The Framers Forum

Great article in the September issue of Picture Framing Magazine written by Jared Davis MCPF GCF. Well worth a read if you're interested in Customer Service and the customer's experience at the design table.

A couple of screenshots may be an idea - I doubt if many here subscribe. (I do - digital)

The link to PCM on Google doesn't seem to work, so go on to the PCM Facebook page and pick up the link to their web-sit there.

Then scroll down and you'll come across the articles featured in their Sept. issue, ie. Sales Strategies - What Customers Want.

That’s actually from July 2012.

http://www.pictureframingmagazine.net/p ... _Sales.pdf

The website (PFM) works fine, but you need an account


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That's the point John. It's an incredibly cheap subscription, as you know. It's well worth signing up for it, if anyone is at all interested in what experts in the industry have to say.
I know I have shared pages of some books at times, breaking copyright, but honestly my drawing is so bad...

It's maybe £7:50 a year (digital), and it's a monthly publication unlike our equivalent - well we don't actually have an equivalent as ours is not dedicated to framing and there is no digital only subscription.

At that price there would be something wrong if nothing at all inspired you over 12 issues, but it's also a fact that editors must be under some pressure and are hungry for copy to fill space each month, and articles like this, for me anyway, are just fillers.

Anyway - I know it’s a bit quiet here of late but it seems it’s only me that knows what you’re on about so far, so here’s a link for anyone interested. Subscribe button at top


http://www.pictureframingmagazine.net/PFMWeb/

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We don't have an equivalent dedicated to framing??? Art and Framing Today magazine published by the Fine Art Trade Guild or Larson Juhl Four Walls magazine?? I can't imagine that our industry here in the UK is large enough for a monthly magazine to even get off the ground.
I'm sure that for someone with as much experience as yourself, and retired, articles like this are just fillers!
However for those of us just starting out or with a few years under our belts, articles like this can be incredibly useful in navigating ever changing customer expectations and help us fine tune our sales practices. As the experts say, the only place you make money is at the design table. For many of us coming into framing as a second career and with no previous sales experience, strategy tips that are tried and tested and current are priceless!
The post has had over 100 views, it's just a shame that more members are not brave enough to engage in discussions here.

For everybody else, who is interested in sales, there's also mention of one of the speakers at the upcoming WCAF Expo, Melina Palmer who does talks about Behavioural Economics, which I had never heard of, but is apparently now well recognised. She has a podcast called The Brainy Business (330 something episodes so far, so I have a way to go before I can give any thoughts on it..).

Those two mags are about more than framing, as their titles suggest. I’m not suggesting we should have a monthly magazine either - just making comparisons, although at one time we did have The Picture Business as well, I don’t remember how many times a year that was published but there were more magazines per year to read.

I did say as far as I’m concerned, so IOW not as far as many others are.