QUALIFYING

by Rick Boychuk.

Mr. Boychuk has worked in sales for almost 25 years. He began in technical theatre in the early 1970's and after several years of earning that small amount afforded by the arts, moved into sales. He worked with Century 21 for over 10 years. He began his own business, Theatre Safety Consulting, in 1994. His experiences in sales and the arts have resulted in a fresh perspective on the why the arts in Canada, theatre in particular, have not been as successful as they could be. Mr. Boychuk lives in Ontario, Canada.

Have you ever walked into a store...say a stereo store, perhaps to purchase something and encountered the "pushy salesperson"? The average person does not enjoy buying from this type of salesman. More important, the average person is repulsed by the idea of ever becoming this type of salesperson.

Yet, if we have a product to sell, we must sell it. The process of selling is one which takes some practice but basically, it is a conversation with a prospective customer -- at the end of which we hope he has decided to purchase, in our case, a piece of art.

The little bit of information that you read here will allow you to understand the mistakes that a person makes that cause him to be perceived as a pushy salesperson. By understanding these mistakes it is easier to avoid making them yourselve.

Before we start, however, I should point out that we all make purchases every day and do not feel that we are being pushed. The easiest purchase is the one where we know what it is that we want. The skim milk as opposed to the homogenized; premium gasoline as opposed to the regular. With these purchases we have all the information that we need and the sales effort is set up to be invisible. Wouldn't it be nice if art were purchased this way?

As well, we often purchase things or services from salespeople and we walk away without the slightest feeling of having been pushed. At least two things were required for this result. First, we were ready to buy. And secondly, and I might add, more importantly, the salesman probably focused his attentions on our needs and then strove to show us how our purchasing his product would satisfy our needs. In fact, most of the purchases that we make on a dailiy basis are facilitated by good salespeople. They are so good that we don't even notice that we are being sold. It is just that the bad ones are so irritating that we remember them so vividly.

Let's take two steps back though. You walk into a stereo shop to buy a new CD player but you stop for a moment in front of the amplifiers. The salesperson walks up to you and starts talking about the amplifier. Explaining that it is the most popular unit that the store carries. He starts to explain the power rating and the megahertz and the special grappel grommet arrangement for 12 dimensional sound. You make sounds like you are impressed and start to manoeuvre yourself to the nearest exit.

We've all experienced this. And we all revile this "salesman".

Yet when I get out to studio tours I often experience the same thing from artists. I walk in the door. I take up a position as far from the salesperson (i.e. the artist) as I can, and I hope that he does not notice me. Of course, ultimately to no avail. The artist approaches me and begins to describe the piece. I hear about the process that went into the making of the piece. I hear about the artist's training. About the influences on his approach to composition or colour. Any or all of which may in fact be important, just as any or all of the information about the amplifier may have been important.

It's not what I hear that is important, it is what I don't hear. I don't hear questions about what I want or need. The artist is absorbed in his own work. I suggest though that the self-absorption is not a character flaw of this or any other artist, but rather is the result of the nervousness that comes to each of us when we are thrown into a situation for which we are not prepared. We are not prepared to be salespeople. The non-prepared artist then falls into the same trap as the non-prepared stereo salesperson, which is the same trap any of us as non-prepared salespeople would encounter. We automatically fall back on discussing the familiar, the things that we know. The stereo salesman knows watts and megahertz. The artist knows his art work.

We need the comfort of understanding that the person looking at our art might or might not be interested in purchasing it or any other piece. Ask yourself this, "What is the statistical probability that this person will buy a piece of art today?" Without having examined the statistics I would guess that the chances are, at best, 1 out of 10. What that means is that of ten people that enter your studio, only 1 will purchase something. And there is nothing that you can say or do that will get the other 9 to buy.

So as salespeople why don't we find out first if the person is in fact a purchaser at all. It helps to know if we are talking to someone that we will know for five minutes and then never see again, or if we are talking to the 1 bona fide purchaser out of 10.

Let's find out. Has the person ever purchased a piece of art? We might find out that the person is just wanting to get in out of the rain. We might find out that she is the curator of the National Gallery in Ottawa. What you will probably discover is that the person is as insecure and nervous about buying art as you are about selling it.

Find out all that you can. Why has she decided to look? What type of things does she like? Does her idea of the purpose of art extend to its function as wall covering? Or, is it a social statement? Does she understand the media within which you work? Does she want a piece that will match her sofa colour? You can't ask too many questions.

Has she ever purchased a piece in her life? Does she make the purchase decision herself or does her partner get involved at a certain point? Is now ready to add another piece to her collection of regional female artists? Does she purchase art for a local law firm to dress their walls? What's her budget? Is it flexible? How many pieces is she prepared to buy? Would she like to see the piece or pieces in the home or office where the paintings will hang?

But then you say, "Hey, Rick! I hate being grilled by salespeople. That's just as bad as having them push something on me." And you are right.

In the process of qualifying the customer you must tap into the sensitivity that you have cultivated as an artist. A salesperson must build a relationship with the customer. A relationship of trust. Relationships of trust require a give-and-take. You ask a question and get an answer, then she asks a question and you give an answer. This should go back and forth. The longer the better. Two things happen as a result of this give-and-take session. You build a trust in one another and you find out more about each other. The importance of each of those two results cannot be overemphasised.

You might find that you cannot provide what she wants out of art. But you have a friend that can. So you send her to the friend that works with the particular subject matter, or media, or colour, or whatever. In the process you have helped an old friend and garnered the respect of the new friend. But perhaps most important, you have strengthened your sense of your own integrity by simply helping another human being. That is, in fact, what sales is all about.

The hope is, however, that the prospective customer does enjoy your work and that you can proceed toward helping her decide which of your pieces is most suitable for her existing or her new collection of art.

You have just "qualified" purchaser. Next you must "present" the art and the artist, then you must "close" the deal. More about the final two steps of selling to come in future issues of Art Business Magazine.