If Your Sales are Slow, You Need This

Okay, so the other day I became OBSESSED with this artist:

Like, WHAT ARE THESE PETALS AND HOW CAN I ADORN MY WHOLE ENTIRE LIFE WITH THEM???????

Turns out, she’s using a clay called Sculpey: clay that bakes in your home oven. (Which is a hot damn tagline, btw.)

And turns out? They have kits!

I love me a kit.

Like this blue flower earring kit, which I 100% bought, even though I am sure that, with my skills, it will end up looking like a melting hippopotamus.

But, maybe not! Did I ever tell you my grandmother was a clay artist in the 1940s in Philadelphia who studied at the Moore College of Art & Design against her father’s wishes (badass) and she had a kiln in the basement and I still have tons of her wall plates (more badass)?!?!

BEHOLD, one that I snuck to the farmhouse:

I need to figure out how to hang this thing. Also, should we make a wallpaper out of this? I think we need a wallpaper. Is this what this next decade has in store for me? Am I destined to become some kind of delusional wallpaper designer?

ANYWAY.

As soon as I discovered this clay floral monarchy, I immediately noticed ONE big thing that this artist is doing so much better than every other artist on the planet, and it’s the reason she’s selling out every single week. 🔥

Because, you know it’s kinda hard to sell art, right?

It’s a want, not a need.
It’s subjective in terms of its beauty.
And there’s no real urgency to buy it, ever.

^^^That last one’s the pits. The book publishing industry has the same problem: lots of fanfare when a book first comes out, and then really draggy sales afterward. Once a book is available for anyone to buy anytime, sales slow down as people decide that they’ll wait until they’ve finished reading their last one, or until they have more time, or until things calm down.

In other words:

There’s always a reason not to buy now.

There’s rarely a reason to buy now.

^^^That last statement, right there, is KEY. 🔪 One of the most important things you need to do to create demand for your stuff, whatever you sell, is by giving people a reason to buy it…now.

And, this artist is selling out every single week 🚨….just by using this one dead simple, highly untapped strategy (and ugh, it’s so good):

See this line in her Instagram bio right here????????? ⬇️

And this? ⬇️

Anddddddd, this one ⬇️:

And then, of course, some excited customer replies ⬇️:

You know what this reminds me of????

The legendary sales strategy of Soul Cycle, where they open bookings for their exercise bikes every Monday at noon—first come, first serve. ⬇️

This is counterintuitive: most people would think that you’d book more by leaving the “add to cart” available 24/7, right?

Welp, not always, my fellow creeps!

Because when people can buy something anytime, people will always put it off until later.

^^^ Universal rule that makes creators crazy, but is so, so true.

On the other hand, when you open/close sales at a specific time every week, you:

• Turn buying into something that feels like a special event ✨
• Make people pay attention, because it’s limited-time 👀
• Create urgency and scarcity 🧨 (two laws of sales psychology you need to look up if you don’t know what that means)
• Make people excited to buy 💥, as they wait on the edge of their seat for THE MOMENT…to make sure they get one before it’s sold out

Sort of sounds like a Taylor Swift concert! And we all know how well those sell.

By creating a special, limited-time event around your sales, you are creating hype around your own stuff, and also controlling the flow of attention: this is when you need to be here to buy, or else you might miss out.

The best part, though, is that this strategy is FUN. Isn’t it fun to wait excitedly for a product you love to be available, and see if you can get one?! It feels thrilling.

And thrilled people buy.

So the next time you’re launching something new, or revamping the sales strategy for something old, why not do it on a specific date, at a specific time, and really create hype around it all?

Then, do it again the next week.

And the next.

And make it a weekly tradition.

Because, turns out? FOMO is real.

And it’s not just a fear of missing out, but the very real reality that they might, because that is what happens when your work is in demand.

And the rich artist knows one thing that the broke artist doesn’t:

Demand isn’t accidental.

It’s engineered.