After our nails were dry, my sisters and I walked out of the nail salon and headed down the strip for some coffee. Right before heading into the coffee shop, a group of four little girls caught our attention. They were between the ages of 8 and 9 and each had a sign in their hands. They were standing in front of a little stand with brown sashes over their winter coats.
And, you guessed it, they were selling cookies.
As a former girl scout, these little girls warmed my heart. I quickly went with my sisters to get them coffee, then ran back out to talk to these pint-sized salesgirls.
Seeing that they had my attention, one yelled, “DO YOU WANNA BUY SOME COOKIES?????”
I enthusiastically said, “Of course!”
“Wellllllllll…” she said, then she went on to tell me about the prices of each box. I, being more interested in the types cookies and the adorableness of the girls than the money I had already decided I was spending, asked the girl what her favorite cookie was. She told me she liked Thin Mints the best.
“Of course I will be needing one of those then!” I replied.
The other little girls, seeing what was happening, began telling me their favorite cookies too.
“SAMOAS!” “TAG-A-LONGS!” and pretty soon, all of them were yelling just about every kind they had.
One of them began telling me about their newest cookie, s’mores. She told me that even though it was “a whole dollar more expensive,” it tasted just like a real s’more so it was worth it. She sold me on it, and she was right.
When I told the girls my favorite was the Savannah Smiles, one of the girls yelled, “GROSS! LEMON?” But another quickly covered her and said, “Those ones are good too, they’re not my favorite, but I like everything.”
I walked away with three boxes of cookies and the biggest smile on my face. These girls were definitely not your typical salespeople, but they knew exactly what they were doing. They were presenting me the facts, talking with me when I engaged with them, and made sure to close the sale. They also played up their cuteness, whether intentionally or just because they were excited little girls. The parents who were there to supervise only needed to help with a little bit of math here and there, but they otherwise held back because they knew the girls were doing just fine on their own.
Those girls were able to close many sales from what I saw. Perhaps because of the cuteness, or the love that people have for girl scout cookies, but definitely because they were lively and engaging salesgirls. We have a lot to learn from their natural, fun approach to selling. To them, it was just a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon with their friends. It was also just easy. This is what I will apply going forward into new sales settings.
testacr22
The one thing I would say is that, even though they were probably too young to think of it, that they didn’t really get to know what your favorite was.