What Do You Sell?

Twice a year, I am honored to have the privilege of speaking at Rebecca Grinnals’ Engage! conferences.  As she fashioned this installment in Grand Cayman after the TED Talks, I need only say that TED is in good company. Engage! is a remarkable experience for remarkable wedding professionals.  Others may try to compare, imitate or duplicate. They cannot and will not.

In my 22 minutes, I took the opportunity to ask the question:  “What Do You Sell?”

To me, it is actually two questions.  What do you sell to the world to get your clients to come to your door and ask to come in.  The second being what does your business actually sell once they are in the door.  The answer to the first question I leave to the marketing geniuses out there, Seth Godin and Rebecca among them.  However, to the second question, my answer for all creative businesses (wedding or not) is artistry, not art.  Trust, not “pretty”.

Consistent art is an oxymoron.  The whole point of a creative business is to create something different every day.  The quality of your art is a given.  You would not be a creative business owner if you did not believe you were a great artist.  So to say that you are consistent in your ability to create great art is really saying nothing at all.  And by saying nothing what you are saying to your client is “trust me, yours will be great too.”

How does this manifest?  The focus is on the sale.  You show pretty pictures, drawings, recaps, etc. of your past work, maybe some testimonials and press clippings.  Your client is enamored and says, effectively, “I want that”.  You say, “Sure, that will be $X, half now, half before delivery.”  Precious little happens during the gap (abyss?) between sign-up and delivery.  And because you are that good, your clients are wowed (most of the time) by your art.  Wash.  Rinse.  Repeat.  Your creative business is a glorified lay-away plan.  Except you do not sell Lay-Z-Boy chairs, you sell creative genius.  A disconnect if there ever was one.

Many of you, particularly those who have had some success operating selling pretty, would challenge why they need do anything else.  My response: great art is not unique, great artistry is.  If you rely on your great art to carry the day, you are going to be compared to those that go further and invest themselves and their clients in the experience of their artistry.  At a certain point, your margin of greatness will evaporate.  The days of being excused for being “the crazy artist” are drawing to a close.  Simply, there is too much great art out there and too many great artists to believe that your art (i.e., the stuff you make) will be enough to stand apart.

My advice?  Sell trust to earn the right to deliver and get paid for the experience of your artistry.

Trust is real.  Every bit as real as the air you breathe; the flower, invitation, logo, music, lighting, food, interior design, and photograph you create.  Just as you would never let a fantastic rose sit untended for a day (let alone a few hours), neither should you ignore trust.  If you see trust as real, then the statement, “Trust is earned, never assumed, never forsaken” hopefully takes on new meaning.  You can tangibly incorporate specific activities into the fabric of your creative business to bring the statement to life.  Could be something so simple as shifting when you get paid (i.e., get paid when you have earned your client’s trust) or telling your client always what comes next and when.  I will delve deeper into what the key components of trust are for a creative business in my next post, but so you have them now, they are: Emotion – your willingness to reveal yourself to your client; Communication – how well do you listen; Relationship – how well do you translate what you have heard; and Respect – fortitude, integrity and conviction in why you do what you do how you do it.

Once you have established how you are going to sell trust throughout your relationship with your client, you can then set out charting the path of your artistry.  If you imagine your end product sitting high above your client when they walk in your door, your artistry is the path you will take, holding their hand, to get them there.  The difference between art and artistry is that art is a thing.  Today there are too many absolutely amazing, wonderful things created by absolutely amazing, wonderful artists to have the art be the end all be all.  Artistry, on the other hand, is yours and yours alone.  How you get your client to experience your artistry is all that matters.  Yes, the journey matters more than the destination.  Why?  Done well, the destination is an inevitable result (side-effect) of the journey.  Your clients pay you for the journey because you are the only one that can deliver it the way you do, even if the end result looks frightfully close to others around you.