A Community Auction is a simple, fun way for coaches, consultants or experts to have their audience bid on an irresistible offer to access some of their time, programs, or a range of other assets..

Unlike webinars, funnels, VSLs or sales pages, a Community Auction taps into something humans have responded to since 500 BC: the thrill of competition while bidding for something that is in very limited supply.

Here’s how it works, step by step:

Step 1: Create an Irresistible Offer
We’ve found some of the most popular auction offers include one-on-one access, done-for-you services, high ticket course or mastermind access, or access to a range of experts’ time. Because your time is limited and normally unavailable, scarcity makes the chance to get access very desirable.

Step 2: Test the Offer With a Poll
We use a pre-auction Poll or email to test what we think is an irresistible offer before we announce the auction. We usually know within an hour or two if there will be demand for the offer or not.

If we miss the mark with our first offer, we pivot and test something else until we find an offer your audience really wants

Step 3: Announce the Auction
Let people know the auction is going ahead, and have them register for a new Skool community we create specifically for the auction to bid.

Step 4: Build Anticipation
Once we’ve validated the offer, we spend a few days warming up your audience with pre-selling posts, emails, polls, and teasers. Having people excited about the offer before the auction makes all the difference.

Step 5: Run your Community Auction
Launch your auction post inside the community. Members place their bids in the comments. The highest bid at the end wins.

Step 6: Stay Active as the Auctioneer
Respond to every bid or comment. Celebrate the rising bids publicly. Create friendly urgency. You are the energy of the room, the more fun and interactive you are, the higher the bids will climb.

Step 7: Announce the Winner
At the end of the auction, we announce the winner publicly in the comments and celebrate their winning bid.

Step 8: DM Every Bidder
This is where the real money is… we DM every person who bid within 24 hours and invite them to purchase one of 3 packages (Silver, Gold, Platinum) closely related to the offer they just bid on.

The End Result?
A 48 to 72 hour window that generates hundreds of ready-to-buy leads and $5K–$100K+ in sales, plus a massive amount of goodwill… with no complicated funnel required.

Many people think running the community auction itself is the hard part. It’s not. The magic is in creating an offer so desirable that people feel slightly crazy NOT bidding on it.

Here’s how to do it, step by step.

Step 1: Lead With Your Time
The single most powerful thing you can auction is access to YOU. Your audience knows your time is normally unavailable, and scarcity drives desire.

Offer One-on-one coaching, a VIP day, a very small group intensive. When people sense they might miss their only chance to work closely with an expert they trust, pent-up demand does the selling for you.

Step 2: Get Crystal Clear on the Outcome
Your offer must promise a specific, desirable result, not a list of deliverables. People don’t bid on “12 90 minute coaching calls.” They bid on “getting their first $10K client in 30 days or less.” An irresistible offer will offer a desirable transformation, not a list of features.

Step 3: Create a Bonus Ladder
Don’t reveal everything upfront. Start with a compelling core offer, then reveal bonuses as the bidding reaches predetermined thresholds. “$1K bid unlocks Bonus #1. $5K unlocks Bonus #2.” This keeps the energy rising throughout the auction and gives people a reason to keep competing and bidding higher and higher.

Step 4: Add Scarcity That’s Real
Keep your auction short, and never let people know the end time in advance. Urgency is not a trick; it’s a service. It stops people from overthinking and talking themselves out of something they genuinely want. We end the auction when we think it’s topped out, and we tell them that at the start. One winner with a hard deadline.

Step 5: Include a Participation Prize
Let people know that everyone who bids will get something for free – it could be a checklist, a training recording, a template. This encourages more bids, creates goodwill, and gives you a legitimate reason to DM every single person afterwards.

The irresistible offer isn’t about hype. It’s about making the value so obvious and the window so short that saying no feels like the bigger risk.