Why is selling direct to customers instead of through intermediaries so important?

Selling direct means you as the artist are selling directly to the end customer with no one in between. This is critical because it allows you to retain all of your customer’s data and information, which enables you to market to them in the future. When you sell through galleries or other intermediaries, you lose that customer information—you can’t build your collector list and don’t know who your buyers are. If that gallery closes, your entire revenue stream disappears instantly with no recourse. The direct model puts you in control: you build relationships, you own the customer data, you can market repeatedly to people who’ve already bought from you, and you create long-term business security that can’t be taken away.

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Asked by an artist comparing gallery representation to direct sales · Answered by Patrick Shanahan · art-marketing-podcast · 2021-04-03