Selling Similar (better) Domain Name To An Existing Business

[hayes.domains]

Say a company has a domain name like Xservice.com or Xproducts.com where “X” is a generic non-trademark term such as a personal surname (like Smith) or a four letter acronym.

Say you own the domain X.com, which is the shorter (and usually better) version of their domain. This happened because the age of X.com is older than the domain of the company, and you won X.com in an expiring auction.

Is it ok and/or a good idea to approach the company to sell them your domain?

 

[Theydon]

I have sold names like this but tend to tread carefully, playing down the 'sales' content and keeping it short and to the point. They will either see the value or they won't so there is no point going in on full sales mode imo.

 

[Biggie]

if they already have a domain, why do they need yours?

be prepared to give reasons, other than, because it's shorter.

however, if they contact you, different story.

imo...

 

[hayes.domains]

if they already have a domain, why do they need yours?

be prepared to give reasons, other than, because it's shorter.

For the company in question, their brand seems to be widely known simply as "X" by their customers. I notice on their website the company often just identifies itself as "X," too.

So I think I could say the shorter name is better because it matches how people actually identify with the company?

Another point might be to mention how many additional visits per month it can bring to their website?

I've got X.com parked right now and see it gets a fairly consistent amount of daily visits

 

[Daniel Levi]

I don't see the reason of listing the benefits when their domain is DomainX.com and you own X.com. It's super obvious already why your domain is an upgrade, and if they don't see it right away it's a lost case anyways.

 

[Willox Perez]

A lot of times these big companies are looking to collect similar or better domain names to maximize their own reach as they can forward all of these domains to themselves and limiting their competition.

The key will be how well you are able to demonstrate the benefits of owning the domain you have. Being able to show them those benefits will help in making the selling process smoothly. Make sure to always speak in terms of what they want/need and can benefit from.

- Will

 

[DavidH]

If your X name is good, it pays to be patient and let the X company come to you - you will get a much higher price that way.

I sold an XXX name yesterday to the XXX Group (they bought it at the BIN on Sedo) and I got more than three times the price than the previous YYY name I sold where I approached the YYY company first.