Amazon Sellers Leadership Principles
Leadership is an important quality associated with Amazon Sellers and every Amazon Seller should be a product sales leader in their industry. Growing your Amazon Sellers’ account requires constant leadership skills.
Amazon’s Number One Leadership Principle: Customer Obsession
“Leaders start with the customer and work backwards. They work vigorously to earn and keep customer trust. Although leaders pay attention to competitors, they obsess over customers.”
As every seller knows, Amazon functions with one purpose: to satisfy their customers. That is why all sellers are held to such an incredibly high standard. Think about it… almost every suspension we have appealed has been the result of an unhappy customer.
Safety issues, used sold as new, feedback manipulation: the logic regarding these issues is formatted around Amazon’s policy of customer obsession. Amazon wants their customers safe, receiving the product they intended to receive and to not be skewed by fake reviews.
When writing your plan of action, you should take into account the customer obsession principle. Have your corrective actions show you have taken initiative and have your preventative measures show that you too follow Amazon’s principle of customer obsession.
Amazon Sellers Leadership Principle: Ownership
“Leaders are owners. They think long term and don’t sacrifice long-term value for short-term results. They act on behalf of the entire company, beyond just their own team. They never say ‘that’s not my job.’ ”
Ownership is an essential element of every plan of action. Your sellers account has been suspended and there was a reason for this suspension. Own up to the mistakes. No business is perfect, however based on Amazon’s low tolerance, it seems Amazon expects perfection from sellers.
When a seller account is imperfect and violates one of Amazon policies, own up to it. Do not place blame on anyone else.
Amazon Sellers are more likely to be successful in appeal when the seller owns up to the issue and create a thorough plan as to how the seller resolved the issue and how the issue will never occur again. That is because Amazon wants to see that you take these issues seriously and that the seller are willing to do whatever it takes to appease their customers. Simply stated, own up to mistakes. In your root causes demonstrate the truthful reason why an issue arose.
Amazon Sellers Leadership Principles: Learn and Be Curious
“Leaders are never done learning and always seek to improve themselves. Amazon Sellers are curious about new possibilities and act to explore them.”
Amazon expects their sellers to remain up to date on all of their new policies. However, not only should sellers learn and be curious about Amazon’s policies, but sellers should also explore how to develop better business practices. When writing an appeal, take the time to explore new avenues or new business practices to incorporate. Perhaps, hire an extra service to help with reviewing orders or packaging. There are always new ways to improve business, learn, be curious, and have that exploration be reflected in a plan of action.
Amazon Sellers Leadership Principle: Dive Deep
“Leaders operate at all levels, stay connected to the details, audit frequently, and are skeptical when metrics and anecdote differ. No task is beneath them.”
Amazon sellers should interpret “dive deep” to mean a thorough investigation on your business. When looking at the root cause of suspension, sellers will need to do more that just assume what caused the issue; sellers must conduct an investigation into your business practice.
Dive deep into your business and discover what caused the issue that resulted in Amazon Suspension. This is one of the most important steps in a plan of action because if you cannot adequately detect the cause of the issue, then you will be unsuccessful in preventing the issue in the future.
Amazon Sellers Leadership Principle: Deliver Results
“Leaders focus on the key inputs for their business and deliver them with the right quality and in a timely fashion. Despite setbacks, they rise to the occasion and never settle.”
When writing a plan of action, you should aim to show just how you would deliver results. Demonstrate that the issue was corrected immediately, or in Amazon’s words, “in a timely fashion”. Use the verbiage within this principle when writing a plan of action. State that you elevated yourself and seller performance as an Amazon seller and, more importantly, show how you rose to the occasion.
By: Nicole Kulaga, Amazon Sellers Lawyer
