Hello fellow Girl Scouts and cookie sellers! I’m a Girl Scout Senior in tenth grade and I have been in Girl Scouts since kindergarten, so you could say I have a lot of experience. I have always loved selling cookies. Over the past three years I’ve sold over 6,000 boxes of cookies, mostly for my Gold Award expenses and for troop travel. We’ve had a lot of fun in our troop, traveling together. If I didn’t sell cookies, I would probably not get to go on big trips with my troop, and I would not have earned my Gold Award. Wondering how you can sell thousands of boxes like me? I have some tips to share!
Tip #1: Be prepared
Selling cookies in the cold in Minnesota isn’t always easy, and it is certainly hard when the temperatures go as low as 20° and you have a booth outside. But, as Girl Scouts, we are always prepared! I always travel with lots of hand and foot warmers, many layers of clothes, my snow pants, warm fuzzy hats, boots, and a hand pouch that I put my handwarmers in. The good news is, when it’s cold out and you have a cookie booth outside or if you sell cookies door-to-door in the cold, you get a lot of sympathy sales! People still buy from you even when it’s snowing outside or super cold. I like to jump in place or take turns going inside the store or my parents’ car to get warm. So please never give up, even when it’s cold!
Tip #2: Encourage friendly competition
Honestly, what has worked for me is a very friendly cookie sales competition with the Girl Scout sisters in my troop. My Girl Scout sisters and I always encourage each other to go for high sales. We love being invited to the Dream Team celebrations. I’ve been a member of the Dream Team three consecutive times from 2014 to 2016 and I have successfully completed my Gold Award in 2016, which was my highest goal in Girl Scouts (thanks to cookies!).
Tip #3: Make it convenient
Another thing I want to tell you is that it really does help to offer credit card sales at your cookie booths. A lot of people don’t have cash in their pockets anymore, and it’s very convenient for them to buy a lot more cookies when you offer to take credit cards. Many times, I’ve sold entire cases with customers who preferred using their credit card.
Tip #4: Set goals–and tell your customers about them!
The last tip is goal setting. Sometimes I think I’m just going to sell 500 boxes of cookies, but then it quickly goes to 1,000 and then soon enough I’m over 2,000! It has happened that way for me because I start to get excited as I sell, then I begin thinking about how much I can do in Girl Scouts when I sell thousands of boxes of cookies. For example, for my Girl Scout Gold Award project, my community helped me sew over 1,072 T-shirt dresses for girls in orphanages in Kenya, Haiti, and Senegal. Even though I had donations of fabric, it still cost a lot to buy the T-shirts and other supplies for my Gold Award project. My cookie sales and cookie credits paid for it, for the most part. And in 2015, my troop traveled to the West Coast for 10 days! We traveled from Victoria, British Columbia to San Francisco, California. All of this was possible because we sold thousands of boxes of cookies. When you share this with your potential customers, they start to see what cookie sales really do for girls, and this inspires them to buy that extra box or two!
These are some of the things that have worked for me to keep my cookie sales high. This past weekend, I was able to sell 400 boxes of cookies because I talked a lot about the new Girl Scout S’mores™ Cookie. So, believe in yourself! Set lofty goals for yourself and go for the goal!! There is no limit to what a girl can do when she sets her mind to it. Good luck this year selling cookies, and I hope you sell a lot!
Your sister in Girl Scouts,
Lexi Fresh
Lexi Fresh – Lexi is a River Valleys Girl Scout Senior and has been in Girl Scouts since she was a Daisy. She enjoys shopping, going to water parks, driving her car, and traveling with her troop. Right now she is studying hard in school trying to get good grades and is looking forward to college in two years. Lexi loves selling cookies and has been a top seller for three years in a row! She has earned her Bronze and Silver Awards, and in 2016, she completed her Gold Award, the highest award a Girl Scout can earn. See her story on Fox 9 News!