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Bring on Spring and BIG SALES

Posted by Michelle Sholund on February 24, 2011 at 3:01pm

While I wish I could be in Florida and places further south selling at art fairs, but alas I am one of those people waiting for the Spring fair season to kick off here in the Mid-Atlantic.  I can't wait for Spring temperatures, Spring flowers, and yes, Spring art fairs. 

 

Each year I convince myself to not sign up for Spring shows as quite often they don't pan out profit wise.  And this year, I am not listening to myself.  My gut is saying "you choose to not do shows - granted I didn't have a whole lot of money for booth rent last year as I do this year - and what happened???  Missed opportunities is what!"  This year I have signed up for a few local Spring fairs from April - June and now just biding my time.  I chose local because I want to simply keep my costs low - little to no travel expenses (except gas) to try and maximize profits.  The other reason is I push the buy local initiative for craft business to try and get more repeat customers.  I am concerned that if some people learn I am local they may use it as a cop out and say they could just buy it any time - there's no rush to buy now, but always have a counter comment at the ready in case that happens to calm those concerns.  Another thing I intend to do with Spring shows is push newer work and use better signage - granted all the signs in the world still won't make customers read (who choose to ignore them) I am finding a quick sentence description or phrase (Ex:  "New this year") gets people to open up and explore more nooks and crannies in my booth.

 

So, my question to all is what are you all doing to welcome Spring and most importantly earn BIG SALES at Spring shows?

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Delray Beach Thanksgiving Weekend Art Fair

Posted by Geoff Coe on November 30, 2010 at 8:00am
If visitors were largely keeping their hands in their pockets at Howard Alan's Thanksgiving Weekend Art Fair in Delray Beach, you could hardly blame them. After all, they're going to have a lot of buying opportunities in the next couple of months.

This was the first of three winter-season Howard Alan shows in Delray, an Atlantic coast community just north of tony Boca Raton. HA will be back for two days right after Christmas (Dec. 26-27), in Boca on January 8-9, and back in Delray the following weekend (Jan. 15-16). Patty Narozny's HotWorks show comes in to Boca the following weekend. Allan is bringing a craft show to Delray in mid-February. Then there's a breather before the well-known, locally-run Delray Affair show on April 16-17.

Attendance was pretty good at this show. The streets were active, if not packed...and people even came back out on the street several times after Sunday squalls moved through the area (which shows me that they're interested in being there, not just trying to find a way to pass the time).

Which led to an increasingly common dilemma: Visitors were unfailingly pleasant and appreciative, but there didn't seem to be much energy around actually buying anything--particularly at moderate and high price points. Artists with large canvases and few or no reproductions were having a tough time. I had several customers offering to pay cash for small ($20) prints, but when I managed to offer them add-on sales that boosted the tab to $40 or $50, they switched to credit cards. I didn't have any cash customers at all until mid-day on Sunday.

One of the most common questions I fielded was: "Are you coming back for ?" And for most of the weekend, I responded the way I always have: I took their question at face value and talked with them about my schedule, or asked them which show they were planning on. But sometime Sunday morning, as I pondered that question, I thought of Einstein's quote: "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."

So I paused, smiled, and responded: "Honestly, I'll make the decision on that show based on the results of this one. And right now, I'm very much on the fence. So how can I help you today?" Two minutes later, the customer walked out with a decent-sized print. And later that afternoon, a similar response kept the customer engaged, and eventually netted a sale of two large canvases that saved the weekend for me.

The lesson for me is: When we artists are presenting work to under-funded customers in overworked markets, we need to think not just about the quality of our art, our display, and our email marketing, but also about how we respond to questions we've heard a thousand times before.

So, some points to ponder:
What kind of questions do YOU hear that cause you to go on "autopilot", like I did?
And what can you do or say differently in order to create opportunities to buy today?







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In MI where are your customers from?

Posted by Michael Peychich on July 18, 2010 at 6:13pm
I have found that most of my customers in the Michigan shows are from out of state. Some examples in Muskegon 70% of buyers were from FL, NC, VA, DE, South Africa & Canada. This weekend in Elk Rapids 80% of dollars came from Canada, Washington DC, WI and Georgia. I sell mostly landscape photography from Hawaii and Michigan (a lot of waterfalls and lighthouses). Is this common for other artist out there of is it perhaps due to my media and subject matter? I have always done best in Michigan shows that are close to the coastline.
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Fantastic Gallery Sales!

Posted by Heather Jordan on April 2, 2010 at 12:23pm
I know that this is a web site for art shows, but I must share outstanding experience with one of the galleries I work with. We artist can make a paycheck with art shows and galleries. The gallery I work with pay’s a monthly check that is comparable to a good show. So, I don’t discount them and truly hate the 50% split.

Last I week went humming down the coast to bring artwork to 2 galleries that represent me. They have been really hurting this past year due to the economy. The artist that they will hang onto are ones that understand the winter months are slow and differ payment until February, heck it is only 2 months and we don’t show until April anyways. It is a great boost to get supplies.

I walk up to the gallery with one of my fish paintings and WHAM! A lady with a camera scream’s “There she is!” She runs up to me with the gallery owner following her and is absolutely giddy. I proceed to back up slowly and want to run in the opposite direction. She is waiting to see the new artwork and want’s a photo with the artist. Now, my husband has watched the entire situation unfold. He is laughing so hard he can’t breath and the children’s eyes are as big as Oreo's. My son (8yrs) says,” Hey, Dad since mom’s famous can I take her for show & tell next week?”

The gallery owner is waving his hands with a check wanting more artwork. He is
stating that the sales due to the weather warming up have been outstanding. The medium priced work does very well. (Note He is not accepting any artist at this time, his wife paints and has 70% of the gallery, my stuff is in the back. This is ok because the mindset is the expensive work is upfront and the work they can afford is in the back, I love it.) I unload the car with only 8 pieces and watch out of the corner of my eye as a man picks one up being inventoried. My heart is beating outside my chest with adrenaline due to shear shock of such interest. I sit in the car thanking my father up stairs for the gift to paint. I have a check in my hand worth at least 2 shows. That old SUV couldn’t get home fast enough to hit the canvas, the idea’s were running in my mind.

So is the recession over? Or do people have the mind set change of season change of environment. Did they save over the winter to be able to spend or are the tides changing economically? I am not sure but, I will be riding on the high of that experience for years! Again, sorry to post about a gallery vs shows. Thought the positive note may be a glimmer of hope in the art business.

Happy Day!
Heather
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Will Arts Festival Produce Sales in Oklahoma City?

Posted by Connie Mettler on April 23, 2009 at 10:04am
Here is another bellwether art festival - the six day long art festival in Oklahoma City taking place this week. My hope is that the good art fair news from Texas spills over to Oklahoma City. "What more could you ask for? Beautiful weather, gorgeous art and delicious food. But still some festival goers have a complaint- the high prices. I saw a lamp down there that was 3, 500 bucks...." read the rest of this story and see the video from the streets of downtown Oklahoma City
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Craft Expert Speaks: Bruce Baker

Posted by Connie Mettler on April 29, 2009 at 2:11pm
Ready for a good lesson in presentation and selling to customers, or could you use a refresher? Recently One of a Kind Show and Sale hosted a special teleconference for artists with Bruce Baker, the renowned artist marketing and selling expert: THRIVE NOT MERELY SURVIVE: WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR BUSINESS Over the past 16 years, Bruce has taught more than 500 workshops throughout the United States and Canada on the subjects of Booth Construction, Marketing, Sales, Slide Presentations, Customer Service, Visual Merchandising and Trends that affect the Craft/Gift Business and how to maximize your selling potential. Several years ago I heard Bruce's presentation and picked up some useful tips we incorporated into our booth construction and sales presentations. Although his talk is heavily slanted toward the 3-D artist it was helpful to us also. This is worth your time.
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