Dear Don,

I am an engineer with a great new product, but I don’t have any experience with sales or marketing.  While I was able to do all the engineering work for myself, I find I have no confidence when it comes to marketing my product.  Do you have any suggestions?

                                                                                                                        -Jeff

Dear Jeff,

For nearly all inventors, selling their product is much harder than inventing it.  So you are not alone and should not get discouraged.  I think there are two good options for you.  First is trying to find an experienced marketer or sales person who would be willing to become your business partner.  This option can work well because a partner is always more dedicated to a project than an employee and instead of paying him/her a salary, which would take operating cash, you split the profits and company shares with him/her.  Ideally, your business partner will come from the industry you will be selling to, but that is not necessary.  The second option would be to run a booth at a trade show by yourself.  At trade shows you can meet sales reps that might commit to sell your product.  You will need to do some selling to the sales reps, but they already have industry contacts and retailers they sell to that can give your sales a big boost.  Reps earn a percentage of their sales, so you don’t need to pay them upfront and they are motivated to make big sales.                                                                      -Don

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