It all started when Kyle McMahon needed to find a Kinze 3600 planter for his family farm. He was baffled at how difficult it was to search farm equipment auctions.
Sale bills were being scanned and uploaded onto websites, but they weren’t searchable. Many auctions were posted in their local newspaper classifieds, but Kyle was always worried that he was missing something that may have been published in a newspaper he didn’t have. What should have been a simple task turned into weeks of combing through auctions on and off the internet.
McMahon found himself calling farmers all over the Midwest, approximately 300 of them, to learn more about how they went about finding the information they needed to make equipment purchasing decisions. He soon came to realize that the majority of farmers weren’t satisfied with the time-consuming process of shopping at auction.
Farmers wanted a way to find auction inventory quickly, to be able to search for exactly what they needed, and to get the specifications and quality pictures of that piece of equipment. It was a simple concept, but it wasn’t being addressed in a meaningful way. Farmers were wanting to shop for equipment the way they could shop for cars or trucks.
Less than a year later, Kyle created Tractor Zoom, a platform built on the foundation of feedback from farmers and auctioneers. The platform made it simple for auctioneers to post their auctions and their inventory, while making it easy for buyers to search for specific agriculture equipment from a comprehensive list of auction inventory aggregated from many auction companies. In this way, Tractor Zoom also helps auctioneers reach new buyers.
“We wanted to help farmers, but also the auction professionals. Many auctioneers are running family owned and operated businesses whose roots date back decades, some even to the early 1900s. In recent years, auctioneers have been expected to become digital marketers, web developers, and social media coordinators in order to promote their events, on top of being an auctioneer. It’s a lot to put on these professionals, and we want to make the digital advertising part of their job easier.” – Kyle McMahon
Auctioneers can contact Tractor Zoom to list their farm equipment for free for a limited time. Farmers and buyers can use Tractor Zoom for free, visiting our homepage or downloading their free mobile app from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.