Mid Kansas Auto Auction (MKSAA) is a family-owned business based in Wichita, Kansas. Co-Owner, Mark Ottley bought the auction in 2018 and son/Co-Owner/GM, Trevor Ottley moved to Wichita in 2019 to operate and steer the new venture.
The desire of MKSAA was to make doing business with them easy and fun for car dealers. At their 36,300 square foot facility, they currently provide a variety of options for transportation of purchased and sold vehicles, have a detailing department, and in-house title services. They do business throughout the country but so far operate predominately in 9 states with the intention of continuing to expand their footprint.
MKSAA hosts weekly sales on their 5-lane sales floor. They start the morning with coffee and donuts, bring in Wichita-based food trucks for lunch, and end sales with friendly competitions (shuffleboard, football toss, and more) where dealers can win cash. Once a month they host larger themed sales where dealers can enjoy a variety of giveaways, some as elaborate as airline gift cards or leather travel bags filled with $2,000 cash. Select themed sales also include events the night before, like happy hours or catered meals.
Dealers are guaranteed to catch some flak from Trevor, who aims to make their business collaborative instead of competitive. “We like to have a good time,” says Trevor, “Sale days are the busiest day of the week, but we love hosting our dealers and building relationships with them. We want MKSAA to feel like home for our dealers, we want them to feel welcomed here and know we are a place they can come and see their friends who hopefully start to feel like family. And of course, leave with some great cars or prizes, both if they’re lucky!”
MKSAA currently employs 117 employees. Their average sale has 400+ cars and each week they host hundreds of dealers in person and online. In an industry that likes to move fast MKSAA is changing things by slowing down enough to know the dealers they do business with. “At the end of the day, we want to be known as an auto auction who truly cares about their dealers,” says Trevor, “It’s why we do things differently here.”