Growing a strong presence on Amazon offers huge opportunities for Amazon businesses but without in-depth knowledge of the platform’s unique characteristics and a well-thought-out Amazon strategy, you will not be able to succeed.
This is where an Amazon consultant comes into play. An experienced Amazon consultant will assist you in developing a tailored approach to multiply your sales and outperform your competition. But it’s hard to find the right Amazon consultant for your business and needs.
That’s why we have put together this guide to help you find your ideal match!
What Is An Amazon Consultant and What Services Do They Offer to Amazon Sellers?
A consultant is defined as an expert or experienced professional who is specialized in a certain field and can provide advice in regard to related topics. The scope of services offered depends on the type of consultant you want to hire.
There are consultants who specialize in a particular aspect of selling products on Amazon, such as Amazon PPC, as well as consultants and consulting agencies that can advise you on all things related to Amazon.
However, there are some basic things that all Amazon consultants perform:
- Situation Assessment – Amazon consultants will first evaluate your current situation. This includes your financial situation, your market positioning, your past sales performance and so on.
- Strategy Development – Once the Amazon consultant is familiar with your situation, they will develop a suitable sales strategy. This includes logistical aspects as well as marketing measures.
- Budget Consultation – An experienced consultant can estimate the FBA and warehouse fees, return management costs, PPC rates, etc. quite accurately and tell you roughly what costs to expect. Having a ballpark estimate of the costs is especially important if you’re on a tight budget.
- Optimizing Workflows – Without efficient work processes, it is virtually impossible to scale a business. An Amazon consultant can show you which tasks you can outsource at a low cost, for example by hiring virtual assistants or contracting a third-party provider for your customer service. Especially day-to-day tasks that don’t require a particularly high skill level eat up a lot of your time and can easily be outsourced.
- Close Monitoring – An Amazon consultant not only teaches you strategies but also continuously monitors whether they are working as intended. This way, immediate countermeasures can be taken if something doesn’t go as planned.
Benefits of Having an Amazon Consultant
As you can see, an Amazon consultant can provide you with valuable advice and strategies and put your business on the right path to success.
In particular, an Amazon consultant will make sure you avoid expensive rookie errors. Many entrepreneurs who are not yet familiar with the Amazon ecosystem tend to burn a lot of money in the early stages, for instance with poorly performing PPC campaigns during the launch phase of a product.
By hiring an Amazon consultant, you can skip the learning curve that most other Amazon sellers have to go through.
Thanks to their experience, they also know which strategies and workflows actually work well. Thus, you don’t have to experiment with different approaches but can directly implement the proven systems that the consultant suggests.
Last but not least, another benefit of having a consultant around is that they will keep you up to date on Amazon’s frequent policy and guideline changes.
What Are the Qualities of a Good Consultant?
Before you start looking for a suitable consultant you need to know how to recognize a good candidate. That way you can ask the right questions before hiring them.
- They emphasize a good SEO strategy – Since almost every second online shopper starts their product search directly on Amazon, the consultant should invest considerable effort in the development of a suitable SEO strategy.
- They Have lots of Experience – The more experienced the consultant is, the better, as they have already learned quite a lot about winning strategies and which pitfalls to avoid.
- They Pursue an Individual Approach – A good Amazon consultant does not strictly follow a one-size-fits-all strategy, but rather tailors his approach to your individual situation and needs.
- They Have a Transparent Pricing Structure – Knowing the approximate costs for their consulting services is the basis for a good partnership with your consultant. A quality advisor is transparent about their pricing from the very beginning.
Hiring TipIf Possible, Agree on a Monthly Flat-Fee!
Since it is difficult to estimate how many hours the consultant will need to devote to your project, it is dangerous to pay the consultant by the hour, as the costs can quickly skyrocket. A simple and safe way to avoid unexpectedly high costs is to agree on a fixed monthly payment with your consultant.
- They Only Use White-Hat Methods – Selling and ranking methods that violate Amazon guidelines – so-called black-hat methods – may bring you short-term success but will damage your business enormously in the long run as you can be sure that your listings and/or seller account will be suspended sooner rather than later. Once you’re suspended, it can be very difficult to get reinstated. That’s why good, professional Amazon consultants use compliant white-hat methods only.
- They Are Compliance Experts – An Amazon consultant also needs to know what legal requirements and regulations you need to comply with if you want to sell your products in a certain country or want to expand to Europe for example. Especially in some categories such as food and health, electronics or children’s toys, there are strict laws and compliance guidelines sellers need to comply with in order to protect consumers from faulty or hazardous products.
- They Think Long-Term – A quality advisor will always focus on the bigger picture and think long-term. Experts will remind you that you should not only invest in short-term sales promotion measures like paid ads, but also in long-term activities such as Amazon SEO, so that you can maintain a high level of traffic on your listings.
- They Can Quickly Adapt to Changes – Amazon is an ever-changing ecosystem with frequent changes in its guidelines. In addition, government regulations and laws are constantly changing, such as import tariffs or product safety directives, which can affect your business and operations. Thus, a consultant must be able to constantly adapt their strategies to new conditions.
Where Can You Find an Amazon Consultants?
The most convenient way to find a suitable Amazon consultant for your business is to use Sermondo. Sermondo is a global platform for Amazon service providers that offers a convenient way to find vetted Amazon consultants from all over the world.
You can either browse the various listings yourself and compare the different service offerings or, you can use our free matching service and let us do the work for you.
Simply fill out our matching form in which you briefly describe your situation, what you need an Amazon consultant for and where you want them to be located. We will review your inquiry and then get straight to work finding the ideal match for you and your business.
If you want a wider selection of potential candidates to choose from, we can also suggest more than one consultant.
Choosing an Amazon Consultant – 3 Steps
1 – Define Your Needs and Requirements
If you don’t know what you’re looking for and what you need, you cannot know when you’ve found the right consultant to get you there.
So before you start looking for a consultant, you first need to reflect on your current situation and ask yourself where you want your business to go.
- Where is your business right now and where do you want to be?
- Which markets do you want to tap into? Which marketplaces do you want to sell on?
- Where do you see the biggest problems right now?
- What is your budget for an Amazon consultant?
- What kind of consultation do you want?
Based on your analysis, you can then quite accurately determine your needs. The better you know what you want, the more you know what kind of consultant you need to achieve your goals.
2 – Interview and Shortlist Potential Candidates
It is important that you compare several consulting companies to be able to better assess who offers you the best price-value ratio.
You should then shortlist about three Amazon consulting firms and talk to them.
During the interview, ask the potential candidates how long they have been in business, how they obtained their knowledge about selling on Amazon, if they have experience with your type of product, what their organizational structure looks like, and so on.
Ask all the questions you want to ask, and listen carefully to their answers. If they try to dodge your questions and give unclear answers, don’t get involved with them. As mentioned earlier, directness and honesty are among the most important qualities of an Amazon consultant.
If they meet your criteria and you feel comfortable with them, get a custom quote from them. Remember, you shouldn’t go with the cheapest one, but the one you feel most comfortable working with.
After all, the better you work together, the faster and better results you will get.
3 – Draft and Sign a Written Service Agreement
Once you have decided which consultant to work with, you will obviously want to get started right away. However, before you give the consultant your “go”, you should first ask if they can send you a service contract or agreement, which will then be signed by both of you.
This way you will avoid a lot of hassle and miscommunication later on, as both parties know what their responsibilities are and how the compensation is arranged.
You can also ask an Amazon seller lawyer to draft a contract for you.
Ready to Find the Best Amazon Consultant for Your Needs and Elevate Your Business?
Knowing and being able to implement the best workflows and strategies is absolutely crucial in order to be one of the top players on the Amazon marketplaces. If you are not an Amazon expert yet or if you are tapping into a new market, working with a consultant can help you take your business to a whole new level.
If you try to learn and optimize everything on your own, you tend to lose valuable time, as your learning curve only rises very slowly. An Amazon consultant, on the other hand, can teach you all their knowledge in a short time and eliminates the need for a “trial and error” approach, as they already know what works well and what doesn’t.
So save yourself a lot of time and money and use our platform to search for verified Amazon consultants and find the one that best fits your needs.
Get started now: Try our Amazon Consultant Matching Service 100% for free →.
