# Winning 2026: How Vendors Can Align Strategy, Teams, and Negotiations ## Overview ## Podcast transcript ### Introduction Welcome to Marketplace Masters, the show where we equip Amazon vendors with the strategy and insights to grow profitably. Paul Sonneveld I'm [Paul Sonneveld,](https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulsonneveld/) Co-Founder and CEO of MerchantSpring and host of this weekly podcast. Now, today's episode is a little different. We're not just talking about another round of AVN tactics or price negotiations. Instead, we're going to zoom out a little bit and look at the bigger picture. And that is how vendors can strategically plan, align stakeholders and build the right structures for 2026 success. I am absolutely delighted that I am joined by [Ant Finch](https://www.linkedin.com/in/antfinch/), founder of [Vendor Rocket](https://www.linkedin.com/company/vendor-rocket/), who has worked with leading Amazon vendors on transforming their approach from reactive negotiation to proactive strategy. And what we're going to try and do today is together we'll unpack a leadership playbook for vendors who want to move beyond sort of short-term AVN tactics into really sustainable growth, especially with our eyes on 2026. ### Discussion Points Paul Sonneveld Now, as I mentioned in my introduction, we have done a lot around AVN negotiations, preparations, tactics, and they're all great topics. And certainly, if you're a vendor listening into this and you're about to start your rounds for 2026, there's some great resources to check those out. There can be a little bit of a danger, right, around vendors just getting so focused on sort of the negotiation round, you know, and sort of, you know, going to go down and then hopefully come up for oxygen a bit later. You know, let me just start off with, you know, why do you think so many vendors really default to focusing purely on AVN negotiations? You know, what risks does it create? Anthony Finch Yeah, so I think first and foremost, the AVN time of year is a really tough pressure point for many brands. There's an expectation from Amazon, there's an expectation internally, and most negotiations with Amazon are pretty tough. So it's first and foremost, it's a challenging situation. But the thing that vendors and brands need to remember is the AVN is a process. It happens every year. Amazon are reasonably consistent in what they ask for and how they ask for it. So that planning and preparation should really start almost the moment you've closed the first AVN, so that you can go, OK, what do we need? And what are Amazon likely to need? And I think a lot of that pressure does come from actually, Amazon tend to want more than what you're willing to give. And you can't quite work that out. So you know, it's always going to be a really tough situation. What I encourage brands and vendors to do is to think about what do you need from that negotiation. What's working for you? What's not working for you? And what do you need that set of terms to look like for you to hit your aspirations? ### Planning for Success Amazon are very clear about what you need to do for them. You need to be clear back with them as well and make sure you stand by that. The terms are important. That process is important because it will set the pace and the energy of that trading relationship, the business for the following year. So I think for me, it's always about planning for it. It's always going to feel a bit painful because of the nature of the negotiation. Um, but you can plan for that pain and have a route through of what good should look like for you and also for Amazon. ### Next Steps I think that's a great way of laying out like all the different facets of performance. Right. And really, I think I mentioned it, kind of, you know, business health check to me, it's almost like a baseline where you are as a vendor, what's working well, what's not working well, and really have a good perspective on that. I'm just curious. I mean, you must get involved in doing these sort of audits, health checks with your clients. How, if they were to, do this themselves or someone like yourself in, I mean, just how much time should you set aside for this? Is this a kind of get it done in a week? You know, what is it? Anthony Finch Yeah, I think so. I mean, the frequency of doing this, I would say you probably want to be dipping in on this at least once a month to go, is everything doing what it can do. The big challenge for vendors is when you're hit with something that you didn't know. So Amazon have claimed some money, you didn't know they were going to claim a product being suppressed, or your Ad spend's gone a bit A1, or your credit card payment or deductible invoice on your ads are stopped, so you've stopped serving advertising for a couple of days. They're kind of painful things. So I would be going. An audit should be done at least once a month and it can be done as granular or as top-level as you need. I would say a really granular audit, you should be doing that probably once a quarter just to make sure that you're on schedule and you're keeping an eye on what's happening. It probably, if you sat down to pull all of that information together, because most brands will be sitting there and they will have a version of a P&L. They will know what they're spending. They will be able to look at their top 20 products. You should be able to pull that together in less than a week to go, look, a rough view of what the world looks like. ### Continuous Improvement You should start your budgeting process for 2026 anyway. So they're going to have visibility of some of this data. And also it's good to go into the AVN right now having that information because Amazon will tell you that you're not profitable enough well what if Amazon's not profitable enough for you? Amazon rely on your innovation, your Ad spend, your investment into promotions it you've got to be profitable, otherwise you can't give Amazon what they want so it. It's important, I would say, to do it, but it doesn't have to be low to detail. It can be very top level. Is Amazon doing what I need it to do for it to be successful? If it's not, you focus on those issue areas. ### Final Takeaways In the new year, once we get through the AVN, there will be an opportunity to reset what good looks like on Amazon for you as a vendor. So if you can, then have that internally, and then you bolt an agency on or you bring new people in, having that clarity of, where you're going or where you are, where you're going and how you're going to get there and what specific actions you're going to take is massively important. If you want to reach out, you can go to my website, which is vendorrocket.co.uk, and reach out to me there or just drop me a message on LinkedIn. Thank you for tuning in today, and we'll see you again on the next episode of Marketplace Masters.