Although the lines between sales and marketing have been blurred recently, the entire action of actually getting the invention sold is the most important function. Especially early in an invention’s life, getting earlier buyers, customers and supporters can be very difficult but if achieved a lot of other operational requirements are easier. I was inspired by Brian Daigle’s recent post on Successful Marketing for Successful Inventions and remembered a section of a sales book I read a while back. Although Zig Ziglar’s The Secrets to Closing the Sale is not aimed specifically at inventions, I think you will enjoy this section, called I Am a Salesman:

I am proud to be a salesman because more than any other man I and millions of others like me, built America.

The man who builds a better mousetrap- or a better anything - would starve to death if he waited for people to beat a pathway to his door. Regardless of how good, or how needed, the product or services might be, it has to be sold.

Eli Whitney was laughed at when he showed his cotton gin. Edison had to install his electric light free of charge in an office building before anyone would even look at it. The first sewing machine was smashed to pieces by a Boston mob. People scoffed at the idea of railroads. They thought that even traveling thirty miles an hour would stop the circulation of blood! McCormick strived for fourteen years to get people to use his reaper. Westinghouse was considered a fool for stating that he could stop a train with wind. Morse had to plead before ten Congresses before they would even look at his telegraph.

The public didn’t go arounding demanding these things; they had to be sold!

- Author Unknown

The peice does go on to talk about how the everyday actions of salesmen around the world keep businesses turning, but I think you get the point. The best time investment for an inventor is to learn how to sell.