You may be sitting with issued patent in hand, wondering exactly where to begin in your marketing efforts. In last month’s article, I discussed how to prepare your list of companies to contact and the importance of professional marketing materials. Once you have those components, you can ready your thoughts for how to approach each conversation with decision makers.

Know Your Audience and Prepare Accordingly

When making initial contact with a decision-maker, think about your audience. A company that is reviewing your product will be primarily interested for one reason—they believe it will make them money. Value to the community, contribution to man-kind, public perception are all ancillary benefits that may tip the scale for them, but without something they feel is financially viable, the initial investment of time and capital is unlikely to happen. There are a number of ways that you can quantify the value of your product to a company. When at all possible, obtain manufacturing quotes from various production methods. When you’re in discussions with a potential licensor, the more information you can provide (and the less they subsequently have to do), the better. For example, if your product is made of plastic—get manufacturing quotes for 1 unit, 500 units, 1000 units, 2500 units with traditional manufacturing (say, injection-molding) and also 3d printing. A prototype is not necessary to get a licensing agreement, but any additional information you can provide may give you the edge up on your competition. For smaller orders, it’s almost always cheaper to go with 3D printing, so look around at your options before committing.

Manufacturing Cost

Obtaining your manufacturing cost information will also allow you to get a rough estimate of expected price. This number can and will change, but it’s another piece of information. Be sure when communicating with potential licensors that you differentiate between the wholesale and retail cost, as to not to unnecessarily dissuade from investing. You should also wait to be asked to provide the information. The manufacturing costs for a company could vary from your estimate widely depending on if they have current product with similar manufacturing requirements, and with economies of scale, the costs you would get as an individual may be quite different.

Be Aware of your Product Category

Finally, be aware and up-to-date on your product category. If you’re speaking with a company, you should be very familiar with their product offering, as well as the offerings of other large competitors. They may have other items that meet the same needs, so what makes your product a better solution? How is your invention version 2.0, so to speak? If you can answer those questions with ease, you’ll be ready for most questions a potential licensor may ask.

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8 Responses

    1. Hi Jerome,
      We will have your product manager reach out to help you navigate the next step.
      Thanks!
      Heather

  2. Maybe not, cost to the consumer may be an issue. Lets face it who dosent have a couple of those training devices lying around, and i never would have bought the first one if it weren’t $19.99

  3. My husband and I just received our patent, and we really need HELP. Since applying for our patent, I have had a stroke, and my health has gone down hill fast. My husband has to work and take care of me, and I am the one who always handled the bills and of course everything to do with our patent. We are so lost at this point, and was hoping to get a little money to travel and make life easier for us. We don’t know what to do or where to go from here. If anyone out there can offer help, we would be so grateful. Good luck to everyone, we wish you well!!

    1. I have register some patents, I could go to companies to try to get them going forward. I am afraid that once I put it out there, I will lose my right to them and the income they may product. I have no money now so I am in a bind. Once one gets going I can get all the rest going with the proceeds. I do not know how to approach companies so they will not steal from me. There is trust issue I have because all my life everyone took my money and ran. I had no recourse.

  4. I have a medical patent (will be used world-wide) and I don’t know how to start nor which way I want to go. It promises to be used in every medical facility locally and world-wide especially in clinics where masses of patients are seen and in isolation wards. It’s use is comparable to the gloves used by the medical staff with each patient.

      1. thank you Heather…I am excited about this patent and know that it will make it’s mark in this world. Briefly, I am a nurse who became injured while moving a patient. A lot of my work was with isolation patients (many of whom contracted MRSA while having a procedure done in the hospital.two were colleges of mine) I started thinking of ways of stopping contamination from one patient to another as well as medical staff to patient and found the answer. This not only will serve the medical field locally but also clinics world-wide that see multiple patients in a days time. How wonderful to be able to save people and villages from the spread of deadly diseases. I would love some help and have some ideas that I would love to share with someone more knowledgeable than me. Thank You and I look forward to hearing from you. Jeanette Behnke

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