James Fuller-Thompson recently wrote a steller analysis titled, “The 7 Habits of Highly Successful Online Auctioneers” The link to that complete article is here: https://www.auctionchats.com/blog/the-7-habits-of-highly-successful-online-auctioneers.
Relatedly, the National Auctioneers Association (NAA) recently published a statement regarding much of the same central issue. We wrote about that here: https://mikebrandlyauctioneer.wordpress.com/2020/07/16/auctioneers-whose-data-is-it/.
James noted in the conclusion of his article (with my slight paraphrasing:)
Highly successful online auctioneers … [should have a] plan for their business [where] they are able to continuously focus on: promoting their brand, having a well-designed website, investing in their marketing, embracing technology, and offering a great customer experience [so] they are able to dominate in their niche market to build a highly profitable, sustainable and valuable business in the long run.
James’ analysis might “boil down” to having lots of customers (bidders/buyers) and giving them a great customer experience. For sure, auctioneers with lots of bidders/buyers — providing them a wonderful experience — will result in sellers seeking to hire those auctioneers.
Similarily, NAA published this specific stance concerning online auctions and auctioneers:
The National Auctioneers Association encourages auction entrepreneurs to actively monitor markets and proactively manage their personal and company brand(s) with special attention to the ownership of bidder and sales data. When engaging with any vendor or service provider the NAA recommends understanding data ownership, data sharing, cooperative branding, and long term industry impacts.
NAA’s analysis more so suggests auctioneers need to be careful when partnering with any online platform. Most auctioneers have already learned a hard lesson that believing any online platform is built and operated for the auctioneer’s ultimate benefit is relentlessly short-sided.
Both James and the NAA are giving online (and live) auctioneers great advice. It’s important to always give our customers a good experience, and it’s always prudent to be careful when partnering with anyone.
I might note that wildly unfair, inequitable, unreasonable terms and conditions, tie bids, missed bids, disputed bids, little or no opportunity to inspect, and treating bidders differently in regard to terms don’t encourage people to participate in auctions.
The old saying was, “Find a seller, and you’ll have buyers.” It might be just as important to have bidders/buyers so that you can get the next seller. In fact, without bidders, it might be very difficult to find that next seller.
Mike Brandly, Auctioneer, CAI, CAS, AARE has been an auctioneer and certified appraiser for over 30 years. His company’s auctions are located at: Mike Brandly, Auctioneer, RES Auction Services and Goodwill Columbus Car Auction. He serves as Distinguished Faculty at Hondros College, Executive Director of The Ohio Auction School, an Instructor at the National Auctioneers Association’s Designation Academy and America’s Auction Academy. He is faculty at the Certified Auctioneers Institute held at Indiana University and is approved by The Supreme Court of Ohio for attorney education.
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