Leaders of Change: Jeff Cohen
JEFF COHEN has over 15 years of eCommerce experience. Currently, Jeff is CMO and Partner at Seller Labs where he works with more than 50,000 Amazon sellers providing software solutions and expert advice. Prior to working Seller Labs, Jeff was General Manager and Founder of Textbooks.com. As an international speaker, Jeff is regarded as an industry expert who is constantly asked to share actionable intelligence on how Amazon works and how sellers can improve their business.
Why did you choose to pursue eCommerce in your career? I didn’t choose eCommerce, it chose me. I was working on corporate websites back in the early 2000's. As the Marketing Director for a $500M textbook wholesaler, I was the one with the most “eCommerce” experience so they asked me if I wanted to lead the team to develop Textbooks.com. My reaction was “f$@k Yeah!”! Little did I know how much this would change my life and put me on the forefront of the eCommerce revolution. My success at Textbooks.com was based on the team of experts I assembled to launch the site, many of them are still with the company today -- over 12 years later. I went on to run a textbook price comparison site where I met Brandon Checketts, the co-founder of Seller Labs. From that point forward, we worked on different projects together from selling books to overstock apparel to electronics. The shift from selling to software was pretty natural as we were really programmers at heart. The Amazon space always made sense to me, it was just something that I naturally clicked with.
What is your biggest strength, and how have you used it for your success in eCommerce? My biggest strength is the ability to help connect people. I love talking with people in this space and truly understanding what their problem is. Once I understand that, I can connect them with the right person to solve their problem. I believe that we need to serve others to see success in our own ventures, that selfless efforts come back to benefit us in the long run.
What is the weirdest skill or talent to come in handy in your eCommerce experience? I have the chance to speak in front of thousands of sellers and brand owners every year. I try to keep my content up-to-date and fresh. The night before a speech, I taught myself a magic trick and thought, "this is exactly what its like to optimize a product listing on Amazon." The next day I did the trick on stage to illustrate my story.
How have you most successfully influenced change within your organization (or with your clients)? When you are part of a startup, everyone influences change in the organization. I have been lucky enough to be on the executive team at Seller Labs since I started. I don’t believe I am the creative one, but when others in the organization come up with new ideas, I am quickly able to vet them by using my resources in the community to determine if the project we are working on is something that customers want. In October 2016, we started working on our advertising management platform, Ignite. Back 18 months ago, nobody was automating ad management on Amazon. I had to chance to be on the launch team for this product and to work with some of the top advertising minds in the space to determine the direction and features that the application would have. Ignite is now the largest Amazon Ad Management platform managing tens of millions of dollars in ad spend every month.
In the last five years, what new belief, behavior or habit has most improved your life? In the last five years, the behavior that I have improved the most is the ability to know when I don’t know something. When I was younger, I always believed I needed to know the answer and that I always needed to be the smartest person in the room. Over the past few years, I have learned that if you surround yourself with people that know what you don’t, then you can succeed together. It's very humbling to stand in front of your team and tell them you don’t know and that you will figure it out together.
What are you learning right now? Besides trying to learn Fortnite, a video game that my kids play, I am trying to learn how to write a book. I have always wanted to write a book, but never felt I could actually do it. The process is much harder than I thought, but it has been great to learn the process and to dig deep inside of me to get the stories out that I want to share.
What are the 1-3 songs that would make up your career soundtrack today?
- With a Little Help From My Friends by The Beatles: I have always been a strong believer that you surround yourself with people smarter than you. My career success isn’t about what I have done on my own -- it's about the team that I have worked with, the people that have helped me and the opportunities that lay in front of me.
What are the 1-3 books you’ve gifted the most or that have greatly influenced your life, and why?
- Front of the Class by Brad Cohen and Lisa Wysocky: This is the book that means the most to me and that I gift the most. The book was written by my brother, Brad Cohen. Brad has Tourette Syndrome and wrote this book to tell the story of his life. The book is more than Tourette, it's about understanding that we are all different and what makes us different really makes us unique. Brad’s book was made into a TV movie under the same name. It has won awards and been featured on Oprah and People Magazine. We all had that one teacher that made a difference in our life, this book goes into how Brad struggled to find that one teacher, finally did and then became the teacher he never had.
If you could have a gigantic billboard for the world to see with anything on it, what would it say, and why? "Kill them with Kindness." I am not sure who the first one was to say this, but I feel this statement is very true. If you are kind to others, it's hard for them to be mean back to you. This is a general philosophy of our company, we want our staff -- from the executive team to the engineers to the customer success reps -- to all focus on making our sellers successful. The best way to do this is give them more than they are expecting.
What are the worst recommendations or advice you have heard related to eCommerce? The worst advice I hear usually starts with “but it worked for my friend” or “I know it's against the rules, but I don’t think it's really against TOS”. We as sellers on the marketplace have a responsibility to self-manage and create an ecosystem that is fair. We know that some will abuse this, but if you play the long game you will be successful.
What advice would you give to a future leader of change about to enter business, or specifically the eCommerce field? Don’t worry about the competition, worry about your own direction. Leaders don’t look at what others are doing, they see a vision for what they want and they seek to obtain it. If you are looking in the rear-view mirror trying to see what others are doing, then you are letting them dictate your success.
What specific, industry-related change do you believe will happen that few others seem to see? I have been lucky enough to be part of a few large industry changes. Many of these changes are hard to see while they are occurring, but when you look back you see the impact they had. The first one was the move to textbook rentals. Everyone was waiting for eBooks to take over and rentals ended up accounting for 30% of the textbook market share. In today’s eCommerce, I think the big change is going to be the way that manufacturers and brand owners look at marketplace sites. The traditional way of thinking is that you, as the brand owner, want to own the customer and therefore want to drive all the sales back to your website. The innovative brands realize that marketplace websites are the home of shopping in today’s eCommerce world. You have to take risk and go the non-traditional route. Concepts like driving website traffic to a marketplace or using your email list to drive traffic to a marketplace is happening and those who figure it out will win a bigger share of the marketplace traffic.
What is the last thing you bought online, and why? The last thing I purchased online was an XBox gaming headset. I have a 10-year-old son who is really into Fortnite --it's all the rage these days. I tried to play it and it was embarrassing how bad I was. The last thing I purchased online for myself was a new swimsuit. I lost 30 pounds over the winter and needed a new one!
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Leaders of Change is a weekly interview series featuring select industry pioneers who are driving the evolution of commerce, the consumer and everything in between. If you would like to recommend a Leader of Change for consideration, please reach out to me on LinkedIn.