Hi Roger, where on your website to you show your
sell sheets. I was telling a new member to go
to your site and check them out and she could
not find them.
Thanks again for your help. :D

Currently they are not on my website. I am in the process of revamping my website to include more of that type of material. I am a little slow with the web development so be patient. : )

Here is what the finished product on the shelf looks like.

Thanks Roger :)

Thank you for sharing Roger. Did you create this sell sheet yourself and if so do you have special software? I’m in the process of creating one now, but I have selected to use actual pictures instead of images like you have. I would like to learn how to do it like your example. Drawing it on paper is much different than drawing it on the computer. Good luck with your product.

I will normally freehand most drawings and then use Powerpoint or Photoshop to do the fine detail. I also have a friend that is a fantastic comic book Artist to help me out on things I don’t know how to do. I help him by writing comic book scripts/plots in exchange for his help. I have been writing comics and humor for 20 years so it is a good exchange.

Thank you!! I’m so glad you posted this Mr. Brown.First I must say what a wonderful product you have and thanks again for sharing the example. I too am currently working on my Sell Sheet and this is an excellent example. May I ask if your not a good drawer could you copy paste your professional drawing or do you need to find an artist.

The more professional you can make it the better. If you have a college near you contact the instructor of the computer grahics department. Ask if they have any students they would recommend for work for hire. You will find that you can get very good work for a very reasonable and sometimes extremely low price.

Thanks a lot for posting this! It really clarifies the “tone” of a sell sheet for me: professional yet very accessible. Including the happy cartoon people who are using your uber-cool Pizza Shears is a great touch! And I just noticed that you included 3 possible names.

Thanks for the kind words Brett. This is just one example of a Sell Sheet. There really is no one way fits all. The main purpose is to get the ideas benefits across to the reviewer in as little time as possible. You don’t want to write a novel and have a large amount of pages. Get their interest first then you can send even more detailed information is needed.

http://www.rogerbrown.net

Hi Roger,

Thanks for the example. I have a question about the wording regarding plastic plugs and metal cutting edges. Was that to explain any manufacturing concerns they may have?

Hi Roger, One thing I’ve learned from participating in Stephen Key’s free tele classes is that he instructs the importance of including a one line benefit statement. This might be considered your pitch and included in your initial call to the company, a statement that draws the initial interest in the heading, maybe like…“Shears that cut and serve a perfect slice everytime!”

Roger, did you think of making the scissors perpendicular to the serving portion, so you could cut and immediately serve?

Kind of a bad illustration, but the concept is that the serving portion goes under the slice that you’re cutting. You cut it and can lift it right up (after you’ve cut the other edge too). I’m not sure it’s any better; just a thought!

BTW, I like your design a lot!

I’ve been reading quietly and need to throw in one piece of missing information…

Roger’s pizza scissors are already on store shelves and available nationwide.

Brett, check out this link http://www.neatorama.com/2008/09/04/pizza-scissors/ That version is already on the market.
If you look at the design it also requires you to cut the pizza to your right in order for the pizza to be held by the spatula.

http://www.rogerbrown.net

Yeah, I was thinking about having to make two cuts too. I really like your design (and colors) - it’s more fun! And that emotional connection is a great selling tool. :)

Brett, check out this video on youtube where the Pizzza Scissors won the gadget of the week from Johnanthan’s Cuboard. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9649K7_SNJA

Another thing that is interesting from a marketing point. The Pizza Scissors are Red in the U.S. and White in Europe. It is because of fashion trends in each country. : )

http://www.rogerbrown.net

Margaret, you asked "I have a question about the wording regarding plastic plugs and metal cutting edges. Was that to explain any manufacturing concerns they may have? "
The answer is yes. When I thought of the idea I knew this might be a concern and possible reason it might get turned down so I included it in the Sell Sheet to let them know I had already looked for a solution to an inherent problem. Good question.

http://www.rogerbrown.net

Hello Roger…your thread here brings up a long standing strong opinion on an illusion by many inventors.

A sell sheet or any variation of literature for presentation is strong marketing material. Inventors time and time again will say " I’m not a salesman" or “I don’t like sales”

100% of successful inventors had to excel at marketing at some point. Presenting a sell sheet is sales, marketing.

To sell a house or even a car makes a person a good salesman let’s say. Well how about an inventor that sells a deal where millions of dollars will be running through the books? Would you say inventors are EXCELLENT salespeople? Would you say an inventor must be a really good salesperson? I sure would and inventors are without realizing!

Point here, realize successful inventors are salespeople too. If you sell one licensing deal, that is bigger than selling a house. Realizing that inventors are salespeople and good at it, this may change some inventors’ plans.

Ron Komorowski
Inventor of Handi-Straps
www.handi-straps.com

I agree that to be a sussessful Inventor you have to be able to not only sell your product idea, but yourself as well. If you lack confidence when you discuss your idea it shows and the potential licensee can get nervous about whether you can deliver what they may need on their end to make the product happen.
It comes come to “If you don’t have confidence in your product why should anyone else?”

http://www.rogerbrown.net

Here is a good arguement for salesmanship. Take a look at this product the “Pebble Peeler” I developed. It just came out this week in Wal-Mart. You could argue that there are already vegetable brushes and vegetable peelers on the market why do we need another one?
My pitch was that by combining the two items that are normally used together makes it more user friendly for the consumer. They do not have to hunt for both. The ergonomic design makes it easy to hold and the shape fits easily in any drawer.
This pitch made a commmon utensil more marketable.

http://www.rogerbrown.net

Roger,
I can’t wait to get to Walmart to buy one of those. I have a separate vegetable brush and it often ends up getting used for cleaning dishes etc. by those who don’t know the method to my madness in the kitchen. It’s a pet peeve of mine and your product will definitely solve that.

Margaret, thanks for the kind words. What you stated as an issue is one of the benefits I used in my pitch.
It would also make a wonderful Christmas stocking stuffer. LOL

Great thread, Roger. Thanks for sharing. I hope others will post their Sell Sheets so we can see the variations.

Becky

Hey Roger, Your posting for “Sell Sheets” is spot on. I have licensed many products from sell sheets alone, including the KOKU cutting board, Season 2, Everyday Edisons. I find the (2) most important attributes of a good presentation are, clarity of concept (ideation) and content of copy (features and benefit). More recently, I have been preparing Sell Sheets with enough information, claims and specs to actually use them for provisional patent applications. My website: www.DesignGroup1.com shows (4) examples of licensed products (Portfolio/Inventions)that were licensed from Sell Sheets. You are right to keep these documents protected until secured with a viable license agreement.
Joe Casale

Thanks Roger for sharing the sell sheets! It really helps to see what direction you can take with your own.
Hello Joe, I must say your work and profile is truly remarkable. Thanks for sharing your information with us as well.

Thanks Lisa. I have known Joe for quite a while, his work is some of the best in the industry. I would suggest anyone here wanting to see great design work check out his site
www.DesignGroup1.com

Come on people my Sell Sheets are getting lonely. Anyone else got some to post?

http://www.rogerbrown.net

I wish I could Roger, but mine are all up in the air, so if I show you all now, I may be showing my million dollar babe, not licensed yet!

I did see some pizza shears that look like yours somewhat.. did they knock off yours?

I do have an idea I did hear today was the craze in China, so I might be too late, so if I find it worth zip I will show you my hand on that one!

thanks for helping though..

Stephen Key had some I think on some site.. hey when did he get so involved with this group?
tanks!

Mark, I would be that…
was it my twang?

I just read that Stephen Key was ousted from EN… what zup with that? Although I did try to contact him when he announced they were looking for ideas for that show when it was first posted. I sent him my wears, and did not hear back from him… was he an impostor??? Oh well, I will let you know if my idea is on some store shelf soon after sharing it with him..

Just kidding Stephen if you are snooping! But why did you not answer me…. ey?

Oh my home town calls me from time to time.
My dad lived in West Chester when it was hardly there. I go see my family several times a year and have to say that this time of year I really miss those gorgeous colors!
Now living in Austin, TX I do not get that… but do get 60 degree weather in the winter most of the time.

Sorry Roger… at least we are visiting this forum : )

Hey Roger, you said you have been too busy to write me, so now I see you are taking a break.. so I have a question for you..
Seeing your sell sheet, what did you add to it to explain your product?

Also.. If you have the PPA, does that make it public for anyone who wants to make it, if your PPA runs out of time? Even with those who signed your NDA?

Also.. If you have the PPA, does that make it public for anyone who wants to make it, if your PPA runs out of time? Even with those who signed your NDA?Glad to see some faces on here!

Celeste, The Sell Sheet you see is all I sent them. They decided to license it from that sheet. We discussed the angle modification and colors. That was about it.
You would want to finish the patent if you had a company interested in the license before it ran out.

There you go…
I finally have an answer to that one!

Being a girl, I know I give waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much info on my submissions. I probably put them in a coma.

I think I might get an answer on several submissions from Jokari tomorrow. I called Jim to see if he wanted more which gave me a reason to call for the others.
He told me one of my new ideas he saw thousands of in China, which was good news and bad.
Good because I thought of something that should soon hit the American soil in droves..
Meaning it was a good idea.
Bad because it was a day late and a dollar short.
I still might try my luck with another company to see if they might like it… before it hits the shores of the USA.
If not I will share it here..
so what happened to SK?

Celeste check out the other Sell Sheets on my website. I think the will help you get a better understanding of how they can be done. Click on the Red “Click Here” on the left of the front page next to Sell Sheets.

http://www.rogerbrown.net

i have a sell sheet, but it’s not fancy like roger’s….i don’t even have a picture…my favorite thing to do on a sell sheet is summarize FABs (features and benefits)…just to let you all know, a feature is static description of your product, and a benefit is a dynamic description, way to relay that feature and what the feature would do for the customer….

and by fancy, i mean i don’t know how to insert graphics…

Roger,

Was at Wal-mart today. I searched high and low for your Pebble Peeler. I guess my store doesn’t have them yet. :(

Margaret, Thanks for trying to find the Pebble Peeler. I appreciate your effort and support. It is normally in the grocery section of the store on the strip hooks that hang out from the shelves. Above is a picture of the product if you have not seen it. They just hit the stores last week so yours may not have them yet.

Joe, your koku cutting board is great and the sell sheets on your site are more wonderful examples of how you pros get it done, so thanks for posting you link.
Roger nice thread, can’t wait to see others sheets.

Thanks Roger. I was looking in the kitchen gadget area. I’ll keep looking!

Roger, both your pizza shears and veggie peeler are quite similar to other products, as you explained. I have a couple questions.

Is this a good strategy for inventors—make small improvements to existing products?

Do manufacturers look for this kind of similar product so they can compete with with existing products?

Presumably your patent claims can’t be too broad—is that an important concern?

It may not be a new light bulb, but getting a product on the shelves of WallyWorld is a big deal—congratulations. I guess it pays to think small (in terms of improvements) in this case!

Roger,

I had posted a couple months ago… there was an inventor scam help company that had a ton of sell sheets posted online. The forum search function is giving me an error right now, but if I can find the post it would be a good resource for anyone looking for sell sheet ideas.

And I’d be glad to post mine as soon as I get the PPAs for them.

Hi Brad, There are other Pizza Scissors out there, but mine has the added feature of using it as a spatula and it is suited for cutting other foods. I even had one guy tell me he bought two. One for food the other he uses to cut carpet. LOL
The Pebble Peeler was more from the angle of , so that they took up less drawer space and fit in the users hand better. It also has a sleek style to it that people like. Companies are always looking for better ways of doing the same thing because they don’t have to educate the public on what it is and how to use it. It makes sales easier.

http://www.rogerbrown.net

Roger,

Here’s the link to the site with lots of sell sheets:

http://www.absolutelynew.com/manufacturers/products.php

and here’s the thread from a while ago:

http://www.edisonnation.com/forums/10/topics/419

I wasn’t disparaging your inventions, understand; I’m trying to hone my own creative skills and strategy.

Perhaps one approach might be to find a company that has a particularly successful product; then make some improvements on the product, and pitch the idea to the competitors, making sure you note in your pitch that it can compete against the original product. All the experts (you included) emphasize the importance of making sure your product has market appeal. This seems like a way to pretty much ensure that.

Roger, another question about your sell sheets. You use a lot of cartoonish drawings. Do you think they convey the ideas better than trying to stage a photo? Obviously, without a prototype a photo can be hard to fake. I’ve done ok with my photoshop and 3D modeling expertise, but I like the drawings. Maybe I’ll hire my artist daughter to do some drawings for me.

Thanks for posting this Bradley!!

Hi Brad,
I took no offense by your comments. I understand your question and reasoning. If you look at some Sell Sheets they are very technical in nature and are very glossy, others are more cartoonish, others are text only. You have to decide which option you think works best for your target company. If I were approaching the medical industry I would go more 3-D techy style. It is a matter of what works best for you and your contacts. I have had some companies that were interested in a product idea ask for a more detailed drawing after looking at my intial Sell Sheet and liking the idea to make a final decision.
Now, for your question on the making the improvements to a current product and go to the competitors. Lets take the sunglass clip as an example. I got the idea for the clip from listening to people complain about the current product. I had one myself and had similar issues with it breaking easy and not holding any size glassess. I actually contacted the primary maker of the clip first saying I had the next generation of the clip, would they be interested in seeing it. They were not interested in seeing any ideas. That left me with going to competitors. As a general rule I have always gone to the original maker to see if they would be willing to look at improvements. I let them know that I am approaching them FIRST. So, they know if they say NO I will be seeking other companies for interest.
I don’t go at it from the angle of HOW can I put this company out of business. I approach them from the stand point I want to help them expand their market base by improving on what they are currently selling.
I am not saying that every idea I have is gold and the company is foolish for not looking at it, but it is interesting the attitude some companies take to outside ideas. A R&D rep for Dow Chemical for example had an extremely arrogant attitude when I talked to him. His response was he was SURE ANYTHING the public could have thought of THEY had already considered, so there was no need to take a look at any ideas . His condecending and dismissive attitude is the only time I wanted to bring a company to its knees. LOL

http://www.rogerbrown.net

Does anyone else have examples of sell sheets they could post here so others can see more examples?

http://www.rogerbrown.net

Although there is no wrong answer to what a sell sheet should look like, there are a few things to consider when developing one.

What level of the industry are you looking for? What I mean is a sell sheet designed to approach a manufacturer would look different than one designed to approach a retail buyer.

Roger’s examples are great for the licensing process of approaching a manufacturer. They have a clear understanding of the product, value and benefits to a consumer, and the technical aspects a manufacturer wants to see in deciding if a product can be made and developed.

You can find examples of sell sheets designed for retail buyers on our web site http://www.flipsiderulers.com/Retail.htm

The formula we use is pretty simple. A glamour shot of the product along with bullet values and a short text block. We also add a few quotes here and there. All this is the front of the sheet.

On the back we have a “use shot” that allows the buyer to see what the product will look like in the store. Then we have data and an image of each configuration of the product. The contact information and that’s it. The additional information the buyer needs is included in the price sheet and order form physically sent with the sell sheet and product samples…..Buyer sell sheets (also called “Sales Rips”) should be double sided glossy 8.5×11 inches in size.

Hope this helps a bit.

Mark