Do The Best Domain Names Pass “The Sinatra Test”?
In Frank Sinatra’s classic “New York, New York,” he sings about starting a new life in New York City, and the chorus declares, “If I can make it there, I can make it anywhere.” This is what is called the ‘Sinatra Test’ - an idea when one example alone is enough to establish creditability in a given domain. For instance, if you’ve got the security contract for Fort Knox, you’re in the running for any security contract (even if you have no other clients). If you catered a White House function, you can compete for any catering contract. It’s the Sinatra Test: if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.
Adapting the Sinatra Test to the domain world, would calling a prospect and mentioning the domain name of your site (assuming it is a prime domain name) be enough to close a sale? When we first started FuneralHomes.com some 18 months ago I remember how calls used to be, it went something along these lines:
Sales: Hi, Brian speaking, I’m from FuneralHomes.com , the largest independent Funeral Home directory on the web
Funeral director: Ah, you are the internet, I heard of that!
Or
Sales: Hi, Brian speaking, I’m from FuneralHomes.com, the largest independent Funeral Home directory on the web
Funeral director: Don’t call here anymore
or
Sales: Hi, Brian speaking, I’m from FuneralHomes.com, the largest independent Funeral Home directory on the web
Funeral director: -hangs up-
Not once one of these funeral directors said to us “You have a GREAT domain name” or “This domain name must get massive type-in traffic” or “That domain must help you with SEO!”. Not once did it happened that a funeral director would say “Where do I sign up?” without us first going through our sales pitch, putting forward all our value offerings on the table, from tracking, to search engine ranking, search engine marketing, traffic numbers, growth numbers, strategy, mentioning other major paid advertisers in the directory, and so forth.
A prime generic domain name is not a replacement for a strong brand. In no way, shape, or form a prime domain name can compete with a well oiled sales machine and a well run business. It compliments a business, it can somewhat help, but far from being the responsible factor for the success of the business. Why then do some believe a prime domain name is a major part of the business? It’s the misconception that the success of some businesses run on prime generic domain names was largely due to their domain names. It is easy for us to look at businesses such as Hotels.com, Business.com, Rent.com, and even FuneralHomes.com and point out to what first come to mind, that these businesses “own the industry” because they own the prime domain names of the industry. What have we overlooked here then? We overlooked the actual business development, the millions invested, the executives running these business, the traffic purchasing, the brand building, technology, and so much more. In short, we have missed the execution part of the equation.
If the success of the above businesses was mainly because of their prime domain names then the conclusion would be:
The value of similar undeveloped prime domains should be in direct relation to the business value of developed businesses which are using similar facevalue prime domain names as their web addresses. For example, if we believe a prime generic domain name is largely responsible for the success of a business, say 50% responsible, then the undeveloped domain map.com, assuming it is of a similar facevalue to the domain maps.com, and that map.com (the business) is a 400 million dollar company, then map.com (the domain) should be worth 200 millions. Does it make any sense to you? Not to me either.
Signing advertisers isn’t easy, running a business, as Darren Cleveland stated so well yesterday (comments area) is not for the faint at heart. When it comes to signing/retaining advertisers and running online and offline businesses, from our extensive experience, there’s so much more to it than owning a prime generic domain name. The conclusion is that even the best domain names do not pass the Sinatra Test. They are not the responsible factor to signing advertisers, they are not the responsible factor for successful businesses, not by a long shot.
Source: Posted on The Conceptualist by Sahar Sahid — Reprinted with permission — April 11, 2008