Confidence: The Key to Selling Art (or Anything Else)

image by ~♥~AmahRa58~♥~constantl y at work

When I was studying acting in college, we actually practiced entering a room for auditions. No joke. We would literally practice the moment before opening the door, opening the door with a smile and striding confidently into a room while making eye contact with directors and producers. We practiced it a lot so that we could appear like we knew what we were doing.

I’ve known a fair number of actors who were terrible, but they booked work all the time because they were good at auditioning.

I was at an art fair last Summer and stopped in a booth to look at some amazing wire sculptures. The artist was in his booth and when he saw that I was impressed, he immediately asked me which sculpture I’d like to take home. He offered to wrap it and box it. He was engaging and fun to talk to – and you could tell that he sold a lot of pieces, because he talked about selling his pieces up and down the West Coast.

He was making a living selling wire sculptures because he actually sold the sculptures.

Confidence Opens Doors

Do you find that people often express interest in your work, but you have a hard time selling anything? Do you have traffic coming to your website, but your prints are selling like you think that they should?

There are a lot of important things you can do to sell your art. Great technique, good connections, the right background, and a beautiful website. If you don’t have confidence, however, you’ll find it difficult to seal the deal. People respond to confidence. They want to feel like they are making the right decision, and if you tell them they are making the right decision, then they’ll trust you. Don’t believe me? Try some of the following suggestions.

Show your pretty smile. If you’re the kind of artist who wears all black, smokes cloves, and likes to blare Nine Inch Nails while displaying your work, then perhaps this won’t work. For everyone else, I like talking to artists who smile. Show me your warmth, your compassion, your artist’s soul. Put a picture of you smiling on your website.

Use your Betty Davis Eyes. Because we spend so much time in the studio and rehearsal hall, artists can sometimes be painfully shy, or just unpracticed at social graces. Those familiar with artists will let that slide, but new collectors and buyers want to feel a connection of some sort. We expect people to look at us. I know it’s difficult, but it makes a world of difference.

Ask for the sale. Sometimes people are thinking about purchasing your work, they just need a little nudge. If someone’s browsing your work with interest, ask them if they’d like to take home a print. Ask if they’d like to buy that piece. Ask if they’d like to take that piece home. Ask if they’d like to give the piece as a gift to a family member. It might seem silly, but what’s the worst that could happen? They might say no, but if you hadn’t asked, they probably weren’t going to buy it anyway.

By the way, this works for your website as well. Every painting on your site should have a ‘buy it now’ button next to it.

Listen for clues. When I was a sales manager (way back in a former life) I saw so many salespeople fail to close when they failed to listen. They assumed someone was going to say no instead of listening to what they actually said. Alternately, they would just verbally abuse someone without listening to their concern – some people just aren’t going to buy, no matter what.

When you ask someone for a sale and they say no, however, they usually don’t mean ‘no, never’ – they often mean ‘not right now,’ or ‘it’s too expensive,’ or ‘I haven’t made up my mind so I’m going to say no.’ When someone says no, ask why!

Overcome objections. This requires some thought beforehand. The moment you put a price on your art, people are going to start coming up with reasons they can’t buy it. These reasons are going to vary from artist to artist. Before you sell your art you should look at it and ask yourself why people might not buy it – then think of all the ways you would overcome those objections.

When selling art online, this is especially important. Your website should answer every objection – price, shipping, ease of purchase, color, size, and more. Make sure your website has everything you need.

Ask for the sale…again. Once you’ve answered people’s objections, you will often need to ask for the sale again. It often goes something like this.

Buyer: I can’t buy it right now?

Artist: Not right now? Is there some concern that I can address?

Buyer: I don’t know how I’m going to get this home. It won’t fit in my car.

Artist: Oh, no problem. If you want to pay for it now, I’ll have my assistant drop it off at your home. Would that work?

Buyer: Oh, you’d do that? That’s so nice. (turns to spouse) Isn’t that so nice? I tell you, people just don’t offer service like that anymore…

(15 minute conversation about how things used to be, where at the end, the Buyer starts to walk away)

Artist: Before you go, did you want to pay for the painting and have me drop it off?

Buyer: Oh, yes, of course!

Confidence Won’t Make Up for Shoddy Work

Being great at selling isn’t the only thing required to inspire confidence. Don’t get me wrong, I think every artist could use an extra shot of confidence, but your work needs to stand on its own. You should have technique. You should present your work well (quality frames, a well-designed website, etc).

People need to feel that you put your heart into your work, and that your work CAN sell. Galleries want to feel confident that they can sell your work. Collectors want to feel confident that they can explain your work to someone, or that they can at least say they were touched by what you did.

How do you get your confidence up?

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