Scene 17
The strategy session
Your clients will eventually ask about Amazon 1P — the Amazon-wholesale channel where Amazon buys their product wholesale and resells it to its customers — and most consultants don't have a credible answer. You will. We hold the wholesale vendor account, run the channel, and you stay the strategist. Your retainer doesn't change. Your scope doesn't shift. Your differentiation grows.
The 1P question has become standard in client conversations. Different economics than 3P, real brand-protection benefits, clear working-capital story. But the operational path to 1P is closed to almost everyone — Vendor Central is invitation-only, and Amazon has been narrowing direct-vendor invitations since late 2024. The consultant who can speak credibly about 1P access — not just describe it, but move a client from "we should think about this" to "we're in" — has a meaningful pitch advantage. Most can't.
We hold the door. You get the credibility.
No. The Amazon-channel strategy belongs to you. Whether a client should go 1P at all, which SKUs make sense, when in the brand's lifecycle to consider it, how it sits in the broader channel portfolio — those are advisory questions, and the advisor is you. VendorSprout is the operator for one specific channel within the strategy you author. We do execution: hold the Vendor Central account, take title on inventory at wholesale, run the catalog, handle the vendor-side commercial layer with Amazon. We do not author multi-channel strategy. We do not pitch your client on what their distribution mix should look like. We do not insert ourselves into the strategic seat that's yours.
What stays advisory, unchanged: multi-channel strategy across DTC, wholesale, retail, marketplace, Amazon. Brand positioning, narrative, voice. Product launch sequencing and channel selection. Pricing strategy, MAP policy guidance, channel-conflict frameworks. Growth-stage decisions. Strategic decks, frameworks, QBR work. The client relationship — yours, intact, untouched.
What we take on, when a client elects to proceed with 1P: holding the Amazon Vendor Central account on behalf of the engagement. Buying agreed SKUs from the client at wholesale, taking title. Running the catalog, A+ Content layout, brand registry coordination, listing health on 1P SKUs. The vendor-side commercial relationship with Amazon — POs, ASN, AVN, chargebacks, annual negotiations. Net 45 payment to the client on wholesale invoices. Vendor-side performance reporting, shared with you and the client.
The two layers don't compete for scope. You stay the advisor who framed the move; we stay the operator who runs the channel once the framing is set.
No. Your client relationship is yours. We don't reach out to your client without your say-so. We don't propose scope expansions without aligning with you first. We don't try to convert the client into a direct VendorSprout relationship that bypasses you. For consultants specifically, we go a step further: strategic conversations between you and your client are conversations we stay out of unless explicitly invited. We're available as an operational reference when your strategy includes 1P; we're not present when you're framing the strategy. Your trusted-advisor positioning is a real asset we protect.
Same structure as our agency partnerships. Tier-based percentage of wholesale revenue from the client engagement, paid to you for the life of the relationship. Starting tier sits in the mid-single-digit range, scaling to double digits at portfolio volume. Paid quarterly against realized wholesale revenue. No expiration. No exclusivity required. For fractional CMOs and solo consultants, even a single client moving to 1P can add a meaningful recurring revenue stream alongside the advisory retainer. For boutique consultancies with multiple growth-stage clients, the portfolio economics compound quickly.
Your consulting relationship continues exactly as it does today. We run the 1P channel as a parallel operational layer. We coordinate with you (and your client's existing agency if there is one) on cross-channel decisions. The default model for any consultant-introduced engagement.
The client's FBA keeps running. We run 1P on a separate set of SKUs in parallel. No Buy Box overlap, no operational conflict.
A hand-picked few SKUs through us. Lightweight entry. Common when a consultant is helping a client test the model on one hero product before committing to expansion.
We become the client's only Amazon Canada presence. Less common as a consultant-introduced engagement, but supported when the client has decided to fully consolidate.
| What you advise on | What we run |
|---|---|
| Channel strategy across the full portfolio (DTC, wholesale, retail, Amazon) | The Amazon Canada 1P channel for SKUs in scope |
| Whether 1P fits the brand at this stage | Vendor Central commercial relationship |
| Which SKUs make strategic sense for 1P | Catalog setup, A+ Content layout, brand registry on 1P SKUs |
| MAP policy and channel-conflict frameworks | PO acceptance, ASN, AVN, chargebacks, vendor-side compliance |
| Product launch sequencing and timing | Wholesale inventory and PO management with the client |
| Pricing strategy across channels | Net 45 payment to the client on wholesale invoices |
| Brand positioning, narrative, voice | Annual Amazon vendor negotiations for the client's category |
| Strategic decks, frameworks, QBRs | Vendor-side performance reporting (shared with you) |
| The client relationship | The operational layer for the channel you advised on |
VendorSprout is a back-pocket capability you bring to client conversations where Amazon 1P comes up. Not a strategy consultancy. Not a competitor for your advisory seat. Not an attempt to acquire your clients or build a direct relationship that excludes you. We are the operator of one specific channel — Amazon Canada 1P — that you can confidently include in a client's channel strategy because you have us in the loop. When the client asks the next question — "okay, how do we actually get into 1P?" — you have an answer that's not "I'll have to find someone." It's "I know who runs this. Let's bring them in."
Consultant pitch use: For client brands with existing wholesale operations, the manufacturer-archetype Hybrid is a clean architecture — Amazon Canada becomes one more wholesale customer in the matrix.
Consultant pitch use: For brands with one or two hero SKUs whose marketing is already strong but whose unit economics aren't working on FBA, this is the kind of channel-architecture shift that unlocks dormant volume.
Consultant pitch use: Some SKUs are structurally penalized by FBA. Moving just those to 1P removes the penalty without changing the rest of the channel mix.
I used to lose half my channel-strategy conversations the moment Amazon 1P came up — I couldn't credibly say what came next. Now I can. VendorSprout is the one capability I didn't have to build to make my pitch complete. — Fractional CMO, consumer-brand consultancy
Thirty minutes, just you and us. We learn how you advise, what your client portfolio looks like, where 1P typically comes up in your client conversations. Referral structure and communication preferences agreed.
You drive. We're available to answer 1P-specific questions when invited. The strategy framing for the conversation is yours.
We screen candidate SKUs against 1P unit economics. You're copied on the output; the strategic conclusions are yours to draw with the client.
Direct between us and the client (with you copied). Wholesale agreement signed. Net 45 with favourable terms is the default.
Standard onboarding operational work. SKUs mapped to our Vendor Central catalog against the ASINs already in place.
SKUs go live as Sold by Amazon.ca. Your advisory relationship continues unchanged; the 1P channel surfaces in your strategic conversations and reporting from here.
No. The Amazon-channel strategy — whether to go 1P, which SKUs, when, how 1P sits in the broader portfolio — belongs to you. We're the operator for one specific channel. When you bring us into a client conversation, we provide tactical clarity on what 1P actually delivers, but the strategic framing is yours.
No. The default arrangement: you're on every call, copied on every email. We don't reach out to your client without your say-so. We go a step further for consultants: we stay out of strategic conversations between you and your client unless explicitly invited. Your trusted-advisor positioning is a real asset we protect.
Tier-based percentage of wholesale revenue, starting in the mid-single-digit range, scaling to double digits at portfolio volume. Paid quarterly against realized revenue. No expiration. No exclusivity required. Specifics negotiated case-by-case; full one-pager available on partnership conversation.
In our experience, no. The framing matters: you're not outsourcing strategy; you're completing the strategy by including a credible 1P path. Clients tend to read this as sophisticated channel architecture rather than as advisory hand-off. We can provide language and framing you can use with clients to position the relationship the way you want it positioned.
Yes. Bringing us into a new-business pitch — where you're competing for an engagement and 1P access is part of your differentiation — is one of the highest-value uses of the partnership. We're available for prospect calls on short notice. The pitch is consultant-led; we provide the 1P credibility.
If useful. We can provide reference material — 1P vs 3P decision frameworks, unit-economic templates, brand-protection narratives — that you can adapt to your own consulting style. We don't write your decks for you, but we make sure you have the source material to write them well.
That's fine. The advisory conversation has its own value even if the client doesn't proceed operationally. We don't pressure consultants to push clients into 1P; we want consultants who bring us clients only when 1P actually fits. The referral relationship is unaffected by whether a specific client elects to move forward.
Yes. The right time to involve us is often when you're framing channel options for the client and want to make sure the 1P option is described accurately. Bringing us in early — for one call to anchor the 1P option in the client's mind — costs little and often clarifies the strategic conversation.
No. Strategy is your seat. We will not propose strategic framings to your client outside of conversations you've invited us into. If a client asks us a strategic question directly, we'll redirect — "that's the kind of question your consultant is the right person to answer; happy to provide the operational context they need."
Bring the portfolio to the partnership conversation. We can identify which brands in your portfolio are likely 1P fits, which are not, and what the priority sequence would be. Some consultants work with us on multiple clients from a single portfolio; others bring us in on a per-client basis. Both work.
Cleanly. Our Agency Co-managed engagement model is specifically designed for this — your consulting layer, the agency's operational layer (PPC, A+, DSP), and our 1P layer all coexist. We coordinate explicitly with the agency on cross-channel decisions while keeping you in the strategic seat.
No. No exclusivity required. Consultants are free to position VendorSprout as one of several 1P options to their clients, though in practice 1P access through anyone other than an existing Vendor Central holder is nearly impossible.
The economic floor for 1P starts being meaningful around $500K–$1M of annual Amazon Canada-relevant revenue (or credible runway to that). Below that, the operational setup cost relative to the revenue makes the math weaker. We'll tell you straight on the partnership conversation whether a specific client is below practical scale.
