Toy companies are notoriously difficult to get into. Some of the major ones – Matel, Hasbro- seem almost impossible to penetrate. Most inventors that have called them to introduce themselves and their product idea have probably gotten the impression that they just don’t want to deal with you. They may tell you they don’t take outside submissions. They may transfer you to a toy broker to represent you. Toy brokers exist to help broker deals between the two parties and can offer great advice – but they’re also going to ask for a percentage of your royalties.
But I have one tip I can offer you to get around all of that. How I can be sure? Not only have I heard other inventors talk about how this has worked for them – I know this strategy is sound because it has worked for me! In fact, I don’t care what company it is you want to get into: this works for all of them.
Contact someone in sales. Sales guys love to talk. And they are always looking for great new ideas. Don’t introduce yourself to the company’s operator as a product developer with a great new idea – simply ask to speak to someone in sales. They’re going to talk your head off. And then, after you’ve worked up a rapport, pitch your idea. You could say something like this. “I’ve got a new product idea that is going to blow your ______ line up. I have something that is going to increase your sales in ____. It’s going to add something new and fresh to your existing line.” Etc. Salespeople are more than capable of recognizing a good idea when they hear one. Let them do your pitching and selling for you.
Go after the guys and girls in sales. It works.
Stephen Key is a successful award-winning inventor who has licensedover 20 products in the past 30 years. He is a board member of Accudial
Pharmaceuticals and has a new book "One Simple Idea: How to become rich
and successful while others do the work" due to release Spring 2011 from
McGraw-Hill. Along with business partner
Andrew Krauss, Stephen runs inventRight,
a company dedicated to educating inventors about selling their ideas
and the skills needed to succeed. You can listen to the weekly radio show on inventing.
Preorder One Simple Idea now and get access to our database of over 1000 companies looking for ideas.
Visit www.inventright.com to learn more.
