Agree with this completely and would add three points.
First, it was our view from the beginning that domains needed,
especially in the long term, to be part of a suite of services that
resellers offered in order to be a viable business. In fact, when we
launched it was on the basis that ISPs and webhosting companies sold the
bulk of domain names and needed to be able to do it MUCH easier. I
certainly did not expect there to be a whole segment of resellers who
primarily sold domain names, nor when it emerged did I expect it to be
long term viable. There are so many of you, however, who have leveraged
that into hundreds or thousands or tens of thousands of customer
relationships and now are successfully selling other services to those
customers. This is a credit to you guys, but the point remains.
Second, all Internet services with the exception of pure access (which
is network not application) are just that. Services. Services are
generally not bought on price. Think plumbers. Think haircuts. Again
this is generally the case. There are exceptions (and hundred-year-old
smokers). There is a price sensitive segment of the domain name market.
Empirically it looks to be between 20-30%. That means 70-80% do NOT buy
on price.
Third, customers who buy on price tend to be the most difficult to enter
into long term relationships with. To some of you this may not matter. I
would argue it should. If they come for price they will leave for price
and there is ALWAYS more room in the premium or niche part of the market
than in the price segment. The best description of this I have ever read
was in "Selling the Invisible" by Harry Beckwith.
Just my thoughts.
Regards
myOstrich Internet Domain Manager wrote:
> We've seen a steady exit of our larger clients who think that all
> registrars are as good and smooth as Tucows though our automated
> interface, and realize that by moving several hundred domains they can
> save a little money.
>
> I hope they don't get burned too badly before they come back. Some will
> just live with the service problems and customer poaching that goes on
> with some of the other registrars, however I also know we've lost to the
> price wars and will not ever get a number of them back.
>
> The time of making domain sales a principle revenue generator has long
> gone. If you are not bundling services and upselling your customers,
> you'll not stay in the game as a reseller - at least not in my opinion.
>
> -t
>
-- Elliot Noss Tucows Inc. 416-538-5494 enoss.blogware.com
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