If I used to sell six figures through galleries, can I replicate that immediately by going direct?

No. Even if you sold $100,000 or more per year through galleries, you can’t just flip a switch and replicate that direct. Galleries have their own system for producing customers—retail space, local foot traffic, wine and cheese events, salespeople with relationships. You don’t have any of that machinery. When you go direct, you’re starting from scratch building your own business model. You have to build your email list, learn to market, and develop your own customer acquisition system. This is why people who come in as beginners often succeed faster—they have a beginner’s mindset and understand they need to build from the ground up, rather than expecting instant results based on past third-party success.

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Asked by an artist who previously sold through galleries · Answered by Patrick Shanahan · art-marketing-podcast · 2020-06-18