Youve got a viable product, you know that this large company would be very interested in it you are now entering a high risk area pitching your product to a much larger company.

A couple of things to think about before you start. The large company has more resources, more money and more lawyers at their disposal so you need to protect yourself as much as possible first of all.

Secondly, are you sure that your idea is not one that the large company is presently developing? They wont tell you of course, but if your product is an enhancement of one of the large companys existing products, then dont be surprised if you are turned down and your idea comes to the market shortly afterwards.

Now you need to prepare:

* Make sure you have a patent for your product. This is so important and provides you some protection if your concept is stolen.

* Investigate your target company and fully understand what they sell and to whom.

* Understand how your product will fit into their product range.

* Define what benefits the target company will obtain from your new product.

* Produce an overview of likely costs and benefits to your target company. Companies will only be interested in a new product that makes them a healthy product.

* Make good working prototypes of your product, with packaging, if you have got this, as well.

* Prepare a good presentation lasting about 10 minutes that will hopefully spark interest in your new product.

* Have a good understanding of what you hope to achieve from the pitch sale of the idea/consultancy/licensing, partnership etc.

Lastly, be confident, clear AND listen to what the large company are saying they have been in the business for longer and are more successful than you are they must be doing something right.

So if you plan to present an idea to a large company, be prepared to do so completely at your own risk. Look up the story of Dyson to learn some valuable lessons.

Lee Lister

Lee Lister is Management Consultant and Program Manager with more than 25 year's management and consultancy experience and more than 20 year's program and project management experience in projects for Banking, Finance, Insurance, Leisure and Government bodies. She also have more than 10 years bid management experience ranging from bids for medium companies to large international and infrastructure bids.

British born, Lee received her BA(Hons) Financial Economics from the University of Essex. She went on to work in or for a considerable number of countries within Asia and Europe as well as Australia and the United States. While building a name for herself through helping company restructure, change management and project management consultancy, Lee became a well-known figure for her skills in analyzing, problem solving and trouble-shooting. She has consulted for many major industries, including banking, telecommunications, insurance, transportation, leisure and governments from many different countries. Some of the companies who have benefited from Lee?s expertise are Hewlett Packard, Siemans Nixdorf, Electrolux and the Philippines government.

Whilst working in the Far East she became a recognized expert on preparing and evaluating large World Bank Proposals (infrastructure projects within developing countries). These accomplishments called upon the skills of bid and project management, risk assessment, contract negotiation and supplier management and required dedicated work to very tight time scales. This expertise was acknowledged by an invitation to be the principle speaker at an International Business Development Conference in Washington, USA. She has also consulted at very senior level in several countries.

She owns and manages two companies, Biz Guru LLC in the USA and Biz Guru Services Ltd in the UK as well a considerable number of profitable web sites. She works almost entirely via the internet, visiting clients on site during major consultancies and training. Her Internet skills span from when major companies first started to consider obtaining their own web sites. During these years, she has kept up to date with the rapid changes on the internet, including the dot com boom and the resulting bust ? which her own web based companies survived.

She regularly consults, writes and lectures on business, bid management and marketing and has published numerous courses and books.