IAM756- Co-founder Specializes in Domain Brokerage

Jeffrey is an expert in domain brokerage and building sales teams. Jeffrey most recently co-founded Saw.com, an industry-leading boutique brokerage that specializes in buying, selling, and appraising domains. Previously, Jeffrey was the Vice President of Sales at Uniregistry (recently purchased by Godaddy), one of the industry-leading domain marketplaces, domain registrar, and monetization platforms on the net. In his seven years with Uniregistry, Jeffrey and his team quadrupled sales dollar volume, delivered the highest average sale price of any marketplace in the industry, and exponentially increased the number of closed transactions. Jeffrey has contributed to over 350 million dollars in completed transactions while in the industry. His most notable sales include The Guinness World Record-breaking sale of Sex.com for $13,000,000 USD and the highest sale ever, Poker.org for $1,000,000 USD.

• CEO Hack: Creating a money list
• CEO Nugget: Live up to gratitude and give genuine compliments to your team
• CEO Defined: Huge responsibility

Website: http://saw.com/
www.saw.com/sell
www.saw.com/buy
www.saw.com/resources

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreymgabriel/

Forbes Council: https://profiles.forbes.com/members/business/profile/Jeffrey-Gabriel-Founder-Saw-com/7c10c2d8-093f-48c3-a1fc-b3ebe7a3f9a5

FULL INTERVIEW

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Transcription

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[00:00:02.20] – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

[00:00:30.30] – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I Am CEO podcast, and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Jeffrey Gabriel of saw dot com. Jeffrey, it's awesome to have you on the show.

[00:00:39.60] – Jeffrey Gabriel

Oh, thank you. Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it.

[00:00:42.20] – Gresham Harkless

No problem. Super excited to have you on. And before we jump in, I want to read a little bit more about Jeffrey so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. Jeffrey is an expert in domain brokerage and building and at building t sales teams. Jeffrey most recently cofounded Saw.com, an industry-leading boutique broker brokerage that specializes in buying, selling, and appraising domains. Previously, Jeffrey was the vice president of sales at Un Union Registry Yep. Recently purchased by GoDaddy one of the industry-leading domain marketplaces, domain registrars, and monetizing platforms on the net.

In his seven years with Uniregistry, Jeffrey and his team quadrupled sales volume delivered the the highest average sales price of any marketplace in the industry, and exponentially increased the number of closed transactions. Jeffrey has contributed to over three contributed over three hundred fifty million dollars in completed transactions while in the industry. His most notable sales include the Guinness World Record-breaking sale of sex dot com for thirteen million dollars and the highest org sale ever, poker dot org, for one million dollars. Jeffrey, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

[restrict paid=”true”]

[00:01:49.59] – Jeffrey Gabriel

Sure am. Absolutely. I'm excited to do it.

[00:01:51.79] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Definitely excited to have you on, and you're doing some phenomenal things. And super excited to hear, a little bit more on how you got started. So could you take us through what I like to call your CEO story, and we'll let you get started with all the awesome things you're working on?

[00:02:03.50] – Jeffrey Gabriel

Oh, boy. So when I first graduated, from college, I was supposed I apply, and get into law school. And I actually got into in the meantime, in the summertime, I started selling loans. And this was back in two thousand two, a time when the first refinance boom was going on. By the time the fall rolled around, I was doing very well selling loans, and I decided I didn't wanna go to law school anymore. And that was, you know, something that's very disappointing to my family, and I stuck with it. And I did that for a number of years. I left, that after about five or six years. And one of the things that were one of the things that I learned about sales, in general, when I sold loans was that you need to understand your product forwards, sideways, and backward in every direction possible. And then whoever your suppliers are or those that are supporting you in some way, it's very important to understand their job to the best of your ability as well.

And it's frustrating to me now to go out and say go to a store to purchase a cell phone and the salesperson there knows nothing about the products that they're selling, and they're not even taking the time. And really surrounding yourself with the resources that are around is what I first learned about loans. And what I actually did was, as I used to, there were loans that weren't approved, and they used to put them in a pile. This was before a lot of privacy laws came into place. Now they're gonna lock them up or shred them, but they used to kinda put them in a pile and they put them out storage because they had to save them for a certain amount of time and things weren't quite digital yet. And I used to open them up and glance at the applications and I'd say to myself, well, this person could get a loan. The salesperson didn't realize that and they put it in the trash pile.

So I started taking those loans back to my desk and calling those people and they used to call me, like, the trash man or whatever. And then people got smart, and they started asking me before they threw them in the piles. But, like, you know, Sarah, do you wanna split this? Do you wanna work on this together? And that helped me. And then I left there, and I thought to myself, I always wanted to start my own business and do my own thing. So I was kinda at a crossroads where I either wanted to start my own business selling loans or try something else, and I decided to sell, like, an HR staffing software or actually more of like access to a site, and that was a company called JobFox. So it was like a Monster. So, you know, you put your resume into Monster. It's free, But the companies that are searching your resume have to pay a monthly or yearly fee to use it. Dropbox, the same way.

There are about two hundred salespeople who work there from varying levels of sales experience and salesmanship. And over the time I was there, I was able to get in the top five of the two hundred salespeople. And what I realized is that, again, it is learning the business, understanding what the problems are that the people that you're trying to sell to have, and being a human being and not a robot, And just really talking to them honestly about their issues, their problems, and then going to meet them face to face because I was in the New England region. Eating them donuts or a case of beer or whatever it is just to make you more human, more approachable, and then you can really start to extract the true objections or the issues that they're having in trying to find a solution to find your way in there.

[00:05:28.69] – Gresham Harkless

I guess, take us through a little bit more about Saw.com content to figure out what we can find there and what you feel kinda is, like, your secret sauce for either yourself or the company and makes it unique.

[00:05:38.39] – Jeffrey Gabriel

Absolutely. So I think one of the things that makes us totally unique as a business is the experience that we have. Myself, I've been in the domain business for ten years. You read off, you know, all these accomplishments that I've made. Well, I'm just one of three other people who sell that I consider equals in skill and ability, if not better than myself. I already mentioned Amanda. I have another person I've worked with for close to ten years. It's been eight years. It's Brooke Hernandez. She's been in the domain business for all that time. She sold tens of millions of dollars worth of domains. And then I work with another gentleman, Robert Wilson. He has sold tens of millions of dollars worth of domains. And and us coming together, it's a wealth of knowledge. I think the average amount of experience is immense, and I think when clients come, they're some of our competitors are more of a very quick and transactional style of selling.

What we would like to focus on are really two well, it's three main parts of our business. The first main part of our business is a lot of times in this entrepreneurial show where you're targeting entrepreneurs is that we work with many entrepreneurs, startups, or companies looking to launch new products or services. So companies will come to us, and this is one of the parts I absolutely love about my job, is talking to somebody who is about to launch, and they don't know the name of what their business should be. And they want particular keywords like they want the word blink or they want the word, you know, excite or go or something involved in it of some sort of action and then or technology involved, like the message or something like that. And we'll go out there and hear what their budget is, what their plans are, who they're targeting, and then we can come back with a list of domains from the suppliers that we work with and come to them with some ideas of prices, where we can end up on a pricing scale.

And then even as sometimes we can work with particular sellers who allow the buyer to pay for the domain over a period of time, could be as much as five years. I mean, it really depends. So that's really exciting. And my co-founder, Amanda, for example, actually worked with the founder of Jet, which was bought by Walmart. Jet was not the original brand or what they really wanted. The domain they wanted was something else, and the seller and her client couldn't come to terms to make it work. So that was actually a number two that they actually ended up liking more than their first. Right? Mhmm. And, you know, that's an exciting thing to see, especially when you get to see the domains on TV. You know, you get to see them being used, you know, in public or you're someone one of your friends will call you and say, have you ever heard of Jet? I really like it on that website. Oh, yeah. I think I've heard of it.

So, I mean, there are countless situations like that. That's more than one person can truly understand. But, you know, this week, we have one selling that's going to be a dog food company. You know, that's a subscription-based dog food company that delivers on a weekly basis or a monthly basis food for your dog or whatever, kinda like Chewy, but a little more upper class or more of a, you know, the better higher end dog food. So that's an exciting part of the job. The other part of the opportunity we have is we take super premium domains. Like, so right now, we're working on ballet dot com, cool dot com, and I dot com, and we're taking those to market, and we're calling companies and letting them know that those domains are available for sale and talking about why they're valuable, what they can do for their business, and how they can get them, and, you know, the ways that they can make offers to make it happen.

And then the the really, the third and other major part of our business, and we have about almost fifty thousand domain names that are for sale pointed at our website right now with our for sale landers on them saying that the domains are for sale, is we represent domain investors that own large portfolios, and we negotiate and represent them in the process. And what we do is, you know, we talk to buyers about their budgets. We help them understand why the domain is priced, and what it's priced for. We provide compare sales, and other metrics to help them understand why. And I think that's one of the things that I realized is a lot of people don't know why domains have such price tags and why they're priced the way they are. And then we can talk about ways that we can make it work for their business because people look at it as this huge expense, you know when they should really be looking at it more like it's an investment.

They're investing in their business. They're investing in the marketing of their business. They're investing to make their brand memorable and sticky, and so people come back. And that's an important thing. You know, if you start playing with, you know, base dash ball Boston dot com, that's a crappy domain name. And if you expect people are gonna type it in and come back to you and tell their friends about it, no one's gonna remember that, Especially if you buy airtime on the radio, you know, if you buy, other advertising spots, people are just gonna type in whatever that service is, and now you're competing like you're a brand new business again. And let's all face it. Repeat business is the best business you can get. Sorry. I'm going off on a little bit of a tangent, but, you know, in essence, those are the three main silos of business that we have. We're working on another one as we speak, but I can't really tell you more about it. Maybe for our second interview, I can get into that?

[00:10:49.00] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. I'm definitely looking forward to it. I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be, like, an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

[00:11:01.50] – Jeffrey Gabriel

Something that makes me it's actually really basic, and I tell every salesperson this on the planet. I call it my money list. It's probably been in a lot of sales books, but I just kinda found it myself. Every night, it helps me sleep because I write down the things that I need to do the next day, and I list them in a way that's probably gonna make the most money or be the most effective for the business the fastest.

[00:11:26.39] – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely love that. And so now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. So this could be a word of wisdom or piece of advice, could be around domains and registration and branding, or it might be something you would tell yourself if you were to hop into a time machine.

[00:11:38.39] – Jeffrey Gabriel

I think it's a couple of things. I think the nugget is and it's going back to happiness and being happy with your family. I think in my younger years and then when things are coming my way now, I look at it and say, wow. If I was ten years younger, I would certainly act a lot differently about this than I would now. One of the things that I really pay close attention to is making sure that the people who are in my life in in in working as CEO, so the people who work with me. Mhmm. So it's not just the four other salespeople that work for me. Well, the three and the fourth that's joining me, this week, and the support staff of the developers and the lead generation people that help us and the writers that help us.

But, you know, and then our suppliers and others that work with, you know, I try to make sure that I try to understand the I try to lead through gratitude, I guess, is the saying that I wanna say. And that I make them realize that what they're doing is important, and it's important to me in a way that is genuine. I don't like ingenuine compliments, and I don't give them to people. You know? I give compliments when they're due and when they do a great job. And when someone's struggling or having a hard time with it, instead of telling them they suck or that they're not good at something, you know, you offer help, and you let them know that you understand that the, you know, the hardship that they're facing and the troubles they're facing.

[00:13:07.10] – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. And so now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote-unquote-unquote CEOs on this show. So, Jeff, what does being a CEO mean to you?

[00:13:17.39] – Jeffrey Gabriel

That's a really good question. And, actually, I was thinking about that because I know you brought up that question before, the interview. And I think that being a CEO and when I was also the vice president at Uniregistry is I feel that being in a leadership position that it means responsibility.

[00:13:35.50] – Gresham Harkless

Jeff, truly appreciate that definition, and I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional. You can let our readers and listeners know and, of course, how best they can get a hold of you and find out about everything awesome you and your team are doing.

[00:13:50.00] – Jeffrey Gabriel

I think the best way to get a hold of me is the easiest and memorable way is you just email sales at Saw.com, or you can visit us. Go to the website. You can call our phone number or inquire about any of the services you want. But if you outline what you saw here, that's fine. I'm happy to answer any questions or, you know, if I'm not available, have one of our salespeople do it too. So, you know, again, sales at Saw.com are fine with us, and, we look forward to hearing from you.

[00:14:17.79] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Jeff. We will have the links and information in the show notes so that everybody can follow up with you. And truly appreciate that that reminder as well too is just making sure that we understand exactly what we're doing when we're starting a business. And if you aren't really passionate about it, all the things behind the scenes that you don't see when you see a business sometimes can get up with you if you're doing it for the wrong reason. So I appreciate you for doing it for the right reason and reminding us of that as well. I hope you have a great rest of the day.

[00:14:44.89] – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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