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| Jeff Gabriel and Frank Schilling Show Off Their Wall of Dreams Fulfilled |
"At the end of the day we are selling dreams, and hope for prosperity. The majority of sales have been to small businesses, entrepreneurs and start-ups. Today, most businesses, products or brands start with a domain and I want our brokers to capture this excitement and help them achieve their goals."
As Super Bowl Sunday approaches, I am reminded of great
closing-minutes plays that produced some of the games’ most exciting finishes.
Top among them is how Eli Manning turned what was about to be a sack in the
final two minutes of Super Bowl XLII into a 32-yard pass to David Tyree, who
completed his leaping catch by pressing the ball against his helmet. “The
Helmet Catch” kept alive the scoring drive that led to the Giants' 17–14 upset
victory over the New England Patriots. Steve Sabol of NFL Films called it
"the greatest play the Super Bowl has ever produced." NFL Films later
called it "The Play of the Decade (2000s)."
Of course, none of that would have happened without
the trade that brought Manning to the Giants from the Chargers. That might have
to be called the deal of the decade.
Well the team-building deal of the domain decade is
Frank Schilling luring Jeff Gabriel to the Caymans to take command of DNS
sales. With competition getting tougher each season, Frank is determined
to build a perennial Domain Bowl winner. So he acquired the industry’s once and
future MVP, who has left his former team behind, packed up and taken the family
to the Caymans to win domaining’s big one. This is the perfection of domaining.
And for Gabriel the play of his life.
According to DNJournal, “Jeff will be tasked
with taking sales numbers and the DNS platform to the next level. He will focus
on increasing sales for both Frank’s owned and operated names as well as those
of Frank's InternetTraffic.com domain monetization clients. Gabriel will have a
lot of tools at his disposal to make that happen, including the current highly
proficient DNS Sales Team and the many solid relationships Jeff has established
throughout the industry, some of the strongest of which were made during his
time as President at DomainAdvisors.”
Jeffrey Gabriel first came onto my radar
in 2010 when I read that both Mike Berkens and Frank Schilling— who
collectively have the best sales skills in the industry— had turned over
end-user leads to Jeffrey to close, believing he could be more effective than
they were in selling their domain names. And sell them he did, making Jeff
their go-to guy for closing lucrative end-user sales.
It was all part of Jeffrey's best year
ever, delivering $23 million in sales for Sedo during the last 12 months of
2010, including the highest priced single domain sale of the year and ever, (Sex.com for $13 million), the highest .ORG sale on record (Poker.org)
and smaller more routine sales for Jeff like IPO.com at $500K (co-brokered with
Matt Rosebrook), and Lottery.net for $220K (for Frank Schilling).
Accordingly we voted him one of
Domaining's Most Fascinating People and he was the subject of our cover storyin December of 2010.
Since leaving Sedo for
DomainAdvisors, shortly after the profile was published, Jeff, now 32, worked
with Tessa
Holcomb and Gregg McNair to build the company's brokerage division from the
ground up. They brought in people from outside the industry and taught and
managed them from scratch closing $12 million in the first year, $15 million in
the second, and leaving the company better off with a strong hand-picked team
to carry on.
Carry on they will, as week after week
DomainAdvisors’ hard work is a big contributing factor to Domain Name Sales
results. If you our follow reporting on DNS, you have no doubt noticed that
DomainAdvisors has had a hand in an increasingly large number of high dollar
third party brokerage deals completed on the DNS platform.
"It's great to look back and say I helped build
that team," Jeff boasts. "At Sedo I really learned the basics of the domain
business. Having the opportunity to work along side Tessa Holcomb and Gregg
McNair taught me the art of negotiation, business strategies and really what it
is like to be an entrepreneur. That is a time in my life I will never forget.”
Now Jeff is calling the sales plays at DNS, where Frank
Schilling has invested millions of dollars of his own capital as well as
decades of experience to create an industry-leading sales and monetization
platform. Jeff says that even in the short time that he’s been with DNS, he sees
how Frank’s success comes from his complete attention to detail.
Jeff says a perfect example of this is a small sales
feature that is available to all DNS clients: “cookieing” clients on sales
pages. When a buyer clicks on the “for sale” link on a parked page and makes an
offer, their browser gets a cookie. From then on if the buyer returns to that
page they will go directly to the for sale lander instead of the parked page.
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| Jeff with Dr. Mark Whiteley, Buyer of Complex Medical Domain Names |
All Jeff asks is for brokers to take some time to
really get familiar with the DNS tools and platform. "If used properly the
DNS system can be the most powerful sales tool a Domain Broker could have. It
tracks emails sent, phone calls made, provides detailed reporting and will even
follow up with potential buyers," Gabriel explains. "We have all the
tools you need to close a deal right on site. You can learn a lot about the
buyer and their possible motivation for inquiring about the domain. We help you
become a more informed seller. It gets you in rhythm to get sales and be
successful. We will also offer training on how to use it."
While Frank’s tool out of the box offers a
no-commission self-service sales process, professional sales forces, like
professional athletes, are far superior at their trade than inexperienced
sellers suggests Jeff.
“A full time professional broker will earn far more
than the commission they charge you,” he says. "Try to sign with broker
who knows how to use the platform and work as a team with you, the seller. Become
friends. Set goals and discuss strategy. Talk, text or Skype regularly. Build a
relationship."
After our interview I realized this is an area where I
have been negligent in doing MY part to make the most of Domain Name Sales.
After all, you’ve got the most skin in the game, why get lazy now?
Six months ago Frank Schilling confided in me that he
had “big plans afoot.”
Now I know that what he was referring to was that,
unbeknownst to me at the time, Gabriel was already in his sights. "I am
trying to build something to unlock the value of small name portfolios,"
Frank told me, "and the vision that small individual domainers have.”
"For example," Frank shares, "I have a
sales platform that generates 700 leads a day. Rather than bring 100 sales
people to Cayman to unlock the value of 7 leads each, what if I could build a
system to send leads (from DNS) to 100 brokers overseas."
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| Mirrored Ball in DNS' Cayman's HQ Remindful That The Art Of Negotiation is like Dancing TheTango |
Now dressed more casually in a button down shirt
and jeans, Gabriel-by-the-sea and far way from those harsh New England winters
ponders these challenges in his new Caymans office with mirror ball turning
from the ceiling as an ever expanding and enthusiastic team
bristles with activity around him.
“We attribute our success on this platform to using
the tool to its fullest extent, but also picking up the phone and talking to
the people who want to purchase these names,” says Jeff. “At the end of the day
we are selling dreams, and hope for prosperity. The majority of sales have been
to small businesses, entrepreneurs and start-ups. Today, most businesses,
products or brands start with a domain and I want our brokers to capture this
excitement and help them achieve their goals. Why build a brand when you can
buy one?”
For the end users who acquired these names from DNS,
this January and are already turning them into profitable and productive
businesses the answer to that question is obvious.
138.com NDA
Bearfield.com $4K
Bondtech.com $5,000
BusinessExchangeGroup.com
(Schaffer)
Bulkid.Com (Schaffer)
CampsAndCottages.com $3-5K
Casadelcafe.Com $3,900
(redirect to http://www.casadelcafe.com.ni/espano)
Catalyzed.Com $3-5K
CellphoneCases.cm $75,000
ChicagoChannel.com $5-10k
Cholesteroldrug.com
Chopit.com $10K
Contus.com (Kauffman)
Coupletalk.com $5-10K
Dailyhit.com $8,000
DeskTopThemes.Com (Schaffer) $3,500
Eljefe.Com (Kauffman)
EXma.com
FireFlies.com $20-50K (Royal)
FXX.com $60K
Fxx.net $19K
GardenBenches.com $10-20K
HomeSchoolingCurriculum.com $10k
Izabel.com $25k
(truncate Izabellondon.com)
IronDeficiencyAnemia.com
JuicerRecipe.com$7.5K
LessonTrack.com (Schaffer)
LondonNightOut.com $3,500
LoveablePets.com (Schaffer)
Lubrificante.com $3-5K
MealReplacementBars.com
MealReplacementShake.com
MorningPeople.com $5-10k USD
MorningtonPeninsula.com
MovieTheMovie.com (NDA to
CIROC)
Networkserviceprovider.Net (Schaffer)
NewsFeeder.com 3-5
Ngames.Com $50,000 (redirects to
Game321.com)
NoteTrader.com $2,000
OpenFeed.com $15K
Ovace.com $5-10K
PizzaStudio.com $3-5K
Popupmusic.com $5-10K
RadioBuy.com $15K
Raspberryketones.Com (Kauffman)
Rivopharm.com $3-5K
RoadOne 25k
Rollbar.com $11K (redirect
to http://ratchet.io/?rollbar)
SalleDeBain.com $60K
SearchResults.com $41K
SecureScan.com $10-20K
ShepherdPups.com $3-5k
Specta.com$15k US
StarLauncher.com $6.5k USD
SuitCover.com
TaxiBooking.com $5,000
Temt.com $40,500
ThyroidtTest.com 10-20K
TripleShot.com $3-5LK
Trinys.com $3,500
Trueage.com $10-20K (Morinda Pharma)
UltimateWear.com $3-5K
UnlockYourBrain.com $3K
USAmanagement.com
Varel.com (Kauffman)
VehicleInsure.com (Schaffer)
Videoproduktion.com $5-10K
(redirect to http://www.daleyelama.com)
WashingtonDCRealEstate.com $28,500
WalkinTubs.com $69,000
Wellton.com-5-10k USD (Dreamwiz)
WestCoastWeddings.com
Wspn.com $9,500
YourBigIdea.com (Kauffman) $7K
(backs up Super Bowl’s big GoDaddy bet on matching .CO)
Xmarkets.com $5-10k
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While DNS’ monthly results thus far seem impressive, with 100s of thousands of names like these just waiting for dreams to bring them to life, we haven’t begun to see what’s possible when DNS' true potential is unlocked. Gabriel holds the key.
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The Super Bowl is the ultimate destination for NFL
greatness, and every so often, a play is made that turns into the stuff of
legend.
These memorable moments originate not only from the
star players, but also the unknown heroes.
In time the world will discover what I already know as
I enjoy Sunday’s big game— with the hiring of Gabriel, Frank Schilling
hooked up on one of the most unbelievable Super Bowl plays the domain industry
has ever produced.
(Note: All sales DNS house unless
otherwise noted, prices ranges only until confirmed by DNJournal, Check
THERE on Wednesday. Non-prices are usually under NDA.)
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