Contact Management for Artists

Organizing your email will help you follow up on quotes you have given.

Every email account is different, so I can't go into step by step instructions for your specific email system, but most have Folders you can set up.
Create email folders for:

--Art Clients - Current
--Art Clients - Done
--Art Clients - Potential

You could go further and divide your Art Clients - Potential into 90%, 80%, 60%, and so on...the percentage meaning, the percent that you think the quote will actually turn into a sale/commission. You can often tell by the conversation or the email, how likely the person is to hire you. By dividing the Potentials by percentage, it will allow you to make the most of your follow-up time.

You would of course immediately take more action or follow up on the potential clients you have ranked 80% or above. This is how a lot of salespeople go about targeting their most likely prospects, and there really isn't any reason why it can't be used by artists. I go into this in more detail in the next section.

At the beginning of my art business, I didn't need to sort my leads. I didn't have enough leads to sort! What are leads? Leads are prospects...these are the potential clients who email, call you, or fill out your online form. They are giving you permission to contact them again.

So you can email them to follow up with them, ask them how you can help them - did they have any more questions (did they even get your first reply email at all?) These are all good reasons to contact again.

NOTE:Just because they have emailed you, this should never be misconstrued as them giving you permission to add them to your mailing list. When you contact them, you should give them the link to sign up for your mailing list if they want to, and share with them what the benefits of signing up would be for them.

Do not share their contact information with anyone else or for any other reason. You know the adage, "treat others the way you would like to be treated"? This is close, but for your customers, the adage should be "treat clients better than you would like to be treated."
Tell them how their information will be protected, and keep your word.

Once you have started quoting prices, decide how long you will honor that quote and put that information, along with your contact information and links in your signature line so it will go out in all emails you send. I chose 6 months, because I know people are busy. If my prices go down, then I will honor that price. I would always go by the policy of giving the best deal to your clients that you possibly can, but don't cheat yourself either.

After a bit, you will have several quotes that you have sent to people, and you've never heard back. You do the follow up, above.

Now make some email folders that divide the potential clients by your best guess of how likely they are to order a portrait. 10%-20% possibility to 90%-100& possibility. I would create the folders to cover ranges of percentages, like that. The reason for this is that you need to focus your attention on the leads that are most likely to result in a sale. Don't waste time running after a 10% possible sale when there are 90% possibles you can focus on.

Then again, it's very important to realize that if you convince yourself that someone isn't going to order a portrait from you, you will be 100% right every time. I promise. Why? Because you took the attitude that the person would not buy, so either the potential client will sense that, or you just won't try hard enough to work with them to meet their needs. You will have failed to sell.

So, if you don't have many clients yet and you don't have anything going on, and you have 10%-20% probability leads, you should see what you can do. Email them! Call them! Ask them if there was something else they need to know. FIND OUT why they did not order. Ask them to be completely honest, because it will help your business grow. I've gotten so busy, that I am unable to even attempt follow up on the 10%-60% potential clients. I wish I could,

You need to have a contact plan in place - a way to keep track of clients. Your client list is a virtual goldmine - the best source of future portrait commissions and referrals to their friends and family.

Low Tech System:
3"x5" cards in a file.
Advantages: Easy to use, you don't have to have computer ability, works without electricity.
Drawbacks: No search capability, cards can get lost, misplaced.

High Tech Systems:
You can use Access, which most people already have on their computer as part of the Windows package, or you can get a sales oriented
contact program like ACT! (pictured), which interacts with your computer and Palm Pilots. ACT! organizes all your customer information and contacts in one place, giving you instant access to every detail of every relationship including names, phone numbers, addresses, notes from previous conversations, upcoming appointment details, call histories, a list of follow-up activities and more! I like ACT! for the ability of categorizing customers by type of portrait they ordered, which is useful for certain promotions. For example, if I wanted to offer a special on dog portraits, I could ask the program to access all customers in the dog portrait category. It's also easy to print out mailing lists from the program.
Click here for more information about ACT! 2008 v10

When you consider all the time saved and potential customers turned into actual customers, it should pay for itself when used correctly. You will need to back-up the program regularly, and I recommend you create a print out of your basic client list at least twice a year.

Develop a record system of your artworks.

Create a computer file for

CLIENTREFERENCEPHOTOS_YEAR
CLIENTPROOFS_YEAR

It makes it much easier as your portrait business grows, to be able to find information in your computer if it's well organized.

CLIENTPROOFS_2006, CLIENTPROOFS_2007, CLIENTPROOFS_2007, etc.

For example, for a client with the last name of Jones, the file would be

JONES_25SEPT2007PREVIEW.jpg

It doesn't matter what kind of system you decide to use, just as long as you use it. I also save my files by type of drawing, so when I need an example of a certain type of portrait I can locate it in my computer.

Send the preview by email with Subject Line of "Jones - Portrait Art for Approval"
This subject line is very effective; the name is for you to be able to find all emails associated with the Jones family order, and the "portrait art for approval" clearly tells the client what you are asking for - you want them to approve the artwork so you can mail it out. No confusion!

Try to make a habit early on of always putting the client's last name in your email subject line. It will make it easier later on to find all your correspondence with the client if the need arises.

Be sure to resize portrait previews to about 350 pixels before emailing to a client. This size is good enough to be able to view the artwork, but not so large that it bogs down the customer's email account. People don't like to receive huge files. If you do not resize the portrait to a manageable email size, it will be so large that the client can scrutinize every tiny pencil line, which they would not be able to do even when viewing the actual artwork in their hand! So you don't want to send them a version that will have them looking at it as if they have a magnifying glass!
Remember to convert the file to a picture file type that virtually everyone can open on their computer. jpg/jpeg is a good type of picture file, gif is also good.