Saturday, January 31, 2009

My little Daisy

There's a reason I never worked in retail. There's a reason I left Scandia years ago when they started having me work snack bar/cashier once in a while. I hate trying to get people to buy things! Even if they are willingly doing it. I just don't like to say "Hey buy this product please!" or "Would you like to buy this? It's a really great thing!" Just not something I'm good at.

And then.......I have a 7 yr old first grader named Katelyn who decided she wanted to be a Girl Scout! I was cool with that. Afterall, Daisies don't sell cookies yet.

Wrong! The Girl Scouts decided to have Daisies help sell cookies this year. Ack! Thoughts of selling door-to-door and at stores filled my mind with dread.

Luckily.....since they are so young, those two things are not allowed. Whew! Saved! But wait....

The district asks that each girl sets a goal of 200 boxes to sell. So our troop leaders asked us to try and make that at least. What?! Are you serious?! The bulk of sales comes from the two methods we can't do and we still have to try and reach this goal! "Oh but you and I are LDS, we can pass around a sign up sheet in Relief Society." Maybe in her ward. I called another mom, a mom who is a Brownie troop leader and has 3 girls in the ward in her troop, and she said she's talked to our bishop and he says nope. We can however pass out fliers after church and/or place them on the cars (she'll have her husband do this as he's not a member and can come before he picks them up and do that). But with 4 girls in one small ward selling I know we won't get many sales this way..if any.

Oh we've gotten sales here and there...close family and friends, a neighbor here, a neighbor there. Three staff members at Katelyn's school ordered. Clark took the order form to work and got 4 orders. My dad took an order form to work and has at least 5 orders. (and not just a box per person either for these orders) I took the form to Laura's Fun Friday class and got 3 orders. One of those from a dad who swore up and down he would not buy. Apparently his sister sold for years and they always bought too many. But then...."oh alright, I'll buy some thin mints. and I better call my wife and ask what she wants." The teacher and I were laughing at his weakness. I still have a few more families committed to buying. Got an appt set up on Sunday to see the family of a classmate of Katelyn. All this extended family (one aunt and uncle being active LDS and in our ward, some inactive, some not members) all love Girl Scout cookies and they said when she joined G.S. to make sure we let them know when it's time to buy cookies. So I did.

So slowly orders are trickling in for pre-orders. Then there's still another whole month to sell after. I doubt we'll get anything after pre-orders. I doubt we'll even get close to the 200 box goal. We have sold about 49 boxes so far. 40 boxes is 20% of the goal. So we've reached that. Yeah! 80 boxes will be 40% of the goal. I think we'll be able to make that and I'll be happy. Afterall, it's mostly me selling them. When I do bring Katelyn she gets all shy and can't seem to ask what she needs to ask. So it's been me, my dad, and Clark making all the sales. Given the limitations of how we can sell for Daisies and not knowing too many people to sell to, I think we're doing pretty darn good. I'll be thrilled if we reach our own 40%/80box goal! Anything else will just be icing on the cake.....or ummm cookies in this case....for us.

Though I am happy about our selling......I still hate being a salesperson! With passion! This is the only thing I hate about Girl Scouts.

But I sure to love my little Daisy...........


5 comments:

Rachel said...

200 boxes is a ridiculous goal. Especially for her age with all the limitations. It seems more like a goal for how much the parents should buy.

Why is there a goal like that? Did they give any reasons for setting such a high goal?

Kathryn said...

It was our troop leader who said she wants us to sell that much. She based it on being the districts goal for each girl selling. Well that is a goal, I firmly believe, based on when only Brownies, Juniors and Cadets could sell. The district should lower it for Daisies if they are going to have them sell. Oh I'm sure some will reach that goal because their parents' networks are larger than others. But I bet most won't reach it. I can't wait til Friday to see how the rest of the girls in our troop are doing.

GREENLAW said...

you're way ahead of us... whenever we get the fundraisers from school, they can hit up the grandparents, and that's about it! (of course, i do enjoy a girl scout cookie...) :)

you go, girl!

Kathryn said...

Yeah for school fundraisers, I'm the same way. They do so many these days in our district that I can't see asking more than grandparents and my sister-in-law. And even then I limit it to just the back-to-school one. I've always loved G.S. cookies too. I just don't like selling them. Though we just did sell 32 boxes to 1 family! Yeah you read it right......the mom of one her classmates had us come over to sell them. She invited 5 other people....her best friend, her mom, her sister, her cousin and her aunt (who is a member of our ward). Between the 6 women they ordered a total of 32 boxes. If I had started there maybe I wouldn't have gotten so discouraged. But it's a nice way to end the pre-orders because I don't think we'll be getting much more. And they even said if they eat them too fast then they'll come to me for more orders once they begin selling at stores in March. Instead of buying from some random girl, they'll come to me to buy from my daughter. Yeah!

Anonymous said...

i thought we had the same start date... when were you guys allowed to start?

200 is ABSURD. is her leader new? our goal is 12 boxes a girl.