Measure
Before we write to a company, the name has to fit it at every size.
A name that reads well on a shopfront but has to be spelled over the phone does not fit. Neither does one that suits the trade but not the company we are writing to. This is how we decide.
Said once, typed right
The first test is spoken. If someone hears the name on a radio spot or across a counter, can they type it without help? Exact-match names usually pass because they are made of the words the customer was already thinking of: the service, the product, sometimes a place.
We drop names that rely on a clever spelling, a number in place of a word, or a plural that people tend to leave off.
The address they use today
We look at what the company trades under now. A long address with a hyphen or a town tacked on, a .net, a .co, or a social profile in place of a site all mean the same thing: customers who guess the obvious address end up somewhere else.
When a company already owns a short .com that customers know, we leave it alone. The name is only worth offering where it closes a gap.
A figure that can be justified
We price each name once, against what that kind of company already spends to be found: signage, printed material, and the paid clicks it buys on its own words. The figure in our note is that price. We give one number, not a range, and we say so if it is firm.
If the price would not make sense for the company in front of us, we do not write to them at all.
What we will not do
- Offer a name built on another company's trademark.
- Write more than a short series of notes to someone who has not answered.
- Raise the price because a company replied with interest.
- Ask for anything before an agreement is in writing.