Promote your new auctions, company news on tablet devices

As I spoke at the Georgia Auctioneers Association’s winter meeting recently, a jaw or two dropped when I told them that 11 percent of the population already owned a tablet device. The next day, the Pew Center issued a new update, showing that holiday sales had sent the number of tablet owners zooming to 19 percent.*

I wiped the egg off my face and updated the slide for the next presentation, making a note that tablet growth seems to be one of those rare trends that actually outstrip their hype. Even the most aggressive forecasts appear conservative in hindsight, and those little gadgets are already having a major effect on your ability to reach local bidders for your auctions.

Let’s take a closer look at the numbers and at the people using tablets:

•    The highest income consumers are the most likely to own and use tablets. Among higher-income households (those with household income of $75,000 or more), tablet ownership is 36 percent — almost twice the 19 percent of the general public. In fact, tablet ownership rises dramatically along with income.
•    The University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Journalism projects that over the next three years, the tablet “will become the primary tool for personal computing needs.”
•    Sixty-eight percent of tablet owners spend an hour a day with their tablets, and 38 percent spend two hours or more every day.**

In short, the people with more money to spend at your auctions are adopting tablets faster than anybody else, and they’re spending lots of time with them. You want these people as bidders! But how do you get them? To answer that question, we need to dig a little deeper into the way they’re using the devices.

Good news/bad news: Tablet users are reading more news, but they don’t see ads

Tablet users are spending more time reading the news. One-third say they’re turning to new information sources, and 42 percent say they read in-depth news articles and analysis. They also prefer to read news on their tablets rather than in the paper (or watching it on TV). On the surface, this should be encouraging because advertising in local newspapers has long been a favorite way to reach local bidders.

The bad news is they’re reading it in ways that don’t expose them to most advertising.

To understand this, let’s go “old school” for a moment and think about how we’ve traditionally looked at Internet news on our desktops. Most of us probably started by opening our browsers and going to the website of specific publications or media organizations.

Some favorites might include cnn.com, cbsnews.com and nytimes.com. Locally, that might include the site for your local newspaper and TV stations. At the time, it appeared that we could reach bidders by buying banner ads on these sites, but it never proved as effective as we hoped. People quickly discovered that they could get more news, more quickly, through “aggregator” sites like Google News (news.google.com), which pull together news from thousands of sources. And just like that, the eyeballs disappeared from our expensive banner ads.

That challenge was big enough before, but it’s an even bigger problem on tablets, where users are getting their news more through “apps,” which assemble stories from dozens (or hundreds) of media using RSS (Really Simple Syndication) technology.

Millions of sites (quite possibly including yours) can provide links that allow new items to appear on the user’s tablet. Typically, the user views these using an app such as Google Reader, Flipboard (on iPads), Currents (Android Tablets) or NewsRob. In many cases, they never visit the local paper’s website, much less pick up a paper copy of the publication. They’re getting the news but not the ads.

Getting more creative, more interactive, more hands-on

This means we have to get more creative in how we reach these users. One way is to get with your web designer to make sure your site has RSS feeds to syndicate new material on your website so that potential bidders can subscribe and see when you’ve listed a new sale or posted some company news.

This doesn’t happen automatically. You’ll need to promote use of your feed. Some ideas: 1) E-mail the address to regular bidders; 2) Include a link each time you issue an e-blast; 3) Feature it prominently on your website rather than at the bottom where we all placed our RSS links before they became so important. Use your imagination. It’s worth it.

Obviously, the shortfall in consumers who see our ads means we need to fill the gap. This had already been a growing problem because of the declining readership, and closing, of many newspapers. The University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Journalism predicts that most newspapers will disappear in print form within five years.*** Indeed, the director of Annenberg’s Center for the Digital Future says the only print survivors may well be the very largest national newspapers (e.g., New York Times, Wall Street Journal) and some small local weeklies.

That’s obviously going to require us all to adapt in our ways of reaching a local market. Signs, flyers, networking events and broker participation may take on a new importance.

Ironic, isn’t it, that a key response to this technological revolution will involve doing more things the old-fashioned way.

Carl Carter, APR, is president of NewMediaRules, which provides public relations services, media counseling and brand management services to auction companies throughout the United States. He provides free communications advice through his blog, NewMediaRules.net.

*Pew Internet and American Life Project, Jan. 23, 2012
**AdMob/Google, “Understanding Tablet Device Users,” March 2011
***”Is America at a Digital Turning Point?,” USC Annenberg School for Communications & Journalism, January 2012

Check out more of Carter’s columns in Auctioneer magazine.

Cable shows increase consumer interest, attendance

Cable TV networks that air those auction reality shows aren’t the only ones to profit from the highly rated programs.

Auctioneers throughout the U.S. say the shows have provided the public with an awareness of the auction method of buying and selling a wide range of goods. As a result, many auction houses report higher attendance and increased earnings.

If you happen to be one of those who participates in the televised auctions, the benefits can be even more pronounced.

“There’s a renewed interest in the auction industry,” says Dan Dotson of American Auctioneers in Riverside, Calif., and an Auctioneer for A&E’s “Storage Wars.”

“Storage Wars” follows a group of four buyers who travel from site to site in search of treasures in abandoned storage units. But other shows, such as “Auction Kings” on the Discovery Channel, “Real Deal” on History (formerly the History Channel) and “Auction Hunters” on Spike, as well as a handful of spinoff series, feature a variety of auction formats.

The shows typically top networks’ ratings.

“Storage Wars,” for example, is A&E’s No. 1 series of all time among adults 25-54, according to the channel’s website. During its first season, the series averaged nearly 3 million viewers per episode.

Dotson was “discovered” by the show’s executive producer, Thom Beers of Original Productions, who saw American Auctioneers videos on YouTube.

The company employs 12 Auctioneers who travel throughout California and conduct about 50 auctions per week. He and his wife, Laura, also founded StorageTreasurers.com, which he bills as “the greatest auction portal on the planet.”

Although Dotson has sold everything from construction equipment to printing equipment in the past, he now concentrates on storage units.

The company’s business increased 300 percent after “Storage Wars” began, Dotson says. Per-unit take is now $350, up from $250 before the show debuted.

Next, he and his wife, Laura, are set to appear in an estate-based spinoff series, he says.

Bryan Knox, CAI, GPPA, of BCK Enterprises Inc., Gardendale, Ala., had distinguished himself by winning the Alabama Grand Champion Auctioneer contest in 2001 and the International Auctioneer Championship in 2007. A video of him on the National Auctioneers Association website attracted the attention of Zodiak USA, the company that produces “Real Deal.”

Although Knox became an Auctioneer more than a dozen years ago, he says appearing on the program has given validity to his year-old company and has portrayed him as an industry leader.

“That alone has been incredible for my business,” Knox says.

Knox was impressed with the professionalism of the “Real Deal” producers, who he says sought his input for the show.

“It was refreshing to know that they really cared,” he says.

Knox serves on the NAA Board of Directors, and he is Secretary/Treasurer for the Alabama State Board of Auctioneers and Vice President of the Alabama Auctioneers Association.

Paul Brown from Discovery Channel’s “Auction Kings” became an NAA member in late January.

Read the complete story to learn about other NAA members who appear on television

NAA Member Notice

There will be a special membership meeting March 6 at 11 a.m. at the Hyatt Place in Kansas City, Mo., to vote on these Articles of Incorporation revisions:

Article XII: Article XI-Registered Agent; Registered Office
The initial registered office of the corporation in Kansas shall be 8880 Ballentine, Overland Park, Johnson County, Kansas 66214, and the registered agent at such address shall be the named CEO.

Article XV – Amendment of Articles
The Articles of Incorporation may be amended by vote of two-thirds (2/3) of the members voting at any annual or special meeting of the corporation, including those ballots sent in by absentee voters. Absentee ballots will be accepted in the manner prescribed by the NAA Bylaws. Written notice setting forth the proposed amendment or a summary of the changes to be affected thereby shall be given to each member entitled to vote at the proposed meeting not less than ten (10) nor more than fifty (50) days before the date of the meeting.

Background

The National Auctioneers Association Board of Directors endorsed calling this meeting in order to provide members the opportunity to potentially vote on a name change and reduction to the Board in July.

The NAA Bylaws were revised in 2009 to allow for absentee ballots. No revisions, though, were made to the Articles of Incorporation, which currently specifies that members must be present at the annual or special meeting to cast their vote.

The manner of absentee ballots would be prescribed in the Bylaws, but the intention of allowing this must be revised in the Articles of Incorporation, and this requires a member vote.

The other revision being considered is one that should have been made more than three years ago. It removes the name of the Chief Executive Officer as the registered agent of the organization and simply notes that the person in that position is the registered agent.

Read more in Auctioneer magazine.

Top Conference and Show presentations to focus on motivation, change management

More than 90 percent of people’s purchasing decisions are made based on emotion, says Scott Deming, professional speaker, consultant and author.

Deming, keynote presenter for the 63rd annual International Auctioneers Conference and Show, says auction professionals are not simply in the business of selling property.

Instead, they are in the people business, offering unique and one-of-a-kind solutions for generating revenue.

“If people are selling on policy, procedure, features and benefits, they cannot really truly create this sustainable, emotional brand,” he says.

“Make sure that you treat every single customer like they’re the most important customer on the planet because they just might be.”

Deming plans to give his presentation, “Navigating Change by Developing Your Personal Brand,” during the Opening Session of Conference and Show on July 18. The event is scheduled for July 17-21 in Spokane, Wash.

A 30-year veteran of the corporate world and owner of a multi-million dollar marketing firm, Deming speaks about the importance of branding through relationship building. He wrote “The Brand Who Cried Wolf,” and he has worked with large corporations such as General Motors, Verizon Wireless and Wells Fargo.

He recommends that business leaders stay away from “clever gimmicks and empty promises,” as the claims made in marketing campaigns are meaningless if an organization does not create a positive culture for its employees and customers, Deming says.

Also, the way an auction professional delivers an emotional experience is what separates him from his competitors. Deming emphasizes that Auctioneers are, relatively, on the same playing field when it comes to the items they sell, prices they achieve and customers they attract.

A business owner’s goal should never be to offer 100 percent satisfaction, he says. In the business of emotional selling, rather, the customer should feel as if he or she cannot live without the service an auction professional provides.

“Instead of just talking in rapid fire, how you deliver that emotional connection is going to help you succeed or not succeed,” Deming says.

Deming’s presentations and training sessions include an explanation of a six-step process he dubs the “Ultimate Customer Experience and Emotional Brand Building Process.” He says he plans to discuss the process, which touches on personal branding, relationship building and “the ripple effect.”

In addition to emotional branding, Deming says he plans to talk about how auction professionals can effectively manage change and generational differences within their organizations. He also plans to discuss how the overuse of technology has the potential to break down emotional connections in the workplace.

Another featured presenter for this year’s Conference and Show is motivational speaker Chip Madera, MS, CSP, who leads more than 100 training sessions each year. He has worked with myriad companies and organizations, including The Mayo Clinic, Disney, 3M Healthcare Information Systems and the American Cancer Society.

Madera, also known as “The Leadership Lion,” plans to present “Opening Minds, Stirring Hearts and Inspiring Action! Become a Leadership Lion” from 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. July 20.

He says his presentation will focus on change, personally and professionally, in an era when organizations seem to have timid leaders who need to have the courage and willingness to fight for what is best for companies and their clients.

He says auction professionals must be passionate about what they do and fall back in love with their chosen professions.

“I doubt that anybody got into the industry just to do it as a job,” he says. “They found a certain talent. They found a certain energy that came from doing that task and working with the people in the industry.”

A “Leadership Lion” presentation, Madera says, is different from what many people are used to because it’s honest and full of humor. It challenges audience members to think critically about ways in which they can reach their highest potentials.

“You’re not going anywhere until you become disenfranchised with where you are,” Madera says. “Part of my job is to get people to really consider where they are, and, ‘is that really where they want to be?’ If they don’t, then it’s really going to have to be up to them.

“There’s not going to be some personal concierge standing around making your life wonderful.”

During his presentations, Madera says he talks about a personal hardship — his battle and triumph over cancer in the mid-1990s — that has given him the motivation and strength to be the best person he can be at home and at work.

“When I was diagnosed with cancer, all those goals that I was going to do 10 years ago got done in about 18 months,” he says. “It was one of the best things that’s ever happened to me in the sense that it put things in perspective.

“If I wanted something in my life, I needed to make it happen. I needed to stop making excuses, and I needed to make some decisions about what I really wanted to see my life become.”

Everyone has a motivational or inspirational story from their lives, he says, that they can look back on and learn from. Instead of dwelling on what might have gone wrong, he says he encourages his listeners to learn from adversity and turn it into opportunity.

One of the most important messages he tries to get across, admittedly a simple one, is the difference between self esteem and self image. He says today, especially among children, the idea of a high level of self esteem — feeling good about one’s self — seems to be all that matters.

“Who cares how you feel about yourself? How you feel about yourself is very fickle,” Madera says. “That’s not going to get you very far.”

He says self image — how people see themselves and how they project themselves to others — is most important because no matter who they are, everyone has the opportunity to become a leader.

“Become the image that you want to see,” he says.

Go to www.conferenceandshow.com to learn more about the 2012 event.

Niche, low-cost items help drive slow transportation market

The market for trucks and trailers is holding steady while boats and recreational vehicles perform poorly at auction, National Auctioneers Association members say.

For commercial vehicles, Ron Bradeen, CAI, says he attributes strong auction prices to increasing costs of new equipment and high demand for used vehicles. As long as trucks are certified by the Department of Transportation, Bradeen says they’re usually good sellers.

Sales of other transportation-related products, such as recreational vehicles, boats and campers are taking a hit in this economy, says Bradeen, of Bradeen Real Estate & Auction, Custer, S.D. The only bright spot in his area is in the market for all-terrain vehicles and side-by-sides.

“They’ll buy a cheap boat to put in the water, but you start looking at $10,000 boats, you get the deer-in-the-headlights look out here,” Bradeen says.

LeAnn Boardman, of Stokes Auction-Boardman Orwiler Inc., Port Orchard, Wash., agrees.

Her company sells boats, but auctions have been slow the past two to three years, she says. She attributes this to the sluggish economy and fewer trade-ins for new boats.

There also has been a considerable drop in boat quality, she says. Stokes Auction used to sell eight to 15 boats per month in the spring and summer, and the company is now down to five to eight per month during the same period.

Boardman says many buyers are turning to less expensive forms of recreation as fuel, storage and maintenance costs become too high.

Click here to read about the market for recreational vehicles and find out how one NAA member has found a niche in surplus transit buses, which have more than tripled in value.

Marketing competition entries now require fee

The National Auctioneers Association has made several changes to the NAA/USA TODAY Marketing Competition. The changes address the need for more efficient and cost-effective auction marketing.

This fall, a task force reviewed and updated the annual competition. Members of the group suggested new rules and categories, and they eliminated out-of-date categories.

NAA members will now be able to enter only one marketing piece into the competition free of charge. Every additional entry now requires a $10 fee. The NAA has instated the fee to offset costs of coordinating the competition (e.g., awards, judges).

In previous contests, members were allowed to submit only one entry per category, forcing them to choose between two or more examples of their best work. Starting this year, members can enter as many marketing pieces into a category as they wish.

There also are new and reorganized categories in the competition, as Auctioneers are using many different methods and new technologies to communicate with their customers. The NAA has added a digital and social media category, for example, to reflect the use of new communications platforms.

Also, the NAA has either combined or eliminated categories that had few entries in past contests. These changes allow the association to provide a contest that features the best in auction marketing, advertising and promotion.

Finally, the association has made the entry submission process easier, and it has renamed the Auction of the Year award to Auction Marketing Campaign of the Year.

Entry forms and contest rules are available only at www.conferenceandshow.com and www.auctioneers.org.

Check out the NAA/USA TODAY Marketing Competition categories in the February issue of Auctioneer.

Learn to love (and hate) the right things for copy that sells

By Carl Carter, APR

No matter what you sell, you have to tell people about it. That means we have to do something we call “writing.”

I wish we could do away with the word. It seems to either freeze our brains or inspire us to get clever. Both lead to bad writing that fails to sell.

The best writing tip I ever got came from my old city editor at The Birmingham News. I’d written a really clever story and was proud of it. It was full of fancy words and elaborate, well-turned phrases. He glared at me over the desk and said, “Pretend I’m your mama. Now tell me what happened.”

I did. It sounded nothing like the story in his hand. (We still used paper in those days.)

“Good,” he said, “now go write that, and don’t ever give me any (stuff) like that again.”

Only he didn’t say stuff. You get the idea.

Few Auctioneers have had a mentor who knew how to write well. That leads to brochures, ads and websites that are confusing and lifeless. Here are some of the best principles I’ve learned. I promise they’ll help you sell more.

Learn to love

Facts. Channel Dragnet’s Joe Friday and stick with “Just the Facts, Ma’am.” With all due respect to the sales experts who tell you to “sell the sizzle,” just remember that the bidder’s buying the steak. (He assumes it’ll be sizzling.) What he wants to know is whether he’s getting a ribeye or a sirloin and whether it’s Prime or Choice.

Details. As you learn to stick to the facts and eliminate the fluff, use that space to give the reader more specifics. Instead of just saying a house has hardwood flooring, point out that it uses planks of two-inch-thick, six-inch-wide oak reclaimed from a colonial mansion.

Nouns and verbs. These are the guts of good writing. “We sold” is a complete sentence all by itself. Start with these and build around them.

Your reader. Be kind to him. Make his job easier. Never make him cut through a bunch of clutter to get to what he needs.

Bullets. The simple bullet frees you from the compulsion to write in complete sentences. It lets you cram a lot of details into a little space, without waste.

The delete button. Don’t be afraid. I’ve wasted hundreds of hours trying to fix bad sentences when I needed to just start over. Just take a deep breath, highlight and delete. There. Now you’re free to write something good.

Learn to hate

Passive voice. Never say, “the home was built” when you can say, “he built the home.” For starters, active sentences are more specific because they tell the reader who built the home. Active verbs keep people reading.

Adjectives. OK, they’re a necessary evil. Just remember that worlds like beautiful, elegant and lovingly hand crafted are there mostly to make the seller happy. They rarely help sell anything because readers breeze past them looking for the stuff that actually tells them what you’re selling.

Long sentences. I can’t tell you how long is too long. Just set a tripwire in your brain that alerts you when you’ve gone a while without using the period key. You don’t have to buy into the Twitter limit of 140 characters, but keeping it in mind can actually help you set a rhythm.

Verbs derived from “to be.” You can’t get away from words like is, are, am, was and were, but try to at least keep them corralled. Pairing them with “not” gets you extra points off. (Contractions like “can’t” and “don’t” seem OK. I have no idea why. They just do.)

Needless words. Make it a game to see how much you can cut out without actually removing any real information. My first draft tends to be much longer than the last one.
We’ve all written bad stuff. It’s OK. The blank screen in front of you is an invitation to do it better.

Carl Carter, APR, is President of NewMediaRules Communications, which has provided Auctioneers with public relations, copywriting and design services since 1994. He offers free communications tips through his blog, www.newmediarules.net. E-mail him at carl@newmediarules.com.

Carter is a regular contributor to Auctioneer magazine. Read 2011 and 2012 issues to pick up more marketing and public relations tips.

Technology courses to present new ways for managing, marketing auctions

To conduct almost 400 auctions per year with fewer than 20 full-time employees, Chris Rasmus says his company relies on “an enormous amount of efficiencies.”

Those efficiencies, he says, come mainly from the proper implementation of technology, which ultimately maximizes profitability for his company.

And Rasmus, of Rasmus Asset Advisors, Alexandria, Va., says he plans to share his knowledge and some of his firm’s best practices with Certified Auctioneers Institute students in March.

The NAA plans CAI 2012 on March 18-22 on the campus of Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind. CAI Next, an intensive training program exclusively for CAI graduates, is scheduled for March 18-20.

During his “Technology” course, Rasmus says he plans to share with CAI students how social media, cloud-based computing and other technologies can increase income, improve marketing and boost auction attendance.

Another CAI trainer, Forres Meadows, CAI, ATS, BAS, also plans to focus on technology during his “Online-Only Auctions” course.

Meadows says his training session will likely open the minds of CAI students to new possibilities available on the Internet. He emphasizes that all auction professionals, including those who don’t conduct online sales, will benefit from his course because a lot of it focuses on advanced marketing practices.

Go here to sign up for CAI and to learn more about the programs.

Professional images might improve sales at auction

Trying to sell a high-end home, luxury property or valuable piece of art?

Start with professional-quality photography and video, industry experts say.

“People do judge a book by its cover,” says Bart Wilson, Chief Innovation Officer for VPiX, a Colorado-based company that specializes in virtual tours. “If you do not grab their attention and impress them right away, they’ll move on.”

Professional-quality photography pays off, studies have found. A 2010 analysis by Redfin, a Seattle brokerage firm, found that homes with professional photographs sold for $934 to $116,076 more than homes shot with basic point-and-shoot cameras.

Aerial photography, high-definition video and 360-degree virtual tours are among the top options available to Auctioneers seeking to market homes, properties or other items.

One company, 3vTV, based in Jacksonville, Fla., is now traveling the country by plane and automobile capturing aerial and on-the-ground images, which Auctioneers and real estate professionals will be able to purchase, says Bo Zarn, Business Development Director for the company.

For the aerial images, an airplane with 14 cameras attached to the belly flies at an altitude of 1,500 feet capturing panoramic views of commercial and residential properties. A street-level system uses eight cameras mounted on a vehicle’s roof rack to snap photos. The cameras collect hundreds of images, which are strung together and essentially form a video.

“We’re sweeping the country,” says Zarn, a former real estate appraiser and National Auctioneers Association member. “We’ll be everywhere except 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and Camp David.”

Read the complete story in Auctioneer magazine to learn how a database of images could help move millions of dollars in foreclosures and bank-owned properties.

Licensing, sales tax among concerns for auction professionals

Government regulations could exacerbate economic problems and continue to place strain on auction businesses in the coming years, according to “Give Me Five, Now Ten … Years Into the Future,” a white paper produced by the National Auctioneers Association’s Council on Future Practices.

Government policies and procedures, in some cases, tend to work against the principles of the auction method because they can be slow and arduous, the paper says. Auction professionals, on the other hand, bring liquidity to the marketplace, and auction transactions can lead to a chain reaction of additional sales that ultimately help the economy.

More specifically, the paper’s authors point out that auction businesses might encounter these regulatory roadblocks:

•    Smaller firms could continue to lose out on contracts, as governmental organizations have in the past favored only big auction companies or those with high amounts of capital
•    Some government agencies have stopped using auction companies because of lawsuits
•    There will likely continue to be no licensing requirements for online-only auctions occurring in most states
•    Auction licensing fees will probably continue to increase, and government agencies might more diligently pursue rule violations as a source of additional income in certain states
•    Certification programs now make it more difficult to earn educational designations
•    Tax laws, particularly when it comes to sales tax, and health care policies could have significant negative effects on small businesses, a category under which most auction businesses fall
•    State governments will begin to view auction professionals as retailers and therefore require auction firms to follow more thorough accounting practices

Present and former leaders of state Auctioneer associations say government regulations are a concern; however, most agree new laws, policies and mandates are to be expected as part of doing business.

Last year’s President of the Alabama Auctioneers Association, John Stewart, says the group is working with the Alabama State Board of Auctioneers to get a new licensing law pushed through the legislature.

Their first attempt at passing a new law, which addresses Internet auctions, was not successful, Stewart says, but the association and board plan to make another attempt in February.

California State Auctioneers Association President Todd Good says the Internet allows business owners to sidestep myriad regulations because transactions take place online.

Good, though, says arms of the government do not exist, are not going after violators or do not have the manpower to enforce certain laws or future legislation.

In addition, he says most auction licensing laws don’t “have any teeth.” Some fines or penalties might amount only to a slap on the wrist, especially when a small fine is levied against an auction firm conducting a multi-million dollar sale.

Federal, state and local governments also strive to bring in tax revenues, and in agreement with the white paper, that has some NAA members concerned about what additional expenses legislators could impose on their small businesses.

New sales taxes could play a significant role in helping municipalities rein in budget deficits.

Stewart says the rumor in Alabama is sales taxes could be on the horizon for estate sales.

“If they start taxing what you’ve already paid taxes on … that’s double dipping,” he says.

Good says Internet sales are likely to be taxed in California. Those who deal in e-commerce should expect to start charging sales tax, he says.

Read the complete story in Auctioneer magazine to find out how other government regulations are affecting and might affect the auction industry in the near future.

Read the Council on Future Practices’ white paper here.