A lot of being a top seller comes from preparation and attitude. Top sellers learn best practices and cement them into habits until it’s all second nature. If you want to play with the big boys, then FeedbackExpress has seven tips and tricks you can employ to become highly effective at the game.
Habit 1: Write the Route YOU Need to Take to Success
Think back to the last time you gave someone directions. Did you tell them the fastest route? Or the easiest one? Wherever you’re going, there’s usually more than one way of getting there. Compound that by the fact that each person needs different things to arrive at their destination, and there are plenty of routes to success. What yours will look like depends on your personality, work style, ambition, skills, limitations, resources and more. And when you’re writing your route to success, remember to factor in detours so you don’t get discouraged when your path doesn’t travel in a straight line.
Habit 2: Learn How to Delegate Tasks to the Right People
Being at the head of things, you might be tempted to have a hand in every cookie jar. After all, you know the most and that’s what got you there, right?
Wrong.
The best leaders surround themselves with experts in various areas, people who are extremely good at specific things that allow you to focus on what you’re good at so you don’t get distracted by trying to do it all. Break down your workload into discrete units and identify what you absolutely need to do (i.e. building relationships with suppliers and manufacturers, hiring and firing, etc.) and what can be done by others.
Habit 3: Apply the Pareto Principle to Your Products
In a nutshell, the Pareto Principle means that 80% of effects can be derived from 20% of the available causes. Translate that to selling on Amazon and it means that you should be looking at making 80% of your profits from 20% of your products. This 20% should demand most of your attention when it comes to sourcing them, making sure they’re in stock, writing great product descriptions for them, and generally making sure they keep comprising 80% of your profits.
If you’re not sure which products these are, look at your sales history from the last six months (or 12, if you sell seasonal items) and make a list of what sells, from greatest to least. Then, put these items at the top of your to-do list and factor in an extra 25% lead time for them to make sure they keep pulling in 80% of profits.
Habit 4: Never Forget About the Suppliers
Suppliers are like eyebrows: the good ones blend into the background and generally go unnoticed, but you immediately pay attention if they’re bad or not there. But keeping close tabs on the supply chain is tedious and time-consuming, so top sellers either delegate the work to someone else on the team or go with a third-party whose sole job it is to take care of that. You’ll definitely want to be the one to contact suppliers and form good relationships with them, but taking care of the details is something you can pass on elsewhere.
Habit 5: Make Negotiating an Ongoing Process
If you’ve ever purchased auto insurance, a cell phone plan, furniture, or something from Craigslist/Kijiji, you know that prices can be haggled over. Highly effective sellers, however, realise that negotiating is an ongoing process and doesn’t stop once the initial price has been set. They know it’s something that can be continually revisited and renegotiated based on factors like history, performance, market prices and terms of the contract. At periodic times (like at the half-year or year mark), reach out to your manufacturers/suppliers and see what things you can renegotiate.
Habit 6: Keep Your Inventory Nicely Balanced
Running out of stock is one of the worst things that can happen to a seller. Having too much stock isn’t nearly as bad, but it’s not great either. The trick is to find that sweet spot in the middle where you’ve got enough times to handle surges, but not so much that you’re paying excess storage fees. It’s an admittedly boring thing to care about, but so vital to running a successful business. Using inventory management software makes this part so much easier than doing it all by hand, so it’s worth investing in a good one.
Habit 7: Make a Budget and Be Firm About It
It doesn’t matter how much money you’ve got coming in if you either spend it all or grossly mismanage it. There’s just no excuse for not having a budget that makes sense — and sticking to it. There can sometimes be an air of stuffiness and not having fun when it comes to budgets, but the best budgets allow for fun. The key is making sure the cash is evenly spread out and necessities are taken care of. If you’re not good at this, hire someone who is so you can ensure every last dollar is being spent as efficiently as possible.
Another habit that highly effective Amazon sellers take advantage of is working hard at gathering reviews. Because a review is often the make-or-break factor when it comes to buyers deciding on a purchase, having many (great) reviews is crucial. Using FeedbackExpress simplifies that process and makes it easy to stay on top of getting reviews, but you can only enjoy the perks if you use it. Sign up today and start things off with a 14 day free trial.
