For some reason whenever charity committees get together there is always someone (let’s call her Jenny Brightspark) who displays their pure money raising genius to everyone by brightly suggesting “Lets have a charity art raffle / auction / lucky door prize”  (*delete as appropriate).

“Go to it!” says the rest of the committee approvingly,  excited at the prospect of free art from a (semi) famous artist being sold for thousands of dollars and thus filling their coffers extra super fast..much faster than trolling door to door selling tickets in the local middle class affluent money suburb.

…after all (they think) its a win for them (they get wads of money) and a win for the artist (all that lovely free publicity!).

Shortly after, YOU recieve a gushing email “I absolutely LURVVVE your art…I’m the organiser for a HUGE charity event raising money to rescue starving hamsters in Peru…Its going to be MASSIVE and FANTASTIC…you simply must take part. Please would you donate a painting (but preferably two) for the raffle. Oh, and as it’s a charity event please ship them at your own expense.  Yours Sincerely, Jenny Brightspark.”

“Wow!”, you say to yourself, “Someone loves my artwork…and they are inviting me to participate in AN EVENT… think of all the publicity…think of all the starving hamsters I can help…” (the real subtext of your thoughts actually being the thought of all the art you MIGHT sell if you just donate a couple of paintings and everyone suddenly discovers the genius that you are).

In the early part of your career when any invitation for anything seems like a massive honour, actually jumping on board and sending off your artworks (never to be seen again) seems like a brilliant and lucrative idea to be capitalized on some way down the track. BUT WAIT…

Is it actually a good idea? Or is it a complete and utter waste your time,  ultimately doing little or no good for those poor starving Peruvian Hamsters.

REALITY CHECK

• Unless you are a very very very famous artist (so famous that you are known to all, and therefore probably dead) no one will take any notice of your artwork as it is raffled, auctioned, or lucky door prized (other than the nice old dears who are buying a ticket or putting in a bid because your donated painting  will look good next to their blue Sofa).
• The artwork you donate will probably not be your best work, because of course you save those for the gallery, thereby also minimising your chances of your artwork taking the charity world by storm.
• Most people will just talk, eat, drink, fart and basically ignore your painting even as it is being held aloft during the part of proceedings allocated for holding things up in the air so everyone can see them.
• Most people are looking for a bargain, even at charity auctions, so unless the audience is in fact very rich and very drunk, there’s a high likelihood that your artwork if auctioned will sell for an embarrassingly low price potentially damaging your price reputation.

..So, what can you do to prevent this happening?

Fortunately, should you decide to  help extricate the hamsters from dire straits by stumping up your own paintings there are things you can do to make the best of the situation.

TOP TIPS FOR MAKING THE BEST OF A CHARITY EVENT

• Ask for details about pre-event publicity. Make sure you are mentioned and included.
• Actually attend – This is a networking opportunity. Work the room baby! Work it! Work it! Work it! Because your artwork is one of the stars of the show (it’s your job to make sure everyone knows that) you have a license to introduce yourself to everybody, and make sure everyone looks at your artwork.
• Have your mini art portfolio on hand at all times…along with your business card…show everybody.
• Make sure that your business card and a flier gets placed in any charity goodie bags that are being given out.
• When its time for a raffle or lucky door prize, stand on the stage with your painting, and personally hand it over to the winner.
• Make sure that the press get a photo of you with the winner of the painting (you may have to arrange this earlier so that the press are poised and ready). If you can’t get the press to be there get someone to take a photo and then send it to the press yourself along with a press release.
• If there is someone famous at the event, get them to stand next to you next to the painting, and then be photographed together.
• When chatting with people, take down the names and email addresses of anyone who shows an interest in your art. Don’t be shy about asking. In my experience very few people refuse to give their details if they are at all interested. Add them to your mailing list.
• Follow up with a ‘nice to meet you email’ after the event for everyone you got the details for. Thank the organisers too.

So by following the above tips you’ve made a heap of new contacts, made some new friends, not to mention assisting with relocation of starving rodents. The small furry animals of the world raise tiny paws to salute your generous donation.

It’s a jungle out there and now its time to engage in guerrilla warfare and hand-to-hand combat in order to sell your art direct to the public. Don’t like the analogy? Think all this art sales stuff should be all comfortable and snuggely like a warm blanket? Yes of course it should, for your customer at least, but for you this is serious, this is YOUR art business.

So camo up, lock and load, we’re going over the top!

These golden rules were honed on the front line, selling my art myself, direct to the public at my own exhibitions. To do it successfully you have to be audacious. Shrinking violets should apply elsewhere.

Like any form of combat training or martial art the golden rules I am about to tell you will take practice, practice and more practice, and you can only practice by actually doing it. Be relentless, eventually you will experience the sweet taste of victory. So here we go…

Golden Rule No. 1: Greet, Retreat and then LOOK BUSY

When anyone walks into your exhibition space and takes more than a passing interest in your art, say “hello”, and maybe even a “how are you today?”, but not in a desperate “look at my art and then buy it pleeeeassee” way. YOU are a successful artist and you are busy, so GREET, RETREAT and LOOK BUSY. You want your prospective customer to feel welcomed and comfortable to stick around a while. They won’t do that if you are oggling their every move. Find something important looking to do like tapping on the computer keyboard fulfilling other sales (pretend or otherwise) or talking quietly on the phone to important sounding clients (again real or fictional…your choice). Look busy even if you are not! People have a herd mentality when buying art. If they get the impression that there is a stampede of people out there buying your art then they will be subconsciously reassured and more likely to move from art looker to art buyer.

Golden Rule No. 2: Display your battle victories

People seem to be absolutely fascinated by any artwork that has one of those red dots on it indicating that the painting is now SOLD. They will stare at these dots even more than the artwork itself for some strange reason. Maybe it’s just the colour attracting the eye. Maybe it’s the special aura around an artwork which someone else has deemed to be worthy by stumping up their hard earned cash. Red dots provide a cosseted reassurance that the ‘herd’ has already approved of your wild gesticulations on canvas or paper and that you and your art are the real deal. Here’s what to do:

• In a very obvious location in your exhibition hang a board on which you will display your sales victories.
• Stick the artwork details card (containing the title, size, medium and price) of artworks already sold on the sales board. Make sure each card has a big fat red dot.
• If you can, do everything in your power to sell at least two or three of the artworks that are intended for your show before the show opens so you can confidently claim victories on your sales board to get things rolling.
• As soon as any sale is made at the show, stick that big enticing red dot and details card on the board.

Adding up the amount of money an exhibition has taken by checking out the dots is a sport for some. I’ve actually witnessed people walk straight up to my art sales board and do the sums even before they looked at my artworks! Maybe I should just create artworks from fat red dots instead.

Golden Rule No. 3: Watch for Circling Sharks

Like a detective on a stake out, undertake discrete surveillance of what your exhibition visitors are doing. Stay busy but just keep a discrete eye on what’s happening. You’re on the lookout for ‘prospective buyer behaviour’. Prospective buyers tend to act differently from other exhibition visitors. Like sharks circling a prospective food source they hover around your artworks for longer than usual, and then quickly move up close for a quick snappy nibble to examine the artworks and take mental note of prices. Rarely will they decide to devour an artwork straight away by proclaiming “I’ll buy it now!”

If you notice this kind of behaviour then it’s time to just casually wander over and engage Mr or Mrs Shark in pleasant conversation. Quietly introduce yourself, ask where they are from or note something interesting about the artwork. Some people will put their defences up straight away, but maintain your pleasant composure and if necessary back off and leave them to their own devices. Many people will respond well, especially if you approach the encounter as genuinely wanting to meet a new shark (Oh dear I’ve now moved from a Guerrilla warfare analogy to a Jacques Cousteau Extreme Shark Encounter…oh well, if it works go with it).

Golden Rule No. 4. LISTEN!

Ego driven, self absorbed artists read the following carefully. When you are selling your art do not go banging on to potential customers about the underlying deep philosophical meanings of your artworks, and how during the creation of your artwork your soul was tortured due to memories resurfacing of the premature and untimely death of your budgie in the claws of a rabid bird of prey which flew off with the aforementioned budgie and then electrocuted itself on power lines. Don’t do that. Save it for interviews with editors of undecipherable art magazines later.

Instead, bring the conversation round to what the prospective buyer likes about the artwork. Get them to tell you about it and LISTEN! Don’t impose your thoughts about the artwork on them. Facilitate their getting to know the artwork for themselves. Let them have a chance to identify with it. Even though it’s your artwork, what it means to you is not important. IT’S ALL ABOUT WHAT IT MEANS TO THEM! By all means answer their questions about any aspect of your work but make sure that you are leading them back to what they like about it. Help them to make the connection between this artwork and their own life.

Golden Rule No. 5: Lead the sale

It’s always amazing to me how many people really don’t know what they want. Most people (not all) will fluff around all day and ultimately make no decision to buy at all after wasting hours of your time if you don’t lead the sale. To lead the sale effectively you need some inside information about your prospective client. Since I’ve been using a war analogy I could start painting a mental picture of a dark interrogation room with a single light bulb swinging as extract the info we need, but since I have no wish to torture my clients I’ll leave that one alone.

Ask questions about where they’d like to hang your artwork; get them to describe the space. Guide them in visualising your artwork in their house by telling you where it will be situated. People LOVE to talk about themselves and their beautiful homes. Take an interest and a mental note of everything they are telling you. This is valuable information and it will help you guide the sale. If you can extract the information about what they like about your artwork and where it might eventually live in their home you have a powerful weapon in your art sales arsenal. Guide your potential client to zeroing in on just a couple of artworks based on what you are hearing, and how your artwork can fulfil THEIR needs. At all times just act as if this is a sale that is going ahead. Don’t fluff around saying ‘if’ and ‘maybe’ to a client. Be direct in your speech. More often than not there will be a point at which the client has a decision to make. To buy or not to buy, this painting or the other, or both.

When the time is right in the ebb and flow of things don’t be afraid to quickly reflect back to the client what they have said and how ‘this’ painting will fulfil their needs. For instance:

Client: “Oh I just can’t decide, both paintings are wonderful, but I’ve only got a small house and room for one”

You: “Well, you mentioned that the painting will be hanging over a blue lounge, so of the paintings that you like here I think this one would be absolutely beautiful in that spot, especially as it would echo that spectacular sea view from the opposite window.”

Client: (nodding and thinking): “Ah yes”

You: (in a matter of fact tone that infers this sale is going ahead): “So, would you like to take this painting home today?”

Important: NOW IT’S TIME TO SHUT UP. Do not say another word. If there is an awkward silence do not fill it. Rattling on any further will give the potential client room to wriggle out of making a decision right now. STAY QUIET. By asking the question and then staying silent they must make a decision.

At this point they will either:

COMMIT and indicate that they are genuinely interested in buying

SAY NO – people very rarely do this as it makes them feel awkward

DEFER and say “I’ll think about it and come back later” (which is a complete and utter lie designed to make them feel less awkward, but refreshingly just sometimes turns out to be true)

Okay, so we’re at the point of a client actually buying your artwork (or not as the case may be). Surely I can’t just leave you here like a bad soap opera cliff-hanger? Well yes, I can. This is turning into another long post so please subscribe to my feed and you’ll receive the next thrilling instalment as soon as I get in some more ranting time.

To be continued…

I don’t really want to drag around a big art art folio

Imagine if every time you show your art to people that you have to open up a big art folio. This can tend to be a bit confronting. It looks like you are trying to sell them something right there and then, so they tend to get turned off straight away. I had this very problem when I first started out so I set about solving it and came up with a solution…

Let me introduce you to your new best friend; your Personal Organiser Mini Art folio

I don’t really want to lug my artworks everywhere with me just in case someone takes an interest, so what I do is keep a mini art portfolio with me at all times when I’m in exhibition promotion mode.

This is how it works…

The key is to talk to people as you meet them in your everyday life and somehow let them know that you are an artist, but without actually saying up front “I am an artist and look at my artwork”. Instead you need to help them to ‘discover’ that you are an artist, and then ask you for more information.

For example, when you are in a shop and the manager of the shop serves you and asks how your day was, rather than saying “pretty good thanks”, say something like “oh I’ve been very busy working on an artwork for an exhibition”. Invariably they will ask you what kind of art you make, at which point you can open your trusty personal organiser mini art folio and actually show them.

A personal organiser or Filofax is a pretty non-threatening kind of object; everyone is used to seeing them, so its no big deal as you open yours up as you are paying for something.

After you’ve shown the shop manager your work you can invite them along to your exhibition. Invariably they will be quite honoured to be asked. Pop their details into your personal organiser pages. When you leave the shop also add a few notes, detailing any useful specifics about the person you’ve just met, and in particular which artworks they seemed to respond best to.

Your personal organiser portfolio is not limited to use in shops, use it everywhere! In the office, when you are socialising, when you are sitting in the park, on the bus, train or in the gym, absolutely everywhere. At any opportunity let people know that you are an artist in casual conversation and when they ask for more information, just whip out your art folio, engage their interest, take their details and invite them to your exhibition. The key is to engage people in conversation such that they ask for more information about you, rather than you just rattling on about yourself and boring the pants off them.

Tip:

If someone you meet starts going on about how their brother, sister, mother, dad, grandpa etc is a fantastic artist then the chances are that they really will not be interested in your artwork even though they make for a pleasant (mostly one-sided) conversation.

Warning!

When you first start using your personal organiser art folio it is very tempting to invite all your close friends, family, and relatives along for your first exhibition expecting that they will think you are fantastic, the next big thing and support you by buying all your artwork. In the majority of cases I have seen, unless your friends, family and relatives are very generous, all they will do is tell you how very clever you are and then drink all your beer, wine and nibblies, making for a very expensive art exhibition.

Instead try to invite people who might actually have a disposable income with which to buy your artwork such as business owners and professional people. Good art costs good money and the people who are generally interested in buying good art have good incomes, so invite those people! After talking to people for a while, you should start to become a bit of an expert a picking out potential prospective art buyers and useful contacts.

I’m not saying don’t invite your family at all to your exhibition, just be prepared to have a very nice but very expensive party if you do.

Do it all the time

The secret to promoting your exhibition successfully with your art folio lies in using it and having it with you ALL THE TIME. Keep all your credit cards, money, notes, names and addresses in there. The more you keep in there the more excuses you will have to open it up.