程阳：彩票销售数据说明一切

—— SalesMaker™ 系统的卓越表现

The Proof is in the Numbers

From New York to China and everywhere in between, the combination of best of breed retail practices and instant product management is making a positive difference.

Lotteries such as Delaware, Indiana, Maryland, Ohio and Pennsylvania have gone above and beyond in actively engaging their retailers to create optimal lottery selling environments. Working with Scientific Games to execute its SalesMaker™ program, these lotteries have generated more traffic and 10 to 20% average increases in instant scratch games sales for their participating retailers.

Launched in 2006, SalesMaker is a suite of offerings including training, merchandising, consulting and analytics, all aimed at optimizing the at-retail buying experience. The program has gained momentum with lottery retailers from independent stores to chains successfully applying its principles at various levels. The program is lead by Jeff Sinacori, who spent more than 20 years on the cash register side of the counter as a successful business owner and became a top-selling New York Lottery retailer. Jeff knows firsthand the need to understand many aspects of the retail business in order to drive lottery sales.

“We are truly students of the retail environment, but putting new dispensers in store and merchandising is only one small part of optimizing lottery sales,” says Sinacori, now Vice President of Retail Development for Scientific Games, a global lottery and gaming company that has served more than 300 customers for nearly 40 years. “SalesMaker is hands-on, on-going training and real world, real store demonstrations on how to position lottery products as a business within a business.”

The SalesMaker retail development team is in the field, training and motivating both the lottery sales force and the lottery’s retail base, including owners, managers and clerks. The entire retail ecosystem must be empowered with the knowledge and tools needed to succeed at every level. Importantly, the program provides detailed direction on how and where to focus the lottery’s limited resources – both human capital and point-of-sale dollars for the most impact.

“We have had SalesMaker in operation for five years now. It has really taken off and become a very powerful program,” says Sinacori. He is often called into situations to provide his expertise, even when the SalesMaker program itself is not being officially implemented. This was the case at the start-up of Northstar, the private partner management group for the Illinois Lottery, where Jeff worked with lottery sales reps and visited retailers to provide guidance on in-store best practices to increase sales.

Good to Great in Maryland

Maryland Lottery Assistant Director, John Martin, experienced the success of SalesMaker firsthand when he was at the Ohio Lottery. Ohio was the first lottery to reach an incremental $1 million in sales from SalesMaker – all achieved through a one-year pilot program with 15 retailers.

“The Maryland Lottery was interested in bringing SalesMaker on board, and when I came here last fall I wanted to make the program a priority. From a retailer’s perspective, if they can incorporate best practices and improve instant ticket merchandising in store, they can impact their own revenue – and the lottery rides the wave because it increases our sales,” says Martin. “Even players get more involved. So, it’s a win-win-win for the lottery, the retailer and the players.”

Convenience store customers get into habits, they go into the store to get their coffee and their newspaper, whatever they usually buy. Many look right past lottery displays. But in one of the three SalesMaker Flagship stores in Maryland, customer response was ‘Wow, I didn’t realize you sold lottery here.’

To-date in 2012, the Maryland Lottery has invited 20% of the state’s 4,200 lottery retailers to three SalesMaker seminars. The Lottery now has 100 retailers who are anxious to get started with the program and ultimately plan to implement aspects of SalesMaker in 700 locations. Training and seminars will continue through July, and then the Lottery plans to retool and schedule more seminars for 2013.

“The intent of SalesMaker is to work with strong retailers who already get it, who want to improve their lottery sales, and make them A+ lottery retailers,” says Martin. “SalesMaker gives them the tools to increase their lottery sales, in some cases 10 to 20% on top of already solid sales. It’s kind of like the ‘Good to Great’ concept.”

Positive Results in Pennsylvania

In Pennsylvania, the SalesMaker program launched in fall of 2011 as a pilot. The Pennsylvania Lottery selected operators who had a history of supporting lottery, its programs and promotions designed to drive sales. The experience was very positive.

“These were good or better than average retailers,” says Todd Rucci, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Lottery. “The SalesMaker program demonstrated the Lottery’s commitment to these retailers’ success.”

How did SalesMaker impact customers at participating retailers? Rucci says it made lottery, specifically instant games, more visible to customers. Many other retailers have seen the SalesMaker countertop displays and want them for their own stores.

At Nuts Plus in Philadelphia, owner Gary Sanghvi thought the SalesMaker program looked interesting. He began the program in his 400 square-foot store about five months ago and his instant sales are up over 35%. “There is a lot of lottery competition around my store, but since SalesMaker my lottery sales have gone up,” says Sanghvi. “Customers were surprised when they came in and saw we had a $500 winner, a $50 winner and a $100 winner. Two weeks ago I had a $200,000 winner. I put winner signs up and people come in and say ‘Oh, this is a lucky store.’”

The SalesMaker program has definitely helped increase traffic to Nuts Plus. Sanghvi, who has been selling lottery for 20 years from Nuts Plus and a previous, larger location, says it has also strengthened his relationship with the Pennsylvania Lottery and helped him learn which products work best in his store and with his customers. Other retailers have come by to find out why his lottery sales are so good. The program generates buzz.

“SalesMaker is a good program for my store, it lets my customers see they have so many choices with the lottery games,” Sanghvi says. “It’s working. Lottery sales at my store are very good. I’m very happy.”

At Smokin Zone in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Nirav Javia, the store’s president, says he was undecided about launching SalesMaker. “Before the seminar I was really 50-50, but after I attended the seminar I definitely wanted to do it,” says Javia laughing. “Actually, I’m late. I should have started earlier. It has really been a big benefit for me.”

Nirav says he is now selling a weekly average of $8-9,000 in draw games and around $12-13,000 in instant scratch games in his store, which sells cigarettes, cigars and smoking accessories. He says overall lottery sales are up 35 to 40% since SalesMaker began, compared to being up just 7% last year.

“SalesMaker has made a big difference. My customers love it because they can see all of the games and the prizes in the new set-up with the SalesMaker bins,” say Javia. “They also love the new tables because they sit there and pick their numbers and play the scratch tickets and they go for it. They come in the store more often. It worked out really well.”

In Pennsylvania, Rucci says retailers continue to be pro-Lottery and excited to embrace any program that will result in increased lottery sales in their stores.

“Any opportunity to expand our presence at retail locations and draw more attention to our brand and our products is an opportunity for growth,” he says. “The more we can increase product visibility at retail, the better.” The Pennsylvania Lottery is looking to expand beyond the SalesMaker pilot and offer the program to more retailers. This focus rounds out the Lottery’s ongoing investment in the retail environment in areas such as digital content, vending solutions and product optimization.

Hoosier Retailers Are Believers

SalesMaker came to life in Indiana when the Hoosier Lottery sought to better utilize available options to make a dramatic statement at retail. When Jim Kennedy, Chief Marketing Officer at Scientific Games, recommended the program, the Lottery’s interest was piqued. This lead to a dialogue with Jeff Sinacori and the rest is history.

The Hoosier Lottery is heavily penetrated in the convenience store distribution channel, with a 61%-39% split of corporate accounts and independents. When they launched a SalesMaker pilot program just before the NASPL conference in October, they wanted a representation of both types of stores.