What Should You Ask an Amazon Growth Partner Before Signing?

It's the second call with a finalist. Their team has walked through the deck, the case studies and the timeline, and now someone says, "Any questions?" You have twenty minutes left and a contract waiting.

What you ask in those twenty minutes decides more than the deck did. A firm can rehearse a pitch. Questions about your products, costs and working hours show whether it has prepared for your business.

Ask questions that require the partner to work with your business. Use the examples below to judge whether each answer addresses your needs.

What questions should you ask an Amazon growth partner before hiring?

Before hiring an Amazon growth partner, ask questions it can only answer by looking at your own products, costs and team, such as which products to launch, what each would earn, who does the work and what you keep if you part ways.

Generic questions get generic answers. "What's your experience?" invites the case study slide you've already seen. "Which of these twelve products would you launch first?" makes the firm think about you. So does "What would you change on our packaging before the first shipment?", because the answer shows whether anyone has looked at your product as a US shopper would.

That only works if the partner has something to work with. Two days before the call, send a short sheet with your main products, factory cost per unit, carton size and the US buyers you already supply. A serious candidate will read it. One that arrives without having opened it has answered your first question already.

Send the sheet, then keep the questions below on one page in front of you during the call.

Which questions test a partner's thinking on products and profit?

The questions that test a partner's thinking on products and profit ask it to pick your first products, price them after every cost and say when each one would stop.

Which of our products would you launch first, and why?

A good answer names two or three products and gives reasons you can check, such as US demand in the niche, a gap the top sellers' listings leave open, or a carton size that keeps fees low. It also names products to hold back, including any that would compete with lines your US buyers already carry. A partner that says "all of them," or picks your best seller back home without asking why it sells there, hasn't done the work yet.

What's left of the price after Amazon takes its share?

A good answer walks through the costs in order. Amazon charges a referral fee on every sale, which varies by category, 15% in Home and Kitchen for example. If Amazon ships your orders, its fulfillment fees depend on the product's weight, dimensions and price, and freight, duties and ads come on top. The partner should end on a margin per unit and a break-even month for each product.

What would make you tell us to stop a product?

A good answer gives a rule and a date, such as a review at month 3 against the top sellers in the niche on conversion, rating and price. A vague answer about "giving it time" means the decision will drift while your stock sits in a US warehouse.

How much should we plan to spend on ads in the first three months?

A good answer is a range for each product, tied to the P&L, with the point at which spend gets cut if sales don't follow. Launch ads can cost more than they return in the first weeks, so the partner should say when that is expected to change and what happens if it doesn't.

Write each answer down in the partner's own words, so you can hold them to it at month 3.

Which questions show how a partner will run your ads and listings?

The questions that show how a partner will run your ads and listings ask how it judges success, what changes in the first weeks and who writes what your US shoppers read.

How will you judge whether our ads are working?

A good answer goes past ACoS. Amazon Ads calculates ACoS by dividing ad spend by ad revenue, and ROAS is the inverse, so a ROAS of 2 means two dollars of sales for each dollar of ads. The partner should tie both to your margin per product and to total sales, including the orders shoppers place without clicking an ad.

What happens between choosing products and the first tuning?

A good answer is a sequence with dates. Products are chosen, stock and listings get ready, then listings and ads go live and the first reviews come in. After that, click rate, keywords and price get fixed on live data before budget rises. For reference, our own Amazon launch services take about six to nine weeks from choosing products to live listings and the first round of tuning.

Who writes the listings, and how do they learn what US shoppers ask?

A good answer names a person and a method, such as reading the reviews of the top sellers to find what shoppers praise and complain about. A listing translated straight from your B2B catalog won't answer them.

Ask for one listing the partner rewrote for another brand, before and after, and judge whether you'd buy from it.

Which questions show who will do the work?

The questions that show who will do the work ask for names, workloads and hours, because the people at the pitch are not always the people on your account.

Who runs our account day to day, and can we meet them now?

A good answer is a name and a short call this week. Ask what that person has launched before and who reviews their changes.

How many other brands does that person handle?

A good answer is a number, given without hesitation. If the firm won't say, assume the number is high.

What will you report to us, and how often?

A good answer is weekly, with sales, ad spend and margin for each product, plus a call where your team can question the numbers. A monthly summary of clicks and ACoS is too slow and too thin for a launch.

When do your hours overlap with ours?

A good answer gives the hours in your time zone and says how fast messages get a reply. A team split between the US and Asia can cover both your factory's day and the US shopper's evening.

Book the call with your future lead before you sign, and listen for whether they've read your product sheet.

Which questions protect your account and your exit?

The questions that protect your account and your exit ask whose name is on every registration and what you keep if you part ways.

Whose name is on the Seller Central account and the Brand Registry?

A good answer is "yours." Brand Registry is Amazon's program that links a brand to its trademark owner, and Amazon's Brand Registry page says the trademark owner enrolls, and an agent is added as a user. The full checklist on logins and suspension risk is in how to protect your Amazon account when outsourcing.

What do we keep if we stop working together?

A good answer lists the listings, images, ad history, research and P&L models, and confirms they stay with you in a form your next team can use.

What results can you show from brands like ours?

A good answer comes with a starting point, a period and a ratio. How to read those numbers is set out in results an Amazon growth partner should show, and the answers that should end the talks are in red flags in an Amazon marketing partner.

Ask for the answers to this section in the contract itself, since a promise made only on a call is hard to hold anyone to.

Frequently asked questions

How many questions fit into one call?

Eight to ten, if the partner has read your product sheet beforehand. Pick the product and profit questions for the first call and save the contract questions for the second, once you know the firm is worth the time.

Should someone from finance join the call?

Yes, for the profit questions at least. A finance director spots a missing cost faster than anyone, and the partner learns early that numbers will be checked.

What if a partner wants a paid project before answering?

That can be fair for a full plan. The basic answers, which products look promising and roughly what Amazon keeps from each sale, should come before any payment, since they show whether the firm is worth paying at all.