If I joined your Amazon vendor team tomorrow and your AVN kickoff was in 90 days
By Ant Finch · August 12, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
If I joined your Amazon vendor team tomorrow and your AVN kickoff was in 90 days, the first thing I'd do is find out if we're ready to negotiate.
To get that clarity I'd ask 5 questions.
1. Do you know your net margin position today by ASIN, net of everything Amazon takes? If the answer is no, you're going into the most important commercial conversation of your year without knowing your own numbers.
2. Which parts of your current Terms are genuinely working for you and which ones just rolled over from last year? Most vendors have never separated those two.
3. Where are you weakest operationally and has your VM already noticed? Fill rate, crap risk, chargebacks. Amazon's data is better than yours so if you haven't looked, they have.
4. What does your VM actually need? Category pressure, range gaps, growth targets. The vendors who walk in knowing this negotiate with leverage.
5. What are you prepared to say no to? This is the one most teams never answer in advance as it's the only question that determines whether you negotiate.
AVN's are won in the 90 days before the meeting invite arrives.
How many of those five can you answer today?
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🚀 I help Amazon vendors increase their margins by 5-20% in 90 days.