Four More Patent Marketing Help Tips

One potentially lucrative way to capitalize on your patent is to sell or license it to a retailer. That way, rather than painstakingly developing your product and mass-producing it, you simply cash out and hand those tasks off to the retailer. For the busy entrepreneur who is eager to move on to the next project, what could be better?

However, like many attractive-sounding things, marketing a patent to retailers isn’t as easy as it sounds. Most retailers will not pay a significant amount of money for a patent unless they believe owning that patent will make them tangibly better off in the marketplace. This concept should be at the core of your attempts to sell or license a patent to them. Everything you say and do should in some way reinforce the idea of your patent making the retailer feel better off.

That being said, here are 4 practical ways to do this:

1) Select the right retailer(s) to make your pitch to

Everyone wants to be able to say they sold a patent to Wal-Mart or Target. It makes for a great story to tell the relatives and does wonders for one’s sense of pride. But for the same reasons, it is very difficult to sell a patent directly to these types of companies. Wal-Mart and Target are gigantic, mega-profitable corporations with extremely diverse product lines. If you try to market a patent to them, you will be competing for their time with an unbelievable and ever-growing number of people, pressures, and challenges.

Taking this into account, it might be smarter to market your patent to a company more intimately connected to your field. For example, Rawlings might be more receptive to hearing about your patent for a new baseball glove than Sports Authority. (Although, Sports Authority would likely be more receptive to hearing about it than Wal-Mart.)

The idea is to market to retailers who are as close to the actual implementation of your patent as possible.

* IdeaBuyer.com has recently released a new product, a workbook to help inventors make contact with companies. For more information CLICK HERE!

2) Focus your pitch on benefits to them, not hype of yourself

Nobody ever bought a patent because it was “great”, “amazing”, or “awesome.” (At least, no retailer ever did). They have bought patents that lowered costs, increased sales, or some mixture of the two. If your patent can help retailers do either or both of those things, shout it loud and clear! A clear, compelling statement of value is your best bet for marketing a patent, to retailers or anyone else. If they cannot see how their own interests will be advanced by buying or licensing the patent, they will not buy or license the patent.

3) Identify the right person within the retailer to make your pitch to

Don’t just look up the retailer’s corporate headquarters and mail your pitch to them (or call their generic 1-800 number). Just like you selected the retailer most intimately connected to your patent, you want to select the person within that retailer who is most intimately connected to acquisitions, business development, etc. This is the person whose job it is to evaluate business proposals and render decisions on them. Find this person or department on the retailer’s webpage or call the company to ask who is in charge of such matters. Another excellent resource for finding decision makers at various companies is LinkedIn.com.

4) Get straight to the point and close strong

Corporate decision makers are extremely busy. They do not have time to sift through a business proposal the size of a Lord of the Rings novel while they patiently search for the main point. Keeping this in mind, your proposal should be as short as possible without leaving anything important out. State who you are, that you have a patent (including the details like patent number and issue date), why that patent is relevant to them, and why you would like to discuss a sale or licensing of the patent. Once you have explained the concrete, specific benefits to the retailer, close by asking for some type of action.

This could be anything from a phone call to you, a meeting, e-mail, or anything else that requires him to act. Do not ignore this step! Unless you prompt the decision maker to act, he may forget about your proposal in the daily shuffle of his work life.

Above all, remember that any pitch to market your patent to retailers must be based on benefits to the retailer, not hype about yourself or the patent. Keep this in mind and you will have increased your odds of success dramatically!

PatentHelpNow.com is a website dedicated to providing inventors with free patent help. You can contact us at: PatentHelpNow@gmail.com

Market your Patent to a Retailer

What if you don’t want the burden of mass-producing, promoting, and selling your patented invention? What if you just want sell it off to a retailer who can do all the dirty work and send you royalties while you move on to the next project? Inventors opt for this route all the time!  And while it is not quite as easy as invention infomercials make it seem, it is very much do-able. Let’s dive in and learn how it’s done.

First, let’s dispel a common myth: that you need to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars paying third parties to promote your invention for you. The typical invention infomercial tells you that the best chance of marketing your patent to a business is to pay them lots of money to spread the word about it. This is almost always a scam. Even if it weren’t, you simply don’t need to pay other people to do this for you.

In fact, inventors with patents can bypass this chump’s game and do most (if not all) of their patent marketing themselves. All one needs is some knowledge about how companies evaluate patents and how to emphasize the benefits of theirs.

The first step is to determine which company you should be making your pitch to. For example, the inventor of a new kind of guitar effects pedal might assume he should market his patent to Guitar Center or Sam Ash. In reality, he should probably focus on companies like Gibson or Fender, ie, companies who make and manufacture guitars.

He might even want to go further down the chain and approach the company who creates sound equipment, if this is a different company. The closer you can get to the physical implementation of your idea, the more likely it is that your presentation will be favorably received.

The reason for this is simple. The higher up you go, the more layers your idea will have to pass through until it reaches the people whose lives will be concretely affected by it. Not only that, but other people will not market your patent with the energy and enthusiasm that you will.

Once you identify the company you need to speak to, you need to work on what you will say to them. This is arguably the most important part of marketing your patent to a retailer. To keep our example of a new kind of guitar pedal; you want to emphasize that your pedal is unique and highly desirable. Be specific whenever possible, as this will drive the point home far better than simply stating that your product is great. For instance, you might emphasize that your pedal appeals to the legions of hard rock fans who grew up wanting their guitars to sound like Slash or Eddie Van Halen. The idea is to focus on benefits to the company and its customers, rather than hype and self-promotion (or the bland, cookie-cutter “promotion” most infomercial services are likely to offer.)

Once you have prepared a clear, benefit-driven presentation, the final step is to make the pitch. Generally, you will find a business development mailing address or e-mail address on the company website. Just send them a short, to-the-point note saying that you have a business proposal you would like to discuss. Make sure you include enough details to get their attention, but not so much that your note becomes a novel.

Above all, maintain confidence in yourself and your invention. If you have carefully though things through, you do not need expensive idea promotion companies or convoluted schemes to market your patent to retailers. Simply knowing what they are interested in and what matters to them will let you construct all of your efforts around that.

By the way: this is the core of any successful attempt to market, sell, or license a patent. Keep a relentless focus on what’s in it for them, and it’s hard to go wrong. Good luck!

PatentHelpNow.com is a website dedicated to providing inventors with free patent help. You can contact us at: PatentHelpNow@gmail.com

Market your Patent to a Representative

If you’ve tried marketing your patent to retailers and failed to find success, don’t give up! This does not necessarily mean your patent is undesirable. Your lack of success in negotiating with retailers could simply reflect the fact that they don’t know you. Trust is key, and without a track record of inventing success, retailers may feel uncomfortable doing business with you. But how can you ever become a successful inventor without getting your first invention sold or licensed? It’s a frustrating dilemma, but fortunately, there is a way out: representatives.

Representatives (or “reps”) are independent businesspeople that advise retail stores on which products to stock and sell. It is their job to network with decision-makers at all the major stores, establish relationships with them and recommend various products to stock. If the store follows through and sells what the rep recommended, the manufacturer (or patent holder, in your case) agrees to pay the rep a cut of all sales (or the patent sale/license agreement). There are several advantages of marketing a patent to representatives, instead of directly to retailers.

The first reason is bypassing the resistance you might encounter trying to approach the retailer as an unknown businessperson. Many retailers (especially during the current 2009 financial meltdown) are risk-averse. Buying patents from unknown businesspersons is extremely risky, especially if the price you set for your patent is high. Reps, on the other hand, are not unknown businesspeople. Good reps have an established track record with the retailers they work with, having advised them to stock many products and built up a reservoir of trust. The difference between this person pitching a retailer on your patent and you doing it yourself cannot be overstated.

Another benefit of leveraging a rep’s trusted status with retailers is that deals can be made faster. If the rep in question has already worked with the retailer in question (and you should really try to work only with ones who have), they are accustomed to working together. They know each other’s schedules, quirks, and idiosyncrasies, such that delays will be kept to a minimum. This is extremely valuable if you are eager to cash out, as many patent holders are.

Of course, the advantages of marketing a patent to representatives also clarify some requirements. A representative with a solid track record did not get that track record by promoting mediocre products or banking on unsubstantiated hype. Therefore, you won’t convince any rep worth convincing to promote your patent if all you can say in its favor is how “great” or “awesome” it is. Most reps have been burned by promoting “great” and “awesome” products that never sold, and most won’t fall for it again. This makes market research important. Can you demonstrate a real demand for your patented invention? Can you prove (or at least make a believable case with numbers and data) that it will sell? If not, you will have a very tough time convincing reps to get behind you.

But let’s say you can demonstrate the value and desirability of your patent. You’re ready to talk with a rep. But where do you find them? Lots of places. For one thing, not all representatives call themselves representatives. Some stores use what are known as buyers for the same tasks that reps perform. Luckily, finding them is usually not very hard.

Wal-Mart’s buyers, for example, run a blog where anyone can freely leave comments or get in touch with them to discuss business proposals (http://checkoutblog.com/). Other retailers are not as forthright, but you can usually find out who their reps or buyers are by calling their corporate offices and asking.

It’s also important to look for reps that have a legitimate reason to be interested in your patent. For example, a rep who works primarily with sporting goods stores is not likely to have much interest in promoting a tool and hardware patent. Contacting reps outside your field will only waste their time and yours.

All in all, working with representatives can be a very effective means of capitalizing on your patent. Just keep the basic requirements, discussed here, in mind and put your best foot forward!

PatentHelpNow.com is a website dedicated to providing inventors with free patent help. You can contact us at: PatentHelpNow@gmail.com

Market your Patent to End-Users

Like any marketing effort, in order to market your product to an end user, you will need to create a marketing plan. This will establish HOW you are going to achieve your marketing goals. Patent Marketing to End Users Help will help you to decide what your marketing goals are for the end user, create a marketing plan, and give you tips on the best ways to go about implementing your plan.

The best way to start is to brainstorm. Try using these questions to help you:

WHO: Who are you trying to reach through your marketing efforts?

• Be specific. Create an imaginary group of people that you see using your product.
• What do they like to do? What do they like to eat? How old are they? Where do they live? What do they drive? Are they married or single? Do they have children? How much “spending” money do they have every month? Where are they shopping?
• Then think about how the answers to these questions effect the way that they buy your product, and more importantly, how you will reach them.

WHAT: What do you want the target audience end user to think and feel when they are presented with your marketing?

• Should they feel scared? Safe? Inadequate? Fat/ Skinny? Young/Old?
• The end user should associate good feelings with your product.

WHEN: When is the best time for your target audience end user to be reached by your marketing efforts?

• This is important because you do not want to contact them when they are least attentive. For instance, if your target audience is working mothers, ages 32-48, you certainly would not want to attempt to market to them between 7:00am and 9:00am. Chances are they would be getting their children and themselves ready for school and work.
• If your target audience lives in a colder climate, marketing during winter months would most likely be less effective than warmer months because less people get out during the winter.

WHERE: Where do you see your product being marketed?

• It’s okay to dream but also be realistic with yourself. Five commercials every day probably will not work into your budget.
• Where will you most effectively reach your target audience end user? If they do not have a TV, then commercials would be out. If they do not have a home phone available for sales calls, calling would be out.
• Think about where your target audience end user is going to most likely notice your marketing efforts.

WHY: Why should they notice or pay attention to your marketing?

• Does it seem credible? Does it create curiosity? WHY SHOULD THEY CARE?
• The effort needs to be attention grabbing in order to effective.

HOW: How will you reach them?

• There are several different ways to market to the end user. You need to decide not only which one is best for your target audience, but which can you afford and get the most response from?
• Offline marketing is the effort you make without the involvement of the internet.

o   Direct marketing- This is marketing directly to the end user, typically done with a catalog or mailing.

o   Advertising- Newspapers, TV, radio, etc.

o   Third party media outlets- This involves getting attention for your product through a story of some sort written by a publication.

• Online marketing is all of the things that you can do to promote your product on the internet.

o   The possibilities really are endless.

o   Online advertising- Advertising with a banner on sites that have the audience you are looking to target.

o   Video advertising, blogging, emailing, web pages… etc.

• Word of mouth marketing is by far the most effective way to market your product; however it is also the hardest way to measure your results. When relying on this form of marketing, make sure that you are asking the customer how they found out about their product.

Creating your marketing plan will be easy once you have those answers sitting in front of you. Here is an outline of how to best put your answers together:

1.    Target Audience- This is where you will put your “WHO” into a narrative paragraph or two. The more information, the better.

2.    The Challenge- Explain what will be the difficulties you may have when marketing to your target audience. This will be beneficial to help you decide how to best implement your plan.

3.    Goals- What do you expect to achieve when marketing? Think of three goals that are easy to measure. For instance, Goal #1: To reach 15 people through online marketing.

4.    Marketing Strategy- This is where you explain the “WHO”, “WHAT”, “WHEN”, “WHERE”, “WHY” and “HOW” and how they are all working together. It is important to explain how they affect one another. You are allowed to have more than one strategy. In fact, I would recommend it. Chances are that one way may not turn out the way you had originally hoped, so then you can rely on your backup.

Choose the strategy that will work best for you. You want it to generate the most interest, while costing you the least amount of time and money.

PatentHelpNow.com is a website dedicated to providing inventors with free patent help. You can contact us at: PatentHelpNow@gmail.com