Elliot has a really, really good post on his site of which I encourage everyone to read twice, or maybe three times!

However, a mini-debate has developed near the bottom in the comment section between David and Jeremy on the subject of .tv names.

Let’s explore further.

IF… you had a million dollars to invest and you were forced to spend all of it with a gun to your head to make a purchase between two domain names, of which, you and I both know that’ll never happen in real life, but humor me here for a second, which of these domain names would you buy?

IncomeTV.com

OR

Income.tv

If you like, use any example, I don’t care.

Remember, use your knowledge, gut feelings and try to truly pretend you’ve got a million bucks on the line that could affect your life and your children’s future…

WHICH AND WHY? (Don’t say both!)

I contacted a teddy bear company to inquire and establish an account for buying wholesale or having them dropship.

This is for the domain HopeBear.com that I had acquired. I’ve seen various types of fund raising “hope” bears sell for roughly $69.

Here’s the conversation with an online customer service rep of this “company” of which I will leave it to you to draw your own conclusion in this economic climate.

–Thank you for contacting The XXXXXXX Teddy Bear Company! Please wait while we find a Bear Counselor to review your question and assist you…
–You have been connected to Shiloh .
Shiloh : Hello, John! Please wait one moment while I review your question. (I had asked about wholesale and dropship for hopebear.com which was used to start chat but did not post) 
Shiloh : Unfortunately we do not.
John: thanks
Shiloh : You’re welcome, John. Is there anything else I can help you with today?
John: Any suppliers That you could recommend to handle 10,000 plus orders
Shiloh : I apologize, but I do not know the names of any suppliers as we make and sell all of our own Teddy Bears right here.
John: k , oh well, I’m a little taken back that there is no effort to secure a large account from me
John: Is this the policy for the company to turn down massive orders?
John: Should I send an email to the owner of xxxxxxx?
Shiloh : If you’d like, you can e-mail us at xxxxxxxxxxxxxx and it will be forwarded to the appropriate party. They may be better able to assist you.
John: thanks…

There you have it.

If I bought 10,000 plus bears at a wholesale price of 20 bucks a pop, thats 200 grand.

There was no interest from the customer service rep to even find any kind of solution to benefit her “company”.

It really doesn’t take much for an employee to kill a company now, does it?

I’m gonna go fix me ice tea now while shaking my head.

Hmmm, what does this mean for domain names?

You can read about it HERE.

BTW – Another article about Yellow Pages of which Andrew from DNW and I share the

same sentiments. HERE.

“This is the very thing I’m working on.

Here is something to always bear in mind.

The prospects human brain shuts down and goes into defense and cautionary mode which leave absolutely no room for introspective and logical thinking ESPECIALLY when they don’t know you from Adam.

Domain names are still a bizarre concept to most endusers.

The key here is to educate them in a non-threatening way.

Remember also, they’re buying “you” not just the domain name.

I’m gonna make a statement that million dollar salespeople do not ever want the world to get comfortable with , and it is this:

(Shortened with my own words)

Repetition breeds familiarity breeds trust.

Here’s an example of something I did in my life years ago that I’m going to start adapting to domain sales:

I was in sales for a janitorial company. I took the above concept and applied it. What I did was to visit 100 businesses over one week. I didn’t do anything. I simply visited them, looked the decision makers in the eye and asked “if I could do anything to help them with their business or solve a problem for them, no strings attached, I just wanted to learn more about the companies I might be able to service in the future.” and left my card and literature.

Thats it.

I came back for another three weeks and simply visit. I didn’t try to sell a damn thing. Sometimes I’d offer suggestions to boost their businesses. I left my card and my literature and sometimes industry newsletters. The suspicions on their part eventually faded.

Soon, something happened.

They no longer became defensive around me.

I got asked to supply bids. Then I got the accounts because they trusted me, they saw me every week, the others? Just once…

I got so many accounts this way that the company (multimillion dollars) I worked for ran out of money for janitorial startup cost for the businesses, not to mention ran out of the commissions owed to me before the invoicing even started… I had to quit, but not before they said that this kind of sales explosion has never happened to them in the history of the company before…

Do you see it?

The biggest mistake is selling RIGHT NOW. The best thing is to start a meaningful contact and dialog with numerous mid-size businesses with healthy revenues (check dun and bradstreet references)

We can send hard hitting understandable facts about domain names, case studies, and the cautionary tale that you’ve mentioned above.

We can send the dnjournal sales report and the some facts about the increase in business for companies that bought the names.

“The domains are priced high because YOUR COMPETITORS WANT THEM TOO, here’s why -” blah blah blah blah.

You’ll be the domain broker with “special insights” about gaining an advantage in advertising with domain names…

It does take a little time and some work.

Do you want rejections on the first calls?

Or do you want to reap benefits at the earliest a few weeks later.

Any questions?”

AND:

“Lets try this for the approach you were taking by contacting adword advertisers.

Call and tell the decision maker you are sending a FEDEX/or manila envelope with some breakthrough info for their business and that their competitors will receive it as well. But first ask this “are you open to new ideas?”, If they say no, thank them and call someone else. It becomes easy when there is no convincing or arguing.

Those that say “yes” Put info in the FEDEX/manila about companies getting more business and cutting their online advertising substantially (to that effect). Call back a few days later to make sure they got it. Wait. In another week send more articles and stuff about domain names and about businesses that “got it”. Also say somewhere in the literatures that businesses will soon wake up and “smell the coffee” which will cause domain cost to skyrocket…

and so forth – you’ll slowly build relationships with the ADword advertisers…”