Great tips for selling Girl Scout Cookies
Box boosting ideas
You've got dreams, and you can achieve them during the 2010 Cookie Activity! Consider the following tips for boosting those sales numbers this year. There are a lot of untapped customers out there! Having success with a sales technique or have another innovative way to sell cookies that you want to share? E-mail your most creative ideas to Amanda K., and we will add your thoughts and comments to this page!
**Please follow all rules established by your region before you set up a sale of any kind. Also consider Safety-Wise and how to be a "sister to every Girl Scout" in all of your actions.
Information about selling via the Internet
Under adult supervision, girls may use e-mail, text messaging or social networking (such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace) to secure orders from people they know or friends or family. However, no money can be exchanged via the Internet, and girls may not sell cookies via online auctions like eBay or craigslist. Girls can use individual Web sites (for a family, troop, girl or service unit) to promote the cookie activity and how to go about purchasing cookies at a Booth Sale location. It is advised not to sell to people you don't know through the Internet, and girls should not give out their phone number, address or e-mail address in these interactions. Girl Scouts can promote girlscoutsofcolorado.org and girlscoutcookies.org as resources for the general public to use to final resources for purchasing Girl Scout Cookies from local girls.
Boost your cookie sales through the Internet by using Little Brownie Bakers Online Cookie Club! It's a great way to set and track goals as well. Learn more.
Business plan leads to increased cookie sales
Several years ago, Longmont Girl Scout Maggie, who was a Girl Scout Junior at the time, developed a business plan for cookie time. With the help of business materials created by the bakery, Maggie, who is now a teen Girl Scout, created a PowerPoint presentation promoting the purchase of cookies as part of a bundled package. In fact, one of the bundles was named “TLC,” which was the nickname of a company project at her father’s workplace where she used the presentation to sell cookies.
“One person bought three bundles! I don’t think he would have bought as many if they were not in bundles,” said Maggie.
Maggie’s business plan and presentation is one she continues to update and use to sell cookies with great success.
In addition to door-to-door sales, also consider selling
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A local retirement community, apartment complex or mobile home park. Arrange with the property manager to do a Booth Sale in an activity room on a Saturday afternoon. |
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| Beauty salons (on a Saturday afternoon) | |
| Flower shops (suggest a special Valentine’s Day promotion) | |
| Hotels (suggest purchasing boxes of cookies to be given to guests) | |
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Banks (they could purchase cookies to have available for customers or could give a box to new customers) |
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| Restaurants (maybe they would be interested in creating a recipe with Girl Scout Cookies) | |
| Malls (What could be better than setting up a Booth Sale at a local mall?) | |
| Realtors (to give out to clients or for open houses that may help them boost their home sales) | |
| Coffee houses | |
| Car dealerships (how about a box for every test drive?) |
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| Income tax preparation companies (suggest giving a box to customers to calm their nerves during tax time) | |
| Insurance agents (they could give a box to every new client) | |
| College campuses (Girl Scout Cookies are the perfect study food for upcoming mid-terms! Consider selling in fraternities/sororities or in a student union.) |
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| Area events, including sporting events (a perfect place to reach out to untapped cookie customers!) | |
| Retirement community (Check with the Homeowners Association to ask about setting up to sell in the community clubhouse.) | |
| Assisted living facility (Suggest having a cookies and milk break and selling cookies to residents during the break.) |
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| Approach a local business about selling to their customers or employees. Ask them to purchase a large order of cookies for customer or employee appreciation. Ask them if you can come and make a presentation to the company’s employees during a “Cookies and Milk” break where the employer will purchase cookies and serve them with milk as a snack break. Sell packages of cookies to the employees during the break. Ask the company to purchase a case of cookies that would be sent to military personnel stationed around the world. Or ask the company to match employee boxes sold with boxes you are selling to date to Hometown Heroes/Gift of Caring. |
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Visit your local dump on a Saturday morning to sell |
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| Set up a drive by Booth Sale during afterschool pick up at your school |
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| Promote the Cookie Activity on your car: Grab some car chalk from your nearest retail location and decorate your car for cookie time. (Other resources at www.littlebrowniebakers.com.) Make sure you have information on your car on how consumers can get their hands on the tasty treats. You can list your troop cookie director, troop leader or the council office phone number (not a girl number). If you decide to carry a supply of cookies in your car for people to purchase, make sure you safeguard the cookies when you are away from your car. |
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But the ideas don’t stop there. Also consider:
| Promoting the Cookie Activity on your Facebook or MySpace page, and encourage your friends and family to do the same. You, your family and friends are encouraged to post Girl Scouts of Colorado’s 30 second cookie public service announcement on your/their page: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhTsP3WdJbE. |
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| Trying to secure sales with family and friends via e-mail, text messaging or a Facebook and MySpace page. (Note: If adults post information on cookies on Facebook and MySpace, they must state their relationship to a Colorado Girl Scout or troop.) |
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| Using Car and Yard Signs to promote the cookie activity. | |
| Asking customers to purchase cookies by the case, not the box. | |
| Contacting the customers you sold to last year. When you visit their door, call them by name. Contact new customers in your neighborhood or adjacent neighborhoods, or contact other family/community connections (brother’s soccer team, faith-based community, teachers at school, etc.). We hear from many customers every year that they never have a Girl Scout ask them to buy cookies. Do you know that most customers like to buy cookies at their home? Sales could be increased by reaching untapped customers and conducting door-to-door sales. In fact, most people say that they don’t buy cookies because they weren’t asked. | |
| Visiting a parent’s workplace to sell cookies. | |
| Creating bundles of cookies for customers to buy at Booth Sales, such as a chocolate lovers package, a “gotta have it all” package, etc. Package them with a pretty bow that ties them together. Great resources for promoting bundling at www.littlebrownie.com. |
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| Participating in the Gift of Caring/Hometown Heroes program. Customers may especially be interested in sending cookies to overseas troops or donating to a local food bank. | |
| Taking cookies in-hand around your neighborhood and giving customers one last chance to buy the cookies they love in February once the cookies arrive. |
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| Placing a door hanger on the doors of people you miss during your selling activities or to promote your troop's Booth Sales. Download the door hanger on the Girl Scouts of Colorado Web site. | |
| Giving your customers a thank you card with their cookie order. |
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| Attaching Girl Scout Cookie recipes (available on the Little Brownie Bakers Web site) to boxes you have sold and/or have them available at Booth Sales. | |
| Suggesting the new cookies to customers. Sample them at Booth Sales. You could even try one of the new cookie recipes and have it available for customers to try at Booth Sales. |
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Business Reader Board Displays - asking local businesses that have reader boards outside of their business establishments to change their signage to say it's "GS Cookie Time. Call (and list the troop or service unit cookie director, troop leader or the council office phone number (not a girl number)). Neighborhood mapping - at a service unit meeting identify where there are neighborhoods with few Girl Scouts living in them and assign troops to specific streets to cover with door-to-door Girl business cards templates - Create business cards troops can pass out around town for cookie sales. There are templates on the Little Brownie Bakers Web site. Make sure the troop or service unit cookie director, troop leader or the council office phone number (not a girl number) is listed on the cards. "A Stroll Down Main Street" - contacting all the businesses on a town's main street and asking shop owners and employees for orders. Might appeal to your smaller rural communities. Thank U Berry Munch Booth Sales - see if you can set up a Booth Sale with the new cookies at local coffee/tea shops. |
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Have a Booth Sale scheduled for Valentine’s Day? Wrap up some bundles of cookies in pretty ribbons for people to buy for their sweethearts. Make a card to attach to the bundle. Even if you don’t have a Booth Sale that day, schedule a red wagon sale and go door-to-door with the same cookie bundles – they make a great gift for Valentine’s Day! |
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| Booth Sales to be promoted statewide: The council’s new Booth Sale Locator tool will be available for consumers to use at www.girlscoutsofcolorado.org in February. This will enable customers to type in their zip code and locate sale locations near their home. This will be promoted on Web sites and through news media statewide. |
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| Red wagon sales: In addition to Booth Sales, also consider grabbing your red wagon, some cookies and hitting untapped neighborhoods. This provides instant gratification for your customers, and it is a great way to boost sales. |
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| More Booth Sale locations needed! If you’ve always said, “This would be a great place for a Booth Sale,” we are looking for new ideas of high traffic locations that might welcome the Girl Scouts and not be a conflict with existing sites. Please share your ideas with your area cookie director or put in a request via My Sales in eBudde. |
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