From January through February of every year as you walk into your local pharmacy or grocery store you are greeted by someone a little different. The Girl Scouts of your local troop. No, they aren’t selling mulch or asking for donations, they are selling an irresistible cookie such as thin mints or my favorite samoas. It’s only appropriate that I eat one while I write this post. 

But being the business person you are, can you learn from these five to eleven year old future women leaders? I’m willing to bet that not only can you learn from them, but they are actually better at sales than you. 

What can you learn from the strategies of the girl scouts selling their cookies. 

Product Doesn’t Sucks

The key to any company is to make sure what they are selling doesn’t suck. Have you ever heard someone say Girl Scout Cookies suck? Nope. 

Product Placement

They aren’t a side widget ad or a ValPak insert, you are forced to walk by them. We’ve all had a tagalong, and to make matters worse we can’t get by them. You know how hard it is to say no to someone in person? It’s very easy to not answer and email or phone call to a sales call, but when the salesperson is right in front of you… Now that is hard.

Sales Team

You know exactly who is selling this, they come up to you and politely say, ‘ Buy My Product’ and you likely cave in. The more strategic lesson here is they basically have an affiliate program called their parents. Every January one of your co-workers is ready with pen and paper in hand. 

Location

These smart ladies only choose dense places where they know a lot of foot traffic will be. Unlike you focusing on figuring out where to sell, they think out of the box and go exactly where their target is and in a buying mood. Think about it, have you ever seen this sales team at a secluded park? Nope. Go where your customers are and in a buying mode. It will increase your sales. 

Target Market

One of the biggest challenges businesses have is locating their target market. I firmly believe they are trying to be too cute or making their lives to difficult. Or they focus on being too perfect, instead of trying to get the message across. A science fair board with text on it works pretty good for these girl scouts.

If you are struggling finding who your target market is, I would try to market and then sell a ton of different ways. Think of it as a bowl of spaghetti with the noodles being the marketing. If something sticks and you make the sale, simply try that thing again. If it works a few times, analyze who bought it. That’s your target. Sometimes you have to look deeper on demographics than just age, sex and race, look for interests, jobs, etc. 

Exclusivity

This one is easy, the supply and demand of girl scout cookies is huge, similar to professional sports, people crave what they want. When they can’t have it they freak. Once it is open for business they jump as early and often as possible. I’m not saying your company should be exclusive, but if it’s a possibility for you to grow, take note from the girl scouts. 

Price

Four bucks for cookies seems like a no brainer. When you price your company, how much education do you have to do for a sale to occur? When you put everything together the price of these cookies, while slightly more than a box of oreos is a sign, sealed, delivered kind a sale. If they were ten bucks, I think people would hesitate, but at four bucks, I bet they convert at least 20% of all interactions. 

They Aren’t Afraid To Ask For The Sale

Every single person that walks by gets the greet, ‘Hi, do you want to buy some cookies?’ And then when they leave they hear it again. If sales isn’t your strong point, think about these girls every time and realize they are hustlin harder and smarter than you. 🙂

Hard To Say No

Okay, I said no twice this weekend, but that’s only because I had a few boxes. But it’s hard to say no to our future business leaders who put together the best sales package you’ve seen all year. The worst is when they look sad and give you the Michelle Tanner (Full House) face. Gets you every time!

As you are preparing your weekly sales strategies and goals, be sure to leverage some of the knowledge bombs your local girl scouts shared with you walking into your local market. You’re Welcome. 

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