We work with lots of inventors and one of the things that we have noticed as a commonality amongst most of them, if not all is the poor presentations that they develop to market their invention.
Invention presentations have to be tailored to the specific audience that the inventor is presenting to. Your presentation will be different for each of the following audiences:
- strategic partner
- investor
- potential customer
The presentation cannot be the same for each. It will lead to rejection.
One of the first things that the individual inventor needs to know is that very few people really care about the technology that drives their invention - no matter how good it may seem. Inventors are enamored with the results of their labors, and they feel that people will be overly impressed with it as well. This is just plain wrong. Most people don't care about the technology - they care about what the technology does. They want to know how it will improve their lives, their profit margins or their general standing in business or in life.
Don't spend the majority of the presentation talking about the technology. Spend your time telling them what problem your invention is designed to fix, how it fixes it and why they either want to be a part of the team or need the invention to make their life better. Of course you have to mention the technology and give an overview, but giving every detail will bore the audience and give them a reason to bail.
If your audience starts asking lots of technology oriented questions, then by all means, answer them. But don't use that as an excuse to tell them everything that you know, or think that they want to know. Answer the question and move on. They will ask more detailed questions if they so desire.
The focus of the inventor presentation should be on the benefits of the invention to them. Once they understand the benefits, they can make a decision as to how this compares to other options that they may have.
That's right, other options. No matter how great you, the inventor, may think that your invention is, the audience always has other options. Sometimes the other option is to do nothing and maintain the status-quo. Sometimes there is an alternative technology that suffices. Know their options so that you can speak about them intelligently.
If I had a dime for every inventor who told me that there is no competition for their invention than I would retire now. Everyone has some type of competition. There are alternatives to everything. The alternatives may not be as technologically advanced as your solution, but your audience may not care about that. They may equate new technology with more headaches.
Do your homework, know your audience and present your invention in a way that is tailored to their needs. Talk problem, solution and benefits; not technology and novelty. This is a key step in the commercialization phase of the invention process. This will yield much better results in your invention presentations.
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