Bob Baker's Indie Music Promotion Blog

News, notes and ideas on music marketing, self-promotion, artist empowerment and more

September 13, 2006

The Psychology of Music Sales

Subscriber William Zeitler of GlassArmonica.com sent in this great tip on sales psychology at live shows:

When someone walks up and is thinking about buying, I am NOT into hardcore sales -- anything but. But if you understand what's going on, you can at least not scare them away. I've read a lot of books on sales (Zig Ziglar, etc.) and have gleaned what is relevant and appropriate -- and easy! -- for musicians in this context.

For example, and this is so obvious in hindsight: People buy music to benefit THEM. So 'casual' comments about how your album will benefit the customer will close lots of sales. You might say, "This album is really great when you need energy to clean the house," or "This is a kickin' dance album!" or (in my case) "This album is really great to listen to when you go to sleep," or "This album is really good for traffic jams."

Anything along these lines paints a picture in the customer's imagination of what it would FEEL like to own this music and how that would be a GOOD THING! That's when they get their wallets out.

Great advice. Thanks, William!

-Bob

posted by Bob Baker @ 8:49 AM   0 comments

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