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Starting an Agency helping Amazon Sellers

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

GravyBoat

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What's up guys.

I recently decided to start a new business focused on delivering services to Amazon sellers.

Going to keep this up to date for accountability purposes. Also going to ask questions in here in case someone knows better than me.

This is my first time delivering "services" for clients. I've always done ecommerce until now. Still doing it, just wanting to expand my horizons because I think I can offer people a kick a$$ service, AND it's up my alley because I love seeing other people's businesses grow and succeed.

I sold a few Shopify stores plus ongoing support in the past ~year. What I'm focused on now is helping Amazon sellers with the commandment of "Control" and take their business into their own hands. Basically I help Amz sellers get their customers back from Amazon by taking the data they already have, find more customers, and either send them to a back to their AMZ product page for more sales and higher conversion rate (thus boosting the listing in the search rankings), OR, send traffic to their own website (Shopify), and make sales there. From there, you can ask people for email opt in, and re-market to customers through email, and Facebook Chatbots.

What I've done so far:

Created an UpWork account to find potential clients for this service. Tailored my profile hardcore to niche down to just this service for Amazon sellers. Applied to every job posting that has anything to do with my niche (there were a few exact matches, and a few pretty similar ones, then a bunch of pretty vague ones where people didn't really know what they needed).

Made a Fiverr gig for my service, got a buddy to buy it and leave me a review for social proof. It's only gotten 7 views so far though. I'm trying to figure out the Fiverr SEO, how does your gig rank for keywords?? If anyone knows please reply.

Having my Virtual Assistant scrape Amazon for any seller emails she can find. We're finding there are a LOT more phone numbers for Amazon sellers, than emails, so I am going to cold call a bunch too. Does anyone have suggestions on how better to collect emails? This process is semi slow (she's getting only about 40 emails a day). Going to cold email the sellers with a value prop.

Looking in the Facebook groups for Amazon sellers too. The issue is, FB messenger has caps of 50/day, and I cannot afford to get that account banned... Not sure what to do here. Might do like 10/day and just see where it goes.

Going to In Person Amazon FBA seller meetups. @Kingmaker and @nitroheadz28 and I have gone to probably 5-8 of these in Southern California in the past ~year. Some have been total newbies and I didn't gain much value, but some have been 8 figure/year sellers and some serious killers in there.
Went to one 2 days ago, but it ended up being at a very loud bar, and it was hard to talk to everyone. I still managed to talk to most of the group and dodge the time wasters at the meetup (there are always a few). Got some people's numbers. Going to try to see if my services can help them.

Posted on Craigslist (figured why not)... which ended up getting me contact info from several people wanting social media services. Exploring that right now, might do some quick projects for them in exchange for an UpWork review or something...

What I need to do:

Do a "red tape" proposal invoice to cover my a$$ and define exactly my service

Systemize everything. I have a team of people in place to help me when needed, but it's still all scattered everywhere.

Get a bunch more clients

Probably a bunch more stuff I'm forgetting right now, but that's okay because it's all written down on my To Do list whiteboard in my living room.

My eventual goal with the agency is that once it can pay for it, I will hire someone to create a SaaS business out of it, grow that, then sell to a big player in the industry.



Anyone have any out of the box ideas to get more clients? I'm charging a monthly retainer only right now for this service, but in the future I will likely charge a % commission of sales gained... haven't thought too far into this yet which is also something I need to think about (pricing structure).

I will keep this updated every few days.
 
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GravyBoat

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Today, I'm hanging out with some entrepreneur friends to try and pick their brains on more ways to get clients.

Drafting a value proposition to send to sellers via cold email.

VA is getting more emails.

Applied to more UpWork jobs in the space (I'm maxed out now).

Doing some JIT (Just In Time) learning about Fiverr SEO.

Meeting up with another travel agency business owner to see how she gets clients, and see if those ways could be applicable in this business.

Hired a developer for Shopify stores, to outsource immediately. I will oversee the first few very closely for obvious reasons, until we systemize more. I will document everything for further managerial outsourcing in the future.

That's all for today.
 

GravyBoat

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Set some goals for April.

I will bring in 7k total revenue with this business in April.

Have two more solid prospects in the pipeline. One should be on retainer, one will be a one-off.

Another one of my goals is not counting chickens before they hatch. So on every post starting April I will post revenue/goal at the bottom.

Mainly doing this thread for myself to look back on in a few years, and also to give back to this community obviously. Hopefully it helps someone!
 

broswoodwork

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A bit off topic: (sorry)

Where can I find some more info on your service?

I don't know if it's in my budget to have done professionally presently, but I'm gradually moving my business from being exclusively on a different online marketplace venue, and this may help streamline the process of doing so.

As an aside: there's one marketplace in particular that so badly needs what you're proposing here, and in your other thread, that I'm worried if I wrote down what it was, you'd have multiple new competitors by the end of the day. I almost feel like you should have your other thread moved inside, as it gives away a lot of details, if this starts picking up real steam for you. (Sorry for the unsolicited advice.)
 
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GravyBoat

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@broswoodwork Thanks for the reply!

I'm not too worried about people "copying" my business because at this point, the barrier to entry is higher than the average forum lurker will ever step over. Instead, I'd rather give alot of value in here, keep myself accountable, and maybe help people with their own businesses. The point of me posting is so I can have an actual progress thread for myself and others to look back on in the future!

I'm not going to post my links here because I don't want this to be a "self promotion" thread. Maybe in the future!



Today is April 3rd. Cold calling all day today.

People are dodging me about meeting up. Trying to figure out a good balance between bugging the shit out of them, and following up enough to where they actually meet with me. Any ideas on this??

Going to take @Johnny boy 's advice and use Sly Broadcast to any of the numbers who don't answer my cold calls.

$0/$7k for April.
 

GravyBoat

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Hey guys!

I set up a funnel for my services. I'm sending people to a landing page, then sending them to an auto scheduler (Calendly).

My issues is, I need more testimonials!

So, I'm deciding that I want to help one Fastlane Forum Amazon seller for free.

Yes that's right, I will set up your entire Facebook ads campaign, build you a landing page, and start running traffic for free to your Amazon listing, and also collecting you customer emails.

You must have at least 50 reviews on your listing, and also must have at least 1000 total sales within the past years time.

All I ask, is that you film a video of yourself explaining my service, and how you liked the results!

Let me know if you'd be interested in working with me totally free of charge, zero strings attached! I just need the testimonial video. I want to help someone KILL it. My other campaign is getting 14X ROAS (return on adspend) right now on Facebook ads.
 

GravyBoat

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Just signed my first client of April so far.

I'm getting better at pitching.

I got past my fear of loss and took on the "Abundance Mindset" approach. If someone doesn't want it, another person will. Every no is just one step closer to a yes.

Trying to figure out LinkedIn to see if I can connect with sellers on there. Whored out my personal Facebook profile as well. No F*cks given.

Infographics are made and my website is up.

Working on case study's now.

Gonna hit the YouTube comments as well. Also signed up for a shit ton of IRL meetups. I'm FAR better at speaking on the phone or in person than I am in text or online (text). Trying to take angles that are non spammy, and befriend people before I even tell them about it. I hate being "sold" to, I'd rather be helped and create a win/win situation.

Still super confused on the pricing structure. These conversations are always awkward for me. How do I charge enough but not put people off at the same time? Any ideas welcome.

$1,000/$7000 for April.
 
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Andy Black

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Just signed my first client of April so far.

I'm getting better at pitching.

I got past my fear of loss and took on the "Abundance Mindset" approach. If someone doesn't want it, another person will. Every no is just one step closer to a yes.

Trying to figure out LinkedIn to see if I can connect with sellers on there. Whored out my personal Facebook profile as well. No F*cks given.

Infographics are made and my website is up.

Working on case study's now.

Gonna hit the YouTube comments as well. Also signed up for a shit ton of IRL meetups. I'm FAR better at speaking on the phone or in person than I am in text or online (text). Trying to take angles that are non spammy, and befriend people before I even tell them about it. I hate being "sold" to, I'd rather be helped and create a win/win situation.

Still super confused on the pricing structure. These conversations are always awkward for me. How do I charge enough but not put people off at the same time? Any ideas welcome.

$1,000/$7000 for April.
Tell folks you’ll figure out pricing after the call, that you need to work out what’s needed and how best to deliver it. That will stop it being awkward in the call.

The best bit of advice I heard about pricing was to “get it wrong”. Don’t be precious about it. Slap a price on it that you think’s fair and that you’d be delighted if they said yes, and see how it goes. You’ll learn as you go along.
 

Walter Hay

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I have long been advocating a simple method for Amazon sellers to obtain contact details for their customers by setting up their own ecommerce site and drawing their Amazon customers to it by including their URL on their labels, and any branding that is an integral part of the product.

This bypasses Amazon's TOS relating to contacting customers. It also helps them in building their own brand, in the process regaining a measure of CONTROL.

This could be a valuable suggestion to pass on to your clients. (Don't forget to mention my labeling book :innocent: :halo:)

Walter
 

Knugs

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Just wondering. Instead of charging clients for your service, how about charging your clients by the profits/sales you have generated for them?
 
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Young Money

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Wait so you have signed 1 client and they paid you $1000? How were you able to convince them to pay such a large sum if you don’t mind me asking? Is this recurring revenue?

Just signed my first client of April so far.

I'm getting better at pitching.

I got past my fear of loss and took on the "Abundance Mindset" approach. If someone doesn't want it, another person will. Every no is just one step closer to a yes.

Trying to figure out LinkedIn to see if I can connect with sellers on there. Whored out my personal Facebook profile as well. No F*cks given.

Infographics are made and my website is up.

Working on case study's now.

Gonna hit the YouTube comments as well. Also signed up for a shit ton of IRL meetups. I'm FAR better at speaking on the phone or in person than I am in text or online (text). Trying to take angles that are non spammy, and befriend people before I even tell them about it. I hate being "sold" to, I'd rather be helped and create a win/win situation.

Still super confused on the pricing structure. These conversations are always awkward for me. How do I charge enough but not put people off at the same time? Any ideas welcome.

$1,000/$7000 for April.
 

GravyBoat

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This could be a valuable suggestion to pass on to your clients. (Don't forget to mention my labeling book :innocent: :halo:)

Walter

Hell yeah, thank you Walter! Read your book a while back and still refer to it on occasion. I will definitely plug a fellow Fastlaner always!!

Just wondering. Instead of charging clients for your service, how about charging your clients by the profits/sales you have generated for them?

That's the goal. Right now I'm trying to get as many clients as possible, however cheap. This will build this business a baseline, then I can focus on doing monthly retainer plus 10% of new sales generated.

One of my selling propositions is: You're paying FBA 25-30%, why not pay me 10% and get a warehouse to fulfill for you for another 10%?

Wait so you have signed 1 client and they paid you $1000? How were you able to convince them to pay such a large sum if you don’t mind me asking? Is this recurring revenue?

Yes, $1000 per month indefinitely, set up reoccuring billing with Stripe. Once I get to like 3-5 clients, I will take on an employee to help run the ads and do other stuff so I can focus on just getting more high paying clients.

Goal is to have at least 5 clients by the end of April. Got a BUNCH in the pipeline right now, but I'm not counting chickens before they hatch. Until the money is in my bank account, it doesn't count for shit.

Went to an FBA meetup IRL and met the coolest people. Walked up to the meeting host and told him about what I'm doing. About half way thru, when he was a few drinks deep, he let the entire audience (~30 people) know that I was a "Facebook ads 'Wizard.'" Had at least 7 people come up to me afterward and give me their info to work with me. Got 4 meetings lined up from it including one guy I'm gonna charge $2500/mo plus % of adspend or product sales.
 

GravyBoat

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I have long been advocating a simple method for Amazon sellers to obtain contact details for their customers by setting up their own ecommerce site and drawing their Amazon customers to it by including their URL on their labels, and any branding that is an integral part of the product.

Amazon is ruthless, eCom brands NEED to take their business into their own hands. When was the last time you bought Duracel batteries? Nah, they're all Amazon Basics now. They just launched their own skincare brand too. Sellers need to act quickly before they get crushed by their only sales channel.

Bezos godda pay that divorce money somehow!!
 
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GravyBoat

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Meetings are dodging my a$$ right and left.

Pushing hard and having abundance mindset.

Goal is to speak with at least 1 Amazon seller per day.

Struggling to find these guys. Thinking about buying Amazon products from brands I find that don't have their own site, and contacting them through email about the product.

Any ideas would be appreciated!
 

Walter Hay

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Hell yeah, thank you Walter! Read your book a while back and still refer to it on occasion. I will definitely plug a fellow Fastlaner always!!
If you don't have my greatly expanded 2019 version, Let me know and I will send you your free update.

To reflect the more substantial emphasis on marketing psychology it is now called Labels That Exploit the Power of Psychology, Perceptions, and Emotions.

Walter
 

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