3 questions to solve your tech transfer process problems

There’s something that all of us, as people excited and passionate about ideas, do. Or rather, it’s something we don’t do, and that is what might be slowing down your deals. Why companies are dragging their heels, why they don’t seem as excited about your ideas as you do.

When we are so wrapped up in the idea, in the technology, in the innovation, that becomes our focus. It’s what we talk about and push in our conversations - how clever it is and how it all works. But we forget to ask ourselves the question that’s going to make the difference in closing these deals: why should they care?

This is the first rule of marketing and sales but we get carried away with the innovation and forget it. We need to keep asking “why should they care?”.

You can delve deeper using this question to identify what might be holding up your deals and your process, by asking it in three different ways:

1 - why should this industry care?

Are you targeting companies within industries that are experiencing a funding boom and need to find innovation to get those funds? Are you targeting competitive industries where innovation is urgently needed for companies to get ahead? Or, are the companies you’re targeting dragging their heels because they don’t have that impetus to really care about introducing new innovations?

An example of this is solar vs wind start ups - which you can read about in our report here.

2 - why should they care about the problem this solves?

The tech can’t always speak for itself, and it’s dangerous to assume that someone pushed for time and attention will be able to see the full potential of your innovation for themselves. What is the key problem in the industry you’re targeting - efficiency, resources, costs, competition? Why should they, and do they, care about that problem, and how is your tech the answer to it?

3 - why should they care right now?

Is your innovation at just the right point for a company’s R&D team to make an impact with? Or is it developed enough for a risk-averse organization to take more quickly to market? To create movement and urgency in your deals, it needs to be obvious why now is the perfect time.

Let’s pretend for a minute that you are the company and we are you. Why should you care about our technology? If we ask why universities should care about RocketSmart’s AI, it’s because it saves precious time and red tape finding best fit commercial partners. If we ask why you should care about the problem this solves, it’s because where the amount of work to do outstrips the number of people available to do it, this tool fills the gap. If we ask why you should care right now, that’s because it’s ready for you to start using now, to find the best commercial partner for that innovation that feels like it’s going nowhere. Sometimes, it helps to put the shoe on the other foot - and it definitely helps to keep things simple.

If you’re feeling stretched in the office, you may be interested in re-inventing tech transfer after the Great Resignation, and how your time is the true cost of your tech transfer process.