Making the selling experience memorable.

Try to have some fun with it, and with your prospective collectors/clients. Don't be too serious or take yourself too seriously. Take your time; there's no rush. Now, when I say "have some fun with it," what I mean is to entertain them. Offer them coffee and a comfortable place to sit. Get to know them, and them to know you. The more personal the connection, the better.

One of the best art salesmen I ever knew was, like me, from the UK. He was a big guy, and funny as hell. His personality was also larger than life, and he never hesitated to say something outrageous in order to get a reaction. It might have backfired sometimes with some people, but if it did, I never heard of it.

I'm also rather extroverted, but it's on the surface. Underneath, I'm an introvert, but I learned how to be an extrovert, first by faking it, and through that, growing into it. I took those steps because I wanted to be successful, and I knew that was how I would do it. If you're an introvert, you can do the same thing. It's definitely uncomfortable at first, but you soon get over it. It's just like stage fright, and I have a story to tell you about stage fright.

I've done a lot of public speaking, and I love it. The first time I was in front of a big (500+) audience was at a Toastmasters speaking contest, and I was so nervous on stage. My voice was cracking, my knees were knocking, and I'm sure I was shaking like a leaf. After I finished, I went back to my table, and my girlfriend asked me how I felt it had gone. I told her it was awful. She laughed. I was, to be honest, a bit irritated and showed it. "Michael", she said, "You were as confident a speaker as I've ever seen. Everything you told me was in your head." I didn't win the contest. I came in 3rd out of 20, but the big win was finding out that I could get up in front of any-sized audience and not be slightly nervous. Being in sales is almost exactly the same, so relax and have fun with it.

#sales #artsales #sellingart