Art Money & Success

by Maria Brophy

  If you wait longer than 24 hours, you might miss the sale. Art purchases are impulsive and there are many other artists out there that will want the work. If you wait too long, the buyer will lose interest and move on to something else. If you wait even a few days, you’ll probably have lost the sale.

  Set up a system that helps you remember to call or email someone if they didn’t buy after your last interaction with them.

  Never assume they don’t want to buy if you don’t hear back from them. Instead, assume they got busy and need to be reminded. Make it easy for them to buy from you; you should be doing all the work, including making the effort to close the sale. Sometimes when a client doesn’t respond right away, there’s a good reason, and usually it has nothing at all to do with you.

  One of the abstract artists I work with had a situation where her buyer was very interested, and just before the sale was about to happen, the buyer disappeared. The artist was upset and didn’t understand. I suggested she continue following up and calling the buyer every few weeks. For months, the buyer didn’t even respond. I told the artist to just keep trying. Finally, months later, the buyer resurfaced. He apologized and said that his mother had died and life was upside down for awhile. He was still interested in the painting and thanked the artist for following up with him.

  It’s your responsibility to follow up with your clients. It is not your client’s responsibility to follow up with you. Most people will buy after they have been contacted by you at least seven times. If you give up on a potential client after the first or second follow up, you are losing money.

  If, after sending a price quote, you don’t hear back within 48 hours, send an email asking “Did you receive my email from two days ago? Please email me back and confirm that you got it.” That will prompt a response from them and will reopen the dialog.

  If they don’t respond to your follow up email, then call them. Don’t give up on your clients! Create a reminder system for yourself to follow up with every client, and don’t stop trying to reach them until you get a “yes” or a definitive “no” from them. A “maybe” doesn’t count. If you get a “maybe” then you aren’t finished following up.

  I don’t ever give up on a sale until the client gives me a definite no. For the last eight months, I’ve been trying to sell a painting to a Brophy collector. He had bought a painting earlier and when we installed it in his home, I noticed a large, bare wall in his living room. I can’t stand a bare wall! We had the perfect piece for this space, a beautiful six foot by eight foot abstract painting in our studio. I took a photo of his wall and later Photoshopped the painting on it and texted him the photo, showing him how perfect the art would look on his wall. He was mildly interested and I invited him to come to the studio to see the painting in person, and he did. He didn’t say no to the painting, but he didn’t say yes. Every month since then, I sent him a reminder that the painting is waiting for him.

  Last month, I got an idea; I offered to install it and give him thirty days to make up his mind. I said “I guarantee that you will love this painting. I’m so sure of it, that if you don’t love it in thirty days, I’ll come take it back and you will owe me nothing.” He still wasn’t sure but again, didn’t say no. Just last week, I called him again and asked “What is it going to take to get this painting on your wall?” I was so happy to hear his answer. He said “I’m getting some extra money next month, so I’ll take it.”

  I didn’t give up on this collector. I was actually having fun seeing what it would take to get him to commit to the artwork. I wasn’t attached to any outcome, but I knew in my heart that it was perfect for his space. My job was to get him to see that.

  Don’t give up on your buyers. Let them decide when they want to say no. If they tell you anything other than a no, that means there is still an opportunity for a sale. And if they do tell you no, that’s probably temporary. “No” doesn’t usually mean no forever, it just means no for now.

  Setting up a reminder system will help you stay on track with your follow ups. An easy system is to set reminders on your online or phone calendar. After responding to an inquiry or sending a price quote, add a reminder to your calendar to follow up in two days if you don’t hear from them.

  In two days, send a follow up email. Then add another reminder to follow up in five days. In five days, if you haven’t heard back, call them on the phone. Then add another reminder to follow up again in a week.

  If you don’t get the sale after these follow ups, then add a reminder to follow up in a month, and start sending them once a month reminders. Sometimes people eventually come around.

  Following up until you get a definite answer is not bugging people, it’s actually helping them. Many of your clients will appreciate the follow up, as they get busy or distracted by the other things happening in their lives. Since you are the one selling something, it’s up to you to make it easy for them.

  DO NOT FEEL ATTACHED TO

  THE OUTCOME OF SELLING

  Yes, you want to sell your art, but don’t allow yourself to feel attached to having to sell it. I realize this sounds a little counter-intuitive. But, when you feel desperate to sell something, your buyer will sense that. And that’s when they won’t buy, because something feels strange to them.

  Get your mindset into a place so you are okay with any outcome. This way you will relax and be very pleasant to talk with.

  BUILD RELATIONSHIPS

  All selling is about relationships. Every relationship must be tended to regularly for it to grow. Keep in touch with your past buyers and interested buyers. Implement the following habits for keeping in touch with your buyers:

  Collect email addresses and send out a bi-weekly email with photos of new art that’s available. Tell a story for each one.

  Call at least five people a day; call past buyers to ask how they are, and interested buyers to see if there’s anything you can do for them.

  Send a thank you and/or holiday card to every buyer of your work.

  Go to events (networking, trade shows, etc.) to meet new people to add to your relationship list.

  COLLECT CONTACT INFORMATION

  Keep a list of past buyers, fans and potential buyers. You can keep this list in the form of a spreadsheet or on a newsletter list. This will come in handy when you have something new to announce, like a new series or an upcoming event. Build your list by asking people for their emails. Be diligent about recording the contact information as soon as you get it.

  Every time a person shows interest in your art, no matter where you are, ask for their name, email address and phone number. Then ask permission to add them to your list of people you send emails to when you have new artworks to show or an upcoming event.

  When you do a live event, have a clipboard with a sheet of paper with lines on it and columns for NAME, CITY, STATE, EMAIL. Ask people to add their information to the paper.

  We have a lot of random people come into Drew’s studio from the busy street we are located on. I keep a clipboard on my desk and I ask every single person to put their information on it. Their names are promptly added to our Mailchimp newsletter account, and they start receiving Drew’s newsletter right away.

  Be sure to get their permission to add their email to your newsletter list. Without permission, it is considered spamming. You never want to add a name to your email list without permission.

  A great suggestion from my friend Owen Garratt is to have what he calls a “drop box.” A drop box is a box that you have at a live event. People can put their business card or name and email address in to enter a drawing to win something, like an art print or a coupon for a discount off of your art. This is an effective way to get a lot of names added to your list at once.

  I’ve been collecting emails from Drew’s fans and buyers for over ten years. We send out regular newsletters through Mailchimp and a majority of our sales come from people on that list.

  SALES LOVE SPEED

  If you want to sell more
art, you have to move your sales FAST. The longer a prospective buyer waits on making a purchase, the less likely they will buy. It’s your job to move them from “interested” to “sold” quickly.

  One way to move the process along is to respond to a buyer quickly, within 24 hours, of them showing interest.

  Then, if they don’t buy right away because they are waiting to make a decision, ask “Can I call you back tomorrow, and you can let me know what you decided?” Then call them at the scheduled time the next day. Don’t let too much time go by, because when you do, the sale usually dies.

  STUCK SALE

  A stuck sale is when a buyer shows interest, but doesn’t make a decision either way. Your goal is to get them to either say yes or no. There shouldn’t be a maybe, as a maybe can be forever.

  When a sale is stuck, NEVER say to them “I’m just touching base” or “I’m checking in.” It’s not powerful enough to move the sale. Instead, call and find out where they are stuck. Ask them directly: “Have you made a decision?”

  If they say they have not yet made a decision, ask them “Why not? What is concerning you?” Keep asking questions until you have a clear answer as to why they have not decided yes or no.

  Once you understand what’s stopping them, then you can help move it along. If it’s money, give them payment options. If it’s another problem, see what you can do to solve it.

  One of the artists I coach had a collector interested in one of her large paintings, but dragged it out for months without buying. The artist would call him every few weeks to say “I’m just following up. When can I get this painting to you?” And each time, the buyer would say he still wasn’t sure, and ended the conversation with a “maybe”. I suggested that she change the questions she was asking. One day she called and asked him, very directly, “I know you love this painting. So what is it that’s keeping you from buying it?” He admitted, “I just don’t like the frame.” Now that the artist had this information, it was so easy for her to remedy it. She offered to swap out the frame for one that he liked. It worked, he gave her a credit card number and it was sold.

  The frame was an easy fix. Sometimes, the problem or concern the buyer has is more complicated. Keep asking until you find out what it is. Once you know, tell them that you will give it some thought and get back to them. Then brainstorm a solution.

  If pricing is their concern, take the time to see if you can cut back on materials or offer a less expensive option. Once you have created a solution, contact them and say “I’ve been thinking about what you said, and I have an idea of how to solve that. Let’s get back on the phone and I’ll share it with you.”

  The trick is to get to the bottom of the issue quickly. Don’t let it simmer for weeks or months, as that’s how you lose the sale.

  UNQUALIFIED BUYERS AND TIRE KICKERS

  There are three types of buyers that we encounter in the art business.

  Your right buyer, who is a viable client and will respond to your quote with a yes or a no.

  The unqualified buyer, who cannot afford your prices or isn’t ready to commit to the project.

  The tire kicker, who is just curious about your pricing. They never intended to buy anything. No matter what price you give them, they won’t buy.

  Once we understand which buyer we are dealing with, we can better handle the challenges of selling to them. Below are some of the challenges we encounter with buyer type #2 and #3.

  Challenge #1 - Emailed the client a quote and they disappeared:

  Don’t you hate it when you email a price quote to someone and then they never respond? There are ways to remedy this. But first, it helps to know that out of all the people asking for price quotes through email, about 50% of them are tire kickers, 25% are unqualified buyers and only 25% are our right buyers.

  Often we assume that price was the reason they didn’t respond. But that’s not always the case. There are other reasons someone didn’t respond to your email. Some are:

  They never received your email (it went into a spam folder or got lost).

  They got busy and forgot about it.

  They didn’t have all their questions answered, and then got busy and forgot about it.

  They were an unqualified buyer.

  They were a tire kicker and had no intention at all of buying.

  They had some other reason, and it’s your job to find out what that reason is.

  There are few ways to remedy these deal killers. The easiest is by talking with them. You can significantly cut down on the number of people who don’t respond to your email price quotes by vetting them through live conversation.

  When you receive an email from someone who is asking for a price quote, ask to set up a phone call first. Tell them that you want to get a clear understanding of what they need so that you can give a proper price quote.

  This will make the tire-kickers go away because tire kickers do not want to talk to you. They only want your pricing. They most likely will disappear as soon as you email them a question or ask to talk to them. Good riddance! They are time wasters.

  Most serious buyers will happily set up a time for a phone call. At worst, they will email you back and ask that you interact digitally. (If you can get them on the phone, that is best. But, if they insist on email or texting, then give them what they want.)

  When you get them on the phone, ask questions and get clarity on what they want. Form a friendly bond through conversation, and then send a price quote based on your new understanding.

  When you send a price quote, even if it is an informal email quote, make sure it includes the answers to any questions the client might ask. Size, medium, how many, timing, etc.

  Follow up within 48 hours. Your follow up should be short and sweet. Say “I’m following up on my price quote from two days ago. Did you receive it?” Just asking one simple question will encourage them to hit reply and answer.

  Follow up is where most artists blow it. They send a price quote and a month goes by before they decide to find out why the client hasn’t bought yet. By then, it’s too late.

  If you don’t hear back from the client with a yes or a no in one week, follow up again with a call. Ask them if they accept your offer. If they say yes, tell them what the next step is (i.e. send an installment payment). If they say no to your offer, this is your opportunity to find out why and see what you can do to push it along.

  Sometimes people will just disappear. You can’t get them to answer an email and you can’t get them on the phone. They were either glorified tire kickers, or things changed for them. Life got in their way, something bad happened, or their business changed gears. Whatever it is, it’s certainly not personal and most likely has nothing to do with you. Let it go.

  Challenge #2 - They ask for an unreasonable discount:

  An artist told me she had a client demand that she give a 50% discount and make it a rush job, please! Yes, there are people in the world who are unreasonable and downright insulting. You don’t have to pander to them.

  When you encounter a client like this, handle it with grace while staying firm on your price. Let them know that your pricing is based on a business model that you have carefully crafted and you are unable to stray from that. Offer them other options, smaller pieces, less scope of work, or existing art at lower prices that they can purchase. Then, thank them for their time and let it go.

  If they never come back to you, consider yourself fortunate. The clients who demand the biggest discounts are always those who are the most difficult to deal with.

  Challenge #3 - You blurt out prices that are too low and do work for less than you’re worth:

  An artist wrote “I just painted two ukuleles for $100. The client told me that’s all he could afford. Sometimes I blurt out prices that are too low and get stuck doing a lot of work for little pay. It sucks.”

  There are two fixes to this very common problem. The first is to have set pricing for what you do. The second is to stand firm on your pri
ce, but offer a lower priced alternative to match a lower budget.

  When you have established pricing, and a client says “I only have $100 but I want you to paint both of these ukuleles for me,” you can say, “For $100, I can paint a beautiful little flower on one of them. If you want both of them painted, it will cost you $______.”

  If you give a client a price and they ask if you can do it for less, then offer an alternative that will match the price they are willing to pay. For example, if they want you to create fifty illustrations but can only afford 50% of the amount you would charge, offer to create twenty five illustrations (half) to fit their budget. Or find another way to save you in time and materials so you can lower the price.

  Challenge #4 - The client continuously asks for a lower price, even after you agreed to a price:

  When someone continuously asks for more and more, at a lower price, don’t give in. It’s not your responsibility to subsidize their business and their mistakes.

  A South American reggae band emailed asking Drew to design their new album cover. We gave a price quote, and the band replied “Oh, we can only pay half of that price.”

  I came up with a lower priced option to meet their budget, one that would take Drew half the time to create. I emailed the band and told them that we could meet their budget with a more simple design.

  They disappeared for three months. I continued to follow up, and finally one day they emailed and said “We hired another artist to do the work. We paid him money and then he disappeared!” I told them that Drew is still available, and are they ready to get started? They responded back that now that they spent money on that other artist, they wanted an even cheaper deal! Of course, by this time, I was not happy. We had already wasted several hours on them.

  Some people just aren’t viable clients. Don’t waste too much time on them. Let them go.

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