The UK public sector has an incredible volume, and variety, of surplus assets on its hands: IT and tech, lab and medical equipment, tools and machinery, heating systems, catering facilities, vehicles and much more.
Storing surplus assets is a financial drain – costs can end up exceeding resale returns. With budgets stretched further than ever, it’s imperative to recover the absolute maximum value, but the problem is that traditional disposal methods rarely achieve that value.
The public sector is missing out on the financial and green benefits of using online marketplaces for resale. Here’s a quick guide to getting disposal right.
1. Never overlook hidden value
Depending on its nature/condition, surplus is often sold, or scrapped, for a nominal price. Some assets are unsellable, but there can be far more value than you think, if you have access to a big enough buying pool. Junking is not necessarily the greenest approach either, which brings us to our second point.
2. Think sustainably
Storing, and disposing, of surplus raises numerous sustainability issues. A specialist surplus resale partner will help you to mitigate risk and provide evidence of meeting CSR commitments – a well-managed re-sale process counts towards your CO2 targets.
3. Get pricing right
Some organisations undervalue assets and miss out on a higher return. Others overestimate the resale price; assets continue to depreciate as they sit around unsold. A surplus partner will assign an experienced estimator to determine realistic values and set the right reserve price to maximise returns.
4. Maximise your buyer numbers
Organisations often sell off assets at a ‘local’ level, or only advertise them via public sector portals. This restricts the pool of buyers, reducing the chance of getting the best price. The biggest online surplus marketplaces have more than 20 million unique visitors a year – that is a lot of buyers to bid up the price against each other.
5. Promote the inventory
The standard approach to online sales is to post a description and photograph. In a sense, the buyers have to come to you. The leading online marketplaces have taken promotion to another level – using sophisticated digital marketing techniques to actively promote surplus to as many interested buyers as possible.
6. Make fulfilment hassle free
Selling assets is not the end of the process. There’s delivery or collection to arrange, paperwork and invoicing to handle; It’s a hassle all-round, particularly if there is an issue or dispute. The time your team spend on fulfilment is eating away at the recovery value. A specialist auction partner takes care of everything for you.
Through the AllSurplus.com website, Liquidity Services is helping organisations all over the UK to get better value from surplus resale. We’re here to help you recover more of the taxpayers’ money. Every extra pound earned is an another one to re-invest. For more information and how we can help you please visit https://featured.allsurplus.com/gov or contact Finlo Corrin at 07799 855 554 / finlo.corrin@liquidityservices.com