Creatively Bridging the Gap in a Negotiation

For about three months, I had been negotiating with a company to sell a domain name. I had initially sent the CEO an email offering the domain name for sale, and after a number of subsequent emails, we were somewhat close to a deal, but still far enough apart to prevent us from consummating a deal.

Because I had dug my heels in at a certain number, I was reluctant to come off this number. It would have been okay had I closed a deal at that number, but I really was not inclined to lower my asking price. The buyer was not interested in raising his offer, so we were basically stuck. I also figured if I went back and said I would take his offer, he could tell me things have changed and the offer is no longer valid, weakening my negotiating position.

Over the last 6 weeks, we had emailed each other a couple of times to see if either of us was willing to come off of our price, but neither of us were willing to do so. It would have appeared that we wouldn’t be able to make a deal happen since neither of us was willing to move.

Last weekend, I thought of a proposal that would bridge the gap and make a deal palatable for both parties. The buyer would pay his final offer price to me to buy the domain name, and his company would donate the difference between what I was asking and the sales price to a non profit organization.

In this situation, I got an acceptable price for the domain name and was able to help one of my favorite non profit organizations. The buyer is getting an exact match domain name for his business at the price he wants, and he can make a charitable donation to a worthy cause. It’s a win/win/win.

Sometimes when you are negotiating and both parties can’t seem to find a middle ground for a deal, you need to think outside of the box to make something happen. I am happy to sell this domain name, and I am proud that this deal will help a great organization.

Don’t get me wrong, my primary motivation was to sell the domain name, but making this offer helped resolve the stalemate in negotiations and we’re both happy with the result.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

25 COMMENTS

  1. @ Uzoma

    Instead of charity, you can also offer to take some goods from the company if they have products that you like. I’ve done this before and will write about it in a part two at some point.

  2. Funny, I had used exactly that tactic with my negotiation last year with my biggest sale. It didn’t work in my case but I was very happy with sale price anyway and I felt like I was squeezing them a bit hard at that point anyway 🙂

    Great minds think alike 🙂

  3. Really creative! Neither party had to be the one giving up on their entrenched position, and both sides could say they only gave a bit for the sake of the charity. brilliant.

  4. business wise i don’t get Elliot.
    you have gap in price.
    you offer him to pay the gap to charity .
    the deal is done.
    what does the buyer get out of this ?
    A tax reduction ?

    I do not know how it works in the USA .
    if he got a tax reduction then it looks like a win/win/win

    personal point of view: it sounds super. money is nice but not everything. but that is my own personal opinion.

  5. I wouldn’t say this is win/win/win because you have basically still got the same amount yourself making it lose/win/win. A good salesman closes the deal without making such trashy offers. I am starting to think you would have offered him sex if he paid your requested amount and you still would have been thinking of it as a win.

    To the people who think this type of deal is a great new way to do things, you might also be interested in blackmail, extortion and death threats as this is the obvious progression…

    Keep up the writing,
    Martin

    • “I am starting to think you would have offered him sex if he paid your requested amount and you still would have been thinking of it as a win.”

      @ Martin

      Sounds like you’re quite the intellect.

      As I said, his offer was fair enough and I took it. He is happy, I am happy, and the charity is happy. It’s quite obvious that it is win/win. This is a descriptive domain name (non trademark) so clearly there was no need to have the name. I thought that was obvious, but apparently there are some slow readers – well, at least one.

      Keep up the negative comments – hopefully it’s making you feel better about your own failures in life.

  6. Yes, sorry, I actually am ashamed of myself for my comments and actually like your blog very much.

    Congratulations for the sale. When other domainers are blogging with their difficulties in selling names you are still there making great sales.

  7. Apology accepted… In truth, the sale value wasn’t all that great but I thought the idea could be used by others and possibly adapted (taking cash and products the buyer makes for example). In a difficult economy, we all need to think outside the box to make favorable deals.

  8. 1. M. Grace doesn’t live up to his name does he.

    2. Elliot, the second part of your solution was a case of a Domainer doing something GOOD. I applaud that; and encourage all other Domainers to realize that they are all connected to everyone, and everything, on this planet.

    All for one, one for all, or none at all.

  9. All the nay-Sayers seem to be missing the point. Elliot willfully decided to lower his price, something normal and acceptable-who cares why. Then his challenge was not looking weak and he found a great way to get his number, look strong and help others. Odds are the buyer makes charity donations anyway so it was just a matter of re-directing those funds. There was also a chance the buyer said no but re-confirmed his offer and allowed Elliot to accept. Well done!
    Auto auctions often have cars sold with all proceeds going to a charity, maybe Elliot just opened a door to help with the image of the industry.

    I recently was going to let a domain expire but instead gave it to someone in exchange for a $150 donation to Cancer.org

  10. I have worked in the Sales industry (selling network computing products) for seven years and I tell you one thing – If the customer wants a certain price and declared the same, they will usually buy it at that price only, irrespective of our ‘pitch’.

    And if they have declared a target price, they usually don’t negotiate further unless we accept immediately or we wait long enough for another competitor to enter.

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