Believe it or not, it isn’t difficult to get exclusive rights to a product. You don’t even need up-front money. Probably the easiest way to do this is to get an exclusive on a method of distribution.
What does that mean? Good question. Let’s say that you invent the Fancy Gizmo Super Spud Peeler, patent it and find a company to sell it in grocery stores. A year later, along comes Eli Entrepreneur who wants to promote this great peeler through mail order. Eli agrees to a five-year agreement with you for the Internet only. He pays you no money up front but the agreement is void if he doesn’t sell a minimum of 50,000 Super Spuds a year.
Who wouldn’t agree? There’s no risk involved. Either you sell an extra quarter of a million products with no effort on your part or the agreement is void. It costs you nothing and on the plus side, you get a new and valuable method of distribution.
Now let’s turn the tables around. This time you are the entrepreneur looking for products to market. Where can you find these products?…1) Inventors Clubs -- There are many brilliant people who take a little bit of this, add a little of that…
…and create wonderful products. But the catch is that they know nothing about how to sell and market them. Here is where you ride to the rescue.
This industry is filled with rip-off artists who charge struggling inventors large amounts of money to promote their products. And in the end, deliver nothing. You would be a refreshing change from all of those sleazy people.
There are hundreds of inventors’ associations all over the United States and Canada. Many wonderful products are available for you to market. For more details, visit these helpful Web sites http://marketlaunchers.com/ and http://www.uiausa.com/ The U.S. Patent Office has a wealth of information as well (http://www.uspto.gov/).
There are extremely wealthy people like E. Joseph Cossman who have made millions of dollars by promoting someone else’s ideas. Cossman’s book, “How I Made $1,000,000 in Mail Order (And You Can Too),” is a bit dated. The last revision was in 1984. In spite of that, it makes for fascinating reading. Of course, Internet auctions didn’t exist when he was creating his fortune. But his marketing principles endure. Even though we use electrons and he used paper, he can still teach us a great deal about successful auction selling. Here are three of his key principles that are totally appropriate for our Net auction business…
i) Find products that are selling well but are reaching only a limited market. He would ask the owners of the products to let him sell the items in a different way. Isn’t that perfect for the auction business?
In fact, the auction business has exploded because individuals and businesses are marketing products in this new format. For example, millions of cars are now sold at auctions -- a method which didn’t even exist only two or three years ago.
ii) Never fall in love with your products. Great advice. I am often surprised by what sells and what doesn’t. If you follow the auctions for a while, you will receive many surprises as well.
The best advice anyone can receive about this principle is test, test, test! Don’t make a major investment in any merchandise, no matter what anyone else says, until you have sold a certain amount of it. I have known auction sellers who were positive that something would sell, and bought huge amounts of merchandise -- only to be stuck with it. Don’t let this happen to you.
iii) Look at your products with “new eyes.” To illustrate this, Cossman described a situation where he was stuck with 5,000 necklaces. Each one had seven stones in them. Around that time, a famous case involving hypnotism and reincarnation was one of the hottest news stories of the day. A hypnotist explained that a “point of fixation” was needed to hypnotize someone. Cossman realized that his 35,000 stones were perfect points of fixation. So he sold them individually, along with a book on hypnotism. They were a smash hit and he sold over 100,000 of them. By looking at his loser necklaces with new eyes, he made a lot of money.
2) Library -- Back issues of popular magazines can reveal a treasury of lucrative products for you to market. A five-year-old gizmo may be ready for another turn in the spotlight.
Our mentor from above, Joe Cossman, really does have the golden touch. He recycled a fad from years past. It was known as a “fly cake”-- an alluring concoction that flies can’t resist. He sold more fly cakes on the second-goround than were sold during its market debut.
3) Ads in all kinds of publications -- Ads in newspapers, newsletters and magazines sometimes have some great products. For example, a recent newsletter wanted Americans and Canadians to sell native clothing from Liberia and Sierra Leone.
4) Standard Rate and Data http://www.srds.com/The SRDS is a superb resource for the home business. It is very expensive to own so go to your library and find it. Believe me, it’s worth the hunt. Trade journals can be an incredible source for ideas and products and the SRDS has an extensive list of these. It also has sections on consumer magazines, international magazines, business publications, mailing lists and newspapers. 5) Patent Attorneys -- This is a tough way to find products because patent attorneys are very reluctant to work with strangers. But if you can persuade them to cooperate, they often are a great resource.
6) Offline sources -- You can even advertise for products. Let people know that you are actively searching for products. Here is an ad that a private individual inserted into the Sunday business section of his local paper...
Millionaire consultant seeks inventors, manufacturers, importers, authors, etc., with unique products suitable for promotion to homeowners, do-it-yourselfers, gardeners and hobbyists. Send your information in confidence to (contact info).
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