Cookie Selling Tips
Consider these tips for boosting those sales numbers and reaching your goals. Ask, ask, and ask again! Consumer insights research shows that customers want to be asked multiple times during the season to buy Girl Scout Cookies. There are still a lot of untapped customers out there!
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In addition to door-to-door sales, also consider selling at:
- A local retirement community, or apartment complex. Arrange with the property manager to do a Booth Sale in an activity room on a Saturday afternoon.
- 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.)
- Banks. (They could purchase cookies to have available for customers or could give a box to new customers.)
- Restaurants. (Maybe they would be interested in creating a recipe with Girl Scout Cookies.)
In addition to door-to-door sales, also consider selling at:
- 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.
- Sports/recreation practice fields. (Consider a van/carload sale after practices for hungry players, fans and families.)
- Car dealerships. (How about a box for every test drive?)
- Income tax preparation companies. (Suggest giving a box to customers to calm their nerves during tax time.)
In addition to door-to-door sales, also consider selling at:
- 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.)
- 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.)
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 your council's Gift of Caring service project.
Also try:
- 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 (sports teams, 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. In fact, most people say that they don't buy cookies because they weren't asked.
Also try:
- Call back customers who have already placed an initial order and ask if they would like more.
- 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.
- 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 coffee/tea companion package, or the traditionals, etc. Package them with a pretty bow that ties them together.
- Participating in the Gift of Caring program (if available through your council). Customers may especially be interested in sending cookies to overseas troops or donating to a local food bank.
Also try:
- 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.
- Giving your customers a thank you card with their cookie order.
- 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.
- Never leave home without your order card! Please follow all rules established by your Girl Scout council before you set up a sale of any kind.