How to Sell Girl Scout Cookies

First and foremost, most scouts love to sell cookies. Selling cookies promotes self-esteem. It gives your scout a chance to meet new people (mostly adults) and to interact with them in a more mature fashion than they have been used to.

Selling cookies gives girls an opportunity to practice many business skills such as marketing, sales, customer service, money skills (such as making change), and setting and meeting goals.

Lastly, a portion of the cookie sales goes back to the troop funds and local scout funds. Not only does the troop benefit from sales by being able to afford more lavish experiences for the girls, but the local Girl Scout community benefits from the money earned from the sales as well.

By selling Girl Scout cookies, you are encouraging and nourishing life skills in your scout as well as supporting her troop, her local council, and Girl Scouts nationwide.

You should first sell your Girl Scout cookies to family and friends. Family and friends are the most likely candidates for making a purchase because they have the most invested in seeing your scout succeed. You can also call or e-mail them ahead of time to let them know when sales will begin. This is an easy sale and may also spark some discussions between your scout and older scouts in her family or your circle of friends about what it might have been like to be a scout when they were little. You will find that cookie sales is an experience that most everyone remembers fondly!

Booth sales are a fun and quick way to sell cookies.

It is important to note that we are at the mercey of business owners to allow girls to sell cookies in front of their stores. For this reason, the girls should conduct themselves in a professional manner and in a way that enhances business for the establishment, not deters customers.

As a former booth sale coordinator, I got lots of feedback from business owners about their relationships with the troops selling at their doors. Please keep a few of these tips in mind at your next booth sale so that your girls can have a great experience and you can keep a wonderful relationship with your local business establishments:

1. Don't block the door to the business. It is necessary for the girls to be visible but NOT obstructive to paying customers who are trying to enter the building.

2. Do not harass customers. While we know that the girls are VERY excited about potential customers, please do not harass the customers for cookie sales or act in a way that is relatively annoying. If girls are scaring off customers then businesses will not want to invite the troop back to sell cookies next year.

3. Bring change. Bring enough coins and bills to provide change for your paying customers. Do not go into the business to ask their sales reps or managers to stop the course of their business to make change for you.

4. Bring plastic bags if you will need them. Some of your customers might buy several boxes of cookies and will want a bag to carry them in. Bring your own bags. Do not go into the business and ask if you can use their bags.

5. Limit the number of girls and parents at the booth sale. First, most businesses do not have loads of space in front of their store for your booth. Lots of moms and girls make for a large and unecessary crowd. Also, more than 3 girls is WAY to many girls. You need one girl to handle the money, one girl to greet the customers, and one girl to help the customer to choose which cookies they want to buy. Any more than that and you have girls fighting over who gets to do what. You can operate with LESS, but more than 3 girls is too many.

Most of us have had a Girl Scout, selling cookies, knock on our door. As a parent, selling door-to-door is my least favorite way to help my scout sell cookies because it is very time consuming without very much success. First, there is the time to knock an all of the doors and get the orders. Then, when the cokies come in you have to go back ot those homes to give them their cookies... wait for their payment... hope that they are home... and so on. Having said that, homeowners are used to door-to-door sales and look forward to greeting cookie sales girls. This is often a very fun and rewarding experience for the young scouts.

Even if you do decide to sell cookies door-to-door, there are a few safety tips to keep in mind.

* Please make sure that you always go door-to-door with your scout or send another responsible adult with her.

* Remind your scout NEVER to enter the home of a stranger, even if it is just to wait in the foyer.

* And, please use common sense and don't sell cookies door-to-door after dark, especially when you start delivering cookies and will be carrying around the payment money with you.

* Another tip is to bring a pen with you as well as a clipboard or other hard surface for the customers to write on. It is time consuming for the customer to try to find a pen and awkward to watch them try place an order on a cookie order form while balancing the form on their knee.

It is perfectly acceptable for you to take your scout's cookie order form into work to see if you have any co-workers who might want to order cookies.

My only request is that you keep in mind that there might be other parents in the building who might be bringing in cookie order forms for their scout as well. Be courteous and "pitch" your sale to those who you know well and work in your general area. This way your co-workers don't feel bombarded by all of the cookie requests and don't feel awkward over selecting to buy cookies from one scout over another.

In most cases, all you need to do is to discreetly place the cookie sheet on your desk and those who want to place an order will find you.

Also, what goes around come around. If a co-worker buys cookies from you then try to buy something from their child's fundraiser, if one comes along.

Lastly, this is another scenario where a "thank you" can go a long way. Have your scout create a thank you letter or picture of her choice. Make color copies of the "thank you" and give it out, with the cookies, when you deliver the cookies to your co-workers. This is a great way to bring your scout into the picture for those who may not know her, but contributed to her troop through their cookie orders.

Personally, I've never seen a scout just selling cookies on the side of the road, but this Girl Scout sold over 17,000 boxes of cookies in one cookie sales season. She did it by picking a road with plenty of rush hour traffic and sold cookies along that road after school.

.84 cents - Cost to buy the cookies. This money goes back to the baker.

.07 cents - Incentive awards for the girls.

.56 cents - Troop profits!

$2.03 - Program services for the local council.

Did you buy your Girl Scout cookies today?

Oddly enough, some people (for some crazy reason) don't really buy Girl Scout cookies. The first time someone told my little brownie that they didn't want to buy cookies, I thought that I was going to cry. My heart ached for my baby scout who was looking up at the "customer" with beaming eyes. No doubt, as I was trying to find words to make this "no" okay, my scout looked up at the man and said,
"That's okay - Would you like to make a donation?" And he DID!!!

No donation is too small. In my area, the troop makes 50 cents from every box of cookies sold. Most people who don't buy cookies will make a small donation. Even if the donation is only $1, we would have had to sell two boxes of cookies to reach $1 profit. If we sold two boxes of cookies then we would consider that a success. Equally, consider a $1 donation a success as well and thank your donor.

Always remember to thank your customer.

Girl Scout cookies are not made in a Wonka style cookie factory with umpa-loompas. The cookies are, in fact, made by one of two Girl Scout approved cookie factories: ABC/Interbake Foods and Little Brownie Bakers.

Girl Scout cookies were first made in the early 1900s as a way for moms to raise funds for troop activities. A troop from Muskogee, Oklahoma is credited with the first cookie booth sale, which took place in a school cafeteria to raise funds as part of a service project.