Sisters Katie and Jessica McNamara know how to make a sale.
"I tried to sell this many (500)," Katie said about her recent accomplishment, selling more than 500 boxes of Girl Scout cookies this past season. Katie has been a Girl Scout in the Patriot's Trail Council for four years. And at 10-years-old, Katie is a seasoned salesmen. She's been in the 500 club for three years now.
"I've done this before," she says.
Seven-year-old Jessica, on the other hand, is new to the game, but even in her first year she was able to bypass the 500 sales mark.
Both girls, students at Our Lady Comforter of the Afflicted School, were recognized late last month for their accomplishment at an ice cream party held at Camp Cedar Hill in Waltham, along with 68 other Scouts from 34 communities of the Patriots' Trail.
All of the girls were inducted into the 500 club in recognition of selling 500 or more boxes from January through March. The McNamaras were the only Scouts from Waltham to have reached the mark.
"It's really a tribute to their budding leadership capability," said Shannon O'Brien, CEO of the Patriots' Trail Council. "This takes a great deal of organization and planning. The girls have to do a lot of work themselves."
Selling a peak 536 boxes each, the McNamara sisters worked door-to-door sales, as well as pitching their product to family and friends.
"They just basically say, 'would you like to buy some Girl Scout cookies,' and they basically sell themselves," said the girls' father, Steve. "Their goal was to sell 500 each, to get to go to the ice cream social."
Having sold all eight varieties of cookies, including Shortbread, Caramel deLites and Lemonades, the girls still say the top sellers always seem to be Thin Mints.
And for those Scouts looking to be as astute salesmen as the McNamara sisters, Katie has one piece of advice that's helped her since she joined the Scouts: "Work really hard."
Matt Perkins can be reached at 781-398-8009 or at mperkins@cnc.com.
