With the REINSW Novice Auctioneers Competition in full swing and the Senior Auctioneers Competition coming up quickly, the auctioneering field is brimming with potential.
This means there’s no better time to look at the market, understand your competition and review your offering.
Becoming the trusted advisor
As an auctioneer, you often don’t have the opportunity to build as close a relationship with the vendor or bidders as the sales agent. Yet you’re charged with conducting the final – and sometimes, most crucial – component of the sales campaign.
Whether a property sells at auction, passes in or is sold in post-auction negotiations, the outcome is a reflection of your brand.
While maintaining brand integrity is important, it is often a bi-product of doing a good job. However, in the move towards professionalism, vendors are looking for more than a pre-auction meeting and 25 minutes on a Saturday morning. They are placing their most valuable asset in your hands, and they expect that you’ll invest as much in them as they do in you.
Value-adding to your brand
A quick review of the more recognisable auctionhouse websites give credence to the term "value-add".
While building your brand is important, as we’ve said, potential clients want to see more than your face and auction stats on your website.
A critical component of your sales and marketing strategy should be driving people to your website. And once they’re there, providing a range of resources that educate and inform.
Checklists and guides are a simple way to engage your audience, build trust in your brand and simplify the auction process for both vendors and bidders. These can be from other websites or industry bodies, for example NSW Fair Trading, or developed in-house.
Some good examples of checklists and guides are a proof of identity checklist and bidding guide. Many buyers may be bidding at auction for the first time. Helping them understand what’s required to register and how the auction will proceed builds a more educated audience (which helps on auction day).
Similar to checklists and guides is FAQs. Highlighting and answering some of your clients’ most frequently asked questions allows them to quickly and easily find relevant information.
Another resource you can offer is videos. These can be explainer (how to and top tips), live action (on-site at an auction) or informative (piece-to-camera and vlog). Video content is easily consumed and can be shared across your social channels.
Active and determined client engagement
Whichever way you choose to engage with your audiences, your communications must remain on brand and always focus on the benefits for the client. It should also be reflected in your sales and marketing strategy.
Top tips:
- Your blog should cover a range of topics, not just your auctions and results. Using your experience and industry knowledge to comment on the market and current trends identifies you as an industry expert.
- If you don’t have a blog, get one.
- Make your resources easy to find. There is no point investing time and money into developing checklists, guides and videos that no one can find.
- Share your resources across all social channels. This will drive traffic to your website and help build brand recognition and trust.
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