BML - Edition 28
The Trusted Merchant
I developed a concept to help you in your business: The Trusted Merchant.
It will help you understand your role as a business owner, gain confidence, and navigate your business journey.
The Trusted Merchant is an archetype that represents the honest business owner. It stands in opposition to the more commonly portrayed archetype: the dishonest business owner, a.k.a "the used car salesman" archetype.
What are archetypes? Archetypes represent an ideal pattern. Think of the archetype of the hero.
You find the hero archetype across stories going back to humans' earliest days.
In my mind, I most easily grasp archetypes by thinking of a muffin mold. You can pour all sorts of ingredients into that mold and make all different types of muffins: banana, chocolate chip, lemon. Although each batch is different, each is still within the category of "muffin."
The mold remains the same, while the example, or the embodiment, changes.
Follow me?
All archetypes follow this "muffin mold" pattern. The hero archetype is the mold, while the examples of heroes include Luke Skywalker, Harry Potter, Moana, and all the others.
(I hope you recognize that interesting one-to-many relationship we first saw while exploring fractals.)
Archetypes help both understand the world and navigate it.
When starting a new company, an entrepreneur might summon Luke Skywalker. Pretend this entrepreneur is starting this new company and facing all these fears, obstacles, and doubts. Our entrepreneur, digging deep into his heart, mustering all his courage, might repeat to himself, "Be the hero. You got this. You're freaking Luke Skywalker."
If summoning an archetype can help an entrepreneur start a company, might other archetypes help us in other scenarios?
Yes.
That's why I had the idea to create an archetype for sales and marketing. Because the way I see it, culturally, the dominant archetype is that negative one.
I'm sure you'll agree—the mainstream opinion is that the act of selling is an instrument of the dark side. Society doesn't exactly hold salespeople in the same regard as a nurse or an elementary school teacher.
And because of that default negative viewpoint about salespeople, do you know whose lives are made more difficult?
The honest salesperson.
If a dishonest business person wants to be a crook and a cheat, they have no shortage of role models.
But the well-intentioned business owners? The people who subscribe to this newsletter? You?
What is the archetype for your way of operating?
Because, after all, there is nothing wrong with selling. It's your intention that matters.
In Star Wars, the Force isn't evil—it's how the Force is used. And how the Force gets used depends on the person wielding it.
Darth Vader uses the Force for evil. Luke Skywalker uses it for good.
Approach your business the same way. Are you trying to help people? Or trick people out of their money?
Around here, we follow the golden rule of marketing: market to others how you want to be marketed to.
That doesn't mean we never slip up and make mistakes. We're only human. But it's our aim that matters. And when we slip up, we ask forgiveness and try to improve.
It's our choice in how we behave.
My copywriting coach, David Garfinkel, says at the start of his podcast: "Copy is powerful."
He's right.
Copywriting is salesmanship in print, and when you learn the skill of copywriting, you're acquiring a powerful skill.
You decide how to wield it. But examples help, and that's what archetypes give you.
Understand how I see archetypes now? Good.
Next, I asked, "Is there an archetype for these well-intentioned business owners, like my newsletter subscribers, to follow?"
I searched books, movies, and stories. What did I find?
Well, the Trusted Merchant archetype is less common than the hero archetype, that's for sure. But that's no surprise. Most people would rather watch a hero fight a bad guy than watch a lawyer meet with her clients. The latter would be boring.
But I did find a handful of examples of The Trusted Merchant. The one that best exemplifies the archetype is the character Olivander from the Harry Potter books.
Let's see Olivander, aka The Trusted Merchant, in action.
Harry Potter shops for his wand in the first book of the series. Watch this four-minute scene from the movie and see how Olivander his interaction with Harry.
What do you notice? It's clear that Olivander:
1) Views sales as a process. Olivander tells Harry to test different wands before finding the best fit.
2) Broadcasts domain expertise. Olivander knows his topic.
3) Maintains perspective. Olivander would love to have the famous Harry Potter as a customer, but Olivander doesn't need Harry. Olivander is emotionally unattached to the sale and would get on just fine if Harry said "No" and went to shop elsewhere.
What else do you notice about Olivander's interaction with Harry?
And what if you adopted these qualities for selling your product? Might bringing to mind The Trusted Merchant help you keep your aim?
Good. That's the value of archetypes.
To see a few more examples of The Trusted Merchant in popular films, check out:
- George Bailey from It’s a Wonderful Life
What other examples can you think of? Reply and tell me.
I hope this concept of The Trusted Merchant helps you and inspires you. If you'd like me to write more on this topic, let me know.
Rooting for you,
Billy