Suggestions for business deal presentation
September 2, 2013 8:13 PM Subscribe
Some months from now, I hope to sit down with some companies interested in buying a particular kind of soap. I'm looking for any suggestions, best practices, or wisdom about how such a presentation should be structured, what information a buyer would like to know, etc.
Background: A close family friend has started a company that produces an organic, non-toxic, 100% biodegradable soap. It is a colloidal micelle soap (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micelle#Uses). Interestingly, one of their customers is a farmer in the U.S. He buys their soap as a concentrate (i.e. not mixed with water) and mixes it with plant food. He says that the concentrate penetrates hydrophobic soil, which allows the plant food to nourish the deepest parts of the root system. The farmer says his crop yields have increased because of it. My family mixed some of this product with fertilizer and we were able to get grass to grow on our property where it has never grown before due to poor (probably hydrophobic) soil.
Here is what I'm thinking: I'm considering working out a legal agreement with the company to become an authorized reseller. Based on some people in my network, I believe I could at least get meetings with people in the agriculture industry and hopefully make some deals with them.
I've never done anything like this before, but I imagine I would need a presentation to:
1) introduce the product (what it is, its ingredients, etc)
2) Its uses in agriculture
3) how it works (i.e. explanation of 2)
I am very sure more would need to go into a presentation like this. A few things I can think of would be: some testimonials related to its effectiveness in agriculture, references to scientific papers about colloidal micelles and soil/farming, a scientific study showing the effects of this particular product on crop yields.
I would really appreciate any advice that anyone might have on how to go about constructing a presentation to pitch this product to companies that would be interested in its agricultural uses.
Thank you!
Background: A close family friend has started a company that produces an organic, non-toxic, 100% biodegradable soap. It is a colloidal micelle soap (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micelle#Uses). Interestingly, one of their customers is a farmer in the U.S. He buys their soap as a concentrate (i.e. not mixed with water) and mixes it with plant food. He says that the concentrate penetrates hydrophobic soil, which allows the plant food to nourish the deepest parts of the root system. The farmer says his crop yields have increased because of it. My family mixed some of this product with fertilizer and we were able to get grass to grow on our property where it has never grown before due to poor (probably hydrophobic) soil.
Here is what I'm thinking: I'm considering working out a legal agreement with the company to become an authorized reseller. Based on some people in my network, I believe I could at least get meetings with people in the agriculture industry and hopefully make some deals with them.
I've never done anything like this before, but I imagine I would need a presentation to:
1) introduce the product (what it is, its ingredients, etc)
2) Its uses in agriculture
3) how it works (i.e. explanation of 2)
I am very sure more would need to go into a presentation like this. A few things I can think of would be: some testimonials related to its effectiveness in agriculture, references to scientific papers about colloidal micelles and soil/farming, a scientific study showing the effects of this particular product on crop yields.
I would really appreciate any advice that anyone might have on how to go about constructing a presentation to pitch this product to companies that would be interested in its agricultural uses.
Thank you!
Cool!
Maybe you could name it something that reflects what it does? Something like Deep Growth Fertilizer? That might be available.
posted by oceanjesse at 4:55 AM on September 3, 2013
Maybe you could name it something that reflects what it does? Something like Deep Growth Fertilizer? That might be available.
posted by oceanjesse at 4:55 AM on September 3, 2013
Response by poster: @Long Way To Go, thanks for your thoughts! You're right that "surfactant" is the key word here.
As for your first suggestion, I guess the idea would be to compare this product with other plant fertilizer additives that claim to help nourish poor soil/help plant food penetrate the soil deeper. Those products would probably be surfactants/other additives that are currently in wide use by big agricultural operations, as well as other colloidal micelle products that may be in use, though likely on a smaller scale. Useful comparisons might be effectiveness and environmental impact. Any others you could think of?
For your second suggestion, I agree 100% that quantifying the effect is necessary. As far as I know, the manufacturer of the soap has not paid for a study to be done that would quantify its effects (the U.S. farmer is the one who told my family friend about the agricultural use). Any idea how much it would cost to have a study done on its agricultural benefits?
@oceanjesse
It certainly is cool! That is a great name, but the product already has a name (I'm purposely not disclosing the company or product name since I don't have an agreement with them). Though, I guess if were to include it in the reselling agreement, I could rename the product to focus on its agricultural uses. I'll have to keep that in mind.
posted by lhtw90 at 6:07 AM on September 3, 2013
As for your first suggestion, I guess the idea would be to compare this product with other plant fertilizer additives that claim to help nourish poor soil/help plant food penetrate the soil deeper. Those products would probably be surfactants/other additives that are currently in wide use by big agricultural operations, as well as other colloidal micelle products that may be in use, though likely on a smaller scale. Useful comparisons might be effectiveness and environmental impact. Any others you could think of?
For your second suggestion, I agree 100% that quantifying the effect is necessary. As far as I know, the manufacturer of the soap has not paid for a study to be done that would quantify its effects (the U.S. farmer is the one who told my family friend about the agricultural use). Any idea how much it would cost to have a study done on its agricultural benefits?
@oceanjesse
It certainly is cool! That is a great name, but the product already has a name (I'm purposely not disclosing the company or product name since I don't have an agreement with them). Though, I guess if were to include it in the reselling agreement, I could rename the product to focus on its agricultural uses. I'll have to keep that in mind.
posted by lhtw90 at 6:07 AM on September 3, 2013
Useful comparisons might be effectiveness and environmental impact. Any others you could think of?
Cost.
Any idea how much it would cost to have a study done on its agricultural benefits?
I really haven't a clue. Usually in cases like this you're trying to do everything on the cheap - that means doing the study yourself or finding a partner that has the capability to do it with you for some kind of share in the profits (or early access/exclusivity to sell or use the product if it works). If it were me I'd look for some simple ways to show a difference, maybe just growing some vegetables in pots with my plant food (however you made it) and the market leader. Try hard to keep the experiment as controlled as possible.
posted by Long Way To Go at 10:42 PM on September 5, 2013
Cost.
Any idea how much it would cost to have a study done on its agricultural benefits?
I really haven't a clue. Usually in cases like this you're trying to do everything on the cheap - that means doing the study yourself or finding a partner that has the capability to do it with you for some kind of share in the profits (or early access/exclusivity to sell or use the product if it works). If it were me I'd look for some simple ways to show a difference, maybe just growing some vegetables in pots with my plant food (however you made it) and the market leader. Try hard to keep the experiment as controlled as possible.
posted by Long Way To Go at 10:42 PM on September 5, 2013
Response by poster: Thanks for your suggestions and ideas, Long Way To Go. Much appreciated.
posted by lhtw90 at 6:14 PM on September 7, 2013
posted by lhtw90 at 6:14 PM on September 7, 2013
This thread is closed to new comments.
1) Why is better than existing products that do the same job? (The word you're looking for here is "surfactant", I believe that these are a common ingredient in plant fertilizers for the very problem you mention. Your soap is basically acting as a surfactant)
2) Quantify the benefit, how much crop yield increases etc. You need to tell a story of how they will make more profit if they buy your product.
Everything else (what its made of, how it works) I think is secondary, they only care about those answers once they believe there is a real value.
posted by Long Way To Go at 9:33 PM on September 2, 2013 [1 favorite]