The primary job of  auctioneer is to create opportunities for people who wish to sell their property using auction marketing.

Auctioneers devote a lot of time and money to learn how to recognize those opportunities and how to make the most of them. But, no matter how good you are, or how hard you try, you will always win some and lose some. I’m thinking about the situation so many of us have encountered when we are punched in the stomach by finding out about an auction we were sure to get, contracted with someone else. Those nice people promised you that when the time came to have their auction, you would surely be their auctioneer and auction company. This shows a problem with your follow-up program. You lost the auction because you did not have an opportunity to tell them what you could do for them.

I am referring to those situations where you have been promised the auction, where you have been invited to discuss the auction or where you could have met a prospective customer and been given the opportunity to help, but never did...and then you find out someone else got the auction.

I always teach my auction school students when meeting someone, the first goal is to find out if they are ready, willing and able to have an auction. If not, there is no point in discussing it any further, because you will simply come off as a “hard sell”. If they are not ready, willing and able, THE GOAL BECOMES TO FIND OUT WHEN THEY WILL BE, AND IF THERE IS ANYTHING YOU CAN DO TO HELP THEM BECOME READY. If they are ready, willing and able, then the goal is to sell them on using your auctioneer services. Very often they will want “to think about it, get back to you, talk it over with the kids, sleep on it, etc”. My personal opinion is that if they are ready, willing and able and do not sign a contract, the odds are 90 percent that you will not get the auction.

Think about it. There are only a couple of reasons why they are hesitating. They don’t like you. They are not sold on you, they are not convinced you are the best auctioneer for the job or they think that somebody else might have something more to offer than you do.  Maybe they do not like your commission rates. If this is the case, you need to find out before you leave and deal with it there and then.

No matter what you do, sometimes you can not win. Remember,  this is a people business and people will often surprise you when you least expect it...

Success to you and have a bunch of great auctions!