Licensing, selling through the Internet, selling to big box retailers and a few other options are the ways most inventors and entrepreneurs dream of selling their products, but there are many other innovative ways to sell inventions. In this article we will discuss two often overlooked options for inventors: starting a service business and business to business sales.
{Don Debelak’s new book, Turning Your Invention into Cash is now available on Amazon for $3.49. Go to Amazon.com and enter inventions Don Debelak to purchase. From the author of Entrepreneur Magazine’s Bringing Your Product to Market.}
Innovative Ways to Sell Inventions
Is your product suited to start a service business
Not every product is good for selling. In fact, some products are better to start a service business around. These products either are too complicated to explain, or too complicated for most people to use and they therefore lend themselves to being used by a business. As an example, let’s say you invent a machine that gets rid of pests in backyards and keeps them out. Consumers would have no reason to purchase one of these machines if they cost more than a few hundred dollars. If the product does its job, it may only need to be used once every five years and making a large purchase for a product you use only once in five years doesn’t make a lot of sense. Instead, if there was a company that owned the machine and provided a service once every five years, that makes much more sense. There are other opportunities to sell products like these, like selling to other businesses which we will discuss below. So what kinds of products are well suited for service businesses?
The products that work the best for service businesses provide a service that people recognize they need and search for it; it should fit in the categories of the yellow pages so people will look for you and find you. For instance, in the example we used above, people with pest problems know they need a pest treatment and can find use the yellow pages to or the Internet to find appropriate businesses. The appeal can be limited or mass, just as long people search for your product/service business.
On the other hand, if your product provides a service that people don’t know they need, you will spend large amounts of money on advertising telling people that they need your service. In these cases, you are better off selling to other service businesses. For instance, if you have a product that better protects driveways from different weather conditions, people don’t know that they could protect their driveways and won’t look for your service. But if you sold your product to a company that resurfaces driveways, they could offer the service to customers that are resurfacing their driveways. The driveway resurfacing company would probably have more success selling that service than you could as a separate company.
Selling a service instead of a product also works well when you have a product that is difficult for customers to understand, as long as the benefit of your product is easy to grasp. Many consumers won’t buy a product, or will be very slow to adopt a product, that is difficult to understand or difficult to use. As long as your product gives the desired result, you don’t need to worry about this. Also, many consumers are hesitant to try a product that is vastly different from competing products, but again, by providing a service, you will not face this resistance.
Finally, service businesses are also well suited for products that are very expensive. Customers are very hesitant to buy a product for several thousand dollars, but with a service business you are not limited in the price range of your product since you are just using your product to provide a service. As long as you can recover your investment in the development and manufacturing of your product, your product can cost as little as 1 dollar or as much as millions of dollars.
Starting a service business is in many ways like selling a new product, but instead of selling the product, you are selling the results of your product. But that doesn’t mean you need to downplay your invention, in fact it can be your biggest selling point. Phrases like, “Using a new, patented technology, we can…” can help your business have an edge over existing service businesses in the same market.
Selling Your Product to Other Businesses
There are many instances where selling to a business makes more sense to selling to consumers. Consumers usually make buying decisions in a matter of seconds, but businesses often carefully consider every purchase. This creates opportunities for inventors with products that consumers are unable, unwilling or hesitant to buy.
As we discussed above, when consumers don’t know about a need, you can sell your product to a service company that sells similar services that can then explain the need to customers, but there are many more situations where business to business sales are a good option.
Since businesses are slower to make buying decisions, you have the chance to sell them a product that is difficult to understand, unknown, or vastly different that existing products (all of which can be problems when selling to consumers), but you need to be able to prove that your products works and will provide a real benefit to their business.
Other products that are good for business to business sales are products that are too complicated or too expensive for consumers. Many business to business products also have a stripped down consumer version, but sometimes you can’t strip down your product because it is too complicated. Many products require training to use. Again, this is a hindrance to consumers, but can be a plus for businesses.
They key to businesses to businesses sales is providing great on-going support for your product, training if and when needed, building good long-term relationships with the businesses you work with and provide support for repairs, replacement parts and other consumable items.
Business to business sales are usually in smaller quantities, so having a high margin product is a must.
Another consideration for creating a lasting business is that your product has limited appeal, and therefore limited competition, and that you or a few sales staff can personally stay in touch with most or all of your potential customers. You will need these relationships to make sales and stay on top of the customers’ needs.
Do you need web content? Don Debelak, who has written 15 books published by major publishers such as McGraw Hill and Entrepreneur Press is currently writing web content. Check out more information at:
http://onestopinventionshop.net/web-content-writing-services
Don Debelak offers affordable patent work. Check out http://patentsbydondebelak.com/
