Your Presentation/Pitch is your calling card to the company about your product. You need to make sure it catches the reviewer’s attention quickly.If you do not have any artistic skills you may need to search out a graphic designer to help get the sell sheet completed. A great cheap method is to contact your local college and ask to speak with the instructor of the graphic design department. Ask which of their students does the best work and can they place an ad or contact them directly about doing some freelance work for hire.
If you do find someone to work on your sell sheet make sure they sign a nondisclosure first and an agreement on price and MAKE SURE your agreement states that this project is WORK FOR HIRE. They do not own any part of the project. You are only hiring them for a flat rate to do this work.
Depending on your finances you can try and set up an agreement with them that for no payment IF your idea gets licensed you will give them X% of the royalty and if it does not get picked up no one gets anything. There are a number of variations in deals you can propose. You just need to both agree. Remember to make sure your agreement is in writing. You don’t want someone coming up later wanting a piece of the pie that was not part of the initial agreement.
The next phase of the process is knowing your presentation. Practice, practice, practice your pitch and know your sell sheet without having to look at it. Did I mention Practice your pitch? This is where a large majority of Inventors drop the ball and lose the deal. Before you call any company you need to be able to talk clearly and concisely about your product. You don’t want to tell the person on the phone you will have to get back to them with the information they requested. You need to have your pitch down to under 30 seconds, because who wants to hear you ramble for 5 minutes and still not have a clue what you are talking about?
You are supposed to be the expert on your product. Make sure you are completely knowledgeable of your product so that you can give your pitch on a moments notice to anyone that asks. You want it to sound natural, not forced when you talk about your product. You don’t want to come across as an auctioneer or extremely nervous, even though you may be a nervous wreck inside you want to appear calm on the outside.
