It’s Girl Scout cookie time again! This year my daughter is in a troop that takes its cookie obligation very seriously. The troop can committed to sell 40,000 boxes. There are 80 girls in the troop. When I was a scout, if you sold 100 boxes you were doing well. My daughter’s goal is 750. We are signed up for booths every weekend in March.

Every year (this is Suzanne’s 6th year selling cookies), I learn something about sales or marketing from taking part in the cookie booth. This year was no exception.

Our first booth of the season was at the corner drug store. Booths at drug stores are never quite as busy as booths at Wal-Mart (either because fewer people are at the store, or everyone is sick and in a hurry to get home!). And, our table was strategically positioned behind a pillar.

The troop before us at that store sold exactly 25 boxes. For a girl with big goals, like my daughter, getting credit for a portion of 25 boxes wasn’t going to cut it.

So, she and her troop mate decided to go down to the main road and dance with a girl scout cookie sign.

The corner of two busy streets was a MUCH better location. WIthout having studied marketing at all they nailed the classic AIDA marketing steps.

First, they ATTRACTED attention by being their cute 12 year old selves dancing on the street corner in their Girl Scout vests.

Then, the created INTEREST by holding a sign that directed people to pull into the drug store parking lot to buy cookies.

The girls at the booth in front of the drug store stoked DESIRE by showing the different types of cookies.

Finally, the customers took ACTION and purchased.

Those girls are smart cookies!

The girls ended up selling 178 boxes of cookies instead of 25 – at 86% improvement.

So… what does this mean to you?

Make sure that you are really arousing your prospects interest in your lead and sales pages. The best way to do that is to speak to a problem they are having – using the words they would use describe it.

How do you know if your page is interesting? Sales are one way. Another is to have someone else take a peek at it and let you know what they think.

One of my most popular time traders “gigs” is a sales page review. I love looking at other people’s pages and making profit-boosting suggestions. I have a few spots open for non Time Traders members

Would you like me to look at your page? Go to http://bigbark.marketing/review and sign up for a slot.