A Forensic Breakdown of The Amazing Selling Machine Course

Is the Amazing Selling Machine really worth the $4997 price tag?

Investing your hard-fought cash into something is always a little unsettling. You may have already been through one or two courses peddling broken promises of life-changing proportions.

You can’t afford to make the same mistake again.

And if you’re totally new to the startup entrepreneur space, you’re likely feeling pretty sceptical about making an investment of this size for an online training program.

In this post, we’ll dive deep into the ASM Amazon FBA course to determine what it’s really all about.

We’ll cover everything the course has to offer, from dissecting the modules to reviewing the course structure as well as overall presentation and design.

No stone will be left unturned!

This is a comprehensive, no-holds-barred review covering the good, the bad and the ugly.

So grab some coffee, fasten your seatbelt and prepare to learn some straight-facts about this popular e-commerce course. ☕️

Here’s what you can expect in the post:

What is Amazing Selling Machine?

The Amazing Selling Machine (or ASM, for short) is a popular online training course that shows you how to start your very own e-commerce business, starting from scratch.

The training program shows you how to use Amazon to sell physical goods to consumers globally.

This is made possible through Amazon’s FBA (fulfilment by Amazon) service.

ASM is one of the leading e-commerce business courses on the market and has been since it first launched over 5 years ago.

And ASM X is the 10th (and latest) instalment of the program. This version has been totally overhauled to include the latest and greatest Amazon FBA strategies.

Why Amazon?

Amazing Selling Machine is structured around launching and growing your brand on Amazon.

Why? Because it’s simply one of the fastest ways to start selling physical goods successfully online.

Case in point:

Amazon grossed over $177 billion dollars in revenue back in 2017.

The best part?

This was $42 billion dollars MORE than 2016!

The growth of Amazon is exponential and is showing no signs of slowing down…

These numbers are market-leading in the world of e-commerce so it makes sense that ASM is built around establishing your presence on there initially.

People also trust Amazon. And their conversion rate speaks for itself.

A study revealed the average conversion rate for the top 500 internet retailers sits at a respectable 3.32%.

But Amazong is a different beast, converting 13% for standard customers and a WHOPPING 74% for PRIME members.

Do you realise how huge this is?

These are totally game-changing numbers for businesses selling their goods on the platform. And many e-commerce entrepreneurs have become wildly successful by listing their products through Amazon FBA.

Matt Clark and Jason Katzenback

Matt Clark and Jason Katzenback are the founders of the Amazing Selling Machine company. They run the business from Austin in Texas and have been doing so since June 2012 (according to Jason’s LinkedIn).

But who are these guys, really? And can you truly trust them to help you achieve your entrepreneurial goals?

Matt Clark Summary

Matt Clark grew up in Houston, Texas and later moved to Austin to launch ASM with Jason Katzenback.

Searching for information on Matt revealed his website Startup Myth, which (in all honesty) does a lousy job at communicating his story.

But he does reveal some interesting insights on tough times he faced growing up and mixing with the wrong crowd.

According to the story — Matt went from breaking into homes and doing drugs to reading business books and building profitable companies.

*YAWN*

We’ve heard it all before.

Matt is featured in a number of guest posts and convincing podcast interviews on various websites but he could definitely do a better job of communicating his story and personal brand through his own website.

Jason Katzenback Summary

Jason is more active outside the Amazing Selling Machine.

He’s visible on LinkedIn and has published a fair few articles covering a variety of topics on Medium.com.

Jason kicked off his internet career successfully selling e-books on his blogs and making anything from $5 to $15k per month (this was back in 2003 — the dark ages in internet terms).

In 2005, he started Portal Feeder, a training company that taught budding entrepreneurs how to launch their own businesses.

And in 2012, he met Matt Clark.

Cutting a long story short, Matt was making bank through private-label products on Amazon FBA at the time they met.

Jason was blown away and wanted a piece of the action.

Matt took him under his wing and within 4 short months, he was supposedly generating $100k+ per month in profit on Amazon.

Consequently, they went on to launch Amazing Selling Machine that same year.

ASM Course: First Impressions

Amazing Selling Machine is the big blockbuster movie of e-commerce training programs.

Everything about this course has a premium feel to it — from the polished sales pages to the high-quality videos and slick course presentation.

ASM builds trust, creates intrigue and inspires action through their marketing messages and course content.

This “first impressions” segment is all about what I observed after signing up to this popular e-commerce training course.

The ASM Dashboard

The ASM dashboard is your first taste of the back-office experience. This is where your crazy journey begins!

The dashboard homepage feels premium, with a clean design and clutter-free layout that helps you find what you need, fast.

Everything contained in the ASM course can be accessed from this page.

Notice the badge reward system sitting front and centre on the page:

This forms your “ASM Journey Roadmap”, and is designed to help you take action and track your progress throughout the course.

Each module contains a different set of badges to earn, starting off with small tasks like setting up your profile and creating your first post in the ASM community.

Community Badge Earning

One thing I loved about the badges is the community showcase of achievements on display.

Scrolling down the dashboard reveals monthly top badge earners:

As well as recent badge earners:

Seeing the results others have achieved is a great source of motivation, especially when the going gets tough (which it definitely will at some point).

ASM Course: Training Structure and Breakdown

In this segment, we’ll dive deep into the meat and potatoes of this course, dissecting many of the modules to help determine the quality of training offered.

So in this section, I’ll review the first 4 modules of the training course. This is enough for you to make an informed decision without making this article too long for you to finish.

Ready to dive in?

Let’s go!

Welcome Module

The Welcome Module is the ASM course primer that covers a number of essential aspects for building a successful business.

The module consists of 20 lessons spanning 2 hours and 21 minutes:

The first few videos cover the basics, such as navigating the dashboard, accessing the community and avoiding common online business pitfalls.

And right from the start, I noticed a specific formula being used to structure the content.

Each video has a clear introduction outlining what will be covered:

And is followed by bite-sized action steps that you’re encouraged to complete immediately:

This learn > implement > learn > implement formula helps you break down large amounts of work into small manageable chunks.

Also, the minimal filler content and sweet pace of the videos made for a pleasant learning experience.

No time-wasting pointless padding to report!

The quality of content covered is also worth noting as ASM examine aspects of business-building not seen in other similar courses.

For example:

They covered various ways to structure your e-commerce business that relate to your ultimate goals…

And the subtle but critical (and often confused) difference between interest and passion…

However, one of the downsides is definitely the voice-over work. Rich Henderson sounds robotic at times which detracts from the overall learning experience.

Aside from the commentary, the content covered in this module is the perfect strategic primer for starting your Amazon FBA business.

Module 1 – Building your Product Opportunity List

Module 1 offers a decent chunk of meaty content designed to help you lay the foundations of your physical product business.

In this part of the training, you’ll learn a variety of powerful product-sourcing strategies to ensure you start on the right foot.

Check out the module summary:

Selecting the correct first product for your business can easily be the difference between having a successful launch and throwing thousands of dollars down the drain.

A combination of competition, profit potential and private-label availability all play a part in finding your perfect product.

And thankfully, Amazon Selling Machine does a terrific job at demonstrating the criteria for product selection.

They show you the most profitable categories. They tell you what products to avoid. And they reveal their simple but powerful product selection process.

By the end of this module, you’ll have a list of hot product opportunities that have been verified through the ASM product selection criteria.

Module 2 – Suppliers, Samples & Profit Numbers

Module 2 is all about understanding your numbers.

From profit margins to product tweaking and finding the best suppliers — this module teaches you how to create superior products to your competitors while ensuring you maintain healthy profit margins.

Check out the module summary:

One of the most powerful parts of this section is something called “product tuning”.

Product tuning is where you make small adjustments to products to improve the customer experience. And this is done by finding the flaws in competitor products, then using your research to create something better.

This is one amazing way to create a higher-quality product that can outperform the competition.

In this second module, you’ll also learn how to source, contact and close deals with the best suppliers.

A tough sticking point for many new business owners is knowing how to approach suppliers (without coming across as a total newbie).

Amazing Selling Machine takes care of this with specific templates for every stage of the supplier conversation…

This is a huge timesaver.

But the best part of this module is where you learn about the various stages of evolution in a physical product business. This is where you come to understand why private-label products are so profitable and learn how to structure your Amazon business for maximum growth and scalability.

Module 3 – Ordering Inventory and Creating Your Brand

This part of the training sees you taking a huge step towards go live for your e-com business:

Ordering your inventory.

You’ll also design your product packaging, review product samples and ship your product to Amazon!

Here’s a full summary of what you’ll learn in this module:

Module 3 is where the rubber meets the road, kicking off with a deep-dive into supplier negotiations.

Finding the best deal couldn’t be more important as you’ll likely be working on a limited budget for your first inventory order. And ASM delivers with impressive strategies on how to approach supplier conversations!

However, the module structure is disappointing at best, leaving lots of room for improvement.

Some videos are too short (one just 2 minutes long) and it seems like ASM did this to bulk up the lesson count rather than make the content easier to digest.

With all that being said, the level of practical information shared throughout the module is solid. Especially the content on inventory ordering.

You’ll discover the sweet spot balance for inventory numbers, actually place your first inventory order and learn how to optimise your shipping expenses.

Module 4 – Building Your Brand Assets

The fourth module in the Amazon Selling Machine course is all about brand assets.

So what the heck are brand assets?!

Here’s a simple definition:

Anything that adds value to your brand.

Examples of brand asset’s include:

Your website, free content you share with prospective customers and your product itself.

So in this section, you’ll learn all about setting up your brand website, your lead capture pages and social media profiles.

Check out the full module summary:

Creating your brand assets is something you complete before you launch your product to the market.

This way, you set yourself up for a successful launch.

Preparation is paramount to progress. So you must do everything in your power to prepare your brand for your exciting launch!

This part of the training provides step-by-step walkthroughs for setting up your website, social media profiles and email list.

You’ll find a generous portion of sales-boosting best-practice tips along with clever strategies to help you generate repeat sales from your customers.

ASM Course: Coaching Calls & Other Bonuses

The Amazing Selling Machine core modules deliver the main course of this premium training program.

But there are more benefits to consider before you decide whether or not to invest in this course. And that’s exactly what i’ll be covering in this section.

Investing in a training course like this is about more than just high-level, practical training.

Hence, you’re probably asking yourself questions like:

• Does the ASM have an inspiring and supportive community?
• Do they offer any type of personal mentoring if I need a helping hand?
• And do they have a monetary guarantee in place in case it’s just not for me?

Let’s discover the answers!

The Private Resource Vault

The Resource Vault is a curated collection of tools, documents and useful links for helping you launch and grow your e-commerce business.

2 main sections divide the vault:

“Resource Links” and “Module Resources”.

Resource links pretty much do what it says on the tin. You’ll find web links to online tools that’ll help you set up various aspects of your business.

Links are categorised into subject matter groups, like so:

Module Resources contain all files bundled with the ASM core training segments. These contain a list of PDF files, separated by module number, like so:

The Private Resource Vault is essentially a shortcut — helping you save time by using tried and true tools and processes to build your business.

The Community

An active and supportive community is a cornerstone to any successful online training program.

And the ASM community scores strongly in a number of places — from community engagement to expert help and general inspiration.

The community platform is hosted natively within the back-office dashboard. This makes a change to the usual private Facebook groups that most course owners are setting up these days.

I posted a welcome message in the “welcome module” category to test community engagement levels…

The result?

12 solid replies from other members!

Check out some of the responses:

What’s more, many of the responses came from community mentors and even one from Mike McClary himself (he features in much of the core training).

This demonstrates a positive company ethos centred around connecting with members of the platform and making them feel welcome.

Finally, we have members in the community sharing their Amazon FBA results. This is awesome motivation for new and experienced members alike.

(*) Typicality Disclaimer: These member’s results may not be typical. ASM members joining between 2013-2016 who completed the program and launched a new brand had median annual revenue of $60,750.00.

Check out some recent examples:

Overall, the community is lively.

Members post new threads daily. And most importantly, people are engaging and responding to questions posted by members in good time.

Coaching Calls and Mentoring

The ASMX coaching archive is a collection of Q & A calls centred around specific modules from the core training.

You have access to archived calls from Module 1 through to 8 along with a bonus coaching call. These calls cover many common questions you may have on the specific steps relating to each of the core training modules.

For mentoring, your best bet is to post questions in the community. And before you do that, you’ll find answers to many common questions by searching previous threads.

The community mentors have all built their own highly successful e-com businesses and contribute generously to help new and existing members.

The Unconditional Guarantee

The refund policy is usually an accurate reflection of course quality.

If the policy is shrouded in mystery small print with a bunch of weird conditions attached — you’re better off keeping your distance.

On the flip side, clear product refund policies inspire confidence and trust. And thankfully, ASM offers a respectable one:

A 30-day “no questions asked” money-back guarantee.

So if the course fails to meet your expectations, you can retrieve your moolah with no strings attached.

Simples!

Should You Invest in ASM?

The Amazing Selling Machine is far from perfect.

The core training modules should be more engaging. Some of the course commentaries lack emotion and vocal variety. And clear gaps are evident on the mindset aspect of the employee/entrepreneur transition.

But overall, the level of detail covered on the tactics and strategies for e-commerce success is extensive.

ASM X forces you to act.

The supportive community is powerful.

And most importantly, the strategies taught are based on what’s working right now on Amazon.

Amazing Selling Machine is one of the most refined courses for starting your very own e-commerce business from scratch. And I’d be more than happy to recommend this to you as a quality course that can help you build a successful business.

Best of luck on your online business ventures!