You can slave away all night and day striving to get better as an artist, you can win award after award at conventions for your art, you can get published on magazine covers... but how does this translate into better retail and/or gig sales?
Mostly, it doesn't. Most people out there think of us as magicians, in a way. They think this about ALL of us, even the beginners and artists who haven't worked much to improve their art. (for tips on improving your art, see my previous post). They'll buy it even if it's not the best because to them, it's MAGIC.
If you want to make more money as a caricaturist (and who doesn't?), you need to pay AS MUCH ATTENTION to your Service Skills Set as you do to the quality of your artwork. If you do, you'll have a leg up on the competition, because many caricaturists don't bother with this aspect of our business.
What, you ask, are "service skills?" Well, I'll tell you, since you asked.
Service skills for what we do can be broken into three major categories:
1. Professionalism (showing up early, being dressed for the event you're working, coming prepared, etc.)
2. Salesmanship (learning more about the art of selling is a key part of our job. I read everything that comes down the pike on sales, which is why I'm consistently the top salesperson on our crew)
3. Entertainment (Laughter=Moolah. But you knew that. Didn't you?)
In future posts I plan on touching on each of these subjects thoroughly, but for now I'll give you some tips to enhance each of these areas immediately.
1. Don't hate on your customers. The first time I heard Adam English sing "The day I killed all the customers," I blew soda out my nose with laughter, but I don't really feel that way. My customers enable me to make a decent living doing something I love. Yours do too. They are your bread and butter, so give them what they want. That's not to say you cant exaggerate, but gauge first whether the person can take it. You can also prevent hard feelings (and a loss of sales) by WARNING PEOPLE AHEAD OF TIME that you re going to mess them up! Do so in a humorous way and you're framing your art for them so that they aren't insulted but instead find it funny.
2. SMILE. SOOOOOooooooo important! Bell telephone company did a study back in the day and found that when the operators smiled when they talked, they had significantly less complaints. Your smile even shows through in your voice on the phone! When talking to ANY potential customers, even over the phone, SMILE.
3. Introduce yourself. People have anxiety about getting caricatures drawn. Introducing yourself sets them at ease. I always state my name, shake their hand (even kids), and ask their name. Then I use it when talking to them. I've received MUCH fewer rejections since I started doing this one simple thing. It connects you to the customer and allows you to form a RELATIONSHIP with them. And people are reluctant to reject my drawings once I've done that.
4. Don't "force" the sale. Don't you hate it when salespeople haunt you at clothing stores? If you've set up your pricing and advertising at your stand correctly, you can just point and then back off. I find backing off to work really well if your pricing is right. If not, experiment til you get it right. Your work should SELL ITSELF. That doesn't mean you shouldn't ASK for the sale. You should. Just don't be pushy. That sets you up for rejections because you're convincing people to sit who didn't want to sit in the first place.
5. Be personal. Ive seen artists barely speak to customers. Sometimes you get a dud who doesn't want to talk, but mostly if you can ask a few questions and get them talking about themselves, you'll have something to talk about.
6. Use Humor. Memorize a few dumb jokes. Ask kids if they're married, or what they do for a living. USE ZINGERS ON HECKLERS. This works really well. Gets the audience laughing and gets the jerk off of your back. I have quite a few that I'll be compiling for another post.
7. Explain what you're going to do. In his book, "The Accidental Salesperson,"author and Sales guru Chris Lytle states that this is paramount to good salesmanship. It puts the customer at ease. I just simply say "OK you can have a seat. Look right at me, and Ill tell you when to smile. This ll just take a few minutes".
8.If you love someones hair or dress or shoes, tell them so. Tell them what celebrity they look like (but not if the celebrity is Wilford Brimley... eck). Everyone loves a sincere compliment. That's the catch, though - its gotta be sincere.
9. This may be controversial, but ALWAYS flatter young teen aged girls. Word of mouth from making a little girl cry is bad business and gives ALL of us a bad name. This holds true for anyone that you can plainly see is either a stickler for details or vain. Mess them up and you'll get a rejection and complaints. Just do a quick flattering sketch and get them out of your chair as quickly as possible.
10. Be on time, better yet be early. Dress professionally. Have everything you need. In short, be prepared. If you do screw up and are late to a gig, own it. Apologize, and then offer a pro-rated discount for the time you were late, or stay later to make up for it.
11. Don't take rejections personally, they happen to all of us. Even Joe Bluhm, author of "Rejects," a book full of rejections he's received on his arawrd-winning artwork. DO NOT TEAR UP THE REJECTION. Not only is it unprofessional, it is rude, and it will guarantee that person never gets drawn again and will give you bad word of mouth. Instead, try this trick taught to me by NCN founder (not to mention my husband) Buddy Rose:
Say "I'm so sorry you don't like the drawing. Honestly, I didn't much like it myself either. Here, it's on the house." Nine times out of ten you'll still get paid. THIS WORKS. Of course, some people are out to scam you, but there really are very few people who do that. For those people (and you know who they are as soon as they sit down if you've been doing this long enough), tell them you can redraw them if you can stomach it, or just give them back their money AFTER they've given you the sketch. If they balk, its a scam, and you can compare yourself to Walmart, Would you get money back from walmart without returning the merchandise first? Of course not. They cant expect any less from you.
12. Being nice goes a long way. Treat people the way you'd like to be treated at a store. Answer questions even if you've heard them 10,000 times ("wheres the bathroom?") Watch salespeople and use techniques you like.
13. Have fun! If you're having fun, the customer will have fun. And you'll make more $$$!
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