Windup Before the Pitch - Know Your Audience
by Michael Croix

The first rule of sales and marketing is to know your audience. You have to define who you’re communicating with to communicate with them effectively. This means getting inside their heads, speaking their language, anticipating their needs, addressing their concerns, and above all, giving them exactly what they want. Most inventors end up pitching their products directly to companies or governments, rather than consumers. Inventors typically get to consumers via product-procurement people. And in the corporate world, these guys base buying decisions almost entirely on how much your invention can save the company money.

You need to think like a licensee or potential corporate buyer to create compelling sales presentations. You need to anticipate their concerns and needs and give them exactly what they want. Here are some tools of the sales trade:

Executive Summaries
Executive summaries are just that – summaries for busy executives. Make sure your summaries are organized, concise, and highlight the most important aspects of your invention. Visit www.inventingonabudget.com/es.pdf.

TIP: Use your company letterhead and never make unsubstantiated claims. Licensees are experts in their fields. Nothing can kill your credibility faster than making exaggerated or unsubstantiated claims about your invention.

Sell Sheets
Sell sheets can be thought of as informal executive summaries. They tend to have pictures and graphics, less text and a more “salesy” quality. Visit www.inventingonabudget.com/ss1.pdf.

TIP: Before hiring a designer, try it yourself. A computer, color printer, razor knife, glue and a scanner can go a long way. Remember, it’s the information that’s important.

Video
Video recorders are fairly common these days, and video-editing programs for your computer are relatively cheap and easy to use. Remember to keep your presentation short and to the point. Use title and transition pages to highlight sections, change camera shots often, and never make your demo more than 5 minutes.

TIP: Video files are generally too large to e-mail, so save your presentation in .mpeg format and burn to a CD for easy viewing on any computer.

PowerPoint Presentations
This presentation format is commonplace in business settings. The modern-day equivalent of transparencies on overhead projectors, PowerPoint allows you to outline your presentation with pictures, graphics, text, etc. Visit www.inventingonabudget.com/ultrasonic.ppt.

TIP: PowerPoint must be installed on your computer to view PowerPoint presentations. A free viewer is available on Microsoft’s Web site (search for ppviewer.exe).

Prototypes
Prototypes are not always necessary, but are sometimes required to get the idea across and/or demonstrate proof of concept. Basically there are three types of prototypes: the looks-like, the works-like and the production-quality prototype.

Production-quality prototypes are great, but often are expensive and unnecessary.

Works-like prototypes are proof-of-concept prototypes that demonstrate how the product works. They don’t need to be pretty. Those in charge of evaluating your invention are professionals and can see past your crude designs. Visit www.inventingonabudget.com/prototypes.ppt.

Looks-like prototypes are made to get the licensee excited about what the product might look like on the store shelf or in a consumer’s hands. Visit inventingonabudget.com/spiderman.jpg. These prototypes by definition should look top-notch.

TIP: Potential licensees are notorious for losing or damaging prototypes. E-mail me at michael@inventingonabudget.com and I‘ll send you the agreement I use before I mail anyone a prototype that I want back.

No one knows or cares more about your invention than you do. Just focus on conveying the information clearly and succinctly, and make sure you have an opportunity to address any questions and concerns that come up. The people you are pitching to are pros and can spot a winner when they see one.