In the Art Marketing Minute Podcast, you’ll learn how to sell your art, how to market your paintings, and everything else you need to know in order to have a successful art career. Each episode answers questions from artists by host Eric Rhoads, author of “Make More Money Selling Your Art,” publisher of several art magazines and newsletters, and author of ArtMarketing.com.

In this Art Marketing Minute: Advice for artists who have a difficult time with the sales aspect, and how you can get more people to buy your paintings.

Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 5

Submit Your Art Marketing Question:

What questions do you have about selling your art? Email Eric today at [email protected] (include your name and where you’re from) to hear your question answered on an upcoming Art Marketing Minute Podcast.

FULL TRANSCRIPT of the Art Marketing Minute:
DISCLAIMER: The following is the output of a transcription from an audio recording of the Art Marketing Minute. Although the transcription is mostly correct, in some cases it is slightly inaccurate due to the recording and/or software transcription.

Announcer 0:02
This is the Art Marketing Minute with Eric Rhoads, author of the Amazon best selling book, “Make More Money Selling Your Art.” In the marketing minute we answer your questions to help your art career brought to you by artmarketing.com, the place to go to learn more about marketing. Now, here’s your host, arts magazine publisher, Eric Rhoads.

Eric Rhoads 0:23
Thank you Jim Kipping. And thank you for joining us today. My goal is to eliminate the idea of the starving artists. So let’s get right to today’s questions. And here’s a question from Minnie in Little Rock. I wonder if she’s married to Mickey? Yeah, I’m sorry. She probably heard that her whole life. I don’t think I should go there. Anyway. Minnie in little rock. Eric, I’m an artist and I met a little community gallery at a small tourism town nearby. We all volunteer time and some of the people in the gallery sell really well and I don’t seem to sell well at all And I’m not talking about my own paintings. They sell well with other people. People are selling them. But when people come into the gallery, I don’t sell anything, I’m just not selling well. And Matter of fact, I think I scare people off. And honestly, I gotta tell you, I hate selling because I don’t like being sold to have any advice for me.

Well, Minnie. Don’t do something that you’re uncomfortable with, unless you want to grow. Now, if you want to grow, it’s okay to get out of your comfort zone. If you’re perfectly happy where you are, stay where you are. But don’t try to be something you’re not. You have to ask yourself this. Why do you hate being sold to? What was the experience that you hated so much? That you decided you hated salespeople? I think it’s worth asking the question. And what is it about selling that you hate? Is it asking for money? Well, one thing you have to understand is that most of the sales that take place in the world are not unethical and not pushy and you don’t have to be pushy to sell. And so don’t assume that selling is a pushy Yeah, car dealers, whole nother animal. I don’t like that very much and but they’re even getting better. But the way to sell is not to try and manipulate. That’s not that’s old school. The way to sell is just to listen to people and ask them questions. Pull him in. If you see him asking about a painting, or you see him looking at a painting and staring at a painting, ask him about it. Instead of saying, may I help you? You know what the answer to that is? It’s just looking. So ask questions that are open ended, like, Tell me your thoughts about that painting. You seem pretty engaged in it. Don’t ask, Do you like it? You’re going to get a yes or no. And then when they tell you their thoughts, ask them more questions. So they say well, you know, I really like the colors. There’s a thing you can do called mirroring. And all you have to do is repeat something they said and you can actually keep somebody talking for a long, long time and that will open Been up more and more the more you do it and and you may feel like you’re manipulating and you’re really not you’re just trying to keep the conversation going. So mirroring is like they say, Oh, I like the color. You go, huh? The color Tell me about that. And then they’ll go well, you know, I really like the reds and the blues and the greens and I really really, really like the glow of the mountain in the way that you know, this artist made the water sparkle on the water. You said What is it about that sparkle that turns you on? Oh, well, I don’t know. You know, it reminds me of when I was sitting on a boat with my grandfather when I was a kid. We were fishing and I remember the sun came up over the mountain and my grandfather was catching the fish and I was just mesmerized by the sparkle in the water it’s kind of hypnotic. Well, all of a sudden they’ve opened up they’ve told you something cool about themselves. So just, you know, ask people to keep talking and and don’t push you don’t have to be pushy. sellings. Not pushy, right? You just want to help people find things sometimes they don’t know to find them on their own. You got to help them, help them discover what they like, and help them understand that it would be a cool thing to own this. Well. That’d be nice if you had that sparkle in your living room. And it reminded you of your grandfather every time you walk by it. I mean, is your grandfather around anymore? No, I mean, wouldn’t that be cool? And you know, that’s kind of what selling is. It’s not anything more than just being honest with people and letting them talk.

Next question comes from Juliana Clara, in midvale, Utah. So Juliana says, Eric, how can I get more people to buy my paintings?

That’s a loaded question Juliana. And it’s a broad question. So I’ll give you a broad answer. Because, well, first off, you want to get your paintings in front of more people. The first thing that painters need to do to sell paintings for the first time is to get used to being out there get used to putting your paintings in front of other people. So you got to make sure you’re ready and it just takes a little time to get used to it. So first off, get some outside objective advice. Are you ready to sell your panics, maybe somebody will give you some advice on what you can do to improve now my brother in law Scott is a painter and he brings his paintings to work with him to show his coworkers. And He never says there for sale. He never talks about it, but they always end up buying them all. And or they end up commissioning him to do things. He’s not selling them for a lot of money doesn’t need to but he, he’s like, yeah, sure I’ll take 100 bucks for it or 200 bucks or 500 bucks, whatever the number is. And he takes him with him everywhere he goes. So he was going to the chiropractor and he took some paintings and he said, Hey, Boston’s going to show you what I’ve been doing. And it shows them the paintings and the guy says to him, yeah, I’m opening a new office, could you make me some big ones? And he said, Sure. He said, What do you need? He said, he ordered 16 of them. So just kind of put yourself out there, get used to that. Take him around. I take paintings with me to the dentist. I take paintings with me to the doctor, I took my magazines I take sometimes I take my videos, I take all kinds of things, because I really am just trying to make them remember me and help them remember that I’m a little different than the other 530,000 patients that they See? And then you know, if I forget to bring a magazine or something, sure enough there go, where’s that magazine? So you know, you could take paintings that I’ve taken paintings into the dentist with me and not not to sell them, but just to show them. And so I think that’s kind of cool. It just makes you stand out. So that’s kind of what marketing is all about Juliana is it’s just trying to get people aware of you. Once you get into the level where you want to go a little deeper, you want to start selling nationally or selling more in your community. There’s a lot of other answers as a lot of things like, you know, do you need a website or not? You know, a lot of people are debating that today. I think obviously, it’s a good idea. But a website alone isn’t going to bring you any business. You got to figure out how to get people in there. You got to figure out how to get people to respond. So that’s what I talked about in some of my other stuff by books and videos and things, but I hope this has been helpful. Well, this has been the art marketing minute with me, Eric Rhoads. My goal in life is to eliminate the idea of the starving artist and to help your dreams actually come true. So if you want to submit questions, Simply email Eric@art marketing.com. And to learn more about marketing ideas, you can visit Artmarketing.com. Thanks for listening.

Remember to Submit Your Question: What questions do you have about selling your art? Email Eric today at [email protected] (include your name and where you’re from) to hear your question answered on an upcoming Art Marketing Minute Podcast.