Artist Bari-Lynn Friedlander
Negotiation
To negotiate or not?
You already know how I am gonna answer this one but again let's start with some truths.
The conventional wisdom most artists and photographers get out there is do not negotiate on your price.
In the actual art world (where art is consistently selling) nothing could be further from the truth.
In most art transactions, and especially at the higher end (10k+ asking price) of the scale, negotiation is a factor in the majority of sales.
We always hear the headlines about what sells art Christie's or Sotheby's at asking price or over asking price. What we NEVER hear about are the sales that go down at all of the art galleries.
The reason for that — art galleries are some of the most opaque businesses on the planet — is the art gallery owners never want anybody knowing just how much they negotiate.
High net-worth buyers did not achieve that wealth by ever paying retail. Moreover, without the negotiation many of the buyers will simply not buy. So not only does it(negotiation) happen ALL THE TIME but without it, many sales would be lost.
Artists and photographers are trained to think negotiating cheapens them or their work and that is part of the reason why galleries always obfuscate when it comes to selling price. They don't want anybody to ever know.
Once you come to terms with that fact, and you have a proper pricing range in your lineup in place, you are well positioned to take this reality and turn it into a advantage you can deploy in your business to get sales over the line.
In order to do that we need to discuss one more topic; Markups.
Markups; How to properly markup your work so you can negotiate effectively.
At the lower end of the price range you can of course stay firm on your prices. Retail stores do not negotiate on items. You can't go to target and start negotiating on a set of Lego for your kid.
In the middle end of the price range to the top though, I heartily endorse negotiating.
Its great weapon in the artists tool box to help get your work out into the world. Many people will never buy if they can't negotiate.
The key to negotiating is understanding this and using it as a weapon in your arsenal.
We solve for that with how we mark our products up.
In the middle end of your price range you should be marking up your prints at 250% of wholesale cost(what you pay for the print) up to even 500% or higher for some.
If a print costs you $100 and you markup it up 250% then you sell it for $350.
The rational for this is that it gives you room to negotiate, and it gives you room to run sales which we will cover in a minute.
Our topic today is pricing so I am not gonna go too deep into the art of negotiation but I leave you with a very important device or trick to use in yours.
Photographer Bary Nusz never negotiates down on price without getting something in return.
Never negotiate down on price without getting something in return.
The getting something in return can be anything.
You have a print in your store/booth that you paid $100, that you marked up 250% and that you are now selling for $350.
I come in and tell you I love it, but I can't afford $350. Would you take $300?
Most people will say ok fine. They would totally take the $300. NO 🙅
Never give anything away for free in a negotiation as a general principle. Instead get creative and get them to agree to something to get the deal.
So you get creative and say something like...
"Well I usually do not negotiate on price but I will tell you what, I would prefer not to load it back up in my car as I am low on space. So if you take it today... I will let it go for $300. Will you take it today?
I asked you for $50 off and instead of giving that away for free you made me agree to take it today. Seems like a small thing but it's not.
Always get something in return and when you do, instead of just dropping for nothing, the buyer will feel more satisfied and so will you. It just works.
Pro Tip: You can exchange "will you take it today" with, will you pay with cash, or credit card, or join my mailing list, or anything (whether you care about the thing or not) 😉
Because you understood negotiation is an important part of sales, and because you understood markups you made a sale you otherwise would not of made. You now have a customer you can market to for the future too.
That covers negotiation, lets get into sales.