Expert: Eric Hofer - 5/10/2011

Question
Hi Eric,

My friends and I have come up with an idea we feel could sell ALOT of bottles of alcohol, wine or BOTH. Question is we have no idea where to start, so my question is first... is it possible that one can "sell" an idea to a producer or distributor?  

This is not a recipe, I will say I was hoping we would be able to sell the catchy concept to a major distributor.  

I hope I gave you enough info to start the conversation. This is my first time on this site and it's amazing.   

Thank You for your time,
Mary from Michigan

Answer
Though to some degree it depends on how difficult it is to implement the idea, the truth is, it's very hard to protect.  Patenting the process is a starting point.  But this requires you to be thorough, thinking through the eventualities and ways that the process might be augmented.  You also cannot have holes (e.g. "and then a miracle happens").  Just patenting an idea (like "one pays by mobile telephone") isn't enough.  The patent claimant needs to show "how" the programs and processes work: settlements, risk management (against fraud), sales, control, etc.  This particular patent, contested for years resulted in 0 for the "owners."

One has to go beyond a "vision" and lay out the concrete aspects of the idea.  And patenting takes cash and years.

If it involves technology, special skills, experience perhaps even dedication, then you might have leverage.

Sometimes the ideas are hard to implement for major players as they lack sufficient staff.  How so?   Because over the last 10+ years companies have downsized and now they have only a handful of people left, and those people are busy maintaining things.  While that might sound like a good thing, it also means that if your idea involves technical development, there's no staff on the distributor's side to do the work.  Here, if you can do the work and/or are dedicated to the idea, you have leverage.  

Sometimes you'll find it's an uphill battle to get people to appreciate your idea.  Those that you pitch to are constrained, or if left over from many purges, are idea-shy: possibly over-worked, timid (e.g. one doesn't want to stick one's neck over the parapet) and/or disenchanted.  You need to consider such when pitching.  To get round this, you need additional ways into the organization.

If you adequately define your idea somewhere, escrow the document and then approach somebody, offering a way to save X% of Y years and would reveal such if they sign a confidentiality agreement.  In that confidentiality agreement you refer to the escrowed document (that should be sealed, probably stamped by the post office, somehow)...  This doesn't cost the person you're presenting the idea to, unless it works - and it might protect you.

Another way is to package up the idea and sell it as a service.  This approach requires you to  be agile.  If it's clever enough, imitators follow quickly.  

Selling the idea requires connecting with people that have integrity, work in the industry selling other S&D ideas and technologies, and have experience finding ways to pitch ideas  safely.  I think you're going to need help here.  Do you have insiders?  

I'm happy to help more and refer you: contact me on skype (www.skype.com), my contact is eric.hofer