Tuesday, December 6, 2011

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.

1 comment:

  1. If you can sell art , you can sell anything.
    I get asked why I named the book and set my lectures with this title. when a lot of what I talk about has to do with buying art also educating the public and galleries on the process of buying and selling.
    The title actually came from Donald Trump from the show the Apprentice He set up a competition with the two groups with an art gallery scenario. Mr Trump felt that if you could succeed in selling art ,you could be successful selling anything .Art being one of the most difficult products to sell ,having know justifiable purpose other than buying on pure emotion and selling on pure romance and emotion.

    ReplyDelete