Excerpt from Book
There have been thousands of books written on selling art but none, to my knowledge, go into any depth about selling art. Yes, some books have chapters on selling and others deal with the topic along with various other aspects of running a successful gallery or building a career. But none go into depth about the down and gritty problems of dealing with all the emotions of learning to sell art. . Most art books are filled with sample forms, charts to fill out and letters you can copy. They make their books larger with extraneous material. I want more and I know you do as well. Let’s learn to become really good at this game. Make no mistake, it is a game for those who are successful.
I was challenged to write this book after receiving several hundred letters and emails telling me of the vast lack of ‘real, in your face information’ on how to sell art. I found that over and over I had been writing small phases of this book while answering myriads of questions. I get letters not only from individual artists, but gallery owners and directors all over the world. The marvel of the Internet never ceases to amaze me. I would have never known the need for information without this thing that is both a blessing and a curse wrapped into a small bundle of wire and plastic sitting on my desk. My old manual Royal typewriter is obsolete and unfortunately so is most of the information on selling. It is my hope to bring you answers that are pertinent to the Twenty-First Century. We are dealing with buyers who have a different mindset than those who were purchasing from Monet on the riverbanks of France. We live in a time of speed and instant gratification. We live where greed and avarice rules.
This book will be written like one that I wish I had discovered when I first started selling my art. I want to make it so clear that either the timid, totally void of confidence artist or the skilled art consultant can benefit from the material. My challenge will be to write a manual that even the person who, to their knowledge, has never sold anything will learn to become proficient. But still make it complex enough so even the top professional art gallery sales director will shake their head and wonder why they never thought of some of the material he/she just read.
Some words of caution: You will be tempted to jump ahead and look for quick fix answers. Please resist temptation. There is a reason for each chapter. It may not all make sense as you progress though the book but the end result is to teach you to be a professional art salesperson. Each step is vital in the learning process. Many of you will know most of what I am writing, so for you it will be a good review. However, in among the things you know I am confident I will have a few new twists and hidden secrets to share with even the most knowledgeable art salesperson. Be patient and stay the course.
We all have preconceived ideas about selling. Selling is the most important word in commerce yet Webster’s does not even list it. There is a large section on ‘sell’ but nothing to describe selling. Rather than to let you keep the idea that selling is some fast-talking gimmick or slight of hand trick I will tell you in this chapter what it is. Selling is when one person assists another person in getting what they imply they want. Or it could be when a person wants something they use ‘selling techniques’ to persuade another person to help them acquire the object of their desire. Conning is different from selling. A Con Artist will make contact with a mark and use deceit to sell them what they don’t want or need. I suspect many of you reading this book have confused Con Artist with Sales Person. Conning is evil and despicable. Selling is honorable and should be a required class in all Colleges and Universities. You need it in all aspects of life whether you are a president, coach, mom or taxi driver.
Selling is as natural as breathing. We all do it or at least we all started out as master sales persons. I know, I helped a wife raise four children. I said I helped. I am not sure how much help I provided. Teaching a boy to throw a curve ball or a daughter to drive a car is not in the same category a mother faces each day. Mothers do the real work and we men get the benefit of saying we raised the child. My four were master sales kids. Each had their own approach and presentation but the results were the same. Daddy gave in and purchased them what they wanted. Oh yes, I did put up a good fight and many of your customers will, but in the end I always gave in to the high-powered pressure. A two year old can be very persuasive. They have all the sales skills required for an adult to follow and become wealthy. Even the Bible says, "And a small child will lead them."
Selling is nothing more than asking questions and waiting for an answer. I remember my youngest daughter wanting a car for graduation. She knew the economy was on the skids in Texas with unemployment near 11%. The oil and gas had bottomed out and as a result many of my portrait commissions were canceled. She was attending the most expensive private high school in Dallas. All of her friends were getting new cars…expensive new cars. She never placed any demands or put any obvious pressure on me. She knew me well and understood what it took to sell me. Volkswagen had just come out with a new convertible called a Cabriole. It was a hot little car in the $15,000 range. Back then that was considered a nice chunk of change for a car. A small BMW was priced about the same.
She had her best friend bring her new car over so I could see it. A subtle move, yet very effective. In fact the two girls insisted I go for a ride in her friend’s new graduation gift. To my surprise they even suggested I drive it to see how it handled. I can’t remember exactly what it was, but I think a new Ford Mustang.
Nothing more was said, but in plain view on my daughter’s desk was a brochure showing the new ivory black Volkswagen convertible. The brochure had a sticker on the cover saying it would be released on the market in May. My daughter’s graduation was May. She knew I would be in her room building some shelves. She also placed the slick pamphlet in such a way so not even a father could miss seeing it. Looking back I suspect the new shelves were part of the plan.
Without ever tossing a temper tantrum or pleading she had been successful in getting me to purchase the car of her dreams. The next day after I saw the pictures I suggested we go for a drive. Fortunately for me a client had just paid me $20,000 on a completed piece and I knew I had best get that car or the money would disappear overnight.
The amazing thing is she tried to act surprised and so did her mother. When all the time she had no doubt that the car was going to be hers if daddy could come up with the cash. With the economy being so uncertain I felt I needed to pay cash for it. Payments may become more difficult as my clients, one by one, went bankrupt.
She knew her prospect. Me. She knew what it would take to move me to action. She applied extraordinary pressure without ever speaking a word. This is selling in the highest form.
Selling is the Street Walker charging $20.00 for her product and a Call Girl getting $1,000 a night for about the same service. Perhaps the Call Girl has better perfume and the bed is softer but essentially the product is the same. That is selling even if it may not appear to be. Some man is made to believe he is getting value for his money and you know what? He is, if he thinks he is. I am not speaking from experience…I never had $1,000 extra and I guess I always felt too important to try out the $20 variety.
Whiteism: It’s impossible to earn a living in art without something being sold.
I can see you right now, wringing your hands and saying that I don’t know you. You are different. You have never been able to sell anything. Which of course is not true. You are an excellent sales person when you have something you believe in. I think most artists cannot sell their product because first all they don’t see it as a product. Then they don’t believe in what they are selling. It’s difficult to ask $500 for an art piece when in your heart of hearts you think it is only worth $50. You feel as if you are stealing when you charge what the piece is really worth.
Perhaps you are a seasoned veteran and think you know it all. You are being asked by your gallery owner to read this and you are thinking it is going to be a waste of your time. You will be the easy one for me to write to, because if I can convince you that I do indeed offer some useful information you will suck it up like a sponge does water on a Formica counter. For you I want to relate a story that was told to me by Ray Kroc, the man who founded Mc Donald’s Hamburgers at the age of 57. I was in Chicago meeting with him and taking reference photos for a commissioned portrait I was doing for the boardroom. Not only do I like to take several dozen photos, I like to do a rough oil sketch of the head…wiping out the eyes so when the sitter looks at it they will not think this is the best I can do. I don’t want them to see the work until I have completed it to the best of my ability. I had finished my photo shoot and was doing the oil study when Ray asked, "Jack, do you mind if I make a suggestion?"
What was I going to do, tell the man who was getting ready to pay me several thousand dollars in a few months when I delivered his portrait, No? So I answered, "I am always open for suggestions." Honestly, I was getting braced for some artistic suggestions, perhaps something about the pose. Like, he felt his left side was better than his right or something to that nature.
What he said was so riveting that from that day forward it has become my mantra…my marching orders. It is what I live my life by. It was one of the most profound messages that I had ever heard, yet said with the simplicity of a country salesman selling Dixie Cups to small restaurants. Those of you who know the Ray Kroc story know he was just that, a traveling salesman calling on small drive-in restaurants selling Dixie Cups to them for their swirl ice-cream machines.
Mr.Kroc leaned back, propped his feet on his leather topped desk and smiled with all the confidence of a man who had accomplished what no other man had done in the food industry. At that time his company had just sold its one-billionth burger. "Jack, I have a saying that has been my guide for years. When you are green you are growing and when you get ripe you begin to rot." He then looked at me like I should have been giving him a standing ovation.
Well, the truth is I was standing so in some ways I guess I was giving him that ovation. However, I have to be very honest, I was expecting something greater and more profound. What I failed to understand was the obvious. What he had told me was in fact very profound and deep. It took me a year or so to begin to understand its depth. Now that years have gone by I see his wisdom with even more clarity than I did ten years ago and certainly the twenty plus years that have passed since he spoke those words.
What he was telling me was as long as I learn and remain thirsty for knowledge I am alive and growing. The moment that I think I know it all, that is the point in my life that I am dead. I challenge you professionals to not become ripe and think you know all there is to know about selling. Study the manual I am writing for you. Don’t skip ahead…follow the book chapter by chapter. Just because you have heard most of the things I am writing about, it will help you to remember and start using again those skills you once used and have forgotten. To the beginner hang onto every word…study with a highlighter and put to memory many of the simple things that I will place in front of you.
I will promise you both, pro and beginner alike, you will be a competent salesperson by the time you complete studying what I am writing…if you follow my suggestions. I know sales and how to sell.
Last month I received a long email from a man who told me this story. "I don’t know if you remember me but you came in my store in the early seventies. I was in Denver and you were based in Austin, Texas. I think you had only been painting for a few years. You had seventeen of your paintings with you and I ended up purchasing your entire inventory. I had just opened my new gallery. I was so convinced after you left my shop that you would one day become famous, I took all the paintings home for fear that someone would buy them and I would later regret it. Thanks to this Internet thing I have finally been able to locate you and tell you how thrilled I am that I had the foresight to take them home."
Do I remember calling on him? No. Do I remember what I said that made him think one day I would be semi-famous? No. I suspect I never said anything that would indicate to him the art would increase in value. Knowing me I probably told him if your customers buy one tell them in twenty years it will be worth what they paid for it. They would get to enjoy it, in essence, for free those twenty years. I do know this, I never lied to him, because if I had he would not have been so excited to find me. People are not anxious to locate and be friends with those who stiff them. You may make the sale, but you will lose a client. I would bet my boots (my good ones) that this man would buy again from me today in a heartbeat.
Not only did I sell him, I made him understand what he was getting had value. This is difficult to do. It’s like showing folks photos of your children or grandchildren. If you don’t say they are cute then people will think you don’t care for them. If you start to brag then they will say you are prejudiced. The best way is to be honest and tell them how proud you are of the children. Say it with conviction. Say it with confidence and most of all say it with love. Sell your work like you sell your children, when you are pleased with them.
Join me in a journey that will reward you many times over and lead you up the path to financial success. No field earns more money than those in sales. Let’s face it, no one ever became the President of the United States without doing a lot of selling. The CEO of a major company is first a great salesman and then leader, because without the ability to sell he or she would have never been offered the job.
Please be patient and don’t skip ahead. I am laying out a plan to show you the way to improve your skills or to teach those with no knowledge how to be great salespersons. Please take note: I didn’t say salespersons but GREAT SALESPERSONS. Jot down ideas and mark pages you need to go back to again and again. I want you to make it a game. Games are for fun…so is selling.
I want you to study because by continuing to learn and grow we can extend our lives. Harvard did a study of Adult Development, the longest and most comprehensive examination of aging ever conducted. Since 1930, researchers have studied more than 800 men and women, following them from adolescence into old age. They were seeking clues on the behaviors that translated into happy and healthy longevity. Guess what? It was not the parents’ genes, quality of childhood, absence of stress or control of cholesterol but other factors that determined the length of life. What they found contributed to a long, healthy and productive life were the following:
Live in the present, enjoy life and good health while it lasts and by all means find out how to make this selling thing a game. Living for three years on Longboat Key made me determined to not get old like many of the retired folks I saw walking around humped over with a zombie expression. These were people with millions in savings that were miserable and wanted all whom they encountered to be the same. I will get older in years but never in spirit or expanding of my mind. I challenge you to do the same.