Why Is 2023 All About Sales Ops for Art Galleries?
Is your art gallery software making your whole team more productive?
Ask any business owner if they prefer linear or exponential business growth, and it’s easy to predict their response. Art gallery leadership understands that you can’t simply add people to the sales team indefinitely. Eventually, sales inefficiency will catch up with you.
Art sales teams are also expected to do more than ever before. Regular sales activity has been imbued with data and technology at an unprecedented scale, forcing sales to keep up. Art galleries that want to create sustainable growth need to prioritize sales operations (sales ops).
What are sales ops?
Sales ops are all the day-to-day workflows and processes you need in order to achieve your gallery’s sales goals. It includes mapping out the sales process and strategy, onboarding new team members, and establishing company-wide protocols. But it also requires you to implement the technology needed to make all this activity more efficient.
What Has Changed in the Art
of Selling?
The sales process in art galleries has been static for decades. Sales directors call and email clients with minimal data and activity tracking, managers prioritize who receives work based on outmoded metrics, and sales directors attempt to sell without any ongoing training, tools, or professional development. And there’s never enough time.
Today, an efficient sales team is an empowered one. Empowered teams have the tools and technology to guarantee sustainable sales. And their leaders systematize key tasks and processes, separating what needs the personal touch and what can be automated.
Galleries are turning to modern sales technology for tried and true methods to support their team and the ability to offer high-quality and high-touch client service. Each salesperson must manage a growing number of artworks, artists, and clients — keeping them engaged throughout the entire sales process (pre-sale, post-sale, etc.). So how should art galleries approach the problem?
Addressing Sales Ops for the Entire Organization Is Important
A siloed approach won’t work when addressing sales ops since your goal is to increase communication, collaboration, and data readiness. If you only enhance one part of your organization with modern operations, it will still be inefficient when it comes into contact with the rest of the organization. It may even suffer more since your gallery will now deal with misalignment issues.
This isn’t to say that you must tackle every aspect of sales ops at once. Even if you only have the capacity to tackle one component, like adding CRM software capabilities, do it across the organization. This approach will ensure every action creates more alignment, not less. And addressing sales ops is worth the effort as it:
- Reduces inefficiencies and the costs of unnecessary admin work (A study by Dooly found that “41% of the sales workday is not spent selling”)
- Streamlines protocols for the sales process for everything from holds and reserves to confirming sales
- Recovers the lost touch points that happen through text messages and WhatsApp, leveraging mobile applications
- Inspires sales team with better sales tools that delight and are user-friendly
- Empowers the team to actually meet and exceed KPIs (key performance indicators), and OKRs (objectives and key results)
Those who stick to the way things have been done will get left behind. What can you do to improve your sales ops?
How Galleries Are Leveraging ARTERNAL To Modernize Their Sales Ops
Disconnected art gallery software doesn’t cut it anymore. Your clients expect personalized sales experiences that take into account their preferences and past interactions with your company. ARTERNAL was founded in 2015 with the goal of unifying sales solutions to provide galleries with a complete solution tailor-made for their needs.
ARTERNAL’s CRM helps the sales team stay ahead of the client experience by following clients on their journey — keeping data in one place and always accessible to your team.
Tips for Sales ops and client segmentation:
Intuitive inventory management enables your team to automate workflows and create online viewing rooms designed to sell art in the current era.
Tips for inventory usage and sales team:
ARTERNAL’s reporting tools provide a complete view of your business, allowing you to visualize your data and turn insights into action.
Tips for running sales meetings:
Outmoded sales operations hinder growth and customer experience. You need a sales process that can grow as you do. To make your transition successful, you must clarify your process and document your findings. This will give you the basis for smart goal setting and a review process that ensures your sales operations contribute to your business goals.
ARTERNAL software and client success strategies could be the piece of the puzzle you’re missing to create optimal sales growth. If you’d like to learn more about how our software is helping businesses like yours, check out the Addis Fine Art case study.
