Fable
That mill didn't hire more pitchmen; it just ground the first bag of flour faster
When the new mill opened in Maiyuan Town, the owner invited three pitchmen to speak at the market. They talked about how precise the gears were and how smooth the millstones were. The farmers nodded along, but still took their wheat to the old mill.
The boss got anxious and added colored flags and gongs to the pitchman. More people gathered to watch, but few were actually willing to carry over whole sacks of wheat. Everyone worried about the queue, about the wheat getting mixed, about the new mill being just a pretty sight.
A young apprentice suggested clearing the smallest hand mill by the door so that any farmer could grind a bowl of wheat for free. The owner thought it too petty: how could one bowl of flour prove a mill?
On the first day, only a few children tried it. On the second day, farmers found that the small bowl of flour was indeed finer, and that they did not have to fill out long forms or sit through a half-hour introduction. On the third day, someone brought half a sack of wheat; on the fifth day, someone asked whether wheat from the neighboring village could also be sent.
The mill continues to improve the entrance experience: weighing, pouring grain, collecting flour, and checking losses are all written on the wooden board. Those who try it immediately know how much time they can save and how much bran they can avoid losing.
The persuaders' work also changed. They no longer explained the gears from scratch, but looked at who had already worn down a small bowl, who had brought a second bag, who had started inviting neighbors to use it together. The best clue was the footprint the product itself left behind.
Of course, the mill did not cancel negotiations with large clients. Grain merchants needed dedicated warehouses, monthly settlement and transport arrangements, and still required the boss to sit down and negotiate. But before the negotiation, the grain merchant's clerks had already ground samples by hand, and half the suspicion was gone.
Years later, people said this mill would grow on its own. In fact, it simply put customer acquisition, onboarding, value confirmation, and referrals as much as possible into the mill itself, letting use happen first and then letting sales catch the demand that had already appeared. Later the owner also made a mistake once. He hid the free hand mill deep in the shop and again let the talker speak at the entrance for a long time. Fewer people came in, and referrals slowed down. The young apprentice reminded him that the mill’s most powerful persuasion happened at the moment the farmer personally poured in the wheat and saw with his own eyes that the loss was reduced. Once the entrance was too far from the value, growth fell back to hawking. Later someone from a neighboring village saw only the word “free,” copied a trial sign, but did not let farmers immediately feel the savings in time and materials. People came and went, and the mill did not grow. Only after value is used first does the later deal have roots.