During the process of engaging into an “offer, counter-offer” exchange about domains, certain behavior is indicative of the direction that the deal is heading to.<\/p>\n
While some offers might start low, they soon acquire a certain pacing: the amount or rate of increase.<\/p>\n
Usually, the buyer starts low and seller counters at the highest level, willing to negotiate down.<\/p>\n
When the buyer engages in a game of trickle increases, increasing his offer by amounts disproportionately small to the initial figure, that’s usually an indication of aggressive bidding.<\/p>\n
Very rarely it’s an indication that the buyer has reached their offer ceiling. Buyers that are determined to buy are also able to negotiate well enough in order to bridge the difference of the seller’s counter-offer.<\/p>\n
In other words, a buyer that after two or three negotiation exchanges does not bring his offer close enough to the buyer’s counter-offers should be considered a negotiation “gamer”.<\/p>\n
The seller’s approach should be flexible enough to engage in a sale, if needed of course. Because on a given day, domain sellers might receive multiple offers for the same domain that differ vastly in the amount offered.<\/p>\n
Regardless, it’s never wrong to simply say “no” and cancel the exchange, once it’s clear that the potential buyer is gaming his negotiation instead of moving towards a mutually acceptable price. What might follow would either be another round of negotiations initiated by the potential buyer, hopefully with an offer much closer to the asking price, or at least, peace of mind that the domain was not undersold.<\/p>\n
Those moments when the end result was “close, but no cigar” for the seller, are valuable in order to expand and improve on one’s negotiation skills for selling domains, and beyond.<\/p>\n