Gallery visitors span a vast diversity, but some simple distinctions are possible and, from the standpoint of gallery management, instructive. One simple distinction is between those visitors who are considering purchases (or are at least amenable to considering purchases) and those who have no purchasing in mind (and are immune to the very notion of making a purchase). Each category in our simple distinction ramifies into several branches.
Have no purchasing in mind
- just stopped by to have a good look at things
- just stopped by to have a peek
- just stopped by to hang out
- just happened to be passing by
- reconnaissance (competitors, usually in the latter half of an exhibition
- study (potters, surprisingly superficial for the most part in their viewing)
Considering purchases
Decisiveness
- quick (sometimes choosing an item to purchase the moment they walk in the door)
- slow (sometimes not choosing a work until after the exhibition closes)
Inquisitiveness
- ask lots of questions (sometimes standing around and asking questions until closing time)
- ask few or no questions (sometimes don’t even say “Hello”)
Price sensitivity
- express delight at affordability
- express dissatisfaction at high prices (but buy things anyway)
Negotiativeness
- ask for discounts (sometimes crude in approach, sometimes disarmingly persuasive)
- don’t ask for discounts
Interestingly, individuals who purchase more-expensive items tend to make their purchasing decisions more promptly than those who purchase less-expensive items. That trend seems to owe more to a strong aesthetic sense than to extensive experience with big-ticket purchases. A distinguishing characteristic of the pottery business is that big-ticket purchasers are not necessarily high-income individuals.
The disarmingly persuasive negotiators accompany a good grasp of product value with a convincing, empathetic commitment to their product choices. A good sense of product value is a matter of personal criteria. Negotiation is a matter of coming forward with proposals based on those criteria. And those proposals can be irresistible when backed by informed sincerity.
Crudity in requesting discounts is a matter of focusing blatantly on price alone. It casts doubt on the character of the customers who request (demand) the discounts, and it can rob the customers of the opportunity to secure the works that have caught their attention. The crudity in question here seems to occur most frequently among wealthy customers.
Business is applied psychology. It requires artistry on a higher plane that what is required of the artists who create the works in play. The integrity evinced by proprietors and by customers at art galleries and at other business venues is a reliable indicator of socioeconomic vitality in any nation. Bearing that principle in mind will enable us to glean previously unsuspected insights from gallery visits.
