Winning Teams = Winning Titles

As for as the big picture, we constantly monitor the market looking for new trends in the industry (in both sports and books), trying to be one step ahead of our competition, and continuing to review our success and challenges to improve our books’ performance.

It’s extremely important that marketing managers communicate with sales reps and accounts to monitor the success of a book, understand current market demands and anticipate other future needs.

If you could go back in time to meet a younger version of yourself and had 30 seconds to give some advice that would help you with your career in the future, what would it be?
Hulsey: It’s important to become an expert in marketing your genre, but don’t forget to analyze how your marketing programs affect overall the revenue, cash flow and profitability of your company. Understanding the effect of these aspects of the business and being able to communicate [them] are extremely important to management. Depending on the situation, your book may not be as profitable as others, but it may have provided additional cash flow during a slow sales period. Being able to provide this information will give you a competitive edge in the market and in your company.

What would you point to as the most difficult challenges presented by the sports book market today?
Hulsey: Today’s challenges are probably not that much different [than] those of several years ago. Historically, sales on a book covering a team will increase as that team has a good year. If a team has a poor year, the sales of the book can do the same. Balancing your list is essential. … We have a feel for which markets are strong. There are certain markets where … the teams’ books will sell come rain or shine. For example, [Chicago] Cubs fans will buy a Cubs book no matter how good or how bad they are. Usually once a season starts, everyone’s excited about it. But if a team starts to slow down in mid-season, book sales will slow down. So we manage our print runs based on that, and we watch the market. We use Nielsen’s BookScan a lot, just to see how book sales are fluctuating. We also talk to our accounts a lot and ask them what they think, so that we don’t overprint a particular title. If it’s a winning season, that book will sell all season long and even after the season.