167: Key Takeaways From Sellers Summit 2017 With Toni Anderson And Steve Chou

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The single most useful statistic from Sellers Summit 2017 came from Greg Mercer’s session. Sellers under 18 months in: half were making $157 to $2,500 a month. Sellers past 18 months: half were making $1,000 to $12,000 a month.

Longevity outperforms tactics. The sellers who stayed with it grew, and the ones chasing a fast result did not.

Toni Anderson and I run Sellers Summit together, an ecommerce conference built around actionable curriculum with no fluff. This was year two, and we recap what worked and what we each pulled from the sessions.

This episode covers the specific tactics that came out of the talks, the format changes that made the event work better, and the Amazon policy warnings that surfaced.

A note on timing: this is a 2017 conversation. Amazon policies and Facebook ad mechanics have changed considerably since.

Key takeaways

• Sellers past 18 months earn substantially more than newer sellers, so persistence outperforms tactics.
• Offer a lifetime guarantee rather than 90 days, since almost nobody claims it years later.
• Categorize tasks as daily, weekly, or monthly, then remove yourself from everything except monthly.
• Giveaways build rabid fans and collect email addresses at pennies apiece.
• Contests replaced incentivized reviews as the way to launch products on Amazon.
• Do not change the bank account on your Amazon seller account, since it can trigger instant suspension.
• Automate with tools before hiring people, since many roles exist only because nobody built the tool.
• Video is what makes Facebook ads profitable, structured to bring people back repeatedly before they buy.

Why does ecommerce longevity beat tactics?

Because the data shows sellers who stay in the game simply earn more. Greg Mercer’s slide compared two groups, and the difference was stark.

Under 18 months, half of sellers made $157 to $2,500 a month. Past 18 months, half made $1,000 to $12,000 a month.

The ceiling is what moves. The bottom of the range rises modestly and the top climbs by nearly five times.

That reframes ecommerce entirely. Revenues grow with time invested rather than arriving from one clever tactic.

Several attendees proved it in person. Dean launched a product two months after the first year’s summit and qualified for the 2017 mastermind, meaning he cleared $250,000 in revenue inside a year.

Why should you offer a lifetime guarantee?

Because the wording changes buying behavior and almost nobody claims it. Manuel Becvar made this point in his product sourcing talk, and it was the takeaway Toni acted on immediately.

Most sellers hedge with a time limit. Ninety days, six months, or a year all sound cautious next to lifetime.

The claims almost never come. People do not return five years later asking you to honor a guarantee.

Most sellers already behave this way informally. Toni noted she refunds or replaces regardless of what the stated policy says.

L.L. Bean built a reputation on it. The lifetime guarantee became part of the brand identity.

How do you remove yourself from daily business tasks?

Categorize every task as daily, weekly, or monthly, then build the business so you only touch the monthly ones. Dana Jaunzemis structures her company this way and never handles anything daily or weekly.

The daily and weekly work is where owners get trapped. That is also where the overwhelm comes from.

Monthly tasks are the big picture items. Those are what actually generate more revenue.

Her broader focus is profit rather than revenue. She concentrates on what produces the most profit and sets the rest aside.

What can you automate in an ecommerce business?

Far more than most owners assume, and the tools are usually inexpensive. Bill D’Alessandro’s automation talk showed that many positions exist only because nobody built the tool first.

The sequencing matters. Automate the task, then bring in a person once you outgrow what the tool handles.

Tools often beat people on productivity for the same job. That holds for a large share of routine ecommerce operations.

Bill operates at an unusual scale. Six or seven child companies under one umbrella forces the automation.

Small changes get most of the benefit. Three or four automations using cheap tools moves the needle without rebuilding everything.

How do giveaways grow an ecommerce business?

Giving your product away builds an audience that genuinely likes your company and buys later. Mike Jackness grew ColorIt to multiple seven figures quickly this way.

The economics are what surprise people. He collected email addresses and social shares for pennies apiece.

Reciprocity drives it. People who receive something free think better of the company and buy more readily afterward.

The giveaway seeds the list. That list is what you sell to over the following months.

How do you launch a product on Amazon without incentivized reviews?

Run contests that build an audience before launch, then let reviews come naturally. Scott Voelker walked through a case study of exactly this after Amazon banned incentivized reviews.

Landing pages carry the campaign. He built the buzz off-Amazon first.

Contests and giveaways differ in mechanics. Contests require entry and create anticipation, and giveaways hand the product over.

Scott gave away products adjacent to what he sells. Mike gave away his own products, and both approaches worked.

Reviews follow an engaged audience. Buyers who already care about the product leave reviews without prompting.

What triggers an Amazon seller account suspension?

Changing the bank account attached to your seller account was triggering near-instant suspensions. Cynthia Stine flagged this as an active problem driven by widespread account fraud.

Amazon tightened security broadly around this period. Fraud pushed them toward aggressive automated enforcement.

The practical rule is to leave banking details alone. A routine administrative change can cost you the account.

Her wider talk covered account health. What sellers do that puts accounts at risk, and the process for reinstatement.

What makes Facebook ads profitable for ecommerce?

Video, structured into campaigns that return people to your brand repeatedly before asking for the sale. Steve Weiss covered this at an advanced level, and it assumed fluency with Facebook fundamentals.

Repetition is the mechanism. One exposure rarely converts, and a sequence does.

Facebook was pushing video hard. Facebook Live and other video formats got preferential treatment.

Influencer video doubles as ad creative. Videos produced through Gen.Video can sit under Amazon listings, and you own the rights to cut them into Facebook ads.

Rachel Miller’s viral fan page approach works alongside it. She has built multiple pages past a million followers and drives product traffic through them.

How do you diagnose an Amazon listing that is not selling?

Work through the listing element by element to isolate where the problem sits. Jeff Cohen walked attendees through copy, images, and PPC as separate diagnostic layers.

Guessing wastes money. Raising the PPC bid on a listing with bad images fixes nothing.

Brad Moss brought the Amazon insider view. As a former head of Seller Central, he mapped output metrics to the specific action each one calls for.

Bernie Thompson’s angle was feedback loops. Sellers buy tools and then never act on the data those tools produce.

The data has to change something. Returns data, customer feedback, and product metrics only matter when they drive a product change.

What conference format changes improve attendee results?

Small-group roundtables and pre-event connection did the most. Roundtables put nine attendees with one speaker for a full hour.

Session Q&A does not work well. Five to seven minutes at the end serves three or four people, and many attendees will not ask at all.

Roundtables allow follow-up questions. Attendees can go deep on one topic and build on each other’s questions.

Toni’s Pinterest roundtable was hands-on. Everyone opened their ad manager and made changes at the table.

The relationship shifts from fan to peer. After an hour at a small table, approaching that speaker at the evening event feels natural.

Why should conference speakers stay for the whole event?

Because availability is worth more to attendees than the talk itself. Speakers who present and leave remove the main reason people travel to an event.

We ask this before booking. Speakers who wanted to fly in and out were turned down, including some well-known ones.

Speakers attending other sessions signals something useful. It shows attendees that nobody has finished learning.

The mastermind day depended on it. Speakers moderated hot seats where attendees shared one working strategy and one problem.

Screening made the openness possible. Attendees needed $250,000 in revenue to qualify, and no direct competitors were seated together.

Pre-event video introductions helped too. Attendees posting Facebook videos beforehand arrived already feeling acquainted, and organized dinner signups removed the awkwardness of the first evening.

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take to make money selling ecommerce?

Longer than most expect. Half of sellers under 18 months made $157 to $2,500 monthly, while half of those past 18 months made $1,000 to $12,000.

Should you offer a lifetime product guarantee?

Yes in most cases. The wording improves conversion at purchase, and buyers rarely claim a guarantee years later, so the real cost stays low.

How do you delegate yourself out of daily operations?

Sort every task into daily, weekly, and monthly buckets, then hand off everything daily and weekly. Owners who only handle monthly tasks free themselves for profit-generating work.

Do giveaways work for ecommerce?

Yes. Mike Jackness built ColorIt into a multi seven figure business with them, collecting email addresses and shares at pennies apiece.

How do you get Amazon reviews without incentivizing them?

Build an audience before launch through contests and landing pages. Buyers who arrive already invested leave reviews naturally.

Can changing your Amazon bank account get you suspended?

It could, and Cynthia Stine warned that it was triggering near-instant suspensions amid a fraud crackdown. Leave banking details alone unless absolutely necessary.

Should you automate or hire first in ecommerce?

Automate first. Many roles exist only because nobody built the tool, and cheap software often outperforms a person on routine tasks.

What makes Facebook ads work for ecommerce stores?

Video creative inside campaigns designed to return people to your brand repeatedly. One exposure rarely converts, and a structured sequence does.