I met my whole family through Baidu Tieba.

Tao Yinchu was truly patient; he spent the entire morning sitting in the Anjia store on Xiangping North Road.

When he arrived in the morning, it was a lively time.

It was cold outside, and the sun was still weak. A row of electric scooters were parked at the entrance, and the cleaning staff were coming and going. Some came to collect materials, some came to replenish consumables in their tool kits, and some stood at the entrance calling out, "Sister Zhang, your client gave me that yesterday, so don't come back today."

The dispatcher sat in a seat towards the back, phone ringing off the hook: "Hello, this is Anjia Home Services. You booked for 9:00 AM today. Yes, the driver is on his way..."

Tao Yinchu sat in the rest area, silent. A cup of hot water sat before him, long since cold. No one paid him any attention, and he didn't need to be.

He watched as the cleaning staff, dressed in Anjia uniforms, slung their bags over their shoulders, mounted their electric scooters, and with a flick of their tails, carried Anjia Technology's first self-developed product, merged into the morning rush hour traffic of electric vehicles.

After 9:30, the store gradually emptied out.

The first batch of cleaners has arrived, everything that needed to be arranged has been arranged, and the phone at the store has stopped ringing.

The dispatcher changed his sitting posture and began to sort through the orders.

Tao Yinchu began to boil.

He kept checking his watch, glancing outside, turning on his phone and then putting it back. Twice he stood up, walked around the store a couple of times, and then sat down again.

The dispatcher glanced at him but didn't say anything.

The quietest time is between 10:30 and 11:00.

There wasn't a single customer in the store, the sun outside had dimmed, and the wind made the roller shutter door, which was only partially open, rattle rhythmically.

Two cleaning ladies were talking in a small back room, their voices barely audible, when the order dispatcher yawned.

Tao Yinchu poured himself another cup of hot water, this time keeping it warm in his hands. The warmth in his palms felt like the only thing that hadn't faded all morning.

After holding it for a while, Tao Yinchu stopped drinking, stood up again, walked to the door, looked outside, and remained motionless for a long time, like a stone waiting for his wife.

After a while, he sat down again.

But after a short while, he stood up again and went to stand at the door, becoming a statue waiting for his wife. This cycle repeated itself endlessly.

Around 11:40, the shop's landline suddenly rang.

The dispatcher answered the call, listened to one sentence, and said, "Okay, okay, I'll write it down. 0037, Zizhuyuan, one..."

Tao Yinchu's ears immediately perked up.

He looked at the dispatcher, who was frantically typing away at the computer, quickly entering the information into it.

The phone call had barely ended, and before Tao Yinchu could even ask anything, someone arrived at the door.

They were among the first cleaning staff to return.

:

Two, one in front of the other.

The woman in front pushed open the door, put her bag on the ground, walked to the dispatcher's desk, took out a piece of paper and placed it on the table: "Dong'an Garden, one, trial use."

Tao Yinchu glanced at the piece of paper the other party had placed on the table—it was a standard form.

Although he couldn't see the words on the list while standing on the sofa, he knew what it contained: the customer's address, name, phone number, corresponding salesperson's employee number and name, the quantity of electric toothbrushes, the "purchase" method, and so on.

This form comes in triplicate. After receiving the electric toothbrush, the customer has to fill out this form. One copy is kept by the customer, one is handed over to the store, and the other is kept by the corresponding cleaning staff.

The woman behind her came in, took out a form, submitted it, and said, "...I have to go to two more households this afternoon, so I won't be back for a while. I'll submit everything when I get back tonight."

The dispatcher said "okay," and then asked while registering the order, "What did you tell them?"

"Just like the training. Do the work first, finish the bathroom, then take out the toothbrush. I said it was free, I could use it first. She said really, it's free? I said really, it's free. So she kept it..."

Tao Yinchu stood to the side, his body unconsciously leaning forward.

Later on, more and more people returned.

Some people come back to pick up something on their way and just mention it; others come back specifically to eat after finishing their orders in the morning.

The number of phone calls also increased. The dispatcher answered the landline with his left hand and the mobile phone with his right, typing away on the keyboard.

The electric scooters at the entrance stopped and started with a "buzzing" sound, and the store became bustling with people coming and going in an endless stream.

When these aunties have free time, they like to chat, and their voices come from all directions.

"I sold two tubes, and the lady said she wanted her son to try one of them too."

"I sold one this morning, but I received cash directly. I really don't understand these rich people. They could use it for free for seven days, but they just pay for it outright."

"Mine is the same, but they were very clear with me, saying they'd probably be busy and wouldn't bother to make time for me later. They said they'd just buy it and use it if it worked, and if not, consider it a toy."...

As Tao Yinchu listened to these words, he felt as if a small hand was scratching at his heart.

He moved closer to the dispatcher and first looked at the increasingly tall stack of forms on her desk, noting the lines of text: name, neighborhood, building, amount, trial period, cash...

Many of them were written by these women, who were not highly educated and wrote crookedly, but his eyes lit up when he saw them.

Tao Yinchu saw that most of them were "trial" items, but this did not diminish his joy at the moment.

He and General Manager Shen had already discussed this matter:

The domestic electric toothbrush market is currently very small and difficult to expand. The biggest hurdle is getting users to accept a completely new product.

Currently, the two giants in the domestic electric toothbrush market, Oral-Bee and Philips, are stuck at this threshold and are trying to dismantle it using their own methods.

Anjia, in terms of size, technology, capital, qualifications and other aspects, is completely inferior to these two giants.

:

However, Anjia has a unique advantage that these two giants do not have: trust.

It's not just the users' trust in Anjia, but also Anjia's trust in its users.

"We dare to offer our customers a seven-day free trial because we know where they live and we're not afraid they'll just take the product and run, but Oral-Bee and Philips can't do that."

"Oral-Bee and Philips, to put it bluntly, are like randomly grabbing someone on the street to sell them something. They don't even know each other, so how could they possibly give each other free trials? If they dared to give it away, the other party would really dare to run away."

"So it's not that they're not smart enough to think of this trick. They probably could have figured out that 'free trials' are definitely a good way to sell electric toothbrushes, but they couldn't do it, and they didn't dare to. If they did, it would be no different from handing out money on the street, and they would lose a fortune."

These are the words Shen Kang said at the time.

Shen Kang then added, "The biggest hurdle in selling electric toothbrushes is getting users to actually use one. Once they've tried it and truly experienced its convenience, and if they're also relatively well-off, then buying one is highly probable."

Shen Kang clapped his hands at that moment, "Coincidentally, our Anjia users happen to be these 'somewhat affluent' people. They are willing to frequently spend over a hundred yuan to buy domestic cleaning services, so an electric toothbrush that costs over two hundred yuan, lasts a long time, and is more convenient than a traditional toothbrush is something that is likely to be easily accepted by them..."

Tao Yinchu deeply agreed with Shen Kang's words.

He had never used an electric toothbrush before, always thinking it was too trendy. People his age tend to have an unconscious resistance to these trendy things.

However, after joining Anjia Technology and learning that he was going to make electric toothbrushes, Tao Yinchu also bought several electric toothbrushes to try at home.

As Shen Kang said, his resistance disappeared after using it for a while.

Once, when he went on a business trip to eastern Guangdong to run the supply chain, he didn't bring an electric toothbrush. He used the toothbrush in the hotel, but he just couldn't get it right. He always felt like he couldn't brush his teeth properly and it was tiring.

From then on, Tao Yinchu always carried an electric toothbrush with him whenever he went on a business trip. This was just like how, more than a decade later, when the older generation first started using smartphones, they were very resistant, saying that a phone only needs to make calls, and that a feature phone was fine, so why buy this thing? But once they learned how to use it, they became more obsessed than anyone else, spending all day holding their phones and scrolling through Douyin, Happy Little Hands, and all sorts of short videos.

Tao Yinchu was also in this state.

He firmly believes that once those users who have settled in are willing to try it out, given their financial situation, the vast majority of them will buy it.

Therefore, for Tao Yinchu, looking at those "trial" items on the lists was practically no different from looking at "purchased" items. His tense and anxious heart, which had been pounding all morning, finally relaxed.

However, not every cleaning service successfully sold an electric toothbrush.

When Tao Yinchu was keeping an eye on things in the store, he noticed several aunties who had finished their work and were resting in the store without handing in their orders.

There were two women, one sitting on a high stool by the door, opening her thermos to drink water, and the other leaning against the wall eating a biscuit she had brought from home. Neither of them handed in a form.

The dispatcher asked a question, and the woman drinking water spoke first: "My customer is a very nice person, but she just wouldn't have it. I said it was free, I wouldn't charge her, she could use it for seven days, and if she didn't like it, she could take it back. As soon as she heard 'free,' she waved her hands like a fan and said, 'No, no, there's no such thing as a free lunch. You can't be greedy for cheap things.' When I tried to say anything more, she just turned around and went to wipe the dishes, saying she had an electric water heater at home that she hadn't dared to use because her daughter bought it, and she was afraid the vibration would damage her teeth. What could I say?"

As Tao Yinchu listened, he thought to himself, "This is the kind of person who sees electric toothbrushes as weird and is naturally extremely wary. The more you offer a free trial, the more scared she becomes; she feels the more enthusiastic you are, the deeper the trap you're setting."

Another auntie, munching on a pancake, chimed in: "There was an old man over there. I took it out, and he first asked me if it was one of those 'electric toothbrushes' on TV. I said yes, and I could try it for free. Guess what he said? He said, 'I've used toothbrushes for decades and haven't lost many teeth. What if this thing buzzes so loudly that it shakes away the few I have left?'"

The two aunties next to me who were registering both smiled.

:

The woman then said, "I told the old man, it doesn't vibrate your teeth, it only vibrates water. Guess what he said? He said, 'That's even more useless, I don't drink water when I brush my teeth.'"

The dispatcher said while typing on the keyboard, "This old man is quite good at arguing."

"What do you mean? He just absolutely refuses. I can't force him to try."

The woman swallowed the last bite of her pancake, patted the crumbs off her hands, and said, "This kind of thing is useless even if it's free. His son and daughter have to buy it first, use it, and say it's good before he'll even glance at it."

Tao Yinchu nodded and chimed in, "This deal can't be rushed. We're promoting something new, and it's impossible for one person to succeed with one customer. Don't be discouraged, just keep promoting it, and that's enough."

The two women hummed in agreement and said nothing more, wondering who this short, fat man was. They had never seen him before.

After a while, someone else came back to place an order, and the noise in the store rose again.

Tao Yinchu sat back down on the sofa, glancing at the stack of forms on the dispatcher's desk. He felt much more at ease than he had in the morning.

He knew that free trials weren't a magic bullet.

Some people don't believe it, some don't try it, and some don't even look at it, but as long as there are orders coming in and trials going out, this door will slowly open.

Selling electric toothbrushes at Anjia is never a one-off deal. If someone is willing to try it today, someone will be willing to buy it tomorrow. Once these people have used it, and they chat about it with relatives during the New Year, that's when the business truly takes off.

……

Two days later, on the evening

When Fang Tianming got home, he immediately went to the bathroom. When he came out, he saw his wife busy in the kitchen and casually asked, "Did you buy that new electric toothbrush on the sink? We already have three electric toothbrushes at home, and they're not broken. Why did you buy a new one?"

His wife's name is Luo Liqing, and it's clear she was a beauty in her youth. Of course, as the wife of a deputy director, she's maintained her appearance quite well, and she still looks pretty now. However, time can take its toll, and there are some wrinkles around her eyes now.

Hearing her husband's words, Luo Liqing didn't even turn her head, only saying, "Your daughter bought it."

"Did Qiqi buy it?"

Upon hearing that it was bought by his daughter, Fang Tianming, who was about to go straight to the study, stopped and went into the kitchen. "Why did Qiqi buy another one? Is hers broken?"

"It's not broken."

Luo Liqing chopped vegetables with a cleaver. "Today, I called someone from the An family to come and clean the house. The cleaning lady told her that their company had released a new product, an electric toothbrush. You know your daughter; as soon as she heard that Shen Kang's company had released a new product, she bought it without saying a word."

Fang Tianming chuckled and shook his head.

Luo Liqing continued, "But it didn't cost any money. They said they'd give us a free seven-day trial. If we liked it, we could buy it; if not, we could return it. I found that strange. Isn't he afraid everyone will use it and then return it? If that happens, even if he takes the electric toothbrush back, he'll still need to replace the brush heads, and he'll have to pay a lot of money for all those brush heads..."

Luo Liqing rambled on as he chopped vegetables.

Fang Tianming remained silent, lost in thought.

This kid, he's unlikely to lose money; on the contrary, the more I look at him, the more ambitious he seems...

:

Fang Tianming, as the deputy director of the Provincial Department of Commerce, is usually very busy with his work. If it weren't for today's incident, he really wouldn't have thought of Shen Kang.

However, this thought also reminded Fang Tianming of something else.

Electric toothbrush...

: