PeopleA collection of inspiring incidents of the life of successful people......
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When It Comes to Selling, Girl Scout
Markita Andrews
Is a Real Cookie Monster
The greatest sales woman in the world today does not mind if you call her a girl. That is because Markita Andrews has generated more than eighty thousand dollars selling Girl Scout cookies since she was seven years old.
Going door-to-door after school, the painfully shy Markita transformed herself into a cookie-selling dynamo when she discovered, at age 13, the secret of selling.
It starts with desire, A BURNING, WHITE-HOT DESIRE.
For Markita and her mother, who worked as a waitress in New York after her husband left them when Markita was eight years old their dream was to travel the globe. “I will work hard to make enough money to send you to college,” her mother said one day. “You’ll go to college and graduate,” you will make enough money to take you and me around the world. Okay?
So at age 13 when Markita read in her Girl Scout magazine that the Scout who sold the most cookies would win an all- expenses-paid trip for two around the world, she decided to sell all the Girl Scout cookies she could—more Girl Scout cookies than anyone in the world, ever.
But desire alone is not enough to make her dream come true, Markita knew she needed a plan.
Always wear your right outfit, your professional garb her aunt advised. “when you are doing business, dress like you are doing business. Wear your Girl Scout uniform. When you go up to people in their tenement buildings at 4:30 or 6:30 and especially on Friday night, ask for a big order. Always smile, whether they buy or not, always be nice. And don’t ask them to buy your cookies; ask them to invest.
Lots of other scouts may have wanted that trip around the world. Lots of other Scouts may have had a plan. But only markita went off in her uniform each day after her DREAM. Hi. I have a dream. I am earning a trip around the world for me and my mom by merchandising Girl Scout cookies, she would say at the door. Would you like to invest in one dozen or two dozen boxes of cookies?
Markita sold 3,526 boxes of Girl Scout cookies that year and won her trip around the world. Since then, she has sold more than 42,000 boxes of Girl Scout cookies, spoken at sales conventions across the country, starred in a Disney movie about her adventure and has co-authored the bestseller, How To Sell More Cookies, Condos, Cadillac’s, Computers…. And Everything Else.
Markita is no smarter and no more extroverted than thousands of other people, young and old, with dreams of their own. The big difference is Markita has discovered the secret of selling: i.e. ASK, ASK, ASK! Many people fail before they even begin because the fail to ask for what they want. The fear of rejection leads many of us to reject ourselves and our dreams long before anyone else ever has the chance--- no matter what we are selling.
Actually everyone is selling something in a way. You are selling yourself everyday – in school, to your boss, to new people you meet, says Makita at 14. My mother is a waitress: she sells the daily special. Mayors and presidents trying to get votes are selling… One of my teacher’s, who made geography so very interesting to her students, was really selling to her class. I see selling everywhere I look and selling is part of the whole world.
It takes courage for what you want. Courage is not the absence of fear. It’s doing what it takes despite one’s fear. And as Markita has discovered, the more you ask, the more easier it gets and it is also more fun.
Once, on live TV, the producer decided to give Markita her toughest selling challenge. Markita was asked to sell Girl Scout cookies to another guest on the show. Would you like to invest in one dozed or two dozen boxes of Girl Scout cookies? She asked.
Girl Scout cookies? I don’t buy any Girl Scout cookies he replied. I am a Federal Penitentiary Warden. I put 2000 rapists, robbers. Criminals, muggers, and child abusers to bed every night.
Unruffled, Markita quickly countered, Mister, if you take some of these cookies, maybe you won’t be so mean and angry and evil. And, Mister, I think it would be a gook idea for you to take some of these cookies back for everyone of your 2000 prisoners, too. Markita asked.
The warden wrote a check.
(Taken From Chicken Soup For The Soul by Jack Canfield & Mark V Hansen)
THE KEY IS - IF YOU DON’T ASK YOU DON’T GET. BUT IF YOU DO YOU WILL
For Markita Andrews, 10, the annual Girl Scout cookie drive is a piece of cake. Since joining up as a Brownie four years ago, she has become the undisputed sales champ in New York City (and probably the country, although national statistics are not kept). Last year Markita sold a record 2,256 boxes during the three-week campaign, and an extra 750 at delivery time, earning the Scouts $4,509. This year, despite the recession, she topped her initial sale by peddling 2,628 boxes at $1.75 each and expects to sell up to 600 more when she delivers in May.
Although she is an obvious natural at sales, Markita recalls, "The first year I was shy and afraid I might mess up." Chaperoned by her aunt, the youngster, then 6, traveled door to door at the Lincoln Towers, a 3,900-unit apartment complex in Manhattan where she lives with her mother, Mary Lou. Markita racked up sales of $810 on 648 boxes. The next year, 1979, her door-to-door campaign ran into trouble when an old woman complained. Confined to selling in the lobby, Markita swooped down on customers as they came home from work or on Saturdays when the mailman arrived. Her tally was 1,148 boxes, and in 1980 it jumped to 2,100.
As word of Markita's success spread, Walt Disney Studios commissioned the Glyn Group to make an 11-minute sales training film about her. Entitled The Cookie Kid, it shows Markita's persistent but polite soft sell. The film has been used to motivate salespeople in more than 100 companies, including Xerox, IBM and Avon. How does Markita take to all the fanfare? "It's nice," she admits, "because you get to be important."
Markita, whose parents are separated, was born in Hollywood and moved to New York in 1977 with her mother, a waitress. She became a Brownie to make friends. Besides choosing her customers carefully (she stays clear of those in a hurry or in a bad mood), Markita knows all the selling points of the seven varieties of Girl Scout cookies (caramel-covered Samoas are her favorite) and how to close a deal. "You just can't chat," she advises, "you have to ask for an order." Most important, Markita says, "When you are tired, you can't quit. You have to keep trying."
Click Here to see her photo.
For more information you can read the following news paper article : The Cookie Kid
Markita Andrews
Is a Real Cookie Monster
The greatest sales woman in the world today does not mind if you call her a girl. That is because Markita Andrews has generated more than eighty thousand dollars selling Girl Scout cookies since she was seven years old.
Going door-to-door after school, the painfully shy Markita transformed herself into a cookie-selling dynamo when she discovered, at age 13, the secret of selling.
It starts with desire, A BURNING, WHITE-HOT DESIRE.
For Markita and her mother, who worked as a waitress in New York after her husband left them when Markita was eight years old their dream was to travel the globe. “I will work hard to make enough money to send you to college,” her mother said one day. “You’ll go to college and graduate,” you will make enough money to take you and me around the world. Okay?
So at age 13 when Markita read in her Girl Scout magazine that the Scout who sold the most cookies would win an all- expenses-paid trip for two around the world, she decided to sell all the Girl Scout cookies she could—more Girl Scout cookies than anyone in the world, ever.
But desire alone is not enough to make her dream come true, Markita knew she needed a plan.
Always wear your right outfit, your professional garb her aunt advised. “when you are doing business, dress like you are doing business. Wear your Girl Scout uniform. When you go up to people in their tenement buildings at 4:30 or 6:30 and especially on Friday night, ask for a big order. Always smile, whether they buy or not, always be nice. And don’t ask them to buy your cookies; ask them to invest.
Lots of other scouts may have wanted that trip around the world. Lots of other Scouts may have had a plan. But only markita went off in her uniform each day after her DREAM. Hi. I have a dream. I am earning a trip around the world for me and my mom by merchandising Girl Scout cookies, she would say at the door. Would you like to invest in one dozen or two dozen boxes of cookies?
Markita sold 3,526 boxes of Girl Scout cookies that year and won her trip around the world. Since then, she has sold more than 42,000 boxes of Girl Scout cookies, spoken at sales conventions across the country, starred in a Disney movie about her adventure and has co-authored the bestseller, How To Sell More Cookies, Condos, Cadillac’s, Computers…. And Everything Else.
Markita is no smarter and no more extroverted than thousands of other people, young and old, with dreams of their own. The big difference is Markita has discovered the secret of selling: i.e. ASK, ASK, ASK! Many people fail before they even begin because the fail to ask for what they want. The fear of rejection leads many of us to reject ourselves and our dreams long before anyone else ever has the chance--- no matter what we are selling.
Actually everyone is selling something in a way. You are selling yourself everyday – in school, to your boss, to new people you meet, says Makita at 14. My mother is a waitress: she sells the daily special. Mayors and presidents trying to get votes are selling… One of my teacher’s, who made geography so very interesting to her students, was really selling to her class. I see selling everywhere I look and selling is part of the whole world.
It takes courage for what you want. Courage is not the absence of fear. It’s doing what it takes despite one’s fear. And as Markita has discovered, the more you ask, the more easier it gets and it is also more fun.
Once, on live TV, the producer decided to give Markita her toughest selling challenge. Markita was asked to sell Girl Scout cookies to another guest on the show. Would you like to invest in one dozed or two dozen boxes of Girl Scout cookies? She asked.
Girl Scout cookies? I don’t buy any Girl Scout cookies he replied. I am a Federal Penitentiary Warden. I put 2000 rapists, robbers. Criminals, muggers, and child abusers to bed every night.
Unruffled, Markita quickly countered, Mister, if you take some of these cookies, maybe you won’t be so mean and angry and evil. And, Mister, I think it would be a gook idea for you to take some of these cookies back for everyone of your 2000 prisoners, too. Markita asked.
The warden wrote a check.
(Taken From Chicken Soup For The Soul by Jack Canfield & Mark V Hansen)
THE KEY IS - IF YOU DON’T ASK YOU DON’T GET. BUT IF YOU DO YOU WILL
For Markita Andrews, 10, the annual Girl Scout cookie drive is a piece of cake. Since joining up as a Brownie four years ago, she has become the undisputed sales champ in New York City (and probably the country, although national statistics are not kept). Last year Markita sold a record 2,256 boxes during the three-week campaign, and an extra 750 at delivery time, earning the Scouts $4,509. This year, despite the recession, she topped her initial sale by peddling 2,628 boxes at $1.75 each and expects to sell up to 600 more when she delivers in May.
Although she is an obvious natural at sales, Markita recalls, "The first year I was shy and afraid I might mess up." Chaperoned by her aunt, the youngster, then 6, traveled door to door at the Lincoln Towers, a 3,900-unit apartment complex in Manhattan where she lives with her mother, Mary Lou. Markita racked up sales of $810 on 648 boxes. The next year, 1979, her door-to-door campaign ran into trouble when an old woman complained. Confined to selling in the lobby, Markita swooped down on customers as they came home from work or on Saturdays when the mailman arrived. Her tally was 1,148 boxes, and in 1980 it jumped to 2,100.
As word of Markita's success spread, Walt Disney Studios commissioned the Glyn Group to make an 11-minute sales training film about her. Entitled The Cookie Kid, it shows Markita's persistent but polite soft sell. The film has been used to motivate salespeople in more than 100 companies, including Xerox, IBM and Avon. How does Markita take to all the fanfare? "It's nice," she admits, "because you get to be important."
Markita, whose parents are separated, was born in Hollywood and moved to New York in 1977 with her mother, a waitress. She became a Brownie to make friends. Besides choosing her customers carefully (she stays clear of those in a hurry or in a bad mood), Markita knows all the selling points of the seven varieties of Girl Scout cookies (caramel-covered Samoas are her favorite) and how to close a deal. "You just can't chat," she advises, "you have to ask for an order." Most important, Markita says, "When you are tired, you can't quit. You have to keep trying."
Click Here to see her photo.
For more information you can read the following news paper article : The Cookie Kid