Will It Sell? How to Determine If Your Invention Is Profitably Marketable (Before Wasting Money on a Patent)
- Book Review,
by James E. White
patentcafe.com
Will It Sell? presents a sophisticated yet easy to follow approach to critical marketing methods and tactics every serious inventor will be able to apply to their day to day invention development activities right from the start. The 'Web' approach to resource listings is excellent and timely. The resource listings are top quality, well researched, hit the subject matter hard, and make for inventors' instant access to information that otherwise doubles the effective size of the book. Combined with the well-documented index, this book is a virtual 'pocket manual' that presents crisp, easy to find information on the myriad invention marketing and marketability issues inventors will encounter on their way to invention success. All in all, a fine job.
Jack Lander, The Inventor's Book store
Mr. White's book is not for light reading. It is the most technically competent book of its kind that I have come across--heavy with in-depth marketing advice. Very thorough. A valuable reference for inventors at any stage of experience. (Jack Lander, The Inventor's Bookstore,
Book Description
Describes many inexpensive ways inventors can figure out, while protecting all patent rights, what their idea's real value is long before it's necessary to spend money on the patent. Dozens of Internet and other resources are provided with complete instructions for using them to your best advantage. This book is designed as the first book a new inventor should read to figure out what they need to do, where they can get help, and how to avoid the costly pitfalls that every inventor faces. The marketing information provided and the many referrals to other resources will also be valuable to experienced inventors seeking to expedite the costly process of entering an unknown market.
From the Author
As a marketer attending local inventor club meetings I was constantly flabbergasted at the total lack of consideration inventors gave to the marketing issues of their invention ideas. So many inventors concentrate their energies on technically solving problems without any regard for whether there are any buyers that might want solutions to the problem or whether the invention's cost will be higher than the customer's perceived value for the solution. It is a myth that the public can be sold anything by a good marketer. Marketing studies and anecdotal evidence make it clear that only one or two out of 1000 invention ideas are ever successful in the marketplace. Of those 1000 ideas maybe 100 are pushed through the patent process and out of the 100 that get patented maybe 2 actually generate more revenue than the cost of the patent. This book was written to help rectify the problem with the hope of boosting the number of profitable patents from 2 per 100 to somewhere between 10 and 30 per 100. The book should also make it possible for many of the 900 inventors that get stopped because of a lack of funds to pay the patenting costs. There are simple ways to figure out how to inexpensively proceed without paying patenting costs up-front yet fully protecting all patenting rights. Of course, they do require some work. Millions of dollars are wasted every year on product ideas that nobody wants. Millions more are wasted on worthless patents. I don't want to see you waste your money because you don't understand the invention process. Consider the purchase cost of this book as a fully refundable investment. I am so confident that you will find this book worth it's purchasing costs that I guarantee to personally refund every penny you pay to get it plus your return first class postage if you don't believe it is worth its cost.
From the Back Cover
What experienced inventors say about "Will It Sell? How to Determine If Your Invention Is Profitably Marketable (Before Wasting Money on a Patent)." "Congratulations on a nice manual for inventors. I read Will It Sell? and enjoyed it. It is a nice document, and I am sure it will become popular with the growing invention community." Doug Gibbs, Gibbs Group "Will It Sell? presents a sophisticated yet easy to follow approach to critical marketing methods and tactics every serious inventor will be able to apply to their day to day invention development activities right from the start. The 'Web' approach to resource listings is excellent and timely. The resource listings are top quality, well researched, hit the subject matter hard, and make for inventors' instant access to information that otherwise doubles the effective size of the book. Combined with the well-documented index, this book is a virtual 'pocket manual' that presents crisp, easy to find information on the myriad invention marketing and marketability issues inventors will encounter on their way to invention success. All in all, a fine job." Andy Gibbs, Patent Cafe, www.patentcafe.com "I found the 'tell it like it is' style very refreshing compared with most 'inventor' books." Ed Zimmer, The Entrepreneur Network, www.tenonline.org "Mr. White's book is not for light reading. It is the most technically competent book of its kind that I have come across--heavy with in-depth marketing advice. Very thorough. A valuable reference for inventors at any stage of experience." Jack Lander, The Inventor's Bookstore, www.inventorhelp.com "The book has many valuable references and some first class recommendations. It would be very valuable to an inventor--less so to an entrepreneur. Your system of rating each step is well organized and very useful. It is one of the better features of the book, allowing the reader to keep track of where he is in his process from invention to saleable product. The 'thin ice' notes introduce the flexibility needed to get a product onto the market before you bet the farm on it. All in all I think your book will be a great addition to the inventor's library." Jeremy Gorman, Inventor's Ally (1989-1999) "I know that inventors who purchase this book will continuously refer back to it." Michael S. Neustel, Neustel Law Offices, LTD, www.patent-ideas.com and National Inventor Fraud Center, Inc. www.inventorfraud.com "It is really a good book. Nothing in it upset me, as I basically preach the same message to my would be clients. He gets quite technical on some of the marketing evaluations, which makes it a tougher read than 'Stand Alone' but the material is pure gold." George H. Morgan, Professional Engineer, Patent Agent, www.evansville.net/biz/pategent
About the Author
James E. White is currently a marketing consultant, inventor, and author. Previous activities have included technical consulting to NASA, the US Navy, EPA, FDA, HUD and other federal agencies and both technical and marketing consulting to a variety of commercial businesses.
Excerpted from Will It Sell? How to Determine If Your Invention Is Profitably Marketable (Before Wasting Money on a Patent) by James E. White. Copyright © 2000. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved
From the Preface: This book quickly covers how I believe you should approach most invention ideas to evaluate their potential profitability in the marketplace. The emphasis is on FREE and inexpensive steps you can take yourself. The major point is that the marketplace does not reward IDEAS, it rewards SATISFYING THE PEOPLE IN THE MARKETPLACE. Too many inventors suffer from the notion that the IDEA comes first and then wins approval and success through diligence, hard work, and persuasive marketing by a big company that will run with their idea. Almost nothing could be farther from the truth although that does, occasionally, happen. The PROBLEM comes first. The problem may not even be currently recognized by the vast majority of the future buyers because it is so status quo. Inventors should concentrate on inventing things that solve common problems (big markets) and for which the VALUE of the solution TO THE BUYER (as provided NEARLY EXCLUSIVELY by the invention) will be perceived as significantly greater than the COST of the invention to the buyer. Those kinds of inventions will be the big winners. Almost everybody has ideas from time to time that they think just might be big winners if only they had the money for a patent. You DON'T need the money for a patent--for the right idea selling the product will supply the money for the patent. For even better ideas (but few and far between), you may very well be able to get someone else to pay the money for getting the patent. Proper weeding of your idea patch before you invest a lot of time and money (not to mention ego) will nearly always give you a far greater chance of success than the most insightful toiling on the first (or only?) idea you have. In fact, the book points out that proper weeding may narrow you down to only one out of a hundred of your invention ideas. Furthermore, it needn't even be your idea--the electric light bulb was not Thomas Edison's idea, he (and a staff of at least 10 and maybe as many as 60) merely pushed through experiment after experiment till they succeeded in creating a commercially viable light bulb. If the methods preached in this book are put into practice by the majority of inventors I fully expect the number of patent applications filed annually in the U.S. to drop by anywhere from 50,000-100,000 over the next 3 years. That will be a drop of 19-39% making the number of filings each year about 150,000 and may well put a fair number of patent attorneys out of work. Even though the total number of patents issued would also drop by those percents I would expect the number of worthwhile patents, the ones that make money, to dramatically increase. Perhaps as much as ten times the current level. That would mean the number of profitable patents would go from about 4,500 a year to maybe 50,000. On the other hand, what if this book showed thousands (maybe even millions) of people who have invention "ideas" each year the way to get their invention to market safely and without too much expense? What if each inventor that now concentrates on 1 idea that never goes anywhere learned to generate 300 ideas a year of which 3 were successfully taken to market? Maybe we should be demanding the training of more patent attorneys to handle the glut of patent applications as valuable patent filings increase to 350,000 or more a year. How do you get your share of that action? Millions of people have read Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. If you are not one of them then I highly recommend you get the book and read it. Like that book, this one contains a somewhat unstated truth which you are expected to gain through reading the book and applying its principles. Of the millions who have read Mr. Hill's book, I would wager that fewer than a tenth of one percent (probably far fewer) gleaned the unstated truth and applied it. This book's intent is to give you a clear handle on applying that truth to one particular realm to which it is relevant.
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