The Amazon platform is one of the biggest buzzwords globally. Its success has no doubt shined more during this pandemic. If you’re keen on starting a business or grow it through Amazon, you should know how to maximize Amazon’s services and have enough resources to make sustainable and profitable sales.
Let Stephen Somers of Marketplace Superheroes help you with that through this episode. Stephen’s online education and services company helps people all over the world learn how to sell their own products globally on Amazon from complete scratch.
Together with his business partner, Robert, Stephen has won 5 two-comma club awards for Marketplace SuperHeroes, which is now an 8 figure business, and the guys have also helped over 7,000 people to create multiple income streams online.
Here’s what you missed:
The Definition of Success
- “And like everybody watching here today, I still get imposter syndrome” (3:49)
- “…you look at the results that our clients get and you think, well, that’s why, because they’re having success. They’re doing well.” (4:05)
- “…there’s a facade that’s out there. And what it does is it creates what you said in the beginning, that imposter syndrome that no matter how good you’re doing, it feels like you’re not good enough.” (5:09)
- “What you think is success now, when you start to get into business on pro make progress with them, you will see the reality is very different.” (7:13)
The Buzzword Amazon
- “We’re all using Amazon every single day, regardless if we like it or not, or we’re at least coming in contact with this.” (10:54)
- “…physical products for me was just what I ended up doing after a lot of searching” (12:11)
- “And I saw real products being sold to real people.” (13:00)
- “We can be successful like without have needing all these things because Amazon have. What they call their FBA program, which means fulfillment by Amazon” (15:00)
From second hand to brand new
- “I just worked constantly with them, learning everything I could. And I started selling some of his products that were like secondhand, like returns.” (13:43)
- “And then we just started finding all kinds of new products, uh, in, in multiple categories.” (51:52)
From selling to teaching
- “That was one of the things that were missing, you know like we’re making money. Then we saw all these other people teach in Amazon.” (16:55)
- “…we’re doing well with the business. Why don’t we show other people what we’re doing? And then just see what happens.”
Dropshipping success
- “I wish I’d made them, we’re working to get it, but the community has sold well over a hundred million dollars of products.” (18:00)
- “So well over a hundred million a year, I would say the community’s doing can guarantee that, but that’s an estimate of figure.” (18:26)
Checking competition
- “We find a product on Amazon with selling well, low competition.” (19:01)
- “If you’re number one, you’re the best seller in that category, home, and garden. You’re number one like you’re selling unbelievable.” (20:12)
- “We have to make a determination on the size of the market.” (20:46)
Schools of thought on Amazon
- “There’s just so many schools of thought on Amazon” (21:17)
- “They’re all. And other than that one, so I’m realizing, well, there’s an opportunity there because one person selling a metal thread wreck, and that’s what we’re looking for.” (22:19)
- “That’s the business it’s then identifying these products and then we get them selling globally…” (23:03)
- “Finding the weird products to last competitive products, where there are millions of them. And then you got to have a multiple of those in your business, get them into multiple markets and that compounding of those products, you can make a really nice business for yourself and really fly under the radar” (36:46)
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Choosing the best business model
- “What we’ve done is we have divided the business model into two different models” (26:20)
- “I’m finding opportunities where there is demand, proven amount. People are buying products.” (26:33)
- “We can do a better offer, better listing. Better everything and go in there and take a share of that market” (26:43)
- “Brand model is where you’re saying Amazon’s a part of my business. It’s a distribution channel. I want the leverage, but I’m also going to have my own Shopify store and I’m going to build a brand with related products in that one brand.” (27:42)
- “That’s a more complicated process that we do teach, but it’s, it’s like, the marketplace model for beginners is where I always recommend because it’s much easier” (29:18)
- “There are downsides to every business model. So it’s certainly something that you can do and continue doing.” (29:42)
- “I cannot believe some of the products that people are recommending to get into because they’re, they’re, they’re confusing the brand model with the marketplace model” (35:19)
The rule of five
- “Let me tell you something called a rule of five, because I think it’s going to really give everybody a framework where you can like understand the power of this marketplace model.” (30:03)
- “So you got five products, five countries, you’re making five sales per day per product per country.” (30:31)
- “It’s because you’re making a small number of sales, but you’re making them in a number of different countries at the same time.” (30:56)
Is Amazon a saturated market?
- “Because if you get into hyper-competitive spaces and Amazon, you have to then play a different game” (31:19)
- “So when you say something saturated, what you’re actually saying is that in supply and demand” (33:00)
- “So when you use, they’re seeing that you’re starting to move to saturation because people are starting to think, well, what’s an angle I can put on the product so that I can edge a little piece of that, of that overall category.” (34:30)
How do you build your list to be sustainable?
“You got to build an email list because that’s how you build your long-term customers.” (37:16)
- “So you’re leveraging an asset in order to sell a product. So you don’t pay the acquisition cost of the customer because Amazon’s already acquired the customer.” (38:28)
- “So the way you be Amazon is you have to niche them heavily and build a tribe” (38:51)
- “So if you want to build your own customer base, what you can do is validate your products and Amazon get them selling, and then you can build your own customer platform on the other side if you want.” (39:23)
Understanding the numbers to earn profit
- “That’s the problem with a lot of online businesses is that people don’t have any understanding of numbers.” (44:09)
- “It’s all well and good talking big numbers, but it’s like you put money into the business. Are you putting, you know, happy meals into the business?” (45:29)
Law of action-reaction
- “You have to be willing to spend money, to try to make money.” (45:50)
- “If you want to make money with no money down, the only method that I know of that you can do that in legitimately is by having a high impact skill that you can bring it into a business.” (45:06)
- “And if the action is no money in no time putting no effort put in, well, you deserve no money back. No, nothing back” (46:47)
Don’t believe in yourself
- “Stop believing in yourself. Right? Stop what’d you have to do is you have to find a process or a person, and you believe in that.” (50:08)
- “Because if you’ve never been successful, if you’ve never made any money before, how can you believe in yourself? ” (50:39)
- “Find someone, uh, some person or a process and believe in that and just go and do it because that will actually help you get actual results.” (50:47)
Quotes and Advice from our host and guest
- “The only difference between me and you listening today is that I’ve had some really good mentors along the way” – Stephen, (04:13)
- “You don’t need, you know, millions of dollars in your bank account because money is a tool, right. And you need to use that tool to be able to leverage, to make more impact.” – Casanova, (9:00)
- “You have to understand the business that you’re actually in versus the word versus a different business model. We’re leveraging a marketplace. Whereas, if you want to build your own platform and do what you talk about, then you have to build your own platform.” – Jesse, (40:16)
- “You have to deserve what you want. And the world is not yet a crazy enough place to reward a whole bunch of undeserving people.” – Jesse (48:55)
- “Don’t consume right. Execute, execute every single day” – Casanova (52:23)
Books, Mentions, and Links: