The Peninsula Service Unit has always done really well when it comes to cookie sales. We have so many local businesses that have supported us and our community. More so than a lot of other Service Units. Talking with many of you, you are not comfortable with selling cookies this year. We understand. When we submitted our cookie order this year, we went from almost 3,000 cases to around 500 so far this year. I think it’s important to respect our choices but I also think we owe it to our girls to TRY to do the best we can under the current situation. We start every meeting with “On my honor, I will try…”
We’ve been talking to a lot of our Girl Scout sisters online who have already started their cookie sales. They have been selling more cookies online than ever before. They’ve also come up with some great ways to get those orders to their customers without coming into contact with anyone.
Here are several ways that you can get creative with cookie sales this year that will keep you and your family safe.
Digital Cookie
This is the area I would love to see all of us focus on this year. I would like to have EVERY registered Girl Scout commit to selling 12 boxes of cookies this year. Just think, if you sent out 15 emails to friends and family, the chances of them buying a box or two are pretty high. Take the time with your daughter to build out the page. They have provided a great platform, take advantage of it. We are also getting a head start on cookies this year with Digital Cookie. Links will be sent out to every girl who’s a leader who has completed training. If you don’t do anything else this cookie season, PLEASE do Digital Cookie. As I’ve said before, our numbers from the Fall Product sale, were amazing. People want to help your girls, you just have to ask.
Contactless Cookie Sales
If you’re using Digital Cookie and you have Girl Deliveries to make, we highly recommend “porch pixie” drops. Set up a time with your customers to let them know you’ll be making rounds on a specific day to drop off their orders. You can also let your customers know that their orders will be “contactless” via your Digital Cookie platform.
Door Hangers
We’ve also heard that families do not want to go door-to-door this year. Door hangers will help keep us at a safe distance and allow us to still make these connections. Our Girl Scout store sells these hangers in packs. You add your information and leave it so your neighbors can purchase it. Again, add your Digital Cookie link to these door hangers so you don’t have to exchange money. When their orders are picked up, you can do porch drops for these customers too.
Expand Your Reach
As we start to think about possible ways to reach more people, we quickly realized that we have missed so many opportunities of the year by excluding those friends and family that don’t live close to us. Now’s the time to put your business hat on and start thinking “old school.” Pick up the phone and reach out to those that you’ve never sold to before becuase maybe you’ve never thought of them before now.
“Lemonade” Stands
We heard many individual girls are having great success with a drive up lemonade stand in front of their home. One recommendation would be to have a large menu card that you can show to people as they drive up. Make signs asking them to “mask up” and “stay in your car” to prevent anyone from getting too close.
I Will Try…
If you are a registered Girl Scout in our Service Unit, you should have received one of these customer stickers. This is the time when we need to get creative and share our stories. If you have a fun, creative idea, please send in your suggestions. Are you up for the 12 box challenge this year? Let’s get excited and think of this as a new challenge. On my honor…I WILL TRY…