Tough cookie’s pitch wins brownie points

THIS girl scout has taken an unorthodox approach to selling cookies – honesty. She says the Trefoil – the classic girl scout cookie – is “kind of boring”, the do-si-do suffers from “unoriginality and blandness”, and the toffeetastic is “as flavourless as dirt”.

Aged 11, Charlotte McCourt is going places. The South Orange, New Jersey, girl scout’s reviews were made public in a viral Facebook video by actor and TV host Mike Rowe – after she wrote to a prospective customer, a friend of her father. Her dad co-hosts a podcast with Rowe.

Charlotte is a 21st century salesperson. After being tipped off by her dad about a “very rich” friend, and although she only met the friend once, she wrote him a strong sales pitch.

“I’ve been informed that you might want to purchase a few Girl Scout cookie boxes for our troops fighting overseas.

This is good news,” she wrote. She called her 5-person troop “minuscule but mighty” and validated her credentials as always the one selling the most cookies.

Her goal was to sell 300 “delectable” boxes of Girl Scouts cookies from her website. She then proceeded to give her scathingly yet refreshingly honest reviews of the cookies.

Rowe read the letter on his Facebook video and it went viral, garnering 6 million views and generating sales of 7 000 boxes.

The lesson for any small business owner (and salesperson)?

Today’s customers want the facts, the truth and the respect to make their own decisions.

“I love being honest with my clients,” Charlotte said.

She advised her ratings were “only my opinion, yours may vary”. Thin Mint anyone?