Hi Irina,

I commend you for attempting to get your ideas out there when you have trouble with English.

A Cold call is when you pick up a phone and call a company that you think may be interested in your idea and they have never heard from you or about you before. It’s a cold call because they have no idea who you are or what you are about. You do not know anyone you are calling and they do not know you, that is what Cold Call means. Your call was unsolicited and unexpected.

Hope that helps.

Thank you Phillip. When it’s being explained it doesn’t sound as scary:)

What do people usually say when they make those cold calls?
I contacted two companies today, saying: Hi, My name is…I am an independent inventor who came up with an idea I thought your company might be interested in looking at.
Does that sound o.k.?
Both times the people who I spoke with tried to get more and more information about my idea over the phone. One company send to me a confidentiality agreement to sign up saying they will reply wether they are interested or not within 3 months. It seemed to me a little too long.

Take a look at these past posts for additional help:

http://www.edisonnation.com/forums/selling/topi...
http://www.edisonnation.com/forums/creativity/t...

Irina,

I’d suggest keeping it very simple when you call. I’d say who you are and ask if there company has a product development department and if they ever accept ideas from the outside. Saying you are an independent inventor is okay but sometimes companies think you don’t know what you are talking about when you call yourself an inventor. I usually do not give myself an official title like inventor but if I must I say something I say that I am a product developer with a new idea I think they may be interested in.

I never tell them anything at all about the idea on the phone. I use the call to establish contact, find out who I need to talk to and then I ask if I can send them a Non disclosure of if they have one they can send me so I can talk to them about the idea.

Good luck!

Dond – thank you for the links, VERY helpful.

Phillip – thank you for sharing your own experience. Now I realise I made some mistakes yesterday, disclosing my ideas but still not completely (I hope).
They suppose to be professional enough people not to ask any questions, I am surprised they do.
I did make contacts with companies who are licensing friendly, from Roger Brown’s list.

Phillip and Irina…..a cold call is NOT only just for a phone!!!! A cold call is any sales soliciting without an invitation….like even if you went in the local pizza store trying to sell an ad in your weekly circular etc.

I LOVE cold calling because the person you are pitching has no “defense”. All they can do is listen and they don’t tend to interrupt and they are vulnerable to accept what you are pitching with no plan on their side for the interaction.

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

Make sure you KNOW your pitch and product BEFORE you call anyone. Have a set of questions you want to ask written down and a note pad beside the phone to write down any information they give you. Remember they don’t have all day to spend time with you on the phone. I always make sure I can get my pitch down to 30 seconds or less before calling.
I have to agree with Ron there is a certain rush you get calling someone you have never met and have to try your best persuade them you know what you are doing and your idea is something they need to have. Also remember cold calls mean you have to be prepared for rejection and remain professional.

http://www.rogerbrown.net

Ron – it’s funny how you view this..
Roger – I have to admit when I made those calls yesterday the only thing I had in mind was to see if they were still accepting ideas, and if Yes, i needed to see if they would sign NDA. So when they started to ask me some questions, and then more questions, i was not prepared for it. I didn’t sound professional at all, I gave them too much information. Although I realize most luckily they are not robbers, but I still didn’t feel comfortable.
I am glad I posted this, I am definitely learning my lesson; and I thank you all of you for the help.

Irina, you are not alone with getting caught by surprize when they ask for more information or ask questions in a direction you were not expecting. That is why Ron and myself always push the Boy Scout rule “Always be prepared”. Granted I understand you can’t be prepared for every single topic a person could think to ask, but in all fairness if it relates to your product you are pitching they will expect you to know enough to carry on an intelligent conversation about it.
You will find that they use a lot of acronyms when they reference methods, processing, general business terms, etc. You can’t know them all, but you need to understand the industry you are approaching. That is why I am always cautioning Inventors about either leaping with no knowledge what so ever or being so overly protective they want a lawyer present before they will even tell you their name.

http://www.rogerbrown.net

Roger – thank you for a good advice!
Can you (or anyone) tell me what the point of a common question to an inventor/designer – “What will your product sell for on a retailer’s shelf”? Why do they ask us about it? How do I know? I am the only one who has an idea, and it is up to professionals to figure out the rest of the process incl. prices; if they like the idea. This has no logic to me. It was one of the questions yesterday – gosh, I generally have no idea how price is being build up, and give the "whatever"price is not professional. They say one antibiotic pill costs a few cents to make and it is sold for $10. Any retailer price is much and beyond higher that original cost(I love those Kohl’s or Hobby-Lobby sales, when everyday everything is 50% off, and some days 70-80% off – and they still are making good money because what is does sell it sells for the who- knows-how-they-price -it price). I purchased let say a dress in macy’s and paid $180 for it, and the very next day I see the same brand the same size dress in Marshall’s for $30??

As Roger always says…yes be prepared…as best you can of coarse but most important, DO NOT be intimidated by attempting to cold call!!!!

I will tell you the most intelligent thing my cousin ever and will ever say about talking to people who are “up there in the ranks”. The little wise ass said…“They’re just people” I think that is one of the most assuring one liners for an intimidating meeting I have ever heard. If the CEO gets on the phone…remember…they are just people….just like you and me…nothing to fear.

You people owe me for that tip! That’s a good one! Say that to yourself before your next cold call…you’ll do just fine.

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

You said it Ron!
I can’t recall who is an author of this line: If you have a fear to face someone in a conversation – imaging them being naked oops..:D

Just to give you an idea that even people like Ron and myself get No’s too when making cold calls here are my stats for last week. I made 21 cold calls to companies in the toy and kitchen industry seeing if they looked at outside submissions from Inventors/product developers. 14 said “No” with 6 of the 14 saying they would keep me on file for possible future contact.
7 said they do look at outside submissions with 5 of the 7 saying, but only from those that have already licensed or are currently selling their product themselves online where they can verify it. Two of the 7 said any ideas I send them have to go to wholesalers for under $7 or they couldn’t look at them.
Three of the 7 said the idea had to be patented first before they would look at it.

So, if you look at the overall 21 calls 7 were open to outside submissions and 4 of those companies met my requirements of not having to have your idea patented prior to submitting. That means for every 5 calls I make I am averaging 1 call that is what I want.
The question is are YOU willing to make that many calls? If I kept that average of 21 calls a week (which is low for me) I would make 1092 calls a year. If my success rate stayed at 1 for every 5 calls that would be 218 contacts that meet my requirements.
You have to understand that does not mean all 218 companies will license something from me. All that means is I have 218 possible places to try. The majority of the 218 will tell you “No” to your ideas, but the problem is you don’t know which ones are the “yes’s” and which ones are the “No’s” until you try them all.
As Ron and I will tell you that is why we say “if you want to succeed in this business you have to treat it like a business”.

http://www.rogerbrown.net

Thanks Roger for sharing your weekly stats. It is interesting how many are actually interested in looking at outside ideas and of the two that have the $7 wholesale requirement.

Thanks Roger for sharing your weekly stats. It is interesting how many are actually interested in looking at outside ideas and of the two that have the $7 wholesale requirement.

Thanks Roger for sharing your weekly stats. It is interesting how many are actually interested in looking at outside ideas and of the two that have the $7 wholesale requirement.

Thanks Roger for sharing your weekly stats. It is interesting how many are actually interested in looking at outside ideas and of the two that have the $7 wholesale requirement.

Thanks Roger for sharing your weekly stats. It is interesting how many are actually interested in looking at outside ideas and of the two that have the $7 wholesale requirement.

Sorry for the multiples. Kept getting a 502 server error when I tried to post.

Um Dond, Try this thread, it might help you out “Link between creativity and mental illness” ;-)
http://www.edisonnation.com/forums/creativity/t...

I might add to this post as a business owner of a marketing training training nationally, there are a few things to add to Rogers post (good job Roger)!

1) You need a large pipeline of “maybe’s” to the get the YES, look at it the opposite way. Call until you get 100 No’s for the week! Most likely there will be a couple of maybe’s or if you are really lucky that a company is open to your idea’s with a YES! Do this every week with your limited time. Push your cold call goals higher and higher per week as you get more confident receiving REJECTION and pitching your product or idea.

2) Marketing (sales calls, building relationships, increasing your contacts, etc) is the process to getting to the SALE. You can’t have one without the other!

3) Never give up, everyone has bad days and good days. It only takes 1 YES to make your idea a hit. That YES can lead to more YES’s for others because once a company has your idea and you can show other companies what they are missing, the competitive nature steps in from those companies!

Good Luck!

I’ve learned to really enjoy the challenge of cold calls.

Everything to gain and nothing to loose. The answer is no until you make that call.

Just prep and do the best YOU can.

Besides, you are the world’s expert on your product!

Dale www.FlexRight.net

Andrea and Dale, great advice. To many Inventors shy away from the cold call because they don’t like rejection. The truth is no one likes rejection. The issue is what do you do with the rejection. Do you learn from it or run from it. If you run from it you will never get move forward.

http://www.rogerbrown.net

I really don’t care about rejection…nope….never did. I do things for me. I have to believe in me and what I think is good. If others can’t catch on and understand I think that is their problem and I move on to look for other people that can understand like me.

If you know your idea works then a thousand rejections shouldn’t matter. I forget who it was….some MAJOR company we all know like Starbucks or something. The founder went to way over 100 banks until one loan officer took a chance on his business plan and loaned him money. Anyone know this well known story and can tell us who it was?

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

Hi all, I just have to chime in on this subject for the years I have been pursuing my dream, I have never been too afraid to talk to people about it, no matter what their position in the company I was pursuing. After speaking with Dale C for the first time he gave me even more encouragement to make cold calls or emails given my latest circumstance(thanks again Dale).

So I sent out a few emails to some major paint companies, with a description of my product and most did not have a certain email address for this purpose so I just sent it to their regular one. One emailed back and said if the info was not protected they could and would use it for them selves if they wanted too but if it was protected to send it to another physical mailing address. Then another major paint company (I don’t want to drop any names at this time but will if things progress) their sales rep actually called me in person inquiring about my paint lid. After answering his questions he asked if I could send photos or renderings of it and so I did this was last Monday.

Needless to say I’m pretty stoked because you just never know who or when it’s going to happen. Always believe and as they say don’t give up before the miracle.

Tim, first let me say I hope the rep that asked for photos is legit and has your best interest at heart. Since I don’t know the whole picture and am making my judgement based on what I am reading above, let me ask a couple of questions. Do you have this item patented? If not not I would take the picture of it off this site since that could be claimed as public disclosure. Second, do you have a nondisclosure signed by any of these companies prior to sending them your idea? As one of them stated "if the info was not protected they could and would use it for them selves if they wanted too but if it was protected to send it to another physical mailing address. " That is why you need to know a company’s policies for submissions prior to sending them anything.

As an example DOW chemical had a phamplet they would send you if you wanted them to look at your idea. You could check either box A or Box B. Box A said you were giving your idea to the company and did not expect any compensation for your idea and they were free to do anything they wanted with it.
Box B said you had it patented and were making the item already and you were interested in seeing if they wanted to distribute the product.

When you email or snail mail anything to a companies general info or company mail box it goes into a lump batch. The person sorting through this heap is not the person who can say Yes or No to your submission. You have to hope they know who this person is and forwards it to them. Most of the time mail they don’t know where to send goes in the trash. That includes prototypes and samples you may send. If you are lucky they just return it to you.

I hope you understand I am not trying to rain on your parade. I very serously hope the company that asked for more info is honest and wants to work with you. If things don’t work out contact http://www.lessmess.com/ they are open to new ideas and will sign a nondisclosure PRIOR to looking at your idea. Keep us informed of your progress and good luck. You can contact me directly at rbrown@rogerbrown.net

http://www.rogerbrown.net

Hi Roger, 1st Yes my idea is patented and I did not think I needed a NDA because of it. Do you think people with patented ideas should also have NDA’s singed? As for the other company I have not phisicaly sent them anything more at this time. Thanks for your input,which is always helpfull to so many and I will definatly be contacting you on this. Thanks again

Tim, glad to hear it is patented. A large number of Inventors get so excited about having someone in a company speak to them that they forget about any type of chain of custody and just tell their life story, and send them everything they have and leave nothing for further discussion. They do this without getting anything in writing or having any protection. Even if my idea is patented I ask for an NDA asa apaper trail. If you contact a company and say here is my patented chain saw. You have nothing to show that they ever agreed to look at your idea. yes, you have a patent and you can go after them for infringement if they go forward without you. I just like that added documentaion showing they did agree to look at and did receive you idea. It is a lot harder to deny when their signature is on the NDA.
I have had supervisors I worked for get selective amnesia when something THEY told you to do hit the fan. It was a lot harder for them to jump ship on you when their signature was on a note listing the tasks they wanted you to do. It also kept them from asking you to do things that were just on the line of questionable.

I get sent items all the time that I did not ask for or want, by people wanting me to find someone to license their idea. They do this the first time they contact me and are surprised when I send it back. I do not want to see anything from anyone unless I have agreed to it and we have signed a nondisclosure. Since I invent in a wide range of industries I want to be sure to cover myself and the Inventor so we are each protected. If I get an email that says “please review the attached document” I will not open it until I have contacted that person and we sign an NDA. People may find that strange, but I take their ideas and mine seriously and want them to understand I do my best to keep things above board. When they ask for my opinion I give them my honest opinion whether it is good or bad. That is what I would want from them if I was asking for their opinion.
That is one of the things I like about Ron and my relationship. We know the other will give us their honest opinion and state why we feel that way. We don’t get mad if the other disagrees. We try and see each others side and learn from it. It can only make us better Inventors.
Tim, I look forward to hearing from you.

http://www.rogerbrown.net

Roger,
Thanks for the info again about the NDA and will do that in the future. I have sent you an email with my contact info and look forward to speaking with you.

Andrea – thank you for the input, great advice!
Roger, thanks for sharing your experience. I actually was wondering how you BIG guy do it – well, I can see it is about the same way like here – a lot of rejections:( Surprise! I made 30 calls (emails included) within two days, got only three YES’, they are companies who do not require a patent. Three out of thirty – a good result for me, but I am “running” out of the companies who to call regarding particulary this idea. So I am keeping my fingers crossed they will like it:)