Advice for Beginning Auctioneers

Advice for Beginning Auctioneers

Timing: You must stay consistent in the sale order of your auctions. Do not change your pattern.

Identity: If your competition sell less desirable items first and good items later, has all his/her auctions at the same time Saturday, wears cowboy boots and drives a truck, you don’t have to do the same thing to compete. Don’t mimic your competition. They are a lot more worried about what you are doing than you are about what they are doing. Create your own image. Each auctioneer brings something different to an auction.

Advertising: Give your seller a true idea of how much advertising will cost and what you are going to do to advertise and promote the auction. Put together a simple auction budget. Use the example you were given in school. Charge advertising costs on top of commission. If you know it’ll cost $1,000 to advertise and market an auction, tell your seller up front. If you know the true marketing cost, it’s unethical to give the client one estimate before the auction and present him or her with a higher figure when it comes time to settle. You can always estimate.

Don’t Skimp: There are two reasons why an auction is not successful. Either you are trying to auction something you really shouldn’t, or you didn’t spend enough advertising and marketing the auction. Never let your clients convince you to spend less than what it will take to attract a high buyer to product ratio.

Be a Politician: As an auctioneer you have a great deal of influence. If you have someone famous at your auction, always say something nice about them. It will bring you more auction business.

Image: If you want to be a professional, then act and look like a professional.

Strike a Bargain: If you think you should get 15 percent commission, ask for 20 percent. If you think you should get 20 percent, then ask for 25 percent. Auctioneers don’t get enough money for what they do. They don’t ask or get paid enough. If you are going to be a professional, and provide professional service, then you’re fees should also be professional.

Double Rings: Many auctions have two auctioneers selling at the same time. It works as long as people know there will be two rings. Never use two auctioneers just because the auction is going slower than you like. People can make arrangements to team up with someone if you let them know in advance there will be two rings.

Bidder Numbers: Start with high numbers and work backward. Because there are usually many on lookers who aren’t registered to bid, this prevents bidders from knowing how many people have registered for your auction.

Labor: Do not include heavy labor costs in your budget. The seller can make arrangements to have help, whom he pays at the auction. The laborer charges the seller a flat fee on a per day basis. If the seller wants your help to carry out and get ready for the auction, you need to charge for that in addition to your commission.

Names: Always write first names on bidder cards, It makes a difference if the auctioneer can call a bidder by his or her first name. Those bidders are more likely to come back to your auctions.

Mailing Lists: Don’t put everyone on your list. Do include everyone who has paid more than $50 at one of your auctions or has driven more than 50 miles.

Credit Cards: Accept them. You can rake arrangements with your bank to accept them. You are losing a lot of business if you don’t, If you don’t want to absorb the credit card fee, charge a buyer’s premium for credit card users.

Parting Thought: Work smarter, you’ll be glad you did.