Products that Sell: Five Secrets Every Inventor Should Know
When it comes to inventions, the five secrets everyone should know have been studied time and time again. But most inventors fail to use these critical pieces of information to their advantage in order for their product to sell at an optimum level.
There are certain steps you can take, so that your invention becomes the best seller it should be! Follow these easy-to-implement tips when designing and marketing a new device or gadget.
How-To:
1) Define your target customers
2) Make connections with influencers
3) Attract attention through bold design
4) Create buzz on social media 5) Offer multiple benefits for buyers.
6) Field test the device to figure out what works and what doesn't.
We hope that these five secrets will help you in turning your idea into a best seller on your garage sale table!
When it comes to inventing, most people think they need to be an engineer or come up with some crazy idea that promises to revolutionize the world. While this is absolutely true and extremely fulfilling, there are a LOT of very successful home-based inventors who don't fit the mold of "an engineer" or "a crazy inventor". They come up with ideas and get them working efficiently without many problems, but they don't usually make it into the big time for many reasons which we shall address later.
There are a lot of people who believe that inventing is something that is reserved for people who have a patent. While this may be true, there are many people who don't even bother with getting a patent and they make thousands of dollars selling their ideas.
So why should you start? Well, we put together some basic things that you need to know and follow when trying to come up with your own invention.
Before You Start 1) Sit down and think about what you like and dislike. 2) Think about what kinds of problems or inconveniences occur in your life on the daily basis. 3) Go out and speak with people to find out what they are looking for.
Where should you start?
1) Think about your hobbies, interests and hobbies that you used to have as a child. 2) Look at the types of toys that have come out recently, or even the toys from years ago. 3) Look at old magazine advertisements, posters, commercials and websites that you enjoy. 4) Think about movies and TV shows you watch for entertainment purposes both in television or on DVD/Blu-Ray. 5) Think about games your kids play on their iPads often and try to use those ideas for your own products.
The Goal: The goal of your invention should be to make your life easier and more enjoyable. It will involve you thinking about something you like doing, or something that you would change about yourself or in the world.
The Step-By-Step Process:
1) What Else is on Your Mind? 2) When was the last time you used a product for a specific purpose? 3) Open up any magazines that are currently at hand or in your home or office.
4) Look at all of the materials that you have around you 5) Ask yourself questions about the things that you use on a daily basis. 6) Make a list of everything that you use in your day-to-day life.
Brainstorming Techniques
1) Ask Yourself Some Questions
2) Create a Mind Map of Your Thoughts and Ideas
3) Take Notes on Your Thoughts and Ideas 4) Speak to Other People About Their Problems 5) Talk to Friends and Family About Their Needs 6) Talk to People You Don't Know. 7) Use Social Media When Needed!
Innovation Secrets:
1. Use your hands
2. Think about the things that you already own
3. Keep trying new things until you find something that works.
Where To Start:
1) Think about all of the feedback from others around you
2) Think about how to make your idea more efficient and cost effective, while still getting a good return on your investment.
3) Do the math on paper or through a calculator or computer program. 4) Outline all of the costs for your project and make sure that your projected sales price is going to cover all of the negative expenses. 5) Come up with a plan B.
Step-By-Step Process:
1) Figure out what your profit margin is going to be
2) Figure out how much you will have to charge for each item so that you will be able to get a return on investment.
3) Write down each part of the process and their associated costs.
4) Write down what materials you will need, along with their costs and estimated labor times. 5) Take a look at how many people you need to buy for to reach the results that you want. 6) Make sure that each product is listed in your marketing plan, so that you will know what materials to order when.
7) Be sure that the parts are made with top quality materials, and don't skimp on the small items that you can get from ebay or a local hardware store.
Inventing can be fun and rewarding, but it does take some planning! First and foremost, there are certain steps that you MUST do in order for your invention (and yourself) to succeed:
The first step is putting together an effective plan of action. Based on your idea, it is important that you outline how you will create it, how you will market it and who you will sell to.
We think that a good way to approach this step would be to list out all of the steps that are included with your product. These steps should include:
1) An overview of the process 2) Steps/What happens when a user gets engaged with your product / When they become a customer 3) Steps/What happens after a user buys the product 4) Steps/And what does the customer then do with their product?
The second step is making sure that your unique selling proposition (USP) and value proposition (VP) are clearly stated. A USP is something that you would sell in order to make a sale, whereas your VP is your own unique selling characteristic that can be used to help make the sale.
In most cases, your USP will be a large benefit that you can use to help persuade people to take action (such as "I will always show up when I say I will," or "I will never run away from paying my rent or bills"). In some cases, this may not be the case. For example, say that you have invented a product called 'The Time Machine' and you would like to use this product as part of your USP.
Conclusion
Innovation is a broad term that can be given to anything that is new. While we like to think of innovation as large, bold and powerful ideas that change how we use the world (like the light bulb or the computer), there are plenty of other ways to innovate in our daily lives. In this chapter, we focused on household products and gadgets. Some of these ideas are already being sold to the public, while some others may be a tweak or a different approach at an existing idea.
In each case, you will notice that most of these inventions started out as an idea for something else entirely.