BRANDEblog

Friday, March 02, 2007

Get Me Sarah Cain!

$700 million in sales from a sales force of 2.7 million. But the turnover is pretty high! Not that impressive until you realize that I'm talking about Girl Scout Cookies.

Those delicious Thin Mints, Peanut Butter, Samoas and name your favorite have, like everything else, moved from traditional to the high-tech sales techniques and have become a study of individual entrepreneurship and achievement.

From where I sit, I'm reminded both of The Apprentice and the way technology and Buzz have changed the way we do business, attract business and succeed. And how some people, in this case Sara Cain just use their head to rise above everyone else.

It began with networking- call on friends and family to help succeed in a good cause- and get great cookies in return.

But, according to an article in yesterday's New York Times, Leah Koch, 14 has been using email as a CRM tool. The results-- she went from selling 700 boxes a year to 1,000. Over 40% increase. Expanding her efforts again last year saw sales increase more than 50% to 1,510! Her success is attributed to the fact that email lets customers order on-demand.

Social networking is in vogue as well... check MySpace, YouTube and Friendster. Don't go buying them on Ebay though, because officially, as a price-fixed item, they are not allowed.

And yes, although the internet has brought many new options, there's still something to be said for community activation and great business sense.

That's where Sarah Cain comes in. She looked through the phone book (what's that?) and came up with the idea of offering Car Dealerships the option of giving away a box with every test drive.

But Sarah was not content. This year she developed a Powerpoint presentation and is making sale pitches aimed at the hotel industry. Her goal? Doubling her sales from last year. Her pitch? Everyone needs a box of familiar cookie comfort. Her incentive? The idea of doing good for the organization and a T-Shirt.

There are so many lessons here.

Labels: community service, Girl Scouts, recruitment technology, sales, technology, Word of Mouth marketing

Written at 2:06 PM by JODY.

0 comments

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home

The latest news and muse
about the world of branding,
advertising, creativity, communications, technology, viral marketing and recruitment.
And occasionally, the joy and despair of building a dream!

BRANDEMiX

BRANDEMiX