It must be spring. I saw some beautiful trees covered with brightly colored buds and as I leave grocery stores I hear that spring time sound “Wanna Buy Some Girl Scout Cookies?”
On Saturday I ran across a very bored looking youngish scout (around nine years of age I would guess). She was leaning against the pillar of the stores exterior and had her scout vest pinned behind her with her hands.
She spoke so fast it sounded like “Wannabuysomegirlsscoutcookies?” If I didn’t know what she was saying I would not have understood her at all. She is not the first scout this year that has asked me to buy cookies and yes, I have bought boxes of Thin Mints and my real favorites Peanut Butter Sandwich cookies called Do-si-dos.
The very first ones I purchased, I mentioned to the young scout that I thought the packages were smaller this year. While she didn’t answer me directly, I heard them speaking among themselves that they heard that before. HMMMM
The real point is that the cookie sales are very important to Girl Scouts. The sales raise hundreds of millions of dollars for Girl Scouting. I would think the there would be some training in salesmanship that would help sell even more cookies.
The young scout from Saturday night broken every rule in the book of what makes an effective salesperson. She invested her time and was trying to do her “job”. Which simply put, is to fund raise for the Girl Scouts. She wasn’t trained in how best to spend her time.
Her posture was wrong. The way she was standing (leaning) physically hid her uniform that would help her presentation. She “blurted” out her message so she wasn’t effectively communicating the sales pitch (yes, it is a sales pitch). Her message was a question that could be and was politely responded to with a “No Thank You”.
The other day I mentioned that Sales 101 was Never Ask A Question That Can Be Answered With A NO!
After many years of fundraising with Cookies, the Girl Scouts should spend a little more time on simple and proper salesmanship. Their major fundraiser would be at least 10 to 20 percent more successful.
How about “We Have New Cookies This Year, Come and See Them!” “Do you want Two boxes of Thin Mints or just One!”
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