Equipment Leasing

What’s Your Equipment Worth? They’ll Tell You

Sandhills Global, a publishing and technology conglomerate, has served as a central marketplace for selling heavy equipment since 1978. Often considered the auto trader of the industry, it primarily focuses on the sale of used machinery in the transportation, construction, and agriculture sectors.

“Nearly every dealer in the country, be it a Caterpillar, Volvo, Peterbilt, or John Deere dealer, works with us because we’re the hub where they go to move their US machinery,” said Mitch Helman, Sales Manager at AuctionTime.

AuctionTime is one of many used-equipment marketplaces owned by Sandhills Global. Other popular Sandhills brands like AuctionTime include Machinery Trader, Tractor House, and Truck Paper.

“Virtually every wholesale buyer and dealer is our customer, allowing us to showcase their equipment to a wide range of potential buyers, including the average Joe or end user, who are typically found on Machinery Trader and Truck Paper. These buyers are the ones we want to reach, as they’ll often pay the most for the equipment,” explained Helman.

Sandhills strives to educate sellers on setting realistic prices for their equipment, helping them understand the retail value versus the auction value. Their value insight portal tool provides information on the specifics of the equipment, depending on its features and location, as location can greatly influence its worth.

“First and foremost, customers come to us to determine the market value and worth of their equipment. If they have a returned asset, we’re then able to connect them with different buyer bases, depending on the asset, to help them get the most money back in their pocket,” said Helman.

And those customers, it turns out, very often are drawn from Sandhills’ print publications.

“…It’s interesting because you hear print media is dead, there’s no need for print, all these newspapers are going away, but in our industry print has turned into like a physical search engine and it ultimately drives more traffic to the internet for people to look at more pictures, videos, specs and stuff like that,” said Helman. “And so, it’s still very relevant and vibrant in our spaces as of today.”

These publications can often be found at truck stops, tractor houses, and local convenience stores. Once a reader goes to a site like AuctionTime, the craigslist-style homepage (a tab says a new look is coming soon) will guide users to various live auctions or fixed-priced listings with photographs. A 2013 Hamm 3307 smooth drum roller located in Olney, Illinois, for example, is currently up for sale for $56,900. The listing has it all, including an integration to get shipping quotes and a button to apply for financing.

Ultimately, Helman explained that in a way the market depends on them to compile all this information to establish which way the market is going and what’s happening. “They love it,” he said. “Absolutely love it.”

Women Eye Opportunities in the Equipment Finance Industry

Coming into equipment finance around 2003, Reid Raykovich found that there were very few women in the field. Attending her first Captive and Vendor Finance conference through ELFA with 300 people, she realized she was only one of three women in the room. Fast forward to current day, Raykovich has seen a great influx of women come into the industry and she herself is now the CEO of the Certified Lease & Finance Professional (CLFP) Foundation, the organization that helps individuals in the industry achieve exceptional standards of professional conduct and technical expertise. She first attained that position in 2012 when she was only 34 years old. From there she has watched change come firsthand. Associations like NEFA, AACFB, and ELFA have also made efforts for women to be more involved and have a seat in leadership positions, according to Raykovich.

“I think that people are now aware that it’s not just having them work at a company, it’s giving them opportunities to go out, so the conference composition is no longer – to give the phrase ‘stale, male, and pale,’” Raykovich said. “It is changing and there’s certainly a lot more women…”

“Women just offer a unique value to the industry,” said Jena Morgan, COO at 360 Equipment Finance. When Morgan was first employed at a working capital provider, only 10% of employees were women. These days she’s a C-level exec for a well-known equipment finance company. Although she has gradually noticed more women being embedded into the industry, she still finds situations where she is the only woman at the executive table.

“A lot of times, I’ve seen women just spin off and start their own business, because they’re not able to move up how they want to,” said Morgan. “And so, I think sometimes that’s part of it, part of why you’re seeing more women in equipment finance is because they’ve spun off and just started their own business; and then they hire women.”

Like Morgan, Raykovich of the CLFP Foundation echoed the possibility of making a change if a ceiling has been reached.

“I think the best advice is if you’re at a company that’s not acknowledging your role as maybe a mother or a woman, move on to another company,” said Raykovich. “The amount of opportunities in this industry is just limitless. You can do any position, anything you want to do and you can find that in this industry if you do it well, you will never leave because you will have a name and people will want to hire you.”