Invent It, Sell It, Bank It!: Make Your Million-Dollar Idea Into a Reality (22 page)

• Hire a distributor or a firm with extensive retail connections to represent you (see
Chapter 7
for more details on how these companies work).

• Get backing from a prominent investor to burnish your image.

• Appear on
Shark Tank
and make a deal with one of the shark investors to prove to buyers that the market wants what you’ve got—and the wave of free publicity won’t hurt, either.

The entrepreneur who puts in the most time, who is the most aggressive, who knocks on the most doors, who makes the best pitches, and who gets his or her product into the most retail locations wins.

In the case of
Shark Tank
, the sharks’ expertise and clout can be extremely valuable. Even if you have to give away a percentage of your business, investors can help you get over the barriers to entry and get your product into many retailers so you can spread a wider net. And as everyone knows, once your foot is in the door, it’s much harder for people to slam it in your face.

But imagine if you could do all of that with the additional protection
of a patent? This wonderful, unique product you’ve invented probably means everything to you. A patent offers more than just protection; it gives you choices and the ability to determine your own fate. It’s empowering, and that’s priceless. Just ask the Drop Stop “Boyz.” As they told me, “When the knockoffs and counterfeits started surfacing, it was like a blow to the guts. It hurt a lot. We felt helpless.” It took them five years to finally get their patent so they could fight back. Today, almost all the copycats are out of business, and since we negotiated our deal on
Shark Tank
, the Drop Stop couldn’t be doing better. They sold more product in three months after making our deal on
Shark Tank
than they did in three years on their own.

A surprising number of individuals receive patents and then never bring their product to market. Maybe something in their life changed and they lost interest in their invention. Maybe they only got the patent in case they decided they wanted to license the product one day. Maybe they just got tired of flying blind—it’s only very recently that people have had easy access to information and programs that could educate them and show them examples of how other people did it. Or maybe they finally realized how hard it is to be an entrepreneur.

It takes a rare person to follow through with something like bringing an invention to market, and the patent process is just one of several difficult challenges you will face. But if you plan on being patient and persistent, and your market research is encouraging, and you’re being creative and dogged in your pursuit of funds, and you’re just overall prepared for the long haul, you’re already way ahead of many of your peers and competitors.

PATENT TO-DO LIST:

1. Conduct due diligence to make sure there is no other product on the market like yours and to see if you could be infringing on someone else’s patent. In order of importance, you should start with these online sites:

USPTO database; Amazon; Google; online retailers; Facebook; Pinterest; general department stores; specialty retailers; Twitter; big box stores; Bing; Instagram; Flickr.

2. Hire a patent attorney, if at all possible.

3. If a patent attorney is out of the question, file pro se.

4. If forgoing a patent altogether, start blitzing the market.

5. Get a trademark, if applicable.

7

PITCH PERFECT

“Life is an echo. What you send out comes back.”

—Z
IG
Z
IGLAR

Sometimes the most interesting
Shark Tank
scenes never make it on the air. In Season Four, three sharks (Daymond, Kevin, and I) threw themselves into a bidding war for Aaron Krause’s happy yellow kitchen sponge, the Scrub Daddy. It was an exciting episode. But left behind in the editing room was a moment when Aaron thought his pitch almost went off the rails.

As Aaron told me later, when he learned that he would be on
Shark Tank
he rehearsed his pitch for months. By then he was learning to be a seasoned pitchman—he had recently made it onto QVC and had pitched live on TV a couple of times. He wanted to break into retail and get the Scrub Daddy nationwide.
Shark Tank
was his big break, and he wasn’t going to leave anything to chance. So he practiced, and practiced, and practiced, preparing an answer for every question he thought the sharks could possibly ask. Right before he walked out onto the set, he
found out that I would be in the tank. “One down, four to go,” he thought, because he assumed that I would not be interested in doing a deal with him owing to his previous appearances on QVC. Then it was show time.

He pitched like a seasoned pro; he’s a natural, like Billy Mays. He passed the sponge around so all the sharks could inspect it. His demonstration was seamless. Everything was going perfectly, and although he couldn’t be sure, he felt confident he had our interest. Then, just as he finished reiterating the attributes that made the Scrub Daddy better than your average sponge—it doesn’t scratch any surface, it scours off the toughest baked-on food, it turns hard in cold water and soft in hot water, and amazingly, it doesn’t hold odors for several months—I took the product out of the package, wrinkled my nose, and asked, “What’s that smell?” He was not prepared for that one, for he was sure the sponge didn’t smell. His hopes sunk. He feared that he had just blown his chance of making a deal.

Thirty seconds into Aaron’s pitch I knew I wanted to do a deal with him. But he didn’t know that. And if his pitch hadn’t been as dramatic, convincing, and pretty much perfect in every other way, it’s possible that I might have questioned his credibility when I noticed an odd smell after he’d just assured us all that the Scrub Daddy never held odors. Fortunately, seconds later I recognized it as the smell of fresh ink from the new print on the box. That, coupled with the fact that Aaron was so professional, earnest, forthcoming, and funny—and that his product was so obviously a hero—made me confident that we would be great partners and we could make some serious money together. I offered him a deal, and after a bidding war with my fellow sharks, I won, and Aaron accepted.

Our partnership has paid off in a spectacular way, both professionally and personally. Within less than a year, we hit $15 million
in retail sales, not only on QVC but also in Walmart, Bed Bath & Beyond, and many other major retailers across the country. Aaron’s great, and the Scrub Daddy has fast become America’s new favorite sponge. In addition, I treasure my new friendship with his whole family (his eight-year-old daughter texts me daily). And it all happened because Aaron’s pitch was one of the strongest I’d ever seen—so strong that I instantly wanted his product.

If you’re prepared to pitch to a buyer, you’re prepared to pitch to an investor, too. The only difference will be that an investor will press for more detailed information about your business’s finances.

It is not possible to overemphasize how incredibly important your pitch will be to the success of your product. In many cases, it will make or break your invention. If you’ve ever watched
Shark Tank
, you can tell that the entrepreneurs have rehearsed every gesture, every phrase, and every joke a million times; by the time they are presenting to us on the show, they could pitch their product walking backward. Even if you never present your product on national television, you should prepare for every pitch as though you were about to. The minute you walk into a buyer’s office, you need to give the pitch of your life.

ANATOMY OF A PERFECT PITCH

It’s Precise, Concise, and Enthusiastic

The first sentence out of your mouth should be as short as possible, yet also highlight your invention’s top three selling features. For example, if I were pitching my fold-flat Christmas tree or my deluxe cosmetic box, I might say:

•
This pre-lit five-foot fold-flat Christmas tree has 350 lights and folds completely flat so you can store it in less than three inches of space. To set up your tree, just twirl it open like a fan and secure with two twist ties, and voilà! Your decorating is done in three seconds flat.

• What does every woman need and wear? Makeup. This cosmetic organizer holds 100 pieces of makeup, all organized and in clear view, yet takes up only 9 × 6 inches of space on your counter. It swivels open so you can see all 100 pieces at a quick glance. Say goodbye to messy bins, clutter, and chaos in the morning.

Buyers are smart, savvy, and expert at summing up a product’s potential at a quick glance. They don’t need long-winded explanations (and if your product needs a long-winded explanation, you might rethink your product). Don’t ramble or go off on tangents; it’s boring and no buyer has time to listen. Be authoritative, clear, and excited! But also stay aware of your audience. If their body language says, “Go on,” then go on. If it looks like you’re losing them, switch to your product demonstration or wrap up and offer your buyers the opportunity to ask questions. Don’t be so forceful that you turn them off. Be aware of people’s moods and personalities and adjust as necessary. If they don’t like or agree with something you say, think of another angle you could take that they might be more open to.

It’s Exciting and Animated

Buyers listen to pitches all the time, and it’s easy for one product presentation to blend into another if it’s not exciting. So if you’re lucky enough to get a buyer’s few precious minutes, make those
minutes memorable. Anytime you can make a buyer laugh or engage is a step closer to getting a deal. Help the buyer see that working with you could not only be a profitable experience but a fun one, too. Quality of life is key.

One of the most memorable pitches on
Shark Tank
that I ever experienced was also the craziest. It was for a weight-loss program—Lose 12 Inches in 12 Workouts—pitched by Ryan “Cowboy” Ehmann. He showed up in the tank wearing a bright cowboy shirt, big cowboy hat, chaps, and boots. Shortly into his pitch, he ripped open that cowboy shirt to show off his amazing abs. The only thing stronger than his superhuman abs was maybe his thick twang, which he used to excellent effect to keep us sharks engaged and asking questions.

I really like fun, energetic, zany people. Sometimes a little crazy is good. And Ryan definitely had that fun, zany energy going on. It’s infectious, and laughter is a great selling tool. It makes you likeable. He was so wild and funny, literally screaming, “Yeehaw! Now, that’s what I’m talking about!” He had my full attention. We were all really enjoying the pitch, and we couldn’t stop watching. Ehmann was like a living embodiment of infomercial energy: his conviction and passion just pulled you in and made you want to watch. He was the biggest character I’ve ever encountered on
Shark Tank
.

Now, usually I’m hesitant about investing in weight-loss products, but I remember a woman on the Home Shopping Network several years earlier who had successfully sold a series of DVDs that taught people to lose weight by breathing differently. I was totally skeptical about her product, yet was amazed at how many she sold. It was unclear how her DVD worked, but she looked great and she was very convincing. She said that all you had to do was breathe in a certain way and you’d lose several pounds a week. Crazy, yes—but it sold! This woman made a
fortune by tapping into people’s desire to get results quickly and easily.

Ryan Ehmann reminded me of this woman in the way he could convince people that they could have amazing abs without a lot of effort. Breathing might have also been involved in his program. It was hard to understand how his product worked. I don’t believe in enticing someone to think he or she can drop pounds without exercising or changing diet and I didn’t feel the product was right for me, but Ehmann wound up making a deal with Daymond John for $125,000 and a 25 percent stake in his company. And he had one of the most memorable pitches owing to his zany enthusiasm. The last I heard, Daymond was promoting him as a pitchman, which would be perfect for him.