Happy Monday! This morning I want to visit with you about sales. Primarily, cookie sales. Earlier this month, Fox News picked up a story about 12-year-old Katie Francis shattering the 30-year record for selling the most Girl Scout cookies. The 6th grader sold 21,477 boxes of cookies in 8 weeks!
For reference, the average Girl Scout sells 150-200 boxes each, so this statistic surpasses the norm by a huge margin! When asked how she sold so many boxes, Katie shared her 3 ingredients for selling cookies: Time, commitment and asking everyone she met.
It’s clear this pre-teen knows something about business most adults don’t even know. The proof of that is in her results! The sad part is, most people will let their ego stop them from learning from this because it’s coming from a 12-year-old. You have to weigh your ego against your bank account. Want to Share that quote? Click to tweet.
Seriously, it is so simple a 12-year-old understands it. You just have to be willing to set aside your ego and pick up a new skill set!
A lot of people would argue there isn’t a skill set involved in selling cookies, but 2 hundred boxes versus 21 THOUSAND is more than just luck.
When asked if anyone said no, Katie responded, “A lot of people said no. I just smiled, said thank you, and moved on. You just can’t take ‘no’ personally.”
The most common problem I see in small business is people never actually ask the closing question. Whether you are in direct sales, roofing, home decor or the food industry you are still selling a product or service. You can’t be afraid to ask for the sale!
Here’s the thing I want you to realize about Katie. She had 1.5 million competitors. That is roughly how many other Girl Scouts were selling the exact same product at the same time. Competition is not an excuse! It takes a certain skill set to succeed. It wasn’t just time and commitment – she exposed her product and asked the question! She obviously had the skill of closing AND the mindset to not take ‘no’ personally.
Imagine if Katie were making a profit off the boxes she sold. She moved $75K worth of product through her hands in an 8-week period. Imagine if that were you! And she did it all while being a “regular” 12-year-old and as a full-time student.
What can you learn from this? Seriously, everyone is in sales. If you are a mom, you sell your kids healthy eating, if you are job hunting you are selling your skill sets, you are selling your company’s service, selling your leadership skills to your boss for that promotion…
So what can you learn from Katie? Maybe you are afraid of or offended when people say, “No.” Maybe you are the person who isn’t constantly exposing their product, resume or business to everyone they meet.
Increasing sales is simple, but it isn’t always easy. It requires you to be able to set aside your ego and to learn from others who are obtaining that success. I hope this message brought you a little insight this Monday. Make sure to leave me your comments below and don’t forget to Like and Share.
We’ll be here all week! Join us this afternoon and every weekday at 12 pm ET/11 am CT for The Dani Johnson Show.
In great faith,
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