your advantage.

Here’s how it works.

Assuming that both email addresses can be traced back to the people working together to acquire your domain – either due to the corporate email address, or by performing research – do not communicate with each one separately.

Caution: you must be 100% sure they are both/all from the same company.

By emailing them as a group in the same communication, your approach is to emphasize the value of your asset. Your goal is to stir up the internal interest by letting all parties know that you can tackle “big fish”, even when it all comes to feed at once.

What happens next, depends on the circumstances, and your willingness to pull back, while they settle who is the boss in the game.

After discussing this in private – something that apparently did not happen prior to reaching out to you – typically one of the persons involved will get back to you assuming the role of the “negotiator.”

At that point, you can define your strategy, knowing that if Mr. Negotiator fails, the other party can be used as an alternate negotiation resource.

If you hit a wall and the negotiator flat out refuses to reach your expected price, you can mention that perhaps the other party will be interested in discussing this further, in order to come to a mutually agreeable price.

More often than you think, Mr. Negotiator’s ego will expand to accommodate your asking price, or will at least come closer; if he’s set up with failure, he’d rather complete the sale than give the satisfaction to a colleague or a subordinate of completing the deal on his behalf.

And this is how you close deals with parties that didn’t plan their strategy well enough in advance.