Do you purchase cookies from the Girl Scouts every year? For many people, it is an annual tradition. It’s also a great way to support an excellent organization. The cookie drive plays a large part in the fundraising for the Girl Scouts.
As well as going digital with their sales, they have also gone mass market by having the cookies available in grocery stores. There’s a great deal that we can learn from the successful running of a business by the Girl Scouts, as well as enjoying the tasty treats.
The following are some great lessons to learn from:
Always Be Selling
The current holder of the record for the “most cookies sold in a single year” is Katie Francis from Oklahoma. She sold an amazing 22,200 boxes. She was recently quoted as telling the local news station, “There are three main ingredients for a cookie sale.”
“It takes a lot of time, commitment and asking everybody I see.” Does this really mean that she met 22,200 hungry people? No, but if you can sell one box, why not try selling two? Or even a dozen? Remember: always be selling.
Know Your Customer Base
It’s hard to imagine anyone going through life without tasting a Girl Scout Cookie. Which highlights how popular the brand is and what it can evoke memories of childhood. None of that mattered to the customers who were leaving a dispensary for medical marijuana. One very clever seller set up a table there and within 2 hours had sold one hundred and seventeen boxes.
The lesson to learn here is to know your customer base. In other words, if you are going to sell cookies, go to where the hungry people are. Setting up outside of a grocery store may not be the ideal spot. There may be lots of traffic but there are not a lot of hungry people.
Expand Your Network
All Girl Scouts can easily sell a couple of dozen boxes to their immediate family and in the neighborhood where she lives. Add in some help from mom and/or dad’s coworkers and the numbers increase a little. However, the best way to increase sales is when the girls expand and increase the size of their network. This requires taking their sign-up sheets with them wherever they go.
Final Note
The most important lesson is to not take rejection personally. The Girl Scouts have heard all the excuses, such as, “don’t have cash,” “on a diet,” “already ordered.” It’s nothing personal. This is the exact same approach you need to take to your sales pitch. Didn’t land a new customer? No problem. Just move onto the next one.
