7 Things Successful Amazon Sellers Do

 This blog shares 7 things successful Amazon sellers do. Kev has had the opportunity to meet some great Amazon sellers and hear some amazing stories in interviews of these people having the courage and determination to take massive action in changing their life and their family's lives. Some have been able to quit their jobs and even became 6 and 7 figure sellers. Having all these amazing experiences Kev had wanted to collect them all up and think about some common things which they all do. So... What do they do?

1 – Focus on One Business Model at a Time 

Each of the business models is a fantastic opportunity for you to become successful, whether that is from retail arbitrage to private label, wholesale, online arbitrage, or exclusive brand deals. Every one of these business models has the potential for you to become incredibly successful, quit a job and hire team members. It is going to take a lot of your resources, time, money and focus. You may be in a career currently and have a young family occupying your time to where you do not have a lot of it in a day, and if you spread yourself too thin, it can hinder you and hold you back from increasingly scaling your business.  

For Kev, he started online arbitrage first and he focused as much as he could solely on online arbitrage and master as much as he possibly could, like sourcing products, hiring virtual assistants and systemising the business. And this is all something that you are going to have to do as well, because each of these is an amazing opportunity.  

Whatever you are doing right now, focus on that one thing, because you are going to find it incredibly difficult to be able to do more than one business model at one time. Wait and give it time before you explore other avenues.  

If you may be even further along the line in your business model, then it is recommended that you start to systemise the process and hire some virtual assistants to get some time back for you to get to the next steppingstone in your journey. 

2 – Appreciate Online Resources but Learn from Own Actions and Experience  

There are many amazing different resources that we have today, whether that is Facebook groups, online training programs, and masterminds. There are so many different experiences for everyone where we can learn from and you can learn from anybody, because not one experience is the same. But it is those sellers who ultimately take action and apply it into their own business – they learn something and take action in their own business, then they get some feedback. This is what really allows them to find tune whatever they are learning; for example, sourcing strategies, hiring team members, being capable of opening wholesale accounts and building relationships, and being able to negotiate. Take action and learn a lesson for yourself, that is then when you are going to learn so much more and be able to find tune your skills. It is amazing to be able to learn from one another, from different Facebook groups, inner circles and by joining training programs where you can learn step by step the basics or if you’re wanting, even more advanced, but it is only really when you are experiencing it for yourself.  

For example, when you are learning to drive, the theory only tells you so much, but you learn so much more in practice and when you take and pass your test. Or another example would be, if you were an apprentice and you are following someone around, taking notes and listening to what they say; but it is only once you are qualified, and you start to take action and you start to get some experience by doing some practical work, that is when you are going to learn so much more.  

So, whatever business model you are currently in, the best way to learn how to open wholesale accounts is by getting on the phone and calling people, even if you make a mistake or stumble over your words, that is okay, because that is growth and learning. Never be afraid to experience and take action into the unknown, because that is where amazing lessons are learnt. 

3- Product Selection Based on Real Data  

Whenever it comes to you selecting products to sell in your Amazon FBA business, whether you are looking at online arbitrage products; products that are already there, or private label products and you are looking at creating a product, it all must be based on real data. This is because you are analysing, you are taking all this information to give you a reduced risk that it may go wrong, and you lose money, or you buy the wrong product. This is not based on emotional selection. 

So, whenever you are doing your analysis, you want to be looking and using the tools available to you. You want to be looking at the price history, the sales rank, and other tools such as Keeper.  

What you do not want to do is just put money into products thinking that you are just going to do the machine-gun approach and just buy everything hoping for the best and that it sells. What you want to do is be very strategic. Those who are most successful, who Kev have had the pleasure in interviewing and speaking to, all had systems to analyse products, and all have a criterion for what is yes and no.  

4 – Develop Systems and Management Structure 

What this means is across your business, whether it is sourcing, purchasing, shipping, or its your infantry health, Amazon account health, accounting or repricing; whatever it is, they develop systems and management structure. So, what you need to do is on your journey, you always want to continue developing your systems, really thinking about how you can create the same result each time, whether that is your team management, helping your sourcing assistants and help them become more effective in sourcing. Or your purchasing managers and the criteria that they are following; for example, looking at replenishing, knowing what quantities you should be purchasing, or the pricing strategy. It is about mastering the skill of developing systems, because as you develop systems and as you develop that management structure, on the KPI’s across your business, you are going to learn what is working and what is not. Over time, you are going to learn from that experience of taking action, by making mistakes, losing money and finding out what works and what does not. 

5 – Focus and Hold for Profit, Not Sales Revenue  

This is a super important thing which successful Amazon sellers do. No matter what you see online, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, it does not matter. If you see that someone is making 30k a month sales or 100k a month sales or even a million a month sales, it does not show the true picture. It does not show all their expenses, the fees that they have had to pay, what their purchase price is. So, it is really important that no matter what products you are selling in your business, you are always focused on making profit and not chasing sales. This is a really common trap which you see lots of times and this is most definitely when you see people dropping prices, and penny-battling all the way down to the bottom, where nobody is making any money. It is so important for you as you are going about your journey, to be very emotional as much as you possibly can. What this means is, when people are just getting started in their Amazon business, what tends to happen is you may have some amazing day sales, record days, where you are selling so much and you are full of joy. But, the next day, the sales may have dropped, and what they start to do is start to question what has happened. So, it is really important that you focus on profit. 

The only way that you can keep growing and invest in your business, whether that is going out into a warehouse, or expanding onto builder wholesale accounts which is able to take advantage of bigger minimum order quantities. It is all fundamentally based on making profit and knowing your numbers. You must know what your minimum percentage is at, what it is that you are holding at. Whatever you are using for your repricing systems, you are setting them so you can hold that particular product for whatever time is a part of your infantry health system and you are focused on holding it out. 

6 – Work and Focus on Highest Leverage Tasks, Invest Back in Business 

This is super important, because when you are building your Amazon FBA business, it is a huge task and there are so many different things which you need to manage and there are not enough hours in the day. And as you start to scale, whether you are part-time or even full-time, you are very quickly going to run out of time, which means that you have to be really good at knowing where you want to focus your energy. There is only so much you can source by yourself. 

The most successful have been able to take advantage of servicing, hiring virtual assistants and building their team, or using a prep service firstly to get some time back, to then scale and move into their own warehouse. The most successful have not been afraid of investing back into the business. Things like sourcing product, purchasing products, and building relationships with different wholesalers are critical, but it is so important that you focus on the highest leverage.  

It might be that sourcing in your online arbitrage business is not the highest leverage task; what could be the highest leverage task is for example opening wholesale accounts. This may be the highest leverage task that you open different accounts, and pass onto your sourcing team to look through the products list and review all of the ones which are up for sale.  

7 – Focus on Long-term and build relationships With Suppliers and Services  

When it comes to focusing the actions that you are taking on a day-to-day basis, you always need to be focusing on the long-term growth and success of your business, not the short-term day-to-day emotional urgencies that you may have. There are so many things which are important, the business, the journey, the accounting, worrying about finance and sorting it out. Whatever you are focused on, the actions need to be on the long-term. The same as building relationships with wholesalers, you focusing on building relationships, it could take 6 months or even a year, but all you need is that one account and that one relationship with the supplier to change everything for you.  

If you think long-term, 5 years or 10 years into the future, are you still going to be doing this? And what do you need to be taking action on now? Whether that is working on team development, or recording yourself while you are sourcing, or documenting the process on developing working procedures. This is all long-term growth, so that when you do get to the point where you need to hire a teammate, you have got things documented, and you have already started putting in the foundations of your business which will allow you to ultimately be successful. 

Further reading:
5 Reasons Why You Should Start an Amazon Business Today

Amazon FBA Wholesale for Beginners: Phone Call Script & Sourcing Through Stock Lists

Is Amazon FBA eCommerce Possible Part-time