Everyone's strong point is buying, we do it every day. I just got nabbed running out of the grocery store with cookies up front. Cross sell you, up sell you, etc. everywhere when you just want milk.
As far as your selling abilities, learn the steps to a successful sale and try them out with a friend. It doesn't have to be about domains. Start off with something simple that you know and can answer right on (bikes, skateboards, etc. as an example). Even though product knowledge is a small portion in sales, it still accounts for successful sales.
Rehearse your elevator pitch, get someone interested in your product in 30 seconds or less. If they're not, try switching what you say. You will never have a good conversion rate with sales as good is 100% closing in my opinion (which isn't possible). Being turned down is a part of the game. Be outgoing, don't be shy. Don't let the potential customer overtake the conversation- but don't have a conversation- as you're a person and not a conversationalist. When you relinquish control of your sale, you're losing valuable time you can pitch and it goes in a different direction. Take skateboards for example, if you're trying to sell the newest boards, don't let the conversation steer off into the best skate parks unless that is a sales point you make to entice them to buy your product. As an example if they take it over with, "Skate Park XYZ ("SPXYZ") is awesome... blah... blah... blah...", take control before they can finish and distract them with an interest ("SPXYZ") to something along the lines of, "Yeah, SPXYZ is great. In fact, I've ridden this same board there and man oh man do I feel it in my shoes" (or however skaters talk). Get on their level with sales. I've come to the conclusion that a very important role in selling is personal selling, sell yourself and create rapport, then they will listen, like you more and eventually turn into a lead, then a conversion.
Never get on a friend level though. You're there for one goal in mind: ask for the money (a hard close) and get the money (convert them). Then, you can take time later on to up-sell/cross-sell them on other product offerings. As far as domains, you can up-sell them on SEO services by chance to get the perfect domain and then rank it. Cross sell them to graphic designers to create their perfect logo and get a commission, etc. You will lose all of these once you're established in their mind as a friend. They will no longer want the additional stuff, hear about it or want to pay the pricing you're asking for.
Some random sales tips mixed with domaining. Hope it made sense and some others can relate as well.
Good luck with autoresponders.net. I would say it's high $XXX, others may agree or say it's much lower at reg fee+. I have my reasons, as I find development potential in it by creating an SMTP service that users can have 1000s of emails on to setup auto-responders with specific keywords for routing that is easier to use than other e-mail reading software with their rules for auto-responding and received emails. Another model could be asking questions to specific auto-responder email addresses like weather[at]autoresponders.net like, "What is the temperature in New York right now?" and get an immediate response. There are other models that I see this fitting and I like the .net for it as well. (I'm not an interested end user at this time though so please don't PM me trying to sell.)
Best of luck,
David
