Peachtree City Girl Scout a top cookie seller

Don’t dilly-dally. Be polite. Make selling your product your life.

That’s essential advice from CEO Nicole Schwensen, 14.

That’s CEO as in “cookie entrepreneur officer.” And the product?

Girl Scout cookies.

The Peachtree City ninth-grader sold 3,006 boxes in about six weeks last year, earning membership in that most elite of sororities, the Scouts’ “Dough Getters Club.” She’s also been designated the metro Atlanta Girl Scout region’s super-cookie-seller — the winner by a mountain (or several hundred boxes) of Thin Mints and Tagalongs.

With the 2011 sales season just under way, she’s back, determined to do it again.

“You have to really focus,” she says. “I play softball and run cross country, but when it’s Girl Scout cookie time, it’s complete focus on cookies.”

Nicole is not alone out there, of course. In the Atlanta region alone (which includes 34 counties and some 40,000 Girl Scouts), an estimated 4 million boxes of cookies are expected to be sold this season, which stretches from early January into March. But this cookie CEO surely stands apart.

Nicole, who has cookie sales business cards, attends school and church as usual, but even there stays on the cookie clock. On the first official day of cookie selling this month, she arrived at school 45 minutes before the bell rang to be the first one to make the pitch to her teachers and coaches.

After school each day, she and her mom blanket their Peachtree City neighborhood, making their rounds in a golf cart decorated with green streamers and oversize cardboard cookies dangling like tin cans on a newlywed couple’s car.

Ready for anything

A Girl Scout for the past nine years, Nicole has learned a lot about the tricks of the cookie trade.

That helped two years ago, when she faced a major challenge as her family moved here from Colorado and left behind a loyal customer base.

Undeterred, Nicole and her mom, Patti, studied their new pool of potential customers here, identifying residential areas that appeared to have discretionary cookie money. They set up booths early and often at Walmart, Chick-fil-A and Kroger.

They are ready at all times, and seem to be ready for anything. Nicole dresses in layers in case of inclement weather. And she often wears her beige Girl Scout vest.

“Once in Colorado, it rained, snowed and it was warm, all in one day ... you have to be prepared for anything,” she said.

She and her mom transform the family van into a cookie mobile. It gets adorned with green lettering and pictures of cookies. Inside, it’s always stocked with cookies.

But the cookie peddling goes nowhere without a good introduction. And it all begins with a simple, yet well-executed, pitch.

“I introduce myself and state my goal, but I don’t dawdle. You need to respect people’s time,” she said.

A smile and politeness can seal the deal, she said.

“I always thank people, and thank them for their time, even if they don’t buy cookies,” she said. “And I’ve had people who were struck by my politeness who later tracked me down at other houses to buy cookies.”

Old-school sales

She’s ready for the curveballs. You’re on a diet? No problemo. The cookies freeze well, she explains. They are good gifts. And you can always donate them to troops overseas.

“And then I always end by saying, ‘So how many boxes of cookies would you like to buy?’ ” she said.

Nicole said she stays motivated by thinking about her goal. Last year, cookie sales helped pay for a Girl Scouts trip to Peru, and this year she’s hoping it will help pave the way for a Costa Rica scuba-diving excursion.

Like many Scouts, she gets her dad to take a sheet to his small office, but that usually accounts for sales of just a few dozen boxes.

She’ll regularly update her Facebook page, and may send out an e-mail (the Girl Scouts gave the green light last year to sell cookies via e-mail). But she mostly sticks to her tried-and-true, face-to-face selling — which includes always leaving business cards and keeping her eye on repeat customers.

Eyes on a prize

Other top sellers in the Atlanta region have their own strategies and motivations.

Hannah Bryson, 16, of Conyers, said she sells more cookies every year. Nine years ago when she was a Brownie, she sold about 300 boxes, and then jumped to 463 boxes, building her sales until she hit the 1,000-box mark. Last year, Hannah sold 1,601 boxes.

Her keys to success, Hannah said, are “always being nice,” and building relationships with customers, which, in her case, means going the extra mile to attach thank-you cards to each bundle of cookies

Hannah doesn’t care about being among the top sellers. Her goal this year is to sell at least 1,300 boxes — just enough to win a coveted prize — an iPod Touch. Her mom, Patti Bryson, however, takes great pride in helping Hannah reach the top tier of cookie sellers.

“I am more competitive, and I think it pushes you, and in this world you have to be competitive,” she said. “It gives you that extra push.”

Meanwhile, 8-year-old Tabitha Brooks of Newnan hopes to sell at least 1,000 boxes of cookies — the minimum number to be part of the Dough Getters Club — again this year. She’s already got her pitch perfected.

“I try to say it very nicely: ‘Would you like to buy some Girl Scout cookies?’ ” said Tabitha with a voice so sweet you couldn’t possibly say no. “And if they say, no, I say, ‘That’s OK, maybe next time.’ ”

Her mom, Terry Brooks, said selling cookies has helped Tabitha and her older sister, Carolyn, go to summer camps complete with horseback riding and rafting, camps they otherwise would not be able to afford.

But Brooks admits selling so many cookies is a major undertaking, requiring the whole family to chip in.

Her husband Patrick, is the co-leader of the troop, and her right-hand man for cookie selling.

“I love cookies and hate them at the same time,” said Patrick, as he geared up for another year of cookie selling. “But I do whatever I am asked to do to help out. I am a good dad.”

Be a ‘dough getter’

In the metro Atlanta region, 136 Girl Scouts are part of the Dough Getters Club, meaning each sold at least 1,000 boxes of cookies last year. Among tips from some of the Dough Getters for boosting sales:

● Create a business plan. Contact customers you sold to last year. Set weekly goals. Set up a schedule.