‘Sell!’ Becomes Battle Cry in Cookie War Strategy

It was a high-powered strategy session, and the 28 members of the sales force were psyching up for a month that would make or break them. They had found the mettle last year to claw their way to the top of the heap in a business where those who lack guts and a cute smile suffer quick financial death.

And while the dollars and cents were crucial this year, it was also the thrill of the chase, a cruise to Ensenada and a flamingo pink “Color Your Rainbow” nightshirt, as the Girl Scouts of Troop 1060 were eager to explain.

Deep in a training session at the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center in Inglewood on a recent Monday, the girls had dutifully dispensed with the Girl Scout promise and the Girl Scout song. Now hunched in chairs built for kindergartners, the lanky youngsters were talking Girl Scout cookies.

4.3 Billion Sold Nationally

Last year, consumers nationally wolfed down 4.3 billion of the cookies, 30 million in Los Angeles alone. The 10,000 girls of the Angeles Girl Scout Council, which takes in the city and a few western and northern suburbs, are expected to sell a million boxes of cookies this year and gross more than $2 million.

The money provides 42% of the operating budget for the council, which organizes scout programs. Troop 1060 sold 5,811 boxes of cookies last year--more than any of the 1,200 troops in the Angeles Girl Scout Council. The girls averaged 207 boxes of cookies each, or more than double the councilwide average of 97 boxes. This year, Troop 1060 confidently made an initial order of 5,500 boxes of cookies to sell in neighborhoods and in booths at shopping malls.

Carolyn Townsend, who is a systems engineer at an Inglewood bank when she is not supervising scout meetings, was not about to leave the booth sales to chance. She plunged into the selling lesson as vigorously as her girls were diving into their snacks--Girl Scout cookies, of course. “Why are you selling cookies?” Townsend asked.

“I’m selling cookies in a variety of flavors for a scout summer trip,” LeJune Meadoux said carefully. “And then aren’t I supposed to say, ‘Would you like to place an order?’ ”

Nodding, Townsend hurried on. “How much are they?”

“Two dollars!” the girls yelled.

“How much does the troop make?” Townsend asked.

“Thirty cents!” they yelled, even louder.

“What are we selling this year?” Townsend asked.

“Hoedowns, Classic Cremes, Scot-Teas, Thin Mints, Savannahs, Jubilees, Golden Yangles,” replied Nicole Biser, without checking her order sheet.

“What if the customers say they don’t eat sweets?” Townsend asked.

“Golden Yangles, or tell them to give them to the homeless,” said Alicia Jefferson.

“And what if they want chocolate chip?” asked Townsend, trying to throw another curve. “We replaced them with Classic Creme,” yelled Alicia, collapsing with a giggle.

Nuts, Bolts of Salesmanship

This is the real nuts and bolts of cookie salesmanship, Townsend explained. Some cookie flavors change every year, and the girls must know how to placate disappointed customers.

Girl Scouts have been wrestling with such challenges since the organization was founded in 1912 and mothers baked goodies to pay for activities. The cookie business got serious in 1934 when a Philadelphia scout council asked for help from a local bakery. Today, Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. contracts with three East Coast food companies.

Each council choses the company they want to do business with. The Angeles Council’s finance committee met with the three this summer.

“It’s like a wine tasting. We sit around and taste cookies and swig down coffee and milk,” explained Florence Newsome, Angeles Council’s executive director. “Of course, I’ve been doing it for years so I don’t taste every one of them, but newcomers have a hard time making it through the day.”

A deal was struck with a New Jersey company, and the cookies arrived last month by ship via the Panama Canal. (It’s cheaper than land shipment.) About 25% of the order was Thin Mints, the top of the consumer preference list. Shortbread and peanut butter made up another 30%.

The cookies were trucked to 43 neighborhood drop-off points--the homes of the chairpersons, who stacked the thousands of cartons in garages and bedrooms to be picked up by the troops.

Townsend asked how the orders were coming.

“I sell them, and Mom helps,” said Syleah Gentry, 11, pointing to her mother, who was sitting in back with a group of other parents.

“Last year I sold 300 boxes at work. I mean we sold 300 boxes,” Syleah’s mother, Earline Gentry, said. “This year we’ve sold 457 boxes. People ask me about them before Christmas.”

If truth be known, Townsend said, at least as many, if not more, cookies are sold by parents at their offices than by their daughters in the neighborhood.

But in the rough-and-tumble cookie marketplace, it is often in the booths where the cookie war is ultimately won. Last week, a revved-up Troop 1060 stationed itself at an Inglewood grocery store.

The girls had already memorized the Golden Rules of cookie sales: “Don’t stand in front of the door! Don’t rush up to customers! Don’t holler!”

And now they were standing in front of the door, rushing up to customers, and hollering, “You want to buy some cookies?”

Nicole, a gritty veteran of three cookie campaigns, stationed herself sideways near the door so she could see customers in both directions. “You want to buy some Girl Scout cookies? Only $2 a box,” she said, smiling.

An elderly man shook his head no.

“You want to buy some Girl Scout cookies. Only $2 a box,” Nicole said, smiling.

Two middle-aged women said no and walked quickly away.

“You want to buy some Girl Scout cookies. Only $2 a box,” Nicole said, smiling. Shopper Futrell Dunlop reached for Savannahs. “I don’t need them, but I have to have them.”

Nicole’s smile grew.

Trip Within Grasp

By mid-afternoon, the scouts had charmed and wheedled shoppers into buying 214 boxes of cookies. With neighborhood cookie orders surging and two weekends of selling left until the March 22 deadline, the troop’s Ensenada cruise looked within grasp.

Townsend said selling cookies teaches her girls lessons in courtesy, neatness and how to handle money and rejection. But 8-year-old Jiimura Hill mentioned another goal that spurred her to sell 522 boxes of cookies in her neighborhood, at her mother’s office and at the booth.

“I only sold 200 last year cause I didn’t like the prizes they had. But this year, I want the pink ‘Color Your Rainbow’ nightshirt a lot, and I needed 400 boxes, so now I get it!”