July 25, 2024
LAS VEGAS – Clichés about making money are numerous, and most have a kernel of truth. You have to spend money to make money is one such saying that online sellers know well as they seek to balance risk and reward.
Ian Sells, founder and CEO of Million Dollar Sellers (pictured here at Prosper Show 2024 in Las Vegas) has his own mantra—give more, get more. Among the highly competitive people who make up the membership of MDS, the mantra keeps people in the right frame of mind.
As a seller since 2012 on Amazon, Sells built his own brands and ultimately sold them. In the course of building those brands, he formed a tribe of like-minded people—eventually formalizing that community within MDS about six years ago. MDS is now made up of vetted Amazon sellers, e-com founders, and CEOs generating between $1 million and $500 million per year.
Prosper Show sat down with Sells to learn about current concerns, prospects for the future, and what it takes to foster community, culture, and sharing among highly motivated online sellers.
Prosper Show: How would you describe the MDS membership?
Sells: We have built a curated community. We don’t let everybody in—only vetted people actually selling and making strides in that space. A few years in we had about 150 members. At that time I started charging people who wanted to come in after, because there’s so much value being given to people in this group.
Prosper Show: How difficult is it to foster this culture of sharing among competitive people?
Sells: We have worked to help people feel inspired, and they are required to contribute to the community, post, and comment. We let in about 10 to 12 maximum per month, so that really grew us slowly but made us exclusive and highly engaged. There were a lot of strategic things that we did. We brought in the right people and kicked out the people who were taking advantage or not contributing—and that really helped the community.
Prosper Show: How awkward is it to kick somebody out?
Sells: It’s never fun having to remove somebody from the group, whether they did something wrong or can’t be respectful—or their interests don’t align with the group’s interests. They may be selling information or sharing stuff outside the group that they should not be sharing. That defeats the purpose of having this really core group of people who care about each other. Two of our core values are group first and also give more, get more.
Prosper Show: How was your experience at Prosper Show earlier this year?
Sells: There were a lot of new people, a lot of new vendors, and some great ones. It was very easy to walk around and meet a lot of different potential opportunities that can help your business. We also had the Million Dollar Sellers Lounge at the show where we could chat with attendees.
Prosper Show: What was on the minds of attendees?
Sells: TikTok was definitely on the minds of people. Everybody is always looking for ways to get that leg up on the competition. They are looking for new ways to grow faster. Everybody has access to Amazon ads and can optimize their listing fairly well with all the tools out there. So they are asking; What’s next? How do we get more traffic from the outside? How do we launch new marketplaces? How do we diversify our risk? Those were pretty big topics for a lot of sellers. They also want to know; Where are there other people like me, at my level? How do I network with those people?
Prosper Show: What is your level of concern about the TikTok ‘sell-or-ban’ legislation signed by Biden?
Sells: It’s not really a concern. I think they’ll find ways around it, and if it’s not TikTok then the attention will just shift to another social site. Other social sites know how to build followers and they’re trying to build up multiple marketplaces and multiple audiences. However, if you’re big on TikTok, and it’s banned—you’re in trouble.
Prosper Show: What level of concern do you have about ultra-low-price online platforms?
Sells: There’s a place for that. However, I think most consumers will have bad experiences with things they buy there and they’ll turn to places where they know what they’re getting is better. More sellers are actually surprised that Amazon is trying to follow suit with a low price overseas competitor, because the sellers in the U.S. are going to get undercut by Chinese companies selling directly with their 10-day shipping times.
It’s definitely cost-competitive, but when you buy cheap stuff, you get cheap stuff. It’s a challenge and what’s the recourse? If you buy something from one of these companies and it doesn’t work, how do you get your money back? Do you ship the product back to China? If the [low price platform] says they will cover all the refunds, they will potentially run out of money. It could be another good channel, but at the same time it could be just a distraction, and not really the market that people should focus on.
Prosper Show: What is the biggest misconception about what it takes to reach million dollar seller status?
Sells: The biggest misconception is that it’s easy to do. It’s not easy. It takes a good product, a good business model, and it takes capital to sell a million dollars in product. You’ve got to be able to handle the growth of your product if it does well. You need to have profit to reinvest. It is challenging, and the barrier to entry has become more difficult. It requires a lot of skill and tact to optimize properly, to promote the right keywords, to send your inventory correctly. You have to do everything right to be successful, because the algorithm isn’t forgiving. If you make a mistake, it could impact the trajectory of your business.
Prosper Show: Why is it still relevant to go to in-person trade shows?
Sells: It’s important to get out of your bubble and see what is out there. There are people to meet who can help grow your business. That one resource or connection that you pick up could be a game changer. As entrepreneurs, especially entrepreneurs who are usually behind their computers and working from home, it’s good to get out of the comfort zone, meet new people, and brainstorm on what’s working for others.
At trade shows, you don’t know who you’re talking to. If sellers are successful, they want to talk to other successful sellers who are doing more or the same as them. With MDS events, they kind of know who they’re talking to and everybody has been proven to be successful. It really levels the playing field and makes everyone open to talking, sharing, and engaging.
Prosper Show: What is your current level of optimism regarding the online selling industry?
Sells: It’s been going through a bit of a shift. There are a lot of new places to put your attention, but overall, e-com is the future and it’s only going to get better and easier to grow and build a brand. Everybody should consider planting a seed in the e-com space, nurturing it, and taking the opportunity to learn the ropes. I’m very bullish on e-com in general.
Prosper Show: What are your plans for the future of MDS?
Sells: Our plan is to increase our influence and level of membership in the e-commerce space and really help members achieve the growth that they’re looking for by learning from others and not reinventing the wheel. MDS is a place where members are able to quickly connect, support, and share ideas that can really leapfrog their growth without having to try to watch 10 YouTube videos as they try to figure things out themselves. People are willing to help. Our goal is to continue to become the most respected community out there with the best members.
Prosper Show: Do you plan to return to the Prosper Show in 2025
Sells: Yes, we are working hand-in-hand with Prosper. We have a partnership with them. We will have a nice booth that is going to be branded as the Million Dollar Sellers Lounge. Anybody who sells over a million dollars in revenue should definitely come by and meet other members and use our booth as a place to network and maximize their value at the how.
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