By Martin Heubel, Amazon Strategy Consultant at Consulterce
Many commercial teams are frustrated by the lack of leadership understanding of Amazon:
- Online exclusives get rejected
- Difficult decisions are postponed
- Trade continuity takes priority
But here’s the truth:
Blaming leadership for inaction won’t solve the problem.
Executive teams don’t like uncertainty. Instead, they focus on keeping the ship steady with as little disruption and cost as necessary.
This isn’t always ideal. But enterprise leaders aren’t going to take risks unless you show them data points that support your arguments for:
- Online exclusives
- Selective distribution
- Trade stops to create negotiation leverage
How can you do that?
By creating small business cases that allow you to quantify your arguments.
For example:
- Launch a new product exclusively on Amazon before rolling it out to other retailers. Use this time to gather data on Amazon’s order and pricing behaviour.
- Quantify the cost of avoiding trade stops over the past 3-5 years and its impact on past Annual Vendor Negotiations (AVNs).
Remember:
Your leadership sees your opinion and recommendations as a cost. Until you show them the opportunity cost of inaction.
So start building your business case. Because waiting for leadership to make the first move is rarely a winning strategy for Amazon.
For further information and support, contact Martin Heubel here
