Why You Should Sell Your Idea

Pre-selling your product is very important and can start your company off on a profitable note.

The fact that you can sell your idea before you actually have a product is not taught in school. You will be surprised that people will actually pay you on the guarantee of a solution without seeing a finished product yet.

It’s important to break the standard of going through all the steps to building your product and then selling it. You should start selling your idea today!

The Risks

The only real risk here is that you might not get your product into your customer hands. This can happen because it couldn’t be built, not enough capital, or lack of other resources. You’re only risking your mentality. As a result, you will have to tell people you failed, refund them, and continue on to something else.

The Benefits

The benefits of this tactic far outweigh any of the perceived risks. You can generate revenue that can be put towards building your product by choosing to sell your idea. Your company will gain exposure and begin to develop relationships with customers from very early on. You also can generate valuable feedback on how to improve the idea, which can influence your product to make it better.

Selling your idea prior to having a built product can be done in a number of ways.

• Foot on the Ground: Talk about your product everywhere (in person, social media, etc), then use a payment processor (PayPal, Square, etc) and collect payments from anyone interested in purchasing.
• Crowd Funding: Post your semi developed concept onto a crowd funding site and offer said product along with other incentives for people to back (AKA buy) your product. Crowdfunding has become very popular and offers great exposure early on.
• B2B/Expensive Products: This is more difficult because your market is much smaller and you’re going after large contracts. A tactical approach is necessary. Setting up a landing page of information, cold calling target customers, and invoicing for payments is the best way to start.

Be sure to offer money back guarantees, as it is unusual to purchase a product, never receive it, and never receive the money back. Selling your idea is a way to generate revenue and provide the most concrete validation possible. Get people to put their money where their mouth is.

Originally published at blog.venturestorm.com on December 29, 2016.