How to judge the true level of an Amazon operation?

Everyone can do operations, but not everyone can do operations well" --- I don't know who said this...

I recently saw a very interesting question: If the following operators come to interview, which one would you choose? How do you judge their operational capabilities?

First operation:

As the team leader of Jingpu, the monthly sales of the team is 4 million RMB. Mainly working on the US and German sites, copywriting, evaluation, advertising, off-site promotion, etc. are all handled by other departments of the company. I am mainly responsible for stocking, operation, and product selection. I am good at stocking and operation. Jingpu has many products, and it is really difficult to stock up, and I don’t know much about operation and promotion.

Second operation:

I started my own business after graduation and have two years of experience. I only work on the US site, and run a boutique store with 4 SKUs and about 50 orders a day. The best link can get 20 orders a day. After selecting products, it is better to first ship orders by self-delivery and then switch to FBA to go the boutique route. From product selection to delivery, I am involved in every link of operation and promotion. When asked about the promotion rhythm, I said it was normal and there was no big problem, and everyone did it this way. After the listing, there were evaluations, advertisements, and off-site and so on. The company has limited funds and a small budget. I asked about how to write copy, mainly referring to competitors and burying long-tail keywords. In fact, I think it's okay, but the performance of 20 orders for one link in the home category of the US site seems average.

The third operation:

I make phone cases. For one SKU, I get 600 orders a day. It only took me two months to make it big. I feel really awesome! I asked about the promotion rhythm. Before the phone launch conference, they sent a lot of goods to overseas warehouses. After the product was put on the shelves, they received 5-10 orders a day. The daily budget for advertising during the new product period was 1-2K USD. I rarely do anything outside the site. Evaluation and off-site work are handled by other departments of the company. I am good at advertising and I get up at 10 pm every day to adjust the advertising. The advertising performance in April was a budget of 100 USD, a conversion rate of 20-30%, about a dozen orders, and an Acos rate of 70-80%. Looking at it this way, it seems average. I can't see where the operation is so good.

How to operate on Amazon? Some people say that operating on Amazon is nothing more than data analysis and thinking. The routines are all available online, and it depends on how you do it. Even the most powerful operators are still made by stepping into pits one step at a time. Moreover, the operation routines are the same, but the degree of understanding of each method is different for each person. This difference in degree determines the level of each person's operation ability.

Some people also say that the person must be a solo worker. He can easily handle upstream suppliers, midstream site promotion and downstream outsourcing services. He also has a good grasp of the product's operating rhythm. He can think like a boss and even teach himself various design software to relieve financial pressure. If you encounter this kind of person, you will be lucky.

Is there actually a standard for great operations?

Some operations, relying on the company's massive resources, even if they encounter many pitfalls at the beginning, will eventually achieve remarkable results. Is this a powerful operation?

Some operators, although they have orders, may not have such good performance. However, their companies do not give them anything except money and a market positioning. They have to analyze the market and explore consumer needs by themselves, so as to improve and upgrade their products. They can also integrate existing resources and communicate with suppliers. Finally, the success rate of the products put on the shelves is getting higher and higher.

Is he a good operator?

As far as company interviews are concerned, it is not about finding a great operations person, but about seeing clearly what kind of talent your company really needs.

So how can you ask questions during an interview to find out the other party’s operational capabilities?

(1) Before judging the other party, you should first analyze the situation of your company, the future work content of the person you need, and the salary you can offer. Your requirements for the other party's abilities are related to your needs. If you just need an operations assistant, it is unrealistic to ask him to know everything. In this case, if he knows some basic content, has good logical thinking, and is willing to learn, he meets the requirements.

(2) Logical thinking. Operations have relatively high requirements for this. There are many areas that require summarization and understanding, which are the basic points.

(3) Attitude: What is the attitude like? Can the candidate get along well with the team? How long can the candidate work in the company (recruitment has costs)? These are the basics.

(4) Understand the previous company's situation and judge whether the platform is a blessing or a drag on him (a large company has a good team with abundant resources, and his ability may only account for 80% of his performance; a small company has only one person doing this, and when he communicates more with others, his performance may improve by leaps and bounds)

(5) Understand the basic knowledge of operations, determine whether the foundation is solid, whether the working hours are consistent with his/her job, and whether relevant training is needed later.

(6) Understand advanced capabilities, whether you have established your own listing promotion and advertising ideas, and understand the data of previous product development.

(7) If management is required, we also need to look at his previous management ability, the performance of the team he led, turnover rate, etc.

How to show your own value? Or cultivate your own trump card? Value: Value = performance. Only performance data can give the simplest and clear feedback on value. The second is position. Training two magic tools (a year's performance of XX billion + a director position in a large company) can immediately reflect the value of the trump card.

This mainly depends on solid basic knowledge + high-level summarizing ability + understanding. After all, in this industry, knowledge is updated and algorithms are changed every day. One trick is no longer applicable. You can adapt quickly according to industry changes and create new abilities for yourself to always stay at the top. The second thing is resources. For example, if you have your own private domain traffic, many companies need it, and it can naturally be regarded as your trump card.

In terms of personal operational capabilities, he first has a deep understanding of operations. Take advertising as an example:

1. Why run this ad?

2. What is the purpose of this advertisement?

3. Why deny this word?

4. When should the advertising budget be increased and when should it be reduced? Why?

5. What is the difference between automatic advertising and manual advertising?

6. How to analyze the automatic advertising keyword report data?

7. Which is more important in the automatic advertising keyword report: click rate or conversion rate?

8. What should I do if I want my ad to be displayed on the keyword search page?

9. Is ACOS important? Why does keyword CPC increase? Why does it decrease?

And so on...these all test the operations team's ability to understand and control operations.

A more specific manifestation is:

The ability to promote products and grasp the rhythm of operation and promotion is amazing! Achieve performance growth!

The ability to manage a team, train new people, and develop core operations is amazing!

The strength lies in being able to improve products through pain points

The strength lies in being able to jump out of the operational level, stand at a higher level, and provide product development with feedback on market trends to explore new products

The strength lies in being able to optimize the supply chain, thinking about optimizing various expenses, such as product costs, logistics accounts, etc., to improve the company's capital utilization rate

The company focuses on operational efficiency, continuously optimizes business processes, and improves efficiency from the supply chain and business end.

The most important thing is that good operations have their own set of ideas and rhythm. Rhythm is very important (it is very clear what to do at each stage of the product), target order volume, target profit, etc. These are basic qualities.

If you have not yet reached the above level, you should calm down and hone yourself. A down-to-earth learning attitude is more important to you than anything else at this stage.