Say No to Mary Kay!
I am not making this up. Someone really put together this handout with crazy, crazy nonsense about Mary Kay. This is the epitome of deception in the recruiting process. Oh my… have a look and add your own comments!
Some of the funnier falsehoods perpetrated in this document:
- Some 30 million customers purchase approximately 200 million Mary Kay products each year. (Consultants are the customers. And they purchase products they never sell to a real customer!)
- Mary Kay is #4 in Internet retail sales in the world. (Says who?)
- The Team Manager program was designed for women who want to work with a team, drive a free car, yet keep their jobs, while adding $18,000 to$20,000 per year to their income. The Team Manager position takes approximately 20 hours per week and can be earned in from one to four months from beginning with the company. (This simply doesn’t happen. It’s not part-time, and a car driver doesn’t make $18,000 to $20,000.)
- Mary Kay is #1 in brand loyalty among customers who buy skin care products. Three out of five women will buy the product after being introduced to it. It is estimated that 80% will continue to use the Basic Skin Care after they have been introduced to the product. (Says who?)
- Training classes are equal to college courses in marketing, communications, personnel, and small business management. Training is free and local. (Hilarious! Mary Kay “training” is simply about recruiting. There is very little to be learned other than how to recruit, and what you learn in Mary Kay … things like “be too dumb to doubt” and “fake it till you make it”… have no resemblance to college.)
- Management positions are possible with one to four months of qualifying time. You decide when. Income is $2,500 – $3,000 per month as a new director. (Completely fabricated numbers. New directors make about $500 to $1,000 per month if they’re lucky, which is less than minimum wage. Many directors are actually losing money.)
Click on the images below to see them full-size, and add your thoughts in the comments section.
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Comments (18)
Lazy Gardens
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Training classes are equal to college courses in marketing, communications, personnel, and small business management. If this were true, no IBC would ever recruit a customer to be a competitor nor order inventory she didn’t need.
Training is free and local. Except for the fee to cover the cost of the meeting place, the door prize you are expected to contribute, and, of course, the total lack of useful training.
Then there is the pressure to spend money on the endless series of conferences and Seminar and boot camps and CDs that are supposed to take your business to the next level.
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Keyta
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•Mary Kay is #4 in Internet retail sales in the world. (Says who?)
Are they counting Ebay sales? BaHaHa Then it might be true.
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advertisingchick
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“Training classes are equal to college courses in marketing, communications, personnel, and small business management.”
Bahahahahaha. Just had to laugh!!
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pinkinthered
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Oh, I believe they could be #4 in internet sales. Considering the consultant is the customer and this is how they order their products, they could be pretty close. Mary Kay math, you know!
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Keyta
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I think you might be right. All sales from the company to consultant are internet sales. Of course, the sit in the consultant’s garage and eventually go on Ebay.
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Lynn
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How can they make any claims about retail sales when they don’t track retail sales?? Ridiculous.
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MLM Radar Detector
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“How are we different from other Direct Sales programs?… Each consultant tracks what she orders.” [Hello???]
“Average annual income for Management Positions are…” [all numbers are BEFORE subtracting expenses]
“We have also donated to John Hopkins Research…” [note the use of past tense]
“It is estimated that 80% will continue to use…” “It is estimated that more women will earn…” [estimated based on what? and by whom, the MK marketing department?]
“…all inventory has a 90% buy-back guarantee” [which you can only claim if you quit forever, and never use if you merely want to exchange unsellable products for what your customers want]
“…taught at the Harvard School of Business and several other major universities” [not as a model to follow, but only as a case study in how NOT to do business]
“Presently the average NSD is retiring at over $200,000 per year” [that's an average of how many? very few, I suspect, because I can't find that page in Applause magazine]
(BTW, the link is broken for the large size image of “Don’t say no” page 1.)
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ozbooks
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Having been a MK Consultant for 4 years, I finally had to admit that my Sales Mgr. had LIED TO ME for the entire time about having to order a min. of $200/mo. in product. She assured me all along she was “helping” me but in the end SHE WAS A TOTAL LIAR! I won’t even look at MK products again – much less USE them, nor will my husband. The company even called me on the carpet for an email I sent out of before & after pics of people like Barbara Bush, Gina Lolibrigetta & many movie stars saying they would cancel my contract to sell MK if I didn’t take my website off my signature!! Are you KIDDING me? I despise MK and all it stands for. They were into me for over $3,000 in products I had stored in a closet at my home – but would not let me return but HALF OF $1,000 of it when I RESIGNED SOON AFTER! This company is NOT what it was when MK was alive. Trust me! RUN when a Consultant tried to sell ANYTHING to you!!
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raisinberry
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WHERE’S THE SPLORF EMOTICON WHEN YOU NEED IT ?!?!?!
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Verity Rose
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Who in the world is responsible for producing this flyer? Because I want to thank them for giving me such a good laugh this early in the morning.
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slyfox
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The flyer says Mary Kay has been listed five times as one of the best companies to work for? Is this true? Aren’t IBCs, Directors, and NSDs independent contractors?
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Lazy Gardens
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Way back when, Mary Kay’s corporate headquarters did make a few “best place to work” lists.
But that was their full-time employees, the ones with the 40-hour work weeks, the paid vacations, and corporate health benefits.
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NeverWasPink
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nowadays, the only “job security” at MK Corporate is in the … *drumroll*.. purchase return department!!
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enorth
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“Each consultant tracks what she orders.”
Yes, in fact, she tracks them over and over as they collect dust on her garage shelves…
“Average annual income for Management Positions…”
But everyone has “Independent” in front of her title – no matter what level – with no direct-report people…so, this is not real “management”
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cab
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I really think that most “sales” product jobs where you are required to go out and find your own customers are this way. That’s why there is so much turnover. People are promised great things and vacations. There is almost no way to make those required sales and that salesperson leaves (after usually having lost money) and some new unknowing people are recruited and the same thing happens to them.
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TRACY
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If you’re referring to MLMs, yes, ALL of them suck. Badly.
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TheRose
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FYI – according to Internet Retailer, the #4 position goes to Walmart.com and the closest MLMs to the top are Amway at #30 and Avon at #37. #1 is Amazon.com (big shock there). It’s interesting to note that Mary Kay didn’t even make the top 500 list!!
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mammybear
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Any jewelry, trips or “free cars ” ( Haha) will get you a 1099 at tax time and more money out of your pocket. Training???? I was expecting workshops or SOMETHING at Career Conference. Those were reserved for Directors, DIQs and Stars. The rest of us –and there were HUNDREDS of us — had to sit and listen to Uber-Kaybot NSDs,etc tell their “I “stories so that we could feel like we weren’t trying hard enough. I got nothing out of the weekend but a bill for the room.
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