Before the Sale
When cookies come in, order what the girls need for their customers, as well as plenty of extras for the booth sale. If you know that nobody sold many Thin Mints this year, you may not want to buy as many so that you don't have tons of extra thin mints afterwards.
Have your troop create a poster (or posters) that tell the price of the cookies and include large, colorful pictures of the cookies. You can also include nutrition facts. You can also have the posters saying what your goal is and how many boxes you want to sell
Educate your troop. Make sure each girl knows which cookies contain nuts, chocolate, etc, and which cookies are healthier (usually, there is at least one type of cookie that is fat free or low fat). If possible, obtain samples of each cookie so that each girl can offer their opinions on a particular cookie if a customer asks.
Make sure that your girls can tell customers what their GOAL is. Customers will buy more cookies if girls can clearly describe what the profits will be going toward - ie. camp or a trip, etc.
Train your girls in POLITE selling. Nicely asking for support is not enough. ALWAYS say, "Thank you anyway." or "Have a nice day."
If your troop plans to donate cookies to a cause, make a sign that indicates who you are donating to and that you are accepting cookie donations for this group. Make sure your girls KNOW what this group is and why they chose it.
Make thank you notes. They can be fancy, personal notes, or just pieces of paper that say "Thanks". These will go in the bag with the cookies for the customers. Make sure your troop writes lots of them!
Finding a Location
This will depend on your council. Find out if there is someone centrally arranging booths before you start calling around as this can lead to double-calling of businesses which is bad etiquette.
Ask the scouts' parents if they have "connections". If they work at a store like Kmart, Walmart, a local grocery store, or another place of the like, they may be able to get your troop a spot selling by the door.
Call around. Place phone calls to local businesses that you might be able to sell in front of them. You might ask other leaders what stores they've had luck with in the past. Another tactic would be to find a store that isn't as big or common as the ones previously mentioned, but still gets a lot of customers, because the waiting list for these stores won't be as long.
When you find a location, visit it and get an idea of where you can put your booth, where you'll keep your extra boxes/cookies, and what kind of bathroom and food facilities will be available.
Speak with the manager. Ask how long you can stay, if you can use furniture or tables (as opposed to bringing your own), and whatever other questions you may have.
Setting Up the Booth
Set up the table. Set some of the cookies (maybe 4-5 boxes per cookie) on the table. (Customers often purchase in even numbers. Placing 5 boxes out ensures that you'll still have at least one box on display if the customer purchases up to four.) Organize the cookies on the table in rows or piles. You may want to put them in a specific order. Color order (Red to Purple - in the order of colors on a rainbow) and Cookie Sheet order (the order in which the cookies are listed on the order form) are the most common. You may also want to put the most popular cookies (Thin Mints and Samoas) to either end so customers must scan all the boxes looking for their favorites.
Decorate and set the scene. Most Girl Scout offices sell posters, car window flags (that can also be attached to shopping carts or taped to walls), and other things of the like, and you may even be able to get cookie costumes - you or your girls can dress up as their favorite cookies and attract attention. You can hang a poster without a frame by putting double-sided tape at the back of the poster. Or take some transparent tape and put it in the corners of the poster. Otherwise, you can insert sewing needles in the four corners.
Store the extra inventory. Put the rest of the cookies behind or under the table where they can easily be reached. If you are at a grocery store, use a couple of carts/buggies to hold your cookies. Just keep them together so its easy to open up a new case. Store empty cartons and coats under the cart/buggy.
Get your cash box ready. Get out a pencil box, can, or other small container with a lid, a notebook, and a pen. The container will hold the money. Some leaders use a fanny pack or a bank money bag so the cash can be kept safe with them at all times.
Keep track of sales. On an empty sheet in a notebook, write the names of all the cookies, with at least one line per type. Every time someone buys a box, make a tally mark next to the kind they bought to keep up with your sales. You might use a copy of a follow-on order form to track each booth sale. This isn't always necessary. You can use simple match with your booth tally sheet to determine total sales using inventory counts both before and after the sale.
Keep track of donations. You may also want to write down what you get in donations, if any. Some people will give donations
Dealing With a Customer
When someone walks by, have a girl say something like "Hello Sir (or Madam). Would you like to buy some Girl Scout cookies from Troop (Insert troop number here)?" If they say no or that they've already bought some, say "Thanks anyway. Have a nice day." If they say yes however, go on to the next step.
Stand nearby as they examine the cookies and try to make up their mind. Do not hover over them, but be ready in case they ask which cookies are the best or which are healthiest. Answer truthfully, and help them make their selection.
Put the cookies in a bag, along with a thank you note. Wait for the customer to hand you the money they owe you, then hand the cookies to them and say "Thank you, and have a nice day."
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