5 Tips for Selling Your Artwork

Want to sell more art?

Is the idea of selling your art terrifying? Are you avoiding doing an art show or art market because you’re scared to stand in front of your art and try and sell it? Well you’re not alone, I’ve been there too. It took me years to just get to my first art market, and you know what? I wish I started sooner.

Selling art is uncomfortable for most, if not all artists, but at a certain point you need to get over that fear so you can make a living doing what you love. No one is going to sell it for you, at least not yet.

These are my 5 tips for selling your artwork. I learned this through some brutal trial and error, but I can assure you that if you apply what I am teaching you will grow your confidence and art sales. Maybe not over night, but you will get better I promise.

So here we go, My 5 tips for selling your art for the beginner artist

 

Have a Great Product

The best and easiest way to make art sales if have quality art product. Have your art finished and ready to hang, have great art. Make everything about your art pro. Make it look like you care about every detail of every part of your art, which you should.

Not only is your art the product, but so are you. Get a haircut, take a shower, wear some nicer cloths. This will help the collector believe in not just the art but you as well. No one wants to buy a piece of art from a scraggly stinky dirty artist. Get your shit together. Get your art together. Be a finished product and sell a finished art product.

 

Be Present

Listen to what the buyer is saying, you can learn a lot about what they might be interested in if you listen. Be positive. Everything that comes out of your mouth needs to be positive. No one wants bad energy on their art that they will be putting in their home. All positive vibes. People might try and drag you down, but stand firm. Be the light. Be confident, at least fake confidence till you get real confidence. Make eye contact, shake hands. Be engaged. People rant just buying art they are buying you. Be something worth investing in. Ask questions, how they are what they have going on in their lives, all this info will help you understand what they might be looking for.

People will ask you the same questions over and over again. Start getting these answers dialed in and practiced so you don’t have to think about them or talk for too long. There is other stuff more important to think about when having to sell your own artwork, so minimize the amount of thinking on your feet you have to do and dial in the answers to the questions you know you will have to answer.

Be able to Close the Sale

Make the transition from talking about the art to payment. Its easy to get into that area where the collector is thinking about buying or just needs to be nudged a little. Use any of the phrases below to transition to getting payment for your artwork.

Transitional phrases 

“Can I ring you up” 

“Ok get lets get this all wrapped up for you”

“Would you like to pick out a gift with purchase?”

“Will I be shipping this piece will you be taking it with you?”

“Would you like me to make a dedication for you on the back?”

These are all phrases that will help you move from talking about the art to the point of sale. 

Use The Right Verbiage

Along with staying positive and using positive verbiage, there are some word to use while selling art and some words to not use when selling art

Cheap vs affordable.

Limited edition vs only made a few

Original artwork vs unique/handmade/1 of a kind

Reproduction vs copy/print

Collector vs buyer/client/person

collectors list vs email list

Return collector discount vs deal/discount

The way you use words can help create value to your artwork or create less value to your artwork. Make sure to use words that elevate your art brand, not diminish your art brand

You have to push a little. 

This will look great in your home”

“Such a good way to remember your stay”

“Doesn’t it make you happy“

“Art makes a house feel like a home“

“Your daughter will love it“

Phrases like these can help move the collector into the buying category.

Don't Let Them Walk Away Empty Handed

If someone seemed close to buying something or very interested but is walking away you can alway do a couple things to possibly gain a future sale. You can hand them a 5x7 info card that has a image of your art on 1 side, and bio/ information/ contact on backside. These are great because they are cheap to make, look good in your booth and they are something that someone will actually take because its basically a free 5x7 print of your art.

You don’t have to offer a discount, but you can offer the collector a gift with purchase if you are really trying to close the sale. This can be a matted print, or something affordable in your booth. This can often push someone into buying. We do this in our gallery when a collector buys an original, they get to have a gift with purchase limited edition aluminum giclee, or a gallery credit of that equal amount. 

At the very least, if someone seemed generally interested in your art, talked to you for a while, but didn’t purchase anything, it’s fair to ask them to sign up for your collectors list. This will be just an email list in a guest book at your booth where they can write their name and email. You can reassure them you don’t send out many emails. This is a good way to start building your email list and at least getting contact info for a collector that has shown interest in your artwork. Remember you will make 100k a year for every 1,000 legitimate emails you have on your list.

Motivational Art Speech

Selling artwork can be difficult for artist. We as creators pour so much of our should and energy into our work that it can be hard to put on the salesman hat and make sales. I understand that these 5 tips wont change your sales overnight, but learning the art of sales takes time. Hopefully these tips on selling art can steer you in the right direction and motivate you to keep learning and trying. This is a baby step and congratulate yourself for taking it.

No one will sell your art better than you. Its up to you to become so good at selling art that you can teach the art dealer at the art gallery how and what to say. You might feel like it is tacky to sell your art or not artsy, but those thoughts are just because you are in secure about your artwork, and thats ok. All of us artist go though tons of insecurity about our art form. It is part of the creative journey we chose to go on. Practice your art. Become undeniable, and soon the sales part will get easier. Now get out there, make some rad art, learn some more and always stay inspired.

Aloha from Maui

Welzie