Once upon a time, a farmer had a problem with the mice living in his barn. Every time he would get a cat and send it out in the barn, the cat would disappear. When the farmer sent his dog into the barn, the dog would sit and watch the mice eat the farmer’s grain.
One morning while the farmer stood on his front porch sipping his morning coffee and pondering his mouse problem. He looked out onto his cornfield. He noticed how effective his scarecrow kept the birds away from his crops. This gave the farmer an idea. Before finishing his coffee, the farmer went down to his workshop and grabbed several pieces of scrap metal. He cut. He ground. Then he wielded all those pieces together. He put his creation in the barn in a place where it would overlook his grain.
The next morning, the farmer walked by the barn. He stood in the doorway looking for some signs of mice. He didn’t see any. Every morning for the next seven days, the farmer went out to his barn. Each day, he couldn’t find one mouse.
The farmers shared his invention with some of his farmer friends. They laughed at him and said, “How could a mouse made of scrap metal could get rid of real mice?”
The farmer made a couple metal mice for his farmer friends. A couple days later they came back amazed them how the metal mouse worked. They asked the farmer, “What is it about the metal mouse that scares away all the other mice?”
He responded, “The best I can figure is the mice think, if they hang around, they will get turned into metal. So, not wanting to be turned into metal, they leave.”
“You have found a solution to our mouse problem. We will give you money to start a business to make and sell your metal mouse.”
Before they started making these metal mice, they had to come up with a name. After much discussion, they decided upon calling the metal mouse Mike the Mighty Mouse.
The farmer’s wife set down at her computer. She searched Google for materials to make more of Mike the Mighty Mouse. She searched high and low to find where they could buy all the right materials in quantity to make at least a thousand Mike the Mighty Mouse.
The farmer found a local manufacturer who would assemble a thousand Mike the Mighty Mice for him. The manager of the factory knew of a place where he could get some attractive packaging made. The local manufacturer said he would even put Mike in the packaging for a penny a mouse.
They made a thousand Mighty Mice packaged and stored them in a warehouse. The farmer paid his son to be his shipping clerk. No one came to buy Mike the Mighty Mouse. Hoping to generate interest, the farmer gave Mike the Mighty Mouse to several family members and a couple to the factory’s manager.
One of the farmer’s friends took some neat pictures of Mike the Mighty Mouse. They took pictures of the package, inside and out. He posted those pictures on Facebook and on Craigslist. The farmer started to get a lot of spam emails and phone calls. He only sold five of Mike the Mighty Mouse.
The farmer was getting frustrated. He had put all his savings into Mike the Mighty Mouse. A thousand metal mice set in a warehouse gathering dust. A shipping clerk falling to sleep with nothing to ship. It costed the poor farmer money he didn’t have.
Paul, a distant cousin to the farmer, had a successful at network marketing business. He suggested that the farmer start going with him to some leads groups and show off Mike the Mighty Mouse. After attending four groups a week for a month, the farmer sold only eight.
The farmer went to the local university and found Scott. Scott taught marketing at the university. Scott suggested the farmer would find local stores that sell farming and gardening supplies. Then talk to the owners about putting Mike the Mighty Mouse in their store. The farmer found just one. That store didn’t sell any. The store owner told the farmer to take them back.
Six months passed. Over nine hundred Mike the Mighty Mouse remained in the farmer’s warehouse. Bankruptcy was looming for the farmer.
In desperation, the farmer’s wife set down at her computer. She scrolled through the internet looking for help. She found this best-selling author. He talked about how he markets his books. He publishes two books a year. At least one book each year ends up on the best-seller list.
He suggested finding a distributor. Build a working relationship with that distributor. Most distributors have several salespeople. They can get Mike the Mighty Mouse in far more stores than the farmer could visit. The distributor planned for the farmer to visit the stores and the corporate offices.
The farmer went on the road with the back of his truck full of Mike the Mighty Mouse. He went from trade show to craft’s fair. He pitched Mike the Mighty Mouse to anyone who would listen.
It has been a year. The farmer is on the second production run of Mike the Mighty Mouse. His warehouse is empty. He has fifty back orders. Mike the Mighty Mouse even had his own YouTube channel. Mike the Mighty Mouse can even be seen on Tik Tock.
Do you have a Mike the Mighty Mouse to sell? You might think about what made the Farmer a success.
