Buying and Selling Art.

Socrates once said a man without art in his home, is a man without soul.

Art it is strictly an a emotional purchase, as someone who sells art for a living .You have to know your clients.Buying art is personal .I tell my clients, it is like falling in love for the first time .You know your in love, you know that you want this person,their is no reasonable explanation why. Love at first sight it's unexplainable. But it is real.
Art is very similar ,you see a painting or a sculpture and it moves you ,you gaze at it, stirs an emotion within.You may even fall in love with it .Do you buy it, well most people walk away.There are many reasons why, one is  price,another justification. The kids school,car payments the new shoes.I have even heard the excuse" what would I do with it".We get scared just like the guy who fantasizes about his neighbor or co worker but still never asks her for a number or a date.
When buying a great piece of art  their are three rules ,you have to love it ,it should be within your means and third most important again "you have to love it". I hear sales consultants ask do you have a place for it .Ok good question but 90% of the time, if they love it and can afford it they will find a place for it .
Justifying selling art: You love it, you can afford it but what is stopping you from putting the piece in your home. First of all you will hear every excuse in the book .First I tell my clients,,art will not get you to work in the morning,it will not cook you your breakfast and it will not jump up and down when you come home.
Art is strictly a piece of beauty that is frozen in time .Art moves you like music ,it touches deep like a past love, an unforgotten memory.When you look at a great piece of art ,you fall in love ,you wonder how the artist read your thoughts. How does the artist know what I am feeling . This is called being connected to the art.
Art is a visual stimulation, one of the strongest senses we have,Why deny yourself this feeling, But people do,they do not allow themselves to feel good .In this day and age you would think we would gravitate to anything healthy to make us feel good ,The smart ones do, they surround themselves with positive and beautiful things that won't break the bank.
I love when I bring a piece of art to a client that has an average car ,average house and some of the most incredible art I have ever seen .Just like Socrates stated your home is a sanctuary.Why not surround yourself with beauty.




 The question that customers have been asking a lot ,is how do I buy art?
 I get asked this question at least 20 times a day. The answer is simple ,but again a salesperson needs to qualify this question. First most important buy what touches you. If you fall in love with a piece of art and it's in your price means " grab It".The term is used a lot ,but it's very true" here today gone tomorrow".Some edition art even goes up in price ,so why pay more for it.
I love educating clients on art and why they should buy.First there are basically two types of buyers that I am going to narrow down. I brought this up in another blog,left brain people and right brain people.I will break this down as simple as possible, left brain customers look at a piece of art they like or love ,there emotions are stirred a little, they start to get a little excited and then they will go into analyze mode. These are the tough ones, .Please remember these are my opinions when I post ,my experiences and observations.
So back to the left brain clients.So they look at a great piece of art ,they can even fall in love with it .But here is what happens a red light goes off in there head (stop sign) and this stop sign says  .Where would I put it ,what happens if I get sick of looking at this piece in a month ,I can afford this. But I really need a new pair of shoes ,watch ,purse, tires ,water sprinkler,makeup anything other than art.

Left brain buyers don't buy on emotion .They talk themselves out the purchase before ever asking the price most of the time.This is were your people skills have to kick in .I can spot them a mile away .They have one foot in the gallery and one foot pointing out towards the door.They ask a lot of questions about the artist ,technique,I love this one "how old is the artist" like this is going to make any difference in buying contemporary art .They need an excuse not to buy .The question is will they give in to the analytical and switch to the emotional.The answer yes not all the time, but yes if you work with the correctly .In my book I have written a whole chapter on buyers. I will give you a brief run down.Turn the questions around on them, what kind of work do you do? When was the last time you bought yourself a new watch?What kind of car do you drive? Do you collect anything seashells ,horseshoes , bottle caps.anything , now understand when I do this, it's done in a  non abrasive manner almost jokingly .See if you dig deep enough, everyone has at least one strong connection with something materialistic , whether it be of value or no value. But they do have something . The objective is to work with them so that they understand this piece of art is going to be a life long love a long term relationship and I teach this step by step.They need to be reassured it's something they do not have to analyze to own .I even have said to couples when you met and fell in love did you have to go home and make a list of the positives and negatives about one another, of course not. You fall in love it's emotional you want to be with that person more than anything.You make an emotional investment with each other . I know it seems silly but it's very similar in buying art.
We will talk about the right brain buyers next week
Feel free to hit the post button and post your comments a lot of you are posting on the website that is fine too.
Ok the right brain buyer :
Well I think the last post stirred a lot of emotion, we had about 98 comments wanting to talk more on this subject on the website comment page .So to follow up I promised to talk about the right brainers .
A right brain buyer ,artist, galleries and consultants love your way of thinking. You find a piece of art that moves you ,evokes emotion.Your honest, you either love it or hate it .You appreciate the art for what it means to you.We call this sense memory . You see something that reminds you of a childhood moment,, a past love, a trip you took with a loved one or the colors are in a pattern that moves you triggers emotion ,hopefully a good feeling . You know you love the piece and can't live without it .You own it before you even bought .You feel it was painted for you.The artist knew what you were thinking in some strange but connected way .Some people will respond and say these are just spontaneous buyers. Well when it comes to art they are ,remember art is emotional. Art moves us,makes us feel things  It is an emotional purchase .Most material items we buy are not emotional purchases ,Some will argue with me on this point .Women that love shoes ,men that love watches ok true. But here is were art  is different, we need shoes to walk around in. Some women need more elaborate ones than others .We wear watches to keep us on time ,but to be honest watches have become more of a prestigious piece of men's wear .Art like I said  90% of the time is purchased for emotional value.It's prozac on the wall .Yes there are a percentage of people that buy art as an investment, to me this should be secondary. Unless you are actually in the business of buying to sell,Then that is a  whole other chapter that I do cover in my book. But for now lets just talk about the art lover, people like you and me.If you buy an original piece of art that you love. Then let's say the artist becomes very established and his pieces start to sky rocket.The question I ask "would you really sell the piece".If you had financial problems you might , But if you found a great piece of art would you part with it .The answer from most right brain clients" NO " why? once you have that piece in your home it becomes a part of you .See years ago there was a term we used called" old money". These are families that past down inheritances  from one generation to another.Yes a lot of this passed down was money , real estate, jewelery and a very large amount of art.The art was kept in the family from one generation to another .It was a memory of a family member or members. Also certain pieces were passed to certain siblings as gifts of honor.To be gifted a great piece of art by a senior family member was a huge honor. So art becomes part of the family, again in these cases a memory of a loved one.

I am not a physician and have no medical background and again what is posted here is opinion only. But we do know the right side of the brain is the creative side in laymen terms .I can honestly say some people are more emotional and others are more analytical.I don't think this makes one more dominant or smarter or less passionate than one another .All it means is we process differently.That's the beauty of art. When we look at a piece of art, we all see and feel something different.

 Another big question :What is the difference between serigraph , lithograph and Giclee's
The difference between is the serigraph uses a stencil to determine where the ink is laid .While a lithograph uses chemicals ,

Lithograph is made from the chemical reaction instead of carving or etching.The litho techniques are the closest to drawing directly on to paper,as wax crayons are used on top of the stone to determine where the ink will be laid.


Serigraphy ,also has been known as screen printing. this evolved in the early 1900's from centuries old practice of stencil printing serigraphy can use special paint rather than ink.that provides versatility to create a finished product that can closely resemble oils ,pastels or watercolor washes .

Giclee
The French word "giclée" is a feminine noun that means a spray or a spurt of liquid. The word may have been derived from the French verb "gicler" meaning "to squirt".

The Term : The term  "giclee print" connotes an elevation in printmaking technology. Images are generated from high resolution digital scans and printed with archival quality inks onto various substrates including canvas, fine art, and photo-base paper. The giclee printing process provides better color accuracy than other means of reproduction. These are your most common in prints or in editions.

The Process : Giclee prints are created typically using professional 8-Color to 12-Color ink-jet printers. Among the manufacturers of these printers are vanguards such as Epson, MacDermid Colorspan, & Hewlett-Packard. These modern technology printers are capable of producing incredibly detailed prints for both the fine art and photographic markets. Giclee prints are sometimes referred to as Iris prints, which are 4-Color ink-jet prints from a printer pioneered in the late 1970s by Iris Graphics.

The Advantages : Giclee prints are advantageous to artists who do not find it feasible to mass produce their work, but want to reproduce their art as needed, or on-demand. Once an image is digitally archived, additional reproductions can be made with minimal effort and reasonable cost. The prohibitive up-front cost of mass production for an edition is eliminated. Archived files will not deteriorate in quality as negatives and film inherently do. Another tremendous advantage of giclee printing is that digital images can be reproduced to almost any size and onto various media, giving the artist the ability to customize prints for a specific client.

One of the questions asked in my book was "how do you really qualify a client"?
Qualifying is not that difficult , it's breaking the ice that is tough in sales.Have you ever walked on to a car lot.You feel like a tiny gold fish in a shark tank. The last thing you want your clients to feel,but on a sales floor environment it's hard to stop .But the trick is to try and break the ice with a new client without coming across with commission breath.While working in Las Vegas I observed this often with some of my fellow consultants . Running from client to client trying to pick the next sale.It's the same as lets throw as much Sh.. at a wall and see what sticks . The best consultants were the ones that toughed it out with their clients. The ones smart enough to make a connection with a client quick. When I say a connection .I mean find something in common with them, were they live ,the shoes , clothes there wearing, What kind of work do they do . These are boring old school approaches " can I help You", "are you looking to put something on your wall today" ,"first time in the gallery" 90% of the time these question will get "I'm just looking" response.Putting customers immediately on the defense. Basically leave me alone I just want to look! In Vegas me and a couple of the consultants use to play a friendly game with clients,to see if we could find out were they are from ,what kind of work they do and what hotel are they staying at, but you had to use 25 words or less to get all this info. When I worked in the hospitality business.I would tell my bartenders and servers 25 word or less in up selling to customers . After 25 words people zone out, our attention span is little to none. If your going to get someones attention do it in 25 words or less .We lose most sales by talking to much .The problem "sales people love to talk". The good ones ask questions and listen.



On my last blog we had a big discussion on selling and closing .

I hate using this car salesman or timeshare technique ,but even this day and age sales companies still feel the need to use closers to sell. I was surprised when I started selling art that this selling technique  was still in use. A good salesperson does not need a closer to finalize a sale.But this good cop, bad cop scenario seems very old school to me .Your job as a salesperson is to follow the sale from beginning to end, bringing  a closer in a show room makes a client feel like they are at a car dealership. In my opinion selling art and turning a client over to a closer cheapens the art and devalues the artist.The hardest lesson I had to learn in this business was asking for the money .Basically that's why you bring a closer in ." They ask for the money". So learn how to ask for the money, new consultants are scared to ask for the credit card. It's your job, your selling an amazing product .You do not need smoke and mirrors ,you are not giving the product away for free. The client knows there is a price to pay for the product.The artist  job is to create the art ,your job is to sell the art.
On my last blog and book I teach techniques on closing the deal.
Believe it or not as much as you are romancing and selling the art ,you are selling yourself .We buy from people we trust, people we like . Make a connection ,ask questions and listen. People love to talk about themselves. These customers are spending a good amount of money, if they are not comfortable with you or trust you ,they will not buy .No matter how much they love the art.


The key to making a sale ; As passionate the artist is in creating art,  the salesperson needs to be just as passionate when selling the art .If you can not do this, you are in the wrong business.

Yes there is a technique to close a deal ,to finalize a sale .I am  not a strong advocate for the hard close, but sometimes you do have to hard close clients, especially when they have walked away once or twice and are still coming back. These people are working from the left brain(thinkers),analytical,skeptical they are just having a hard time justifying the purchase . These customers need a push .I once asked a client to place there credit card on the table and just leave it on the table. He looked at me like I was crazy.The reason for this is to get them to make the first intention to try and buy the art.I was not going to charge the card and no art was picked out at the time .I was making a point to separate themselves from the purchase. Sounds silly but it worked .I had to convince him to to convince me that he was serious about finding something nice for his home. Do not be afraid to let the client walk .Do not be desperate it reads and bleeds through the whole gallery.
To answer the  question about viewing rooms .
On the radio show we were talking about sales in general .We got on the subject of closing rooms .In the art world they are called viewing rooms. There were a lot of questions, if they work or if they intimidate clients .Closing rooms in dealerships and timeshares are very intimidating .This can also happen in a viewing room with art .But with art if used correctly ,they are one of the best tools an art gallery can have.The reason for this, when used properly it focuses the client on specific pieces.Gives them an up close personal and emotional experience with choosing the correct piece for the home or office. Look you can't bring a BMW in a closing room.The trick is to use the viewing room as joyful intimate experience  as if they are seeing the art as they would see the piece in there home.I have seen grown men break down in tears because they had fallen in love with a piece in these rooms.If you can get them to personalize with the art ,it becomes a win win situation for client and gallery .A reputable gallery wants you to have a great experience . We want to keep you a client for years to come. We want to develop a personal relationship with our clients, viewing rooms are perfect to do this.Shut the outside world off cmon in sit down and relax, have a glass of wine and take in in the beauty of this piece of art . Sometimes time is not on your side , lead them in and do not look back, take two seconds out of your crazy life to see something you might never have the opportunity to see ever again.I promise" you will not be disappointed".
Sometimes what happens in galleries there can be so many different pieces on the wall , the customer can get visually overstimulated and choosing a piece of art can get very frustrating. On the walls, art competes with art. Looking at a piece one or two at a time makes it a lot easier for the customer to narrow down and really fall in love to purchase a great piece and much easier for the art consultant to sell the right piece of art .
The problem art consultants who behave like car salesman give these rooms a bad rap .They turn them into sweat rooms ,making a customer feel trapped once those doors are closed . I have seen some crazy situations occur by misusing these rooms . I have seen easy 10,000  to a 100,000 dollars sales that were a sure thing, get blown to pieces in a viewing rooms and that's when you see inexperienced sales consultant come running out of a room looking for a closer or director to save the sale. You will witness this in large galleries that hire multiple consultants on the floor . We call this flooding the floor. Buyer beware of your environment ,it's real easy to get blown away by big overstimulating galleries with large pieces of art on the walls  and end up with the wrong  piece. The piece picked by the consultant instead of you.You will find this out when you get the piece home and wonder what the hell you just bought  and in most cases the piece will never hang, it may even sit in a storage unit for years no matter how priceless the piece is.
The other mistake that happens reading couples ,are they dating ,engaged or married .We all see art differently. Married couples want to agree on the same piece ,which can be almost impossible but in a viewing room magic happens they will pick the right piece. If you ask questions ,were did they meet how long they have been married is this a special occasion that brought you into the gallery today. What art do you currently have in your home .You can find there needs and a piece they both agree on.This is called sharing the moment ,talk with both of them. Both husband and wife will have an opinion .Do not take sides, you will lose every time. Men want to be educated on the art and artist and women want to be romanced by the art,.it's not brain surgery. I have seen couples storm out of viewing rooms fighting because they disagree with one another. It sounds funny but art is emotional and provoking. It happens  to the best of us, but if you listen to their needs and keep them relaxed they will open up .Consultants would say to me how do you keep your clients in the room for so long ,what are you talking about ? Remember I am the king of 25 words or less . I am not the one talking .I get them to open up .They talk, people want to share .They want to tell you about family ,work ,love  they want to talk bout themselves . I would spend 10 to 15 minutes on the basics of the art .Then change the subject talk about something else and then go back to the art. We are conversing ,making a connection winning over trust,. It works ,how do i know it works. My Clients are repeat buyers and are loyal no matter what gallery or state I am in  . A good salesman makes a sale . A great salesman makes a sale and a relationship
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HOME SHOWS

A great way to sell art is by getting art into a clients home.This is called doing a home show. Bringing in different art and placing the art throughout the home ,so the client can get a feel for what pieces work for them and actually see the art in there house and decide .It's always good to bring a variety of art to show, even pieces they did not inquire about. Remember art competes with art on the walls of a gallery. So a piece they may have missed or not even noticed might be a perfect fit when seen in there home. This actually happens quite a bit . Galleries have a tendency to flood there walls . Larger pieces can over power smaller ones, if the art is not wisely placed throughout the gallery . I  have worked in galleries that are to heavy on the walls .This becomes overwhelming for buyers , especially newer art collectors. They become over stimulated and have a difficult time finding the right piece.
When someone can actually see the piece on the wall in there home (wow)! This opens up many opportunities for the consultant and the buyer .The creative juices start to flow on both sides .Clients become more open minded on placing  art and a good consultant finds more walls to fill with other art.  . It is not uncommon for the client to end up with 2 to 3 pieces. a good consultant should be able to read this while in the home. Do not be afraid to ask "what do you have planned for this wall ,office bedroom".You are doing them a great service by bringing the art to them.Saving them time and energy from running all over looking for art work .When they can shop in there home and see the work in person and not have to depend on the internet or on a website.