The Secret to Selling the Rights to Products
Obtaining and selling the rights to products can be very profitable for entrepreneurs, even those with little or no capital.
As I mentioned in a previous ETR article, securing product rights is a painless process. And in most cases, once you have those rights, you’ll make a deal with a larger company that has the resources to mass-market it. Your payoff comes in the form of an upfront fee or a share in the back-end profits.
I receive checks every quarter for thousands of dollars as a result of having made deals like these. And today, I want to share with you a secret on how to approach larger companies and convince them to buy the rights you’ve obtained – whether it’s for a health product, an information product, or anything else.
Many people own the rights to great products or ideas, but are unsuccessful at marketing them. A big part of the problem is that executives at big, successful companies are constantly barraged by product rights holders who are trying to make deals with them.
To break through that clutter and get those executives to sit up and take notice, take these three steps:
1. Catch their attention.
If you use a letter or e-mail to get to the decision-maker you’re trying to reach, your attention-getter will be your headline. If you intend to contact him in person, it will be the first sentence you say. Whatever method you use, you must have a powerful grabber that will make him want to take action and buy the rights to your product.
When marketing the rights to a natural supplement formula for men, I sent an e-mail to one company with something like this in the subject line: “This supplement will enlarge your bank account.” Since I expect to earn a six-figure payment in royalties from that particular deal, it’s obvious this attention-getter worked.
2. Show them how to promote your product.
Don’t just write a couple of paragraphs saying that your product is sure to sell like hotcakes. You need to convince the decision-maker that your product can be marketed effectively.
Show him exactly how to do it. Create some promotional literature for the product, including sample ads, Web pages, and/or direct-mail copy. Give him a marketing plan that the company can put into action and quickly start seeing profits pour in.
3. Have the actual product or a prototype in your possession.
A young man I know had a great idea for a breakthrough technology for computer games. The executive he met with loved it. Then he said, “Let me try it out and see how it works.”
The deal soured when my friend admitted that all he had was a computer program that illustrated how it could be done.
If you don’t actually have the product, the best you can hope for is that your prospect will ask you to get in touch with him when you do. But that’s a long way from making a deal. If you expect to close a deal on the spot, you need to have the goods.
You may be thinking, “Why would a big company need me? Surely they can develop their own products to market.”
Well, what they want is what anyone in their position wants: a potential money machine handed to them on a silver platter. If you can provide the full package – the product as well as some good marketing ideas for it – you will get very serious consideration… and maybe your first “Getting Rich With Rights” deal.
[Ed. Note: Acquiring and then marketing the rights to products is a good way to start a business without much capital. Paul Lawrence reveals his detailed strategies for making money with this business opportunity in his “Getting Rich With Rights” program. Get the details here.]Paul Lawrence
Paul Lawrence is an entrepreneur who has made his living starting and running a series of profitable businesses. One day while cleaning his mother's pool for a few extra bucks, it dawned on Paul that he could perhaps start his own pool cleaning business. He carefully employed all the marketing techniques that he had learned in school and designed his first flyer. Immediately the business took off and within a week, Paul had his own little business. He quickly expanded, hired employees and then eventually sold it some relatives who made well over $250,000 in the next year before they eventually sold it for a six figure profit. After finishing college, Paul did a brief stint in a management program for a national rental company, but he quickly realized that he was much happier running his own show. Paul left the rental company and launched one of the most financially successful independent ballroom dance instruction companies in the state of Florida where he received quite a bit of media attention for his revolutionary business practices that included front page features in the Life Style section of the Sun Sentinel, features in the Miami Herald, Boca News, Center Stage Entertainment and many others. With that business running profitably, Paul started several other businesses either individually or as partnerships that included a million dollar video production company, a mortgage brokerage, a home maintenance business, several mail order companies, a business consulting service among others.With a love of movies, Paul began to work at breaking into Hollywood as a screenwriter where he's beaten the odds by becoming a produced writer. He is a credited writer for the film CRUEL WORLD, starring Jaime Presley and Eddie Furlong and has signed a development deal for a national television series with one of the world's largest producers of television and films among his half a dozen sales and options of movie scripts he wrote. Paul is the creator of the Quick & Easy Microbusiness program.