Inventors, Generate Quick 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.}
When you introduce your product, you want to generate quick sales because building a history of sales, even just in one or two outlets, helps you convince other sales outlets to carry your product. But once you start selling, you need to commit yourself to continually growing your sales. Stores, catalogs, reps and distributors look for hot, up-and-coming products, and if your sales are always growing, you will have a much easier time expanding your sales network. If your sales stagnate, people will think your product has reached its peak.
Look for Small or Specialized Outlets
Small specialized stores can be a great way to get sales going, but it can be hard to find these stores. Specialized stores often have a loyal clientele who are willing to try new products and pay a higher price.
Sell Local
Selling local is the most common way to generate quick sales. You can personally contact store owners who may take your product on because it is a local product. You yourself can do in-store appearances, demonstrations or trials to get people to buy your product. And local news sources like to carry stories about local inventors so you can easily generate publicity. Selling locally can help you cheaply generate interest in your product and build a history of sales to launch your product regionally.
Using Catalogs
Catalogs are one of the most inventor friendly sales outlets in that they don’t mind one-product companies, marketing expenses are very low and it puts your product on an equal playing field with all other products in the catalog. Also most target customer groups have their own catalogs, which allow you to reach a national audience with minimal expense.
Need help with catalogs? Visit selltocatalogs.com.
Partner with Reps
Once you build your initial sales success, say in local stores, start expanding your sales by partnering with sales representatives. They manager to like your product, then you need to complete a local supplier questionnaire and have the District Manager approve the questionnaire. You can do this even if you hope to eventually sell to all Wal-Marts, but you just need to start with the local store manager.
Need help finding sales reps? We have lots of lists of sales reps available for sale. For more info, click here.
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:
https://onestopinventionshop.net/web-content-writing-services
Don Debelak offers affordable patent work. Check out http://patentsbydondebelak.com/
Doug Curtis says
I need marketing help. In 56 days of actual selling at an indoor marketplace in Yuma I sold 1741 packages of my anchors. Please see the testimonials on the website. We are planning an infomercial but I need help geting my product into stores. I did sell 200 packages wholesale to RV supply stores in Yuma during the season when the winter visitors, snowbirds, were here. The stores sold out and I ran out of stock. I now have packages in a warehouse. Help!
Doug
(928) 726-1385
Doug Curtis says
Marketing help needed!
Giovani says
Don!
Been reading THE RISK-FREE ENTREPRENEUR & since I’m helping Minneapolis business owners make sense of the Internet, I decided to look you up.
Quite a service you’re offering to inventors. The “start local” advice sounds especially promissing.
I’ll be looking up your local page, next! :O)
Sunshine & Blessings,
Giovani
PS: Your capcha security feature is not visible until AFTER a message is lost. I suspect you’re loosing comments, as a result. Your webmaster should be able to fix that. ~G