Cookies!

The new secretary at the office has a daughter who is an active girl scout andf you know what that means? Girl Scout cookies! One of the best and most accepted direct sales program ever established. In the “old days” it was brown skirted, beanie wearing, lasses going door to door taking orders for cookies. Two to three week later, after I have forgotten totally, that I even ordered the treats the boxes show up on my desk with a nice little request for payment, simple as that. I the short bread, the gooey one with chocolate criss-cross and one of the peanut variety. Ordering Girl Scout cookies is one of the example of self deception I know of. Like who needs Girl Scout cookies, absolutely no one. But for three bucks and fifty cents a box, which is not a deal, you get a box of flour and sugar and the noble feeling that you have helped a program in need. Nowadays a respectable parent would not allow their girl scout to wander neighborhoods un-escorted, its just easier and safer to just send the order form to work with mom or dad or both and have the parents circulate the form all over the office or plant. This just boggles the mind when one ponders the financial ramifications this method must have for GSA( Girl Scouts of America)!

I bought three boxes of cookies, the lady in the office next door bought one, my partner one and I am sure my boss will buy a couple of boxes. So that is $35.00 dollars right there and sounds like she is going to take the list to friends at the office she just left. I bet she gets at least fifty sales from her work contacts.

As a kid I never understood direct marketing. I could not never see how one could make any money selling things door to door. It’s not like you were guaranteed a sale every time you knocked on the door. You were not even in the running to make a sale unless someone, 1 opened the door, 2. listened to what you had to say , three did not bodily throw you out. You had to get past these four steps just present the sales pitch and coax them to purchase, get them to sign the dotted line.

I sold scout jamboree tickets, candy bars for wrestling, magazines, light bulbs and these great cans of candy. I never did very well like I said—in some cases I just ate the inventory other cases I lost the money or just lost track of the sale. The reward of the successful sale was just not quick enough for me. Oh there was also the fear of “selling” the person who was going to answer the door. I did not understand the mathematical concept of probabilities. I did not understand that if I just kept selling that I sooner or later would make a sale. Sales was all numbers. I know that now and I have done well with sales when I have had to. I certainly not Think and Grow Rich kind of stuff but I can survive.

I hope where ever you are you have someone in your space selling Girl Scout cookies. Order yourself a treat and do something good.