In my last post I left you with a cliffhanger.
I promised to reveal that “Sales Archetypes” that contain within them ALL of the fundamental principles and strategies you need to get sales through any advertising medium known to man.
It’s important to understand this, because you can get a lot of mileage out of studying THE “OLD” STUFF that you can use always, anywhere and everywhere in sales and advertising…
…instead of wasting time studying the coolest, newest, trendiest “earth-shattering” tech that some dude-bro Youtuber is shilling that might not exist in 2 years.
The Archetypes are activities or professions which embody certain immortal, unchangeable selling principles that apply to salesmanship regardless of what medium you use, what era you’re promoting in, or what new tools and fads come to bare.
So let’s get into it.
Here are what I call “The Major Archetypes”:
The Door To Door Salesman – this is the archetype of 1-to-1, face to face sales. The pitch is delivered by the sales person, to a single person. The pitch is received LIVE, with real-time communication between prospect and seller.
The Stage Pitch-Man – this is the archetype of 1-to-many, face to face sales. The pitch is delivered by a salesperson on stage, it is experienced LIVE, with real-time communication between a crowd of prospects and seller. Naturally due to the 1-to-many medium, there is less nuanced interaction between prospect and seller, but it’s still there none-the-less.
These two Archetypes contain the entire foundation of all sales psychology. The fundamental ingredients you need to make a sale through any medium on the planet is present in their “rawest” most “real” forms in those two occupations. And those ingredients are:
- Qualified audience – you need a starving prospect/crowd to sell to
- Great product – you need something desirable to sell
- Persuasive sales message – you need a tested and proven pitch
- Viable delivery mechanism – you need a means by which to deliver your pitch to your audience (in these first cases, they are in-person, so the delivery system is simply, the salesman himself)
Not only are those fundamental ingredients the same in all forms of salesmanship, but so are all of the Strategies that flow from it:
Gaining attention
Stoking desire
Handling objections
Building trust
Risk reversal
Asking for action
Etc, etc….
All of of these strategies apply to making sales in every time. Every place. And every medium.
The skills required to succeed selling in-person 1-to-1 and in-person 1-to-many sales are THE SAME as the skills required to make all of the modern mediums work.
I don’t care who you are, what fancy tool you’re using, what industry you’re in, whether physical, digital, all of these rules apply to all of them.
That’s why so many of the greatest copywriters, ad-men and direct marketers had histories of selling in-person, particularly door to door. They have all the fundamentals of salesmanship and customer psychology to make ANY medium work.
I’m not just telling you this to preach. It’s important to understand this connection, because it means the every other form of sales (including the newest ones) is analogous to the Big 2 Archetypes.
By “analogous” I mean that what is true about 1-to-1 face to face sales or selling from stage can also be truly said about any other form of sales or advertising, even if it’s true in a slightly different way.
NONE of the fundamental principles change. NONE of the strategies change. Even though some of the specific particulars or tactics do.
That makes these all other advertising mediums (direct mail, email, social media, sms, etc) “Transferred Salesmanship.”
It’s “transferred” because the salesperson pitching to them is not truly present. His presence is “transferred” by broadcasting his sales message through some other representation that the prospect experiences.
“Transferred Salesmanship” is actually not a bad way to define Advertising in general, actually.
Anyway, let me demonstrate how the 2 Major Archetypes lead naturally to 4 “Lesser Archetypes” that utilize “transferred salesmanship.”
The Cold Caller – this is the archetype of 1-to-1 sales, experienced live, but NOT in-person. Salesman’s presence is transferred via real-time phone call or video call.
The Direct Mail Master – this is the archetype of 1-to-1 sales, NOT experienced live OR in-person. Salesman’s presence is transferred via snail mail letter.
The Mass Media Man – this is the archetype of 1-to-many sales, NOT in-person (ad is experienced individually). Salesman’s presence is transferred via newspaper, magazine, billboard, etc.
The Talk Show Guy – this is the archetype of 1-to-many, NOT in-person (ad is experienced at the same time). Salesman’s presence is transferred via radio, tv, etc.
What we can notice here is that the only difference between these mediums is that they replace REAL presence of the salesman with TRANSFERRED presence of the salesman.
The sales man is not present, but his MESSAGE is.
But this isn’t all, the above 4 Minor Archetypes are simply 1 degree of transferred salesmanship.
But it gets even deeper.
There are 2nd Degrees of Transferred salesmanship which I call the Lesser Archetypes. (Not because they are inherently less valuable, but because they draw transferred salesmanship not just from the Major 2, but also from the Minor 4)
Here are some examples of Lesser Archetypes:
The Email Marketer: this is a transferred form of salesmanship based on Direct Mail, which is itself, already a form of transferred salesmanship.
The Sales Landing Page Builder: this is a transferred form of salesmanship based on physical sales letters, which is itself, already a form of transferred salesmanship.
Another example would be
Why am I telling you all of this?
Well it’s simple. I want you to have all the information you need to be the best…. whatever it is… that you want to be.
By having this view of “The Archetypes” it gives you a direct line from more specific activities back to their original source and origins. So that by mastering the skills of the original sources, you strengthen the foundation of whatever it is you want to do.
Because as we all know, (and this isn’t a sexy truth, but it’s profoundly powerful)…
The most skilled, wealthy, revered and successful people on earth whether they be in business, sports or entertainment become the BEST in the world – not because they latched onto a trendy tool or learned ONE flashy skill – it’s because they MASTERED the fundamentals of their profession to the point they could practically execute in their sleep and perform at a level everyone else on earth could only dream of doing.
Want to get better at writing compelling advertising copy? Study sales.
Want to get better at email marketing? Study direct mail. And study sales.
Want to get better at creating high-converting landing pages? Study winning sales letters. And study sales.
Don’t be captured like so many people by fascination with a new technology or medium, that you forget the fundamental principles of salesmanship. You will be sorely disappointed and your fascination with the technology will blind you as to what the problem might be.
Don’t follow self-proclaimed gurus who try to pretend that PARTICULAR sales/advertising activities are a completely new, unheard of and require a separate science from anything that existed in sales and advertising before. It’s a lie.
It’s true with every medium and technology that tactics might change different. That’s normal. But the strategies and principles of salesmanship always remain the same. And they always will.
I hopve you’ve found this helpful.
Be well,
Mike
