Rolando Rosas 5:43
That’s interesting. I’ve never heard of being put that way that you just weren’t ready for the businesses that you were trying to get going.
Seneca Hampton 5:51
Yeah, yeah, we can dive down the rabbit hole a little bit. If you guys don’t mind. No one did you want to shoot? Um, that’s one of the things I’m passionate. I’m like passionate about two things. One is financial education. And then the other one is, How would I describe it? I describe it as like, responsibility, self responsibility, right? One of the things that bothers me is when we blame other people or other circumstances for where we are, instead of taking responsibility for where you are, I get it, you can’t control everything we like we all get those entrepreneurs, things happen, especially on Amazon. You can’t control what you eat, and how you respond is very important. And so I think that frame of mind is so important in any business that you do. And so if you don’t have that frame of mind, things go wrong, or things are not the way they’re supposed to or things are taking too long, or things are not, it takes time. And you can’t blame of this business doesn’t work, oh, this is going to slow because of x. That’s not you know, to you. And so I say I wasn’t who I was supposed to be. Because there are a lot of beliefs that I have now that I didn’t then that I’ve picked up through experience and coaches and mentors, and just education, a lot of businesses didn’t work. And funny is I had actually given up or surrendered before Amazon. I was at this place where I was like, You know what? Like, this is not working. And I’m just gonna go get a job, literally. And it’s funny the job that I’ve stumbled into sold on Amazon.
Rolando Rosas 7:28
Oh, look at that. Really crazy. And that’s that start maybe the URL, the Amazon bug or the curiosity, you said you’ve evolved, and that in that part of evolving? Once you were in that role, what did you find yourself? Like maybe I could do better? Maybe I’ve got better ideas than what these guys are doing.
Seneca Hampton 7:49
Yeah. So it was funny. I was at a job previously. And I was on my path of how I’m going to figure out how to be financially free, build wealth and do all this stuff. Bro in my 20s I swiped my credit cards so much for like courses and books and seminars, and I just ran on my credit card bill investing in myself. I don’t know if I would recommend that for anybody out there. I had like $17,000 in debt from course. I was just like, when did I read? Rich Dad Poor Dad? How many times have you guys heard people say Rich Dad, Poor Dad really was a mindset shift for me. And for me, it took my focus off of money is a byproduct of focusing on it is focusing on exhausting the car like that’s it’s the wrong spot to focus on. And instead, if you can learn or you can be educated or get experience or wisdom or something that you can use to make the money and get paid to do it, you’re winning. And so I’ve set out I was like, oh my goodness, like I want to learn, I want to learn I want to invest myself. So long story short, I was at a job. And I was learning sales. And I convinced this guy who had a $50 million retirement portfolio of clients. He was retiring. I convinced him to move it over to our firm. And I was supposed to get a commission for this practice in sales. And I learned you want to make money you have to sell the business is the sport of sales, the numbers to literally write, you have no business if you have no sales period. So don’t like sales go through business from so I bring over this portfolio. And my boss Scullers. You got to be the highest paid person here. You’re gonna make more than everybody here. I didn’t have I didn’t have a series. I didn’t have a license. We managed a retirement accounts. So they were trading I didn’t have a license so I could trade so I ran all the operation and I brought over it this $50 million portfolio book of business. That’s huge. I was supposed to get get. I was supposed to get 20% of the fees that we got off on that. And I was 23 Right 23 out here. Oh man who get ready. I because I’ve ran operations. Oops, every single account over, every single one, I spoke to every person, I got everything transferred from one institution to another, got all the POA sign and everything done. And so everything moved over. And it’s time for us to get our first fee payment. And my boss at the time pulls me aside and goes, Hey, I’ve been thinking I want to talk to you. Whenever somebody says that to you. Yeah, like, this can be good. So he doesn’t want to talk to you. I’m like, yeah, he’s so I’ve been thinking about it. And technically, your contracts that you have to know each account, you have to know the person, but you brought over vocally So technically, you don’t know the account. So you’re not supposed to get anything.
Rolando Rosas 10:43
Wow. Wow. I don’t even have the right words for that or but wow.
Seneca Hampton 10:47
Yeah. Yeah. I had no any. He said, we went back and forth of it. And he said, Look, I’m gonna give you four grand Take it or leave it. I was supposed to make like $250,000 this year.
Rolando Rosas 10:58
That’s like, that’s an insult four grand on what you’re owed, which is a quarter mil. It’s just flat out. Money compared to here’s a lump sum lunch money.
Dave Kelly 11:08
Yeah, four grand after taxes. That’s not changing anyone’s life.
Seneca Hampton 11:13
Yeah. Oh, by the way, that was one time that wasn’t on, like, on your salary. That was one time. That’s it.
Dave Kelly 11:20
Wow. And so when he said, I’ve been thinking about wanting to talk to you, that individual has been thinking for a while how he was going to tell you that he’s gonna keep that money in that you’re not gonna get that money. Yeah,
Seneca Hampton 11:33
it was. And I was 23. Like, you’re just a young hungry kid trying to learn and so you’re, oh, man. I’m not allowed angry type of person. That’s not who I am. So my response to it. When I told people they were like, Okay, you’re better than me. Because I would have stood up and started like, going over a quarter million dollars for 20 something. Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Rolando Rosas 11:58
I would jump at flipping tables.
Seneca Hampton 12:01
Yeah, man. My girlfriend at the time was so upset. She was so mad.
Rolando Rosas 12:05
I’m sure she was counting the commission to what you guys were gonna do maybe some honeymoon place or a wild time somewhere,
Seneca Hampton 12:14
too. So it’s like, we’re the opposite. So she’s the, she’s like the have you put her in a market? She’s the bizarre like, she’s just like, dealing and we’ll so like for her. She was like, oh, no, I’m gonna go talk to him. I’m like, let it go. Let it go. It’s fine. It’ll, you know, it’ll come back around. So I put in my two weeks, I quit. And people said, Wait, you stayed two weeks? Yep. They two weeks. Like you’re better than me. I’m like, it was hard. I’m not gonna lie. It was really tough, and hired this girl. I trained her for two weeks, I didn’t badmouth the dude, I left. She quit two weeks. She said he was like, Okay, I go home, I’ve given up this is like I’d given up on this like,
Rolando Rosas 12:53
sounds like we’re in a somewhere in a very low place. After all of that. Like really like a low place like, I could have changed my whole life, my whole life would have been different with this made a huge difference. And then some a hole really just pulled the holy light from under you.
Dave Kelly 13:10
Probably riding that high for so long. Every morning. You’re thinking about when that will come in, and how positive that’s going to be and all the positive thing about the future. And then when I crushed my neck came down. That’s a hard low man. It is hard to bounce back from something like that.
Seneca Hampton 13:30
It was tough. It was because I’ve been spending all this money on learning all this stuff. And I felt okay, this paying off that one deal that’s going to change my life. As a 20 something year old, I’m going to be able to do this. I wanted to do real estate. And that blow I literally, I quit. And I stayed home for six, seven months playing video games on Twitch.
Rolando Rosas 13:54
I find any good video games while you’re doing that?
Seneca Hampton 13:58
Actually, I grew up pretty nice following 4000 followers. 3000 followers. Pretty cool. That’s good. I was like gaming. I just, I gave up man. I was like, this entrepreneurial thing is not for the birds. But I was just worn but because I quit I had a little saving savings. And I was like, okay, that’s not gonna last long. And so I said, What can I do? I went out to try to get another job. And I worked with this lady for a couple of weeks. And she said, your heart doesn’t seem like it’s in this.
Rolando Rosas 14:24
she’s like, she’s just so you were still not recovered.
Seneca Hampton 14:27
Ya know, she gets out. And I’d let her know the same industry. I had let her know what the situation was. And she was like, yeah, that’s not right. But she was like, your heart’s not in this I can tell you’re somewhere else and I’m grateful she did that. So for the first time wasn’t the first time Yeah, because first time I had been let go. I was like, wow, double dejected. Oh my goodness. I go home and I was building websites during this time just like for fun because I liked design. And I jumped on Wix and I started building Wix website never drag and drop. But they were pretty advanced the head of the time during that period of easiest way to create a beautiful website. And so I jumped on there and started designing websites. And they have a profile people could see it, people saw my profile. And they were like, Hey, I’m a designer. I’m like, Yeah, sure, not a problem. So I started designing websites, and I got really annoying because people, it was it got annoying because the preferences that people have versus what looks good, aesthetically, like objectively, in the principles of a design style. They would break them all the time, and it wouldn’t look good. And be like, I want leopard stripes with pink fur. And I thought you wanted modern like I thought you wanted in the Navy and like moderate inches. Yeah, like that doesn’t fit. This is what I want. And you become people’s hand. Right? And they’re paying you to be their hand triple dejected and I’m like,
Rolando Rosas 15:46
Ah, so three strikes and are you out? And then and then some else change? And no, you basically is still learning and from said, you’re learning you’re evolving, acquired some financial background skills. And now you did some website design, you obviously acquired some gaming skills, and so and whatnot.
Seneca Hampton 16:04
So then that girl that got fired, or that quit the other job that I trained, I trained her she quit two weeks later, she calls me and she goes, Hey, I met this company. They’re growing like crazy. Thank you be a great fit. And I’m like, alright, and it was a customer service job. And I’d worked at Apple for five years. So doing customer service was like, I could close my eyes and do it. And so I was like, Yeah, sure. So I went and they were selling light bulbs. And I’m like, okay, and they’re like, Yeah, can you answer emails? I’m like, That’s it like, Yeah. II read. And so they like they say, so how much do you want for salary? And I’m like, salary the answer. He knows, like, what am I like? Yeah. What do you want? And I was like, and I thought they meant, like, per month. And I forgot, though, the way that the question was framed, but I was like, like, 52. And I thought it was more like 50 to, like, 100 every two months or something. It was a weird way they phrased it. And they’re like, Okay, cool. 50,000 a year. I’m like, wait for answering email, the most I’ve ever been paid in my life. I’m about 20. I’m, like, 52 grand, and you say less, don’t plan Twitch answering emails, like I’m like, This is so easy. And the email started to get the volume start to get bigger. And I’m like, This is it wasn’t hard. It’s really easy. But they came to me and I said, Hey, we’re overloaded. Can you help us? And I said, sure how? And he goes, Hey, come over here. And he opens up Amazon. And I remember, and I quote, I know, I’m sorry, if people don’t want to say it. This was I was like, Who buys on Amazon? And this was like,
Rolando Rosas 17:33
Okay, yeah, you go in there.
Seneca Hampton 17:37
Yeah. It was like, people go to the mall, like they go to the party, like who goes or Walmart was on Amazon.
Rolando Rosas 17:43
At some sometime in the future, I don’t know, 50 years or even 100 years after we’re gone. Some people will be like, What were these guys think about? Who buys them? Maybe they meet on the world? I don’t I don’t know. But yeah, looking back nine years ago, you’re like, wow, yeah, of course. Everybody buys on Amazon now.
Seneca Hampton 17:59
Yeah, it was they laugh. They’re like, Oh, they’re laughing. And they showed me and they were doing a million bucks selling lightbulbs. And I was like, oh, and I didn’t think much of it. I was like, okay, cool. Yeah. And it was their brand. It was brand new. So I was like, okay, so they’ve got like, this whole manufacturing thing. And I don’t know anything about that. And he wanted me to come on the back and edit some listing. And so I did that. And he gives me more to do. Yeah, and I had that principle now. And this is what I meant by I wasn’t who I needed to be. I was like, oh, okay, I can learn that. I don’t know what it’s for. But I’ll learn that. And then they got so busy. They were like, Hey, we need your help. Can you learn you watch this video so that you can do this thing, and I watched his video on YouTube. And it was some seminar or webinar. It was boring. I was like, okay, cool. And then the top right corner, I saw a video about how to sell anybody can sell on Amazon. And I was like, What is this and I clicked it, the video change everything. And it was Greg Mercer sitting there, talking about how he was in Thailand or wherever. And he was selling. I forget what he sold on Amazon. And he was making x 1000s of dollars traveling the world. And I’m like, Wait, why? Hold on. So he starts describing private label. And then he they have the bamboo stick, jungle stick. And so I signed up for that. And I’m like watching it. And the light went off. It went off. I was like, Hold on everything that I’ve been learning up until this point, the graphic design stuff and dealing with that. I’ve been learning marketing and sales and copywriting and direct response marketing and like, all of this stuff had come together and I was like, Oh my goodness. This is the lazy passive way that I can make money and start a business and I was like, okay, okay, I see it. So I came to work the next day. And I was like, hey, what else you got? What else do you need? And long story short, I don’t want to bore you too deep, but I went from customer service, VP of marketing, and we scaled that thing until 60 60 million On Amazon three years in, I got the I got the experience to launch over 1200 products in the home improvement, like lighting, and then power tools and like a bunch of different products, I got the experience to hire. And before this, I had more experience doing it. But I got the experience to hire like 20 people, train them all, I hired people with MBA people with bachelor’s people without degrees. So I got a lot of like my hands dirty, I was able to open a call center in Mexico In Mexico. So we went down to Mexico, opened up a call center, train those people on how to answer because I had the customer service background, I was able to teach people how to do customer service. Wow. And so the processes and systems for doing the operations of the different jobs that I had, or came into play, and I was able to build, so I was like, it was education, but I was being an I’ve seized it saw it, I was like, Oh, this is it. And I did all that. And I was watching it every day. And I was searching for a product that’s there for a long time. Because I knew that the product made or like it will make or break
Rolando Rosas 21:02
your vision when you’re when you’re saying searching for those folks that are either new or are not really aware on waiting, and we get a lot of tools and stuff from that that weren’t available back then. But how did you do that search? Did you just go on the internet? Did you just I just randomly gonna type in things? Or how did you do that search?
Seneca Hampton 21:20
I’ll give context to the answer. I’ve spent, I would drive to work listening to podcasts, I’d be at work listening to a podcast, switch to a webinar or switch to podcasts which the next webinar from drive home podcasts at home Facebook group dedicated. And so I was learning everything I needed to learn as I go to work, and I try it at work. And I say that because I learned how to find products by just being so involved in the community. And listening and reading and watching and testing and trying. And because I was able to see products that were working already, I was able to reference the numbers and go, Oh, okay. BSR is node ranking search keyword rankings and are able to see good product inactive and get when we’ve introduced new product, I could tell right away whether it was going to sell or not. And I was able to do that 1200 times. And so out of all those one one of them I saw I was like that was not going to make it didn’t make it. It was you start to see through the matrix you’re like, Okay, now in terms of the actual like tactics of how I did it, you didn’t have Helium 10 When I was around AM/PM podcast hadn’t been started by Manny Coates. And then I was there episode one when he started. I was there on his Periscope. Periscope that he would do. Yeah, I was there. I was on there. I can’t
Rolando Rosas 22:41
remember what episode. And no, I can’t remember 100 Something he was invited me on. They’re not you were episode one of the AM/PM.
Seneca Hampton 22:49
I wasn’t on it, like on it like I was watching. And so you are consuming it yet. I’ve been in the background, the Amazon background for eight, nine years. And so you if you scroll back in the groups, you won’t hear me say anything. But that was their like reading and learning. And so they didn’t have jungle, they didn’t have Helium 10 Jungle Scout was the closest. And they didn’t have the robust tools that they have now. So you had to actually go in like typing a keyword. And then look at the number of products that come up in the top left corner of how many searches variable, the old school man, go through the actual notes open up rocket, man. So you had to understand how the platform moves. In order for you to be able to pick a good product, you couldn’t just go and punch in segments of software and go oh, look great, sell it. And I think I feel like a lot of people are problem because if they go and they punch it in, they’re like, oh, it looks good. But you don’t understand the why. And you’re looking at a snapshot, you’re not looking at context. And that’s the other thing that I really learned was really important was the context of the product over time, and not just the seasonality, but from the point of it, hitting the platform to its maturity and then going through stages. And so I had to like it was spreadsheet, calculating, and just like hours of research to find a product. And I wanted to do something that I knew I wanted to do something that I was comfortable with something I was familiar with. And my mom was a phlebotomist when she was a nurse, and she’d come home and use all her tools on us draw blood paper or leg to practice them. Yeah, basically. And my dad was our football coach growing up and we kept our clean all the time. That was what you did like you’re not taking your sleep
Rolando Rosas 24:30
at night cleats to look cool. need it.
Seneca Hampton 24:32
You look good. You play good. So stop trying to look pretty in played it’s the final look pretty Oh, feel good.
Dave Kelly 24:38
I’m dressing for you. Hey, you know what I mean?
Seneca Hampton 24:41
I remember he bought me these brand new Nike speed CDs. So remember them to this day. They were white and black. And I spotted them very first time I wore them in the game. And I took them off. They had glue everywhere. And I was so distraught and we didn’t grow up with a lot of money at all, so I knew how much you like it. meant to have those and what he spent to get them and how important they were. So it was like, I was I felt bad. And then that moment never left. And so while I was researching, I was looking in sports because I played sports. And I was looking in football, and I was playing football, and I rolled across product. And I was like, hold on, does this, can I make this work? And so I dove deeper. And I won’t bore you with the details. But I went through and solve the all the problems that I could. And because I had studied copywriting and direct response marketing, I knew how to position it. So I positioned it. And I’ll tell you guys that story later. But I sold through 300 units in four days. It just I was like,
Rolando Rosas 25:40
Whoa, by the way, it just started coming together. Yeah,
Dave Kelly 25:43
yes. And was that right? Were you doing FBA back then? Or was that seller fulfilled?
Seneca Hampton 25:48
I was straight FBA, I was all FBA. So the cool thing was, is I was able to see a company that was doing a million. And because I was in charge of Amazon, I saw it go to 60. And I saw all that headaches and hiccups and all the things that could go wrong on listings and like Amazon’s algorithm responding to different things like I was able to see it. So I was able to avoid a lot of the issues that a lot of people probably run into. Because I saw that, yeah,
Rolando Rosas 26:16
yeah, I’ve got to do a test drive. No, literally, or you went in and bought the vehicle yourself, and get paid for that.
Seneca Hampton 26:23
It was the most valuable education that I got paid for, which I maybe it’s not Amazon, for some people, maybe it’s something else. So people want to be a writer, they want to be a video editor, they want to be a whatever, but they hate their job. And so you need to find the things that your job is learning. And at some point, I was at a different job. And I had to publish a book. And I was like, I don’t care about publishing Well, like I don’t, I listen to audiobooks, when I want to publish a written book, but learning how to publish a written book from start to finish on Amazon, I now have that skill. I’m like, I know how to do that if I want to, lo and behold, I need a book. I feel like there’s that opportunity to be able to do that. But when I got my first batch of products, I didn’t order them pack in labels, I sat down in my living room and packed and labeled each one individually. And that was a like, I put myself through the wringer on every step and part of the process. When it came to
Rolando Rosas 27:19
Seneca you’re not alone. I remember when we started the private label side of the of our business. I had my mom and my mom myself, and I recruited a kid or two from the neighborhood to come help label once once you like sell more than like you say, Oh 300 Maybe what happens if I sell 1000? Oh, wow, I was gonna fill up the garage. Okay, I can’t do it all myself. And you just you yourself labeling for hours? And then it’s your wife? And then a does our neighbor have a 10 year old that wants some extra money? Yeah, bring the sister let them and we did that for a while. We did do that kind of thing where we were recruiting neighbors to put labels on products.
Seneca Hampton 28:01
Yeah, you gotta remember TaskRabbit? I don’t even know if it’s still around.
Rolando Rosas 28:05
Yep, yep. Okay, I had no success with the TaskRabbit the last few days. But yes, listing.
Seneca Hampton 28:11
I went on there and hired a guy to come to my house and sit on my liver for with me. We packed everything into polybag. And these little ugly labels that I created in Photoshop, using your own printer, right? Yeah, it literally. Yeah, it was crazy. But I wanted to go through all the things that I didn’t understand that I didn’t know. So that way, when something went wrong, I knew what was wrong. And I knew how to fix it. And I don’t say this to master everything. But Jack of all jack of all trades master of one. Like I understand how all of it work. So that way, if something goes wrong, I made sure to go through that grueling part.
Rolando Rosas 28:47
But you’re right Seneca, if you and I were to just sit in a room with a bunch of other 1% sellers. I think all of them would say something very similar to what you just said, to be successful on Amazon, you, you really need to have a mastery of several different skills. Because it’s not enough to be good at ads. It’s not enough to just be good at listings. And it’s not enough to be good on the logistics side. And it’s not enough to be good enough on the financial end. You need to bring all these skills and probably several others. And you have to master them because it is a business being on Amazon. And Amazon has their own rules that don’t apply on Shopify don’t apply on Google. They don’t apply on Etsy or eBay or anywhere else. Amazon is its own planet. You have to understand if you’re going to Mars, you Nanda know the rules of living on Mars and like that.
Seneca Hampton 29:45
He gets to Mars and take your helmet off.
Dave Kelly 29:47
I thought picture Arnold Schwarzenegger in running man.
Seneca Hampton 29:53
No. Was that the one where he was? He was an alien, but he didn’t know that he was an alien. Yeah, what is that called?
Dave Kelly 29:59
It wasn’t In Running Man, that was the goes to Mars and
Rolando Rosas 30:04
with Walmart, he goes to Mars and he’s uses his fecal matter to grow potatoes. I think you’ve made he went to Mars, and what was the name of that movie? Oh, he probably let us know. No, I’m sorry. I always confuse the two. I always confused me to Matt Damon, going? Mark Marsh?
Seneca Hampton 30:21
Yeah, no, I think you’re right. 100%. I was. So I’ve done some consulting with them. With agencies like I’ve actually consulted with agencies. And one of the things that I have to often remind them is, Amazon is its own ecosystem, like vertically integrated. So it’s not like to your point, Google or Shopify, or Facebook, or whatever, where you have these separate entities that are tying together a funnel, it’s its own funnel, so you can’t, the principles, some of them don’t apply, I’m gonna get people to my listing by making a cool image, and a great title, another click on it, and then I’m going to convince them through persuasive copy, and it’s thrown, nobody’s gonna sit there read through that. I’m so sorry. They’re gonna click there. And they’re gonna look at your reviews, your price, your pictures, and who else is on your listing and what they’re charging? And what they don’t want to see it that way. No, you’re wrong story will always sell on the line. You’re right. But not in this context, then you got to change, the framing of it, but the how you see it. And so a lot of times, people run into the issue where they’re like, my ads aren’t performing. I’m gonna like it has nothing to do with your advertising or your strategy, or any of that you have a poor offer, go to your competition. And they’re like, Oh, I didn’t think of that. And it’s if you were running in a foot race, would you consider the people that are running against you? Or would you just run however you want it to run? you’d consider somebody foolish you go, you’re in a race, you should be watching where people are. And you should be taking strategic lanes for specific reason. And I find a lot of people aren’t doing that.
Rolando Rosas 31:52
And I got the biggest mistake. Seneca, you just said on something. Would you say that’s one of the bigger mistakes that people are businesses, once they go on Amazon, they don’t really consider the competition relative to what they’re selling?
Seneca Hampton 32:04
Yes, I would. And the reason why I say that is because on other platforms, you don’t have when people come to your website, they’re on your website. And so you take that same logic over and you’re like, you’re on my listing, I did not have that we’re literally right underneath your buy button. There’s somebody with
Rolando Rosas 32:20
it everywhere. There’s the distraction all the way around the top, the headers of the side of the bottom, in between the a plus content sections, there’s all kinds of flashy red things that they’re trying to send to okay, you don’t like that, oh, we’re maybe over this. This is one’s recommended these. Always,
Dave Kelly 32:37
oh, man, if they do happen to click on something, they may not find you again. They just they just get down this little warm hole, and they just start clicking around and now they’re still buying what they wanted to buy, but it’s not your brand. It’s somebody else.
Seneca Hampton 32:53
Yeah, and that’s, I’m gonna give away some of the secrets. I’m sorry, you guys. I’m sorry.
Rolando Rosas 32:57
Let’s see. That’s okay. That’s okay. Look, we’re here, because we’re gonna talk about some of those things. Here. We got some charts. So it’s probably a good time that you’re jumping in on the secrets part.
Seneca Hampton 33:06
Okay, so like, people are always talking about search terms and ranking. Those are very important. Don’t get me wrong. But I think the one of the most left on parts of Amazon is advertising on detail pages.
Rolando Rosas 33:20
Okay, hold on a second. So I want to do this. I’m gonna have you repeat that and Ori can you throw in the four filler space here? Put in a pro tip here. So we get that. So I’m gonna follow up from to Seneca, tell us more about what secret sauce here that you want to tell us and give us that nugget? Got it?
Seneca Hampton 33:39
Yeah, yeah. So I feel as if a lot of people focus on search, right and ranking for search terms, which is very important, right. But one of the most valuable pieces of real estate on Amazon are other people’s detailed pages. And if you have an aggressive bid strategy on people’s detail pages, you literally suck the life out of their ranking. And again, if your offer is superior to theirs, because it’s a no brainer
Rolando Rosas 34:06
Price even factor into this, if you have, let’s say a comparable product maturity, maybe 5% lower on that ad that shows up on the detail page. Does that work?
Seneca Hampton 34:16
Is it? It depends, right? It depends on what it is. If it’s, I don’t know, a garter belt, right? How much are guarded belts and a 5% discount, that’s what book versus if you’re a lower ticket item, it really depends on what the value of the good is to the person that you’re trying to sell to. But what I like to say is, it should be no brainer, somebody should look at it and go, Okay, this seems too good to be true. Because now they’re looking at your list. They’re not focused on anything else. They’re looking at your images, they’re looking at your reviews and they’re going this seems pretty good. Okay. Purchase is the thing that draws people they go, Oh, it’s the image. I think there’s a subconscious thing with the image. It’s there’s just my opinion, for sure, absolutely. But I think that price and that review count is like the ad that pulls people in and so when you have when you’re advertising Other people’s detail pages, and you have a seductive price, and a nice review, count it almost audit before they click on the card. They’re like, Oh, and click, and you become you’re catching sales through somebody else’s listing. It’s one of the most profitable ways to, and we’ll talk about profitability and ads, because there’s a I have a whole thought process on that.
Rolando Rosas 35:22
Yeah, yeah. But uh, you know, and cheaper. What’s interesting. So what you’re saying is one way to get on, at least build some momentum is maybe using other other competitors or complementary products? And those listings that are already getting traffic to pull traffic to your site, or to your listing?
Seneca Hampton 35:40
Yeah, absolutely. It’s cheaper than bidding on cheaper, cheaper. So now your dollar stretches further. Now you can hit more pages. And or if your most of your bid is going there, your your CPC is higher than your competition. And if you have a seductive offer, your CTR is probably higher and your conversion rate is probably higher. And the algorithm goes, Ooh, I like that. I’m getting sales from you. And now you’re shaking hands with Amazon. They love it. And your competitors. Oh, man, what’s going on with my sale? Where are they going? And very few people who saw on the platform know that they’re paid. You think Oh, my rankings, everything’s fine in my rankings, what’s going on guarantee, go look at your listing page. And look around, you’ll see somebody page and go
Rolando Rosas 36:27
now you got another pro tip or he gives us something? Here comes a pro tip. So Seneca, you just said that you have to look at that listing page. Why is that?
Seneca Hampton 36:40
Because if your sales are fluctuating or they’re going up and down, and you don’t know why what your rankings haven’t changed, it’s probably because somebody is siphoning sales from your listing fee. They’re probably bidding right below your buy box. And well, there’s all your traffic gone.
Rolando Rosas 36:55
It’s just bleeding away into your listing is bleeding, and you’re not really sure there’s one easy way to look at what other products are appearing on that page besides your own. Correct
Dave Kelly 37:04
Seneca sorry, Rolando.
Rolando Rosas 37:07
Yeah, go for it. Go for it.
Dave Kelly 37:09
With that you had mentioned that buyers are looking at reviews and pricing reviews or product reviews and seller reviews. Do you feel that those are both important? And what does your team look like to so it’s about that buyers experience, if you’re if you as a seller are going to get a good review. The buyer needs to have a good experience. So what does the team look like? For Hampton? Adams? Who do you have working for you so that that customer is getting that good? That good experience?
Seneca Hampton 37:43
Yeah. So I’ll touch on the touch on the the team side for and then we can swing back to the price point. So for me, I have no team. So you’re going to solo? Yeah, I have contractors that I contract for specific work when I need it. But in terms of employees that do X, there is nobody, I have to like a contractor that helps me with customer service. But because I spend a lot of time answering the questions people have before they buy, I don’t really get a lot of customer service requests. And if
Rolando Rosas 38:17
sufficient, various as we vary very efficient, because if you use that word earlier, being efficient, it is very hard to be one or two, really micro business on Amazon, unless you’re super efficient. And at that level that you’re selling it.
Seneca Hampton 38:34
Yeah, you have to, I feel one of the issues that I’ve run into is with Amazon in general, taking 60% of people’s profit off the top, and then you throw an ad cost and those are rising. I remember when my tacos was 11%, nice 11% Chocolate, good days, good time. But those costs are rising more and more. And so you now at this point, either have to raise your price, we know what that does. Or you have to be more efficient in how you spend your money and your time. And so trying to figure out the most efficient ways for me to spend that get biggest impact, the 8020 rule, big believer at 20. So where can I spend or my time or resources or whatever to get back majority of the impact rather than on the other 80%? That’s not really going to get me what I’m trying to get in the immediate. So how I tend to look at it.
Rolando Rosas 39:22
It definitely leads to good results because they’re very, you’re in a company of very few when you’re that efficient, or we can we put up the chart with the numbers that we talked about earlier. Can you put that charge so we can show it to Seneca and then Dave
Seneca Hampton 39:37
what was the other side of that question?
Dave Kelly 39:39
So the other part was about the importance of good pricing. So how do you stay competitive with pricing?
Seneca Hampton 39:45
Yeah, I think everybody experiences the this we all know that they are the sellers that come in and try to undercut everybody right the ground. I think we you’re no longer in the framing shouldn’t be a price war. It’s a ranking ward. And so you have to figure out now how can I continue to add ranking or keep momentum going with my ranking? Because I have a theory. It’s just my theory. But I feel as if the higher your price point. So let me back up. The theory is this, to flip rates on Amazon and the foot race is a race of conversion sales. every sale you take is a step that you take in the race. And I feel as if the larger or the higher your price, and the more units you add to that order, the wider your stripe, in terms of how are they making more money, and how that translates to the algorithm, right and to ranking. So somebody can have a lower price. But they’re beating you not because they have a lower price, but it’s because of the velocity that they’re turning at that price, right? The footsteps that they’re running in that rate, your footsteps have slowed, right. So if you do have a higher price, then you need to figure out how to create hay, add two products and get 20 30% off, you need to figure out how to widen your stretch versus lowering your price. So I’m always thinking about the algorithm, what I’m doing what I’m doing, not necessarily the price, so hopefully that that kind of answer that question.
Dave Kelly 41:11
Interesting. Yeah,
Rolando Rosas 41:12
it’s, you know, it definitely. So we’re talking about the algorithm and how that impacts essentially your visibility, because one of the ways of looking at Amazon, I tell people all the time is look at it as monopoly. You’re not playing chess, or checkers, which is one move and then somebody else moves, you’re playing against a lot of other people, and you land on the wrong spot is going to cost you your I like monopolies good because you have to be able to conquer different areas within Amazon, you’re talking about somebody else’s product listing, that’s one tactic, and you can make things flow your way. But what I want to do is talk a little bit about Seneca, how Amazon is not a game for the weak or people that are not going to put in the hustle, right? Yeah, it is you need fortitude, you need strength, you need hustle, you need the masters of multiple areas. So much so that I’ve got this, this graphic here that I want you to take a look at. This was a marketplace pulse did a study of the 2 million sellers that are out there on the platform. And of those 2 million that you have only when you look at this small man right here, let me just open it up here tell you the exact number. Or it’s a little bit small man. So you have a small sliver that are making a million or more and out of the 2 million. And if we were to say that if you are a viable business, a business, not a person, but a business, on Amazon, you can’t have a viable business if all you’re making is 100,000 or even 300,000. That’s just not enough. That’s really not enough as a business to really grow. Eat paid the bills. Correct. So if you’re a viable business, you’re above that 1 million and probably up north of the 5 million mark, look at where that 1% comes in. Less than 1% are in that north of a million dollar mark. Yeah. And that shows you how difficult it is and that a million it’s not like you’re rich, because yeah, you said if you’re pocketing off of the million annually, these are annual numbers. If you’re generating a million dollars in sales on Amazon, that’s not the take home, you’re not taking home a million dollars. When you pay the when you pay the supplier, the manufacturer, you pay Amazon, you pay the Amazon fees and the ads and everything else. You’re taking some money home, but you’re still not driving around in 10 Ferraris or anything like that.
Seneca Hampton 43:44
Yeah, no, no, not at all.
Rolando Rosas 43:45
And even at that, you see the numbers it is difficult to get into that club of the million dollar plus annual club on Amazon. It so it really takes a lot of thought and and for you. You said you evolved you learn you educated yourself, and you’re able to climb into that 1% Because it does take that it’s not as simple. I’ve been consuming a lot of Tik Tok lately, and I’ve seen a lot of tiktoks and a lot of other folks get on social media and say, go to Alibaba. Oh, get up with helium 10 sells for $30 on here on Amazon. You go to Alibaba Oh, I can get it for 50 cents. Oh, and because helium 10 says that’s a $200,000 run rate on that product. Ie you could easily make the assumption that you’re going to make $200,000 because somebody else is generating that on that one product. Like yeah, that bugs me to no end because it’s not that easy. It really is not that he’s not even show up here in any of these graphs. If you thought it was gonna be that easy.
Seneca Hampton 44:50
Yeah. This is why it’s good to know marketing because you’re being So educate yourself, right? If you’re gonna put me out on a soapbox Rolando. They’ll put me
Rolando Rosas 45:00
I want to I guess I’ve been on a soapbox, the last couple of podcasts I’ve been on. I saw, I’m on fire with that, because I like yourself. I’ve been on the platform for a long time. I’m in our companies in that top 1%. And I think it’s an insult to tell people who don’t know better, that you can easily go and grab the tools from Helium 10, or anything like that, like Jungle Scout or whatever, look up a product category, find the winners. In magically, you are going to sell like the top 10%, the top top ones that are on page one. Yeah, that just doesn’t happen. Like, it doesn’t happen that way. And then
Dave Kelly 45:35
they market it as a side hustle. It’s just passive income, just something I can do on the side.
Seneca Hampton 45:41
You know what it took me I got to work on another business 80 hours a week. So when I went to do mine, it wasn’t like, I got that education already. And so when you factor in you, you’re having to learn all this stuff. And you’re starting a brand new business, and you’re trying to figure all this out. It’s not gonna happen. Like it’s very nuanced. Like, I’m working on a project right now, where people are selling new courses. And I’m like, do I want to sell a course to people to teach them how to get on Amazon? Because like, I’ll teach you. But I’m telling you, when you get on the process to get into the top one first there is a it takes years to do plural, it’s two to four years to be able to do that. So teaching people to do it. Yeah, sure. But I’d much rather help the people that are stuck at that 100,000 200,000 300,000 mark, get over a million. They’ve already got it down. They’ve already got the their system in the process, they understand the algorithm a little bit better. They’re willing to make the commitment dedicated. And there’s just a few tweaks of things that they need in order for them to go Oh, like example, for tightening on detail page thing, right? You lean harder into that your sales go up for cheaper, right? There’s just little nuance things that people need to learn to go, oh, okay, cool. I can actually do this. But when I see that stuff, people, hey, just go to Alibaba and do this. I just, I’m shaking my head because I’m like, You’re literally lying. You’re lying. That’s not true at all. This isn’t 2012. Like you can’t just go in 100% You know, don’t so anybody who sees that. Oh, I saw this thing on Tik Tok. And he showed this little thing and it was 50 cents. And they were selling for 20 bucks. I can do that, too. There’s a lot of marketing. I go, there’s a unique.
Rolando Rosas 47:34
Right Seneca, we were breaking this down before you came on. And we’ve discovered that, at least on one of these platforms, one person that was doing this was not even an Amazon seller, they are a content creator or influencer, pushing this stuff, and then really just trying to collect the affiliate marketing commission by pushing the software. Yeah, so their agenda is to really push people over to the software so they can discover stuff rather than actually understand the business.
Seneca Hampton 48:04
Yeah, yeah, you can put me in another soapbox. I have been conversating with a lot of agencies lately. And there’s a trend that I’m noticing a lot of people want. So you can use the analogy of music, you oftentimes run into a musician who are savants said music, but know nothing about business. Right? They could sound like an angel who just fell from heaven, but they don’t know how to market their stuff and get it out. And you say, hey, you need to focus more on the business side of things on a number side, and they say I don’t care. Like I just love what I do. And then those instances you go, I hear you. But if you want people to hear you, you got to be able to move the other side. But I feel like on the digital advertising side, or the ecommerce space, it’s the opposite. It’s so focused on the money aspect of it and the numbers aspect of it. And it’s like, where is the passion for being good at your craft? I’m really good at advertising. I’m amazing graphic design, or like, I’m I can I know how to increase conversion rates with whatever, work with me because I’m really good. And because I care. I care about the craft of what it is. Yeah, we’ll just throw it into our templated process. So they can go ahead and pay us our monthly retainer. Like it’s, we don’t really care about them. We just care about the money they pay us. And I feel like a lot of the courses a lot of the program, like it’s like that it’s a Yeah, buy this product for dollars on Amazon. I’ll show you how. Join my free course. And then you join the course. And then your Wow on is showing all these outliers that are not the reality because I’ll tell you this, you want to learn how to sell on Amazon, jump into the Facebook group, and just sit and watch and read. If you still want to sell on Amazon after a month of reading, do it. But if not, don’t because you’ll literally hear people in there telling the truth about what it’s like in an ad. And there’s a lot of skills that you need to acquire and pick up along the way. Think that you have to become that person to have that business. There’s a different person who thinks that way who, who reasons that way who believes those things. And if you’re not that person, you’re not going to be a quick, easy get rich. Don’t do that yourself, please.
Rolando Rosas 50:18
Absolutely. It’s a recipe for disaster to flame out and burn it. But I think that’s a good segue for a couple of other things I want to ask you, because you were on the show. It’s a little show called Shark Tank, where you you brought your skills, and you showed your passion. And you demonstrated to the sharks, a mastery that very few, even just sellers are able to do and stand on that carpet and dance, right? A lot of people break down and they get laughed out of the room. Right? They get laughed off of Shark Tank. And that didn’t happen. Although it didn’t have the ending that you wanted. I saw the whole episode. But the Mark Cuban coming out and saying, I want you to work for me. I don’t think I’ve maybe one other time. And I’ve think I’ve watched almost all the seasons. Have I heard him utter anything like that. Well, he’s really ushered people out of the room, basically, a lot of the times he basically said I need you on my team
Seneca Hampton 51:22
really impressive. Yeah, if I can be very honest, the I didn’t expect any of what they said to me in there. I watched the show, and they’re very one thing about the shark that they’re on it. Like they’re gonna tell you the truth, and they’re not going to placate you there’s gonna be like, hey, look, this is what it is. Mr. Wonderful will tell you in a minute. Take the thing out back. Shoot it. Yeah.
Rolando Rosas 51:44
Yeah, they go back to the shooting. Yeah.
Seneca Hampton 51:47
So it didn’t hear them say what they said in the moment, it felt very surreal was like there’s no way like this. Because a lot of times what from the inside out and what others see from the outside is completely different. And I’ve had my head down focus for so long. Do what I’m doing that it was a real shock and surprise me to hear those things. I was like, Oh, wow. Oh, okay. Cool. Thank you guys so much. You get an offer. You get an offer from Mr. Wonderful. Like, he’s the first one to tell you this is dead. I don’t want anything to do it. I get it out here because he cares about his money.
Rolando Rosas 52:19
He says I like my money like it to grow
Seneca Hampton 52:22
Yeah, it was. It still doesn’t feel real, that no, that those things were said. But in terms of what Mark said, there are things that you can talk about and things you can’t talk about on the show. I can tell you about what happened on it. And what air
Rolando Rosas 52:38
stuff we saw the stuff that we saw. Yeah. So So let me ask you about this. What was it like for you to you probably can’t talk process so much because it probably that’s the producer sessions they add, but what was it like for you personally, once you knew that you were going to be on there? What did that feel like? What were your emotions as you knew you were you’re gonna get ready for the live the walk through those doors and boom, incomes, the sharks.
Seneca Hampton 53:04
Um, and it wasn’t, I didn’t want to do it
Dave Kelly 53:07
was it didn’t want to do because of you didn’t want to do it because of nerves. You didn’t believe in the products. You just didn’t want to have a partner.
Seneca Hampton 53:17
So my, my wife convinced me to do it. He was like, You should do it. And I was like, Ah, no, I’m good. So I’ve built my brand and done all this stuff. You can even check the paper pages. You rarely if ever hear me talk. I’m literally a ghost. And I like it that way. I’m like, I don’t I’m not I don’t want to be at the top and flat out. That’s not me. And so to be on TV and to do that for me was already alright. It’s a little it’s not really my style. And she applied with a chest thumping, right? Yeah. And I don’t really like the posturing thing. I don’t really like the posturing thing. It’s people who know me know, like, Seneca wears black joggers, and T shirts and jackets. And he just That’s him. I walk around with a hit bag and people are like, Oh, that’s so cool. What is it, like your fanny packs festival bag. And I’m like, This is my bag that I keep everything in. And this is just my style. This is who I am. This is me this is. And so I don’t like to like, hi, that’s not my style. So to have to go on there and have to do any of that was was a little like off putting. I randomly get a call. And I’m like Hello. And they’re like, Hey, this is so and so from Shark Tank. And I look over at her you go sorry. I’m like, Oh my goodness.
Rolando Rosas 54:28
Knowing I didn’t know about it, I had no idea. So what did she do she sent in a tape or she wrote something or an email.
Seneca Hampton 54:35
However you applied the lady applied. So if you guys want to go to Shark Tank, I can connect you with her. She got to Cuba. She applied and they reached out and you have to go through their process. And I did that and man they grill your entire company like you’re about to get acquired by Sony literally like their lawyers and everybody they go through all your paperwork, all your legal stuff are like everything. It was like we’re not gonna let anything show on the screen that we have to hear it Think about that was really intense, but the entire time the entrepreneurial problem solving, that people say, Oh, not, my wife says you’re a pessimist. They’re not really, right. And so I’m looking at it and I’m going, Okay, what is the backlog? What is the thing that I’m gonna have to counter? Because you do that on Amazon all the time, you’re always like, Okay, how are you playing chess before it happens, you’re making sure that things are set up, so you don’t have to deal with x, right? And so I’m thinking that I’m gonna, she’s gonna stop this just gonna do it, she’s gonna be great. It’ll be wonderful. I’m like, I won’t be. So the entire time. I’m actually launching a second business as I’m going through this process. And the process is pretty involved. And so your time is demanded, your creativity is demanded the deep, like details and attention to details is demanded. And I’m starting a second business and it’s Amazon DSP. People who are on amazon.com. No, DSP is like display product, right? And displays, swatch products. DSP is delivery service partner, so all the Amazon vans around the country driving people dropping off packages. That’s not Amazon. Yeah, it was a third party company. And so I have one of those companies. And I was launching it during this time, I’m getting ready for dark. So I’m exhausted. I’m like, in I’m in a training for 10 hours for the entire week, while on the other line, dealing with the producers and going through all this stuff. And
Rolando Rosas 56:27
that process last from when you get that call to when you showed up that day, for the taping.
Seneca Hampton 56:33
It was a while. It was a while it was a while and I don’t want to spoil their process, but there. Yeah, it’s not. It’s not a couple of weeks, it’s months. It could be I’ll just say it could be it could be Yeah. And so they let you know that like, Hey, this is gonna be a sprint, you want to sprint or it can be a marathon. So I was just like, so let me get this out of the way. Okay. And I the entire time. I’m like doing this stuff. And I’m learning this. So I can like, get it going. I’m like, I should just tell them. I don’t want to do it. You know, it’d be great, you know, and the entire time was like, I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know. And it wasn’t because I didn’t believe my product wasn’t related. Like, I read my review. So here’s another pro tip. Where’s my boy Morgan and Morgan Freeman, where you need a pro tip? Yeah, we’re
Rolando Rosas 57:14
another pro tip for a problem too. Okay. All right, go for it. Seneca hit it.
Seneca Hampton 57:20
So for the sellers, right? One of the things that I do every morning is I read my positive review every morning, because it reinforces to you why you’re doing what you’re doing and the people you’re helping because as you get going and you go, as a business owner, you’re looking at the negative stuff, and how do you fix it, and over time it starts to eat away at you, then like this, people are leaving negative comments and reviews whether they’re fake or not, they get you in overtime, or you don’t wash that off. But something it starts to put a stigma in your head of what the negative is. That’s all you’re looking at, because you’re a business owner, your problem. So right, yeah. And so I like put in this practice of I go through and I read my reviews every morning. And I really let them sink in. This is really helping people like people really liked this stuff. And it keeps you going when things get tough. So there’s something for people, because it hurts. It really does.
Rolando Rosas 58:12
I like that because I see the negative reviews. And I want to see the one stars, I want to see what they’re about. Because some of them like you said, they’re just like, You dunk the thing in the toilet. What do you think it’s not going to work? If people do this, these crazy things. And they say that didn’t work for me. And Amazon gladly takes everything back. But yeah, when you spend a lot of time in the one stars looking for, oh, yeah, that was a legitimate problem. Or even the clowns that leave these types of really nonsensical reviews to stars gonna get jaded.
Dave Kelly 58:47
Sometimes we’ll read a real excuse me, sometimes we’ll read a one star, and it will bring attention to something that we can go and fix. And that does. That is good. That is a good feeling. But um, yeah, I don’t think we’ve read enough of the five star reviews because it doesn’t seem like there’s anything to fix there. We want to focus on things that we can solve a job.
Seneca Hampton 59:11
Yeah, exactly. And you in for me, I’m in this okay, problem solving. Is that legitimate? Is that not let me talk to my factory, let me and see you’re in this constant mode of knowing that. And for me, it started to seep through and it was like this really good. Is it really no, in the wild little I put in the practice. I’m like, Hold on. I’ll tell you this. Here’s the funny thing. Amazon sellers are quick to say, oh, that’s fake. But you won’t go read the five stars that are real. It’s you need to take that in. That’s a legitimate five star from somebody you didn’t pay for that I that just it happened. And so it really helped me especially I have some products with 1000 Reviews, like 10,000 reviews. So the ratio of negative is still small, but it’s a lot in volume because of the size and so I don’t know 50 skews and so you’re always looking for the problems. You can see how you can start to get in the market and muck up stuff. Ah, this is another issue or something, I started the practice of reading my reviews, positive reviews,
Rolando Rosas 1:00:08
I really think we’re gonna have to incorporate that Dave, let some of the wonderful customers that are leaving those glowing five stars kind of balance out, like you said, Watch.
Seneca Hampton 1:00:19
We get in if you have a team, and they’re a customer service team, like every morning, and we’re gonna read some five stars today, just so that they can feel like you’re not working for crack. This is actually a really good product. But you only hear the negative because people are more likely to talk about it.
Rolando Rosas 1:00:33
Oh, great. I like that. I like that. I’m taking that on to the better, because that’s something I’m going to start incorporating a cynic. I want to ask you like everybody else that goes on Shark Tank. The question that I know we’re not because I watch the show I’d really like it is what happens afterwards, the cameras go off. Obviously some goto turned into deals, some do not. But there are stories that happen after the cameras turned off in both ways. Sometimes, deals that were agreed to on the shark tank that I’ve read, a couple of articles of people have been on in the past, that those don’t actually materialize. Yeah, that something happens that they don’t, they still can’t agree to some terms or something new pops up and the deal goes south and then some where things start popping off. After the air, the show airs. And even if things didn’t go their way on the show, all of a sudden a bunch of doors start flying open, what happened with you in your case?
Seneca Hampton 1:01:27
Oh, my inbox, my inbox is just isn’t saying like it’s full of people who are like, people who have positive things to say to me, which, like, is so refreshing, because I’m so used to dealing with all problems and problems. And I’m on the team by myself. So there is nobody to go. Literally. So like those things that I’m hearing, like even from the sharks and all that stuff is really Oh, wow. Like, I’ve been so focused, I haven’t really stopped to look. So thank you guys. So I’ve gotten a lot of positive things. I’ve gotten a lot of opportunities, hey, I got an opportunity for you. And I’m like, okay, and I politely answer them. But one of the things that you know, anybody who wants to know who I am, I’m very nice, but I’m very direct. And I don’t mean to be rude. I’m just I believe time is precious, don’t waste it. And hey, I have an opportunity. What is like, why don’t you just tell me what it is like, Let’s just cut to it. I had a guy recently, Hey, what is an opportunity? Watch this 18 minute video? I said very politely. I’m going to be very honest, I’m probably not gonna watch it. But what is the opportunity? And he went on about the video about how as you’re watching it, and I was like, Hey, man, have a great one. But like, you’re just not getting to the point. There was one that people will go, Hey, I’ve got this product business partner with me. I’ve had news outlets reach out of him business owners who want consulting, reach out, I’ve had influencers reach out. I just had a conversation with LSU. And so we’re go Tigers, yeah, we’re potentially going to be supplying every athletic program in the school with,
Rolando Rosas 1:02:59
Oh, that’d be big man. That’s at least a springboard to more NCAA schools. That’s a big endorsement for you. If that goes through, and they start using it.
Seneca Hampton 1:03:10
Yeah, yeah. So we’re excited to there’s a lot of great opportunities that have come from it. Me being me, I’m still sitting back waiting for the negative of like, where’s it?
Rolando Rosas 1:03:18
Because you’ve been on Amazon for eight years? So you’re not here? Look, this is what happens when you’re on Amazon for this long. And we’ve been on for about seven years. And so yeah, you’re just waiting. Dave knows, we talk daily. And on some days where this happened, that happened then, but and when you look at the big picture? Oh, yeah, we’ve have 5000 orders that we ship. And it actually comes down to 10 people that are trying to really spoil your day out of the 5000. Exactly. We’re not focused on the 4990 orders that came in that month. Because 10 were so loud and angry about what.
Seneca Hampton 1:03:57
And the part that’s interesting is Amazon magnifies that
Rolando Rosas 1:04:01
they give a lot of you know what, that that’s the thing, if that one person that is it has the potential even to bring your listing down because of a problem they had wasn’t able to do that. It would be one thing, but Amazon gives a lot of weight to some of these complaints, because they give a lot of weight to these complaints. So that’s why for me, they’re very important. I want to know what I want to see all the ones stars because in sometimes they just your listing is down and they know you find that oh, it was this thing that is this one person yet didn’t like or was not happy about. And so you pay attention to that. But again, that’s at the cost of the over 4900 Yeah, that that we’re so happy during the month. They almost forget about that.
Seneca Hampton 1:04:51
Yeah. Yeah. It’s interesting that they’re like that, that just that dynamics of 45,000 orders and there’s 10 of them, just like right They’ve ruined your day it and that, and I’m by myself too. So I’m like, so when that happened like that it’s like when it’s one review doesn’t matter. So anybody that’s the one review doesn’t matter. It’s like, when you see your 4.5, go to 4.6. For one review, it ruins your day, like you’re literally sitting there, oh my god,
Rolando Rosas 1:05:15
or it dips below four your four, 1 brings you below three, that four because that’s an important benchmark, Amazon likes to push things that are four and above from a ratings and or ever be used perspective? Yeah, so you fall below four. You’re like, oh, this person, I can’t believe
Dave Kelly 1:05:34
And then if you’re newer if you’re a newer seller who has lower volume. So 5000 sales is one thing, but if you’re doing 100 sales, and you get the same board negative reviews, you just went from 97% to 64%. Yeah, then you’re panicking. What I do, like on the seller reviews is having an opportunity to reply as the seller Yeah. And that happens a lot. Whenever I see like new restaurants pop up my wife and I will be like, check it out on Yelp. Let’s see what people are saying about it. When the restaurant owners are replying to the negative feedback, it gives me some hope that you know what, they’re acknowledging that there was an issue, we should still go and give them a shot. What’s your opinion on replying to that? That negative seller feedback? Do you stand up for yourself and reply? Is that extremely important? Do you encourage sellers to do that?
Seneca Hampton 1:06:33
Yeah, so negative feedback, we’ll throw a pro tip in here pretty soon more
Rolando Rosas 1:06:36
the pro tip, awesome. Tell us a pro tip on seller feedback.
Seneca Hampton 1:06:40
Those seller feedback. I remove all my negative seller feedback. All of it. If you ever see any that wasn’t removed, it wasn’t because I lost the case. It was because the customer service rep didn’t do their job. But there is a way to get all your negative seller feedback from like I see people go Amazon didn’t take they didn’t take it. There’s a template you can send him that will literally get that removed. It is not difficult to do. But I do if I remove it, I respond and reply to them. Typically, if it’s something about the product, I’ll just refund it or refund it. And then I hit what’s what is the button say a remove? Right, our fundamental hit remove, and then I’ll go and try to message them as well. So yeah, I feel as if seller feedback is one of again, one of those things that a lot of people kind of sleep on. It’s like selling feedbacks not important. I believe, from what I’ve seen seller feedback actually helped you introduce new products and get them moved quicker. But I believe because now Amazon,
Rolando Rosas 1:07:39
you can actually Yeah, and you can see the feedback and a lot of people don’t know this, but you can see the feedback and the rating. So Dave was talking about 90 or 100 or even 60%. This is the ability to as the consumer. We on Amazon, Click on the link where it says sold by and if it’s not sold by Amazon, it’s sold by a third party and see their rating on Amazon and this will allow you to expose the all the seller feedback review that Senecas talking,
Seneca Hampton 1:08:11
I feel as if sellers, they don’t focus on it enough. When I first started, I had an email campaign that was so good Amazon stopped me from being able to send you a few customers.
Rolando Rosas 1:08:22
It was working, the click through rate was off the handle.
Seneca Hampton 1:08:25
My click through rate was like it was like 70 80% By it was insane. It was it was copywriting. But anyway, what happened is, and I think Amazon bought flagged it they’re like, why is this guy getting so many opens, and so many click throughs. And so many review, like, it wasn’t reviews or feedback. Because I had again, I worked with a different company. And I saw their feedback, and I saw what they were doing. And what feedback volume allows you to do. I feel from what I’ve seen is feedback volume allows you to introduce the second, third and fourth product in Amazon to move them quicker because the account is trustworthy. Right? The product is one thing but the seller is another thing. And so if they have two levers, we don’t know you, sir, ma’am. So we don’t know how to move your product really. And we don’t know what this product is either. So you’re fighting. I feel like, again, to barriers. But when you that product will start the game review. If you can get reviews on the account, Amazon goes this is a trusted seller. We like them. They’re great. They introduce new product like Alright, cool. Let them go versus a new person to introduce a third, fourth, fifth product Amazon, we don’t know you bro so
Rolando Rosas 1:09:33
enough. And I’ve heard that from other sellers, other large sellers as well that when you’re larger, you may get a little more leeway on things but Amazon they’re less likely to cut you off at the knees, your rate your ratings or if you’re higher, you have a very high rating on Amazon. This also works in your favor. When some of these disaster things strike and you have just more ammunition to because you’re like you’ve been on the platform for over a year. yours, and you’re consistently in the 90s. In terms of your ratings, it’s very unlikely you’re going to go rogue and send somebody tape that’s been half used. That drives me insane. And the other pet peeve is Amazon, please don’t send the used stuff to anybody that’s paying for new. Don’t do that because people get upset. They’re supposed to do that. Because that was that and he sell it sell a lot of products on Amazon will tell you, that doesn’t always happen. So if you’re watching this podcast, Seneca can tell you I can tell you Dave can tell you is if you get a product, and it’s used and paid for new, it’s not us. We’re not trying to fool you and trying to steal your money. We can’t control what Amazon does when it goes into their warehouse.
Seneca Hampton 1:10:47
Yeah, no, we have no no control. I’ve connected Amazon to my website. So when people purchase through our website, we ship from Amazon. It’s a way that I can efficiently get people products quickly and not have because then I have to charge people for shipping and I’ve charged an insane amount. It’s a quick and efficient way people buy from your website. They don’t know that right now. Like I thought you were shipping. Why is Amazon shunning? me explain that. But even on the Amazon side of things, people get stuff and they’re like you the seller, they’re talking to you because they don’t understand how the back end of all works. These people have warehouses all over the country, where we literally send in stuff and they move it across the warehouse, something is damaged in transit, and they still ship it because the person standing in the warehouse putting it in the package doesn’t care. They’re just like, I’m gonna get my 15 bucks an hour and Leyland and you get it you’re mad at the like the brand you’re like you sent me in this note, the person who put it in the package didn’t care. They sent it to you. The UPS drivers get paid 15 bucks doesn’t care. He stepped on it. He gave it to you. So there’s a lot of people in the middle of that process before you get your so it’s just something to consider that is it. Majority of brands on Amazon I would say are their small businesses they care that’s why they do what they do. Yeah, they want to make money but they care about the product and the brand that they created so I highly doubt that they want to sell you something cheap and trash and pawn it off as gold
Rolando Rosas 1:12:05
No not at all. Yeah, cuz you have every sale counseling you want to make sure you can get as best a review as possible because you care. I want to ask you something want to pivot into another area we call rapid fire. All right, these are some we’re gonna What’s that? Oh, no, this is this is what you think that your opinions your there’s not a right. There’s no wrong answer. Let’s put it that way. There’s no wrong answer here. We’re going to start with a simple Yep. Thumbs up. or thumbs down. So I’m going to ask you like a word. And you tell me yep, thumbs up, or thumbs down. So here we go. Podcasting. Thumbs up. Cold calling, foams up on cold calling surprised. That’s a surprise for me. Trade Shows thumbs up or thumbs down with trade shows says Seneca linked in Thumbs up for LinkedIn, Instagram, thumbs up or thumbs down. Another thumbs up. Tic Tac. Nether thumbs up. I got a couple more. Facebook. Thumbs up for Facebook times up there. Yeah. Wow. That’s a surprise for me. Twitter. Well, we’ll figure that one out. All right, we’ll figure out a graphic that they get three more in here. Pinterest at the UI. That’s a three quarters there. It depends.
Seneca Hampton 1:13:21
Some people swear by it. But
Rolando Rosas 1:13:22
yeah, you’re dabbling into that right now. So I don’t have an opinion. 100% one way or the other either. Now this is these are two does a departure from the last few here. These are also thumbs up some splitting eights. Because you’re in Vegas, Vegas is your backyard. Right? So what do you what thumbs up on splitting eights at the casino? Oh. And the last one for thumbs up, up or down? Let the thumbs speak for themselves. So this is something that we’ve adjusted. You know, we’re, we’re when we finalize the podcast, it’s going to be less really rapid. Be really fast. So that’s it’ll look a lot better when it’s done. Giving it the treatment. Guys are time to I know I can we’re here at the word towards the end here. Let’s do these are short answers. And then we’re going to we’re going to wrap it up here. Creative Agency, we’re talking about agencies before. Are you more in favor for people doing things when it comes to ADS, PPC in house or outsourced? And who do you prefer?
Seneca Hampton 1:14:33
In house. You know, all right.
Rolando Rosas 1:14:34
Yeah. What is your favorite phone on your app right now? Very favorite
Dave Kelly 1:14:39
app on your phone?
Rolando Rosas 1:14:41
Oh, my favorite app on your phone right now? Whoo.
Seneca Hampton 1:14:46
Whatever it is. I have to look at the numbers. I’m such a data guy. They give you a report.
Rolando Rosas 1:14:50
What which? Which one do you hang out with the most? What app are you in the most right now?
Seneca Hampton 1:14:56
Oh, right now probably fake Facebook. Okay,
Rolando Rosas 1:14:58
basically all Right now we’re gonna turn it to the sharks again. Your time on Shark Tank. You got to see these guys up and gals up close in person who would you say was the most down to earth shark? Mark Cuban Mark Cuban okay. The most down to earth was Mark. best show in Vegas. I want to go to Vegas. Everything’s opened up again. What’s the best show to go see in Vegas?
Seneca Hampton 1:15:23
One of the Cirque du Soleils.
Rolando Rosas 1:15:25
Oh, yeah, those are they Oh, the one oh at Bellagio. All right, there you go. Go. Oh, I Bellagio. The next most important thing if you go to those shows, because they’re always in the evening, you gotta have dinner. Best eatery in Vegas.
Seneca Hampton 1:15:39
Oh, that’s tough. I’m not really a foodie whenever we go to dump Monica.
Rolando Rosas 1:15:43
Okay. All right. All right. So they’ll Monaco’s if you’re heading out to Vegas Delmonico’s? I haven’t elected a really good place out the west side of Vegas, honey salt. It’s off the strip. So it’s a little quieter. But it they got a really good chef. They’re really good food. Honey salt. So pluck the honey salt. I don’t know if they watch the podcast. But there you go. The last segment here. We’re going to do overrated, underrated and then a must have. Okay. So those three options are rated in my set. Yeah, those are your three options that have thumbs up. Thumbs down. Okay. Seller tools like helium. 10 sellics. and such. Oh. Overrated. All right. Overrated. FBA? Overrated? Underrated? Or I must have dropped shipping. Overrated. Chinese sellers? Underrated? They’re underrated. Okay. Amazon Prime days. Over Over overrated. Yeah, we, for us, we just haven’t seen that we see traffic. We haven’t seen any better sales on those days. For our products. We’ve seen better sales on the other days around it before or after, but parameters hasn’t really lived to what we want to be. Have you tried Amazon live? And if you have what do you think overrated? Underrated or must have
Seneca Hampton 1:17:06
not been able to get into it quite yet. But I would say it’s overrated. Yeah. You’ve told me a
Rolando Rosas 1:17:12
lot. Two more left on this. We’ll come back. We’ll come back. We’ll come we’ll come back to that one. Product inserts must have must have they they work. And that’s been our experience too. And lastly, I know you got a lot on this as well. aggregators, overrated, underrated or a must have overrated overrated. And I think the record shows that this year, the aggregators are starting to see that it’s not a party every single year on Amazon. Yeah, now they’re starting to feel the pinch. Some of them have frozen spending or slowed down their acquisition pays. And some have even started to lay people off. So things are changing. And the aggregator party may be ending, we don’t know, we’ll have to see how the rest of the year plays itself out.
Seneca Hampton 1:18:01
I think it’ll train it’ll change more to a I think what they’re realizing is we got to keep the owners on because they’re jumping in from a finance background. And they’re going oh, crap, we don’t know what we’re doing. We thought we hired somebody that knew Amazon, the owner knows if that’s him, I want to keep them there. So I think you’ll probably see a lot more than that.
Rolando Rosas 1:18:15
We’ll have to see I can’t disagree with you. I think that’s the only way you take a bit if you really scale you need the insights of the owner operator of founders to really do that, instead of sending them to the exits. So now as we wrap up here, Seneca if folks want to get in touch with you, and they want your wise sage advice, whether it be How should I get on Shark Tank who did or I need to blow up? How can I scale and take a business from 100,000 to over a million dollars? How should people get a hold of you?
Seneca Hampton 1:18:49
If you guys want not much activity and need to be better at it in but go ahead follow me on Instagram at Seneca Hampton or on YouTube. Yeah, just type in Seneca Hampton, you’ll find me I need 100 subs so I can get my own domain. Come on people help me out.
Rolando Rosas 1:19:02
Yeah, there you go. Let’s get Seneca over the hump on YouTube. So go ahead and follow him on YouTube. Hit the subscribe Bell whistles, all the good stuff so that he gets not only 200 but maybe it’s 1000. And then some think. All right, is there anything else you want to add in here while we got you here? And do you want to plug or anything like that Seneca?
Seneca Hampton 1:19:25
Yes. So what I would say is this. In order for you to get past that hump of six figures a year into seven, eight, you need to have a very refined process down and that goes from which products you pick. There’s a way to do that. It needs to go into your logistics and supply chain. Right? It needs to go into your launch strategy, your growth strategy, how you protect your brand and the team, right? You need to nail down all those things. If you can nail down all those things and get those to run. Then all you need to do is litter Will you just pump the process? And I think what you’ll find is a lot of people who have scaled to seven eight figures and beyond have a very refined and dialed in process for how they introduce products, how to de rank a product, and then how they grow the product. If you guys want to learn that, tons of YouTube videos, people jump in the groups, you can learn that as well or hit me up on IG. And I’m happy to sit down and walk you through that.
Rolando Rosas 1:20:25
Awesome. Seneca, you said so much today. I really appreciate you coming on What The Teck? and helping us out and spreading the word on what it takes to be a successful seller on Amazon. So Seneca Thank you very much for chiming in today. Cool.
Seneca Hampton 1:20:39
Cool. Thank you.
Outro 1:20:40
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