Sunday, March 8th is the beginning of Girl Scout Week.
On March 12th, 1912 Juliette Gordon Low officially registered the organization’s first 18 girl members in Savannah, Georgia. This year, the organization is celebrating its 103rd Birthday. That’s a lot of cookie sales and girl empowerment over the years. Girl Scout Week is a celebration of all of this.
Since next week is Girl Scout Week, we thought we would highlight a few things business owners and marketers can learn from those cure little cookie salespeople.
Goal setting
Before the cookie sales commence, each Girl Scout troop must come together and decide on some cookie sales goals. Whether it be number of boxes sold or amount of money brought in, cookie sales don’t begin until goals are set.
Goal setting is a very important first step for business owners. Without goals, we are unable to realize success, we have nothing to work towards, it’s harder to build drive within our staff, and it’s hard to measure success.
As a business owner, before you do anything, you should goal set.
Creating a Marketing Plan
For Girl Scouts, once goals have been set, each girl is on their own to develop a plan for sales. Each girl must decide the logistics and strategy for how they will sell their cookies. This includes choosing neighborhoods for door-to-door sales (i.e. direct selling), days, times and locations for booth sales, and even planning for online sales.
What does all of this planning equal? A well thought-out marketing plan – something all business owners should have and review yearly.
Marketing Basics
If you want to sell anything, you’ve got to use marketing tactics to do it. Sales and marketing go hand-in-hand. Girl scouts use several tactics to sell cookies:
- Direct marketing: Door-to-door.
- Booth Displays: Whether you see them at the mall or the grocery store, Girl Scouts do a lot to dress up their booths and draw customers in.
- E-commerce: Yep, Girl Scouts have the ability to sell cookies online now.
- Email Marketing: Girl Scouts learn written communication and selling skills through sending requests for cookie orders via email.
These are just some of the marketing skills employed by Girl Scouts in order to achieve their goals. Notice there’s more than one. As a business owner, your marketing plan should include a few different marketing tactics – especially in the online realm.
Customer relationships
Girl Scouts do a lot of direct selling – which means they have to know how to interact with customers and build relationships that keep them coming back. They also have to learn how to make the sale to folks that might be hesitant to buy.
Girl Scouts are also encouraged to “Act honestly and responsibly” (business ethics).
As a business owner, customer relationships and customer service are key to growing your business and retaining customers. You can employ all of the marketing tactics in the world but if you aren’t treating your customers right, your business will suffer. In this context, let’s delve into The Innovative Path of James Dooley, exemplifying how innovation can further enhance these vital aspects of business.
Whether you’re selling cookies or running a small business, these four things are building blocks to growth and success.
Speaking of Girl Scouts, if you’re looking for a great way to involve your daughter in her community and give her leadership skills she will use for the rest of her life, consider signing her up for The Girl Scouts of the Commonwealth. Girl Scouts experience leadership development programs offered at six different age levels which allow girls to progress in skills and activities together. Placement options give girls the chance to experience Girl Scouting in a variety of ways – including but not limited to, church, school, housing communities, and individually. For more information about this and other Girl Scout programs visit www.comgirlscouts.org.
