Creating a Big Bang for Your Invention
Inventors need to create a big bang, something that will get people to look at their idea, if they want to succeed. Contacts in the distribution channel, or if you are attempting to license the product, at companies are busy and distracted and you need to get their attention, which calls for a careful strategy on your part. Following these steps to help you grab the attention of your prospects.
Know Your Competition
It is a great start to state I’m competing with these products, and then show the tow or three biggest products in the market. This helps your contact know, one that you have done your homework and know the industry, two, what market space you are competing in, and what products to compare your to. You are giving your contact a frame of reference to understand your invention. A frame of reference is very important, I can’t tell you how many times when I reviewed items for licensing that it took me five I’ve taken five or ten minutes to get a frame of reference in a product. By then I had lost all interest.
Customer Focus
State what customer’s issue are with current products. Priced too high, doesn’t work well in this application, too hard to operate or what ever the issue is. Customer focus is why your product will succeed, and not necessarily your product’s features. You want to show customers are looking for a solution that your product offers. Your contacts will be evaluating your idea not only on its merits, but also, and possibly primarily, by how easy it will be sell. Hitting a customer’s hot button is one way to create a big bang.
How You Hit Customers’ Hot Buttons
Once you establish the customer’s hot button, then you show how your product hits it. I like to show first how competitors try to hit that button but fail, and then show how you hit the button. A demonstration is very effective at this point. My most effective demonstrations are when I show competitors products and my products. That is not always possible, but when you can do that.
Show End User Feedback
Nothing is better than be able to say that 80% of end users rated your product above the competition. Focus groups are easy to run, and they provide a great tool for producing the type of end user feedback that helps created he big bang. Check out this post https://onestopinventionshop.net/blog/2012/11/inventor-focus-groups/ to learn more about running a simple focus groups.
Mention Industry Contacts Who Support Your Invention
If you have contacts in the industry, industry sales people, retail store managers or owners, distributor contacts or any others, who have given you support, now is the time to bring them up. Showing you have industry support creates a big positive impression on your contacts. Check out these posts for more information: https://onestopinventionshop.net/blog/2017/12/industry-insiders-can-give-product-quick-start/ and https://onestopinventionshop.net/blog/2016/03/finding-industry-insiders/
Wrap Up
What you are really doing with the approach I’m advocating here is mirroring the thought process of your contacts. When they are looking at an idea they follow a process much the same of what I’m suggesting here. If you show them your product with its features, as inventors like to do, they are evaluating it in the process I’m proposing here. Why not take control by giving them the information they want with your own positive spin.