Photo by Chris Metcalf
Are you an artist, writer, photographer, or doing some other creative work you’re trying to sell? How can you sell your creativity? You can’t. There’s no section in the Yellow Pages for creativity, nor is their a college major in “creativity”. People don’t buy creativity – they buy things and services that help them solve problems.
So before you start advertising your “creative soul” to everyone, stop and think. When someone purchases your offering, what do they get? How does that improve the quality of their life? A painting could be inspirational, or it could add some color to an otherwise barren wall. Your book could change someone’s life, or it could be put on the bookshelf, never to be opened. You don’t really know until you ask someone why they’re buying from you. And when they do, don’t show your shock — just listen.
People think of creativity as something that’s simply magically dropped in to whatever the project needs. A dash of color. The perfect turn of phrase. An interesting perspective of a photograph. A little guitar riff. People might notice the extra creative effort you applied…or not. It really doesn’t matter. You’re being creative for your sake, not your customers’.
Think of your creativity as a gift that you freely give away. The more you give, the more creativity you develop. You can take your creativity and apply it a myriad of ways – that’s your secret joy. If someone notices it – enjoy the serendipitous connection. You’ve found another creative soul. But they’re not asking for your creativity – they’re asking for what you can do for them with it.
Don’t stop being creative. But don’t market yourself as a creative person – people don’t really care. Do market yourself as the person who changes others’ lives for the better.
You’re right that one can’t sell “creativity”. A creative professional can, however, use it to differentiate his or her offerings from the competition. As a photographer, often my main competitor is the FWC, a “friend with camera,” who can be called upon to photograph the family portrait, a bar/bat mitzvah, or even (insert “aghast!”) a wedding. Unless that FWC comes packaged with both pro-level equipment, skills and creativity, the customer is taking a huge risk that cannot be recovered should the bet fail. My edge certainly isn’t price… it’s the potential to have truly memorable images of a once-in-a-lifetime event. What’s that worth? As the credit card ad says, “priceless.”
Norm – In your case, you’re selling peace-of-mind, not creativity. You’re using your creativity to ease your client’s fears. In fact, your clients may not want a creative image – they may want you to recreate the look of an image they saw, but for their celebration.
If someone is looking for images that are “not the usual look”, then selling creativity makes good sense.