Hiring a Professional Benefit Auctioneer

Professional benefit auctioneers understand that the auction starts well in advance of the actual event. They participate in your planning process and can offer you expertise in areas as diverse as the invitation copy, to procuring items desirable to your audience, to determining what items will do best at a silent, live, or online auction, to the logistics at the event. Auctioneers have worked at multiple events can bring fresh ideas and lessons learned from those events to your auction, reducing your headaches and making your event better run, more fun, and more productive.

Professional benefit auctioneers work to understand your cause, the Board of Directors resources and commitment, your donor and sponsor audience, even your volunteers. This knowledge allows them to provide appropriate advice to you and better prepare for the auction, including their opening remarks, auction item description, and how to entertain bidders while persuading them to bid higher. Unlike celebrity or volunteer auctioneers, professional benefit auctioneers have the training to drive bidding by celebrating your cause and not “guilting” the audience into bidding. They know that acclaiming the cause with committed donors and sponsors is the key to optimal bidding—and they know how to persuade the audience to join them.

Professional benefit auctioneers are team players. They have excellent listening skills and listen more than they speak. They put significant effort into connecting with your committee to leverage the talent and resources of each committee member. They keep the long-term goals of your organization in mind and understand that the best results come from collaboration.

There are many auctioneers who can stand in front of an audience and excite them with a smooth auction chant. This is one of the delightful parts of the event. But a skilled benefit auctioneer, who understands development and fundraising considerations, your mission and goals, your audience profile and a variety of other issues, can and will contribute immensely to your event's success.

Any successful nonprofit will tell you that hiring the right benefit auctioneer can make the difference between meeting your goal and exceeding it. "There is no easier sale in the world than one where you are pretty much guaranteed that your up-front investment will pay off, immediately and overwhelmingly," said Linda Witt, Portland, Oregon-based auction consultant. "I have seen it time and time again that in a blink of an eye, a professional auctioneer will more than pay for the expense of hiring them."

The single act of hiring a professional benefit auctioneer will serve your cause, constituents, Board of Directors, donors, sponsors, and bidders.

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