The Magic Words About Mary Kay
Written by SuzyQ
Oh, I wish I had the magic words! Just what does it take to get the message across to the pink believers that MK is a scam? What part don’t they get?
Maybe a short reminder would help:
1. Mary Kay is the best selling brand in the U.S. - TO CONSULTANTS. The stuff they count as a sale is in YOUR inventory.
2. Mary Kay is a dual marketing plan. NO. It is a multi-level marketing plan, plain and simple. Dual marketing is a lie. Why are they permitted to say it? Because there are different descriptors that are legal for MLMs to use that sound a bit nicer. It smacks of a pyramid scheme. The nsd’s at the top are making money off the orders from those below them. This is NOT a gift from Mary Kay for all of their hard work, this is from YOU! And your orders!
3. There are no quotas. Then please, explain the earned discount system and the minimum $200 wholesale order every three months to stay active.
4. You have to show up to go up. Wrong again. Seriously, how many of you have attended everything offered faithfully and are still not “moving up?” If you want to go up, you must recruit. Period.
5. You are the owner of a home-based business. No, you are not. You are a distributor of products purchased from the company. You are not allowed to advertise, sell your business, open a store front, or sell your customer base. Your dentist owns a business… you do not.
6. You have “job” security. You cannot be laid-off, fired, riffed or demoted. You really don’t believe that do you? Read your agreement. If the company chooses to, they can give you 30 days notice. If they choose not to, your termination is immediate, with no recourse.
7. Mary Kay products are on-trend. Not hardly. Look around the department stores and the discount stores/drug stores if you want to see on-trend cosmetics. You will not find them in Mary Kay. MK will tell you that product “delays” are as a result of intense product testing and quality control. This is a clever ruse. Remember Lumineyes? Triple Action Lip and Eye? Calming Influence? The former sales flops of the men’s line? The nail polish?
By the way, the ever-changing colors of the MK cases are signs of a loser. Chanel has been black for years and years and years. Clinique is green. Maybelline has not changed the pink and green Great Lash mascara barrel since it was introduced in the 60′s. And Mary Kay? So long to brand recognition. Floundering is the appropriate word to use here. I like to watch movies and see what line of make up the actors are using as props during different scenes… tell me… have YOU ever seen a Mary Kay product used? Me, neither.
8. You can write your own paycheck and give yourself a raise whenever you want. Not exactly. You CAN make more money if you can book and hold the classes and facials, and recruit those people. Good luck with the class holding thing. If you were in business for yourself, would you have another business owner hire your staff? Why does your director have to do the inventory “talk.” Why is she interviewing for you?
9. How about that warm chatting thing? Have you looked at it from a safe distance? What must people think when you approach them? Have you noticed that if you get a name and a number, it may not be accurate? If you have such a terrific opportunity and fantastic product, why don’t these women take your calls?
10. Having to “run through the numbers…” This is a “numbers game…” “No means next..” Again, if this is so wonderful, why do you need so many people to say no, before someone says yes? Are they all stupid? Can there be that many people who “don’t get it?” Is the “quality” of people you are asking the problem? Are you intimidated by “sharp” women and find it is easier to approach those who may need a hand up? Join the rest of us.
11. The unlimited income potential. See above. Note that they numbers you hear do not include any deductions. Nor does the facsimile check that your director can print from her Desk Top Manager screen. Just an FYI.
12. Time for your family. Not really. If you are showing up and going up, booking, selling and recruiting, working full circle, playing the numbers game… you are not available to your family during those times. If you are working on unlimited potential income, you are not seeing your family. At least, while they are awake and receptive to your attention. (And having your kid unpack more boxes of inventory you don’t need, does not count as family time.)
13. Being a team player. Benefits your director. Period. Your orders increase her check. That’s all. Really.
Decided to stop at 13 as that is the Mary Kay sacred number. Please. You can not make it in MLM. Read and listen. Watch and learn. I promise you, your dream is carved in sand.
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Tags: dual marketing, magic words, no quotas, warm chat
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Comments (14)
raisinberry
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Leave it to SuzyQ to put it clean and simple. I shudder to remember the time I was in My CPA’s office, and he said mary kay was a product based pyramid…a “multi-level”. I protested! NO! Its dual marketing (just like the good little hamster I had become). He stared at me. He said, “Ok…how many levels of people get paid over you?”
Hm. I said…my recruiter, my Director, My Senior Director…and My NSD.
He says, ” So…a number of LEVELS?..as in MULTI-LEVELS??”
What a negative Nelly! He just didn’t get it!
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A Reader
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“You are not allowed to advertise [or] open a store front…”
Okay, I understand how it benefits the company to emphasize a recruitment scheme where recruits have to continually buy large amounts of inventory. But what’s the rationale behind not advertising? And why would they prevent you from opening some sort of storefront, especially since the costs would fall on the consultant anyway?
I’m sure there are reasons (and equally sure the reasons have nothing to do with helping the consultants succeed) but I just can’t connect the dots. How do these rules benefit MK?
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finallygone
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I often wondered the same thing. What I was told was that our business succeeds because we give 1:1 customer service and we build relationships – and that’s not possible with a storefront.
Now while that is wrong and just an excuse, that’s what I was told.
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A Reader
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On further reflection, could it have to do with liability? Customer trips and falls in your store, customer’s lawyer manages to make the case that the store is affiliated with Mary Kay Inc, so customer sues you and Mary Kay. Versus: customer trips and falls in your basement sales room, customer sues you, and Mary Kay stays out of it. Is that their thinking? Or is there something else I’m missing?
The ban on advertising is a total mystery. What sort of wholesaler prevents its retailers from advertising? You’d think they’d encourage advertising. It just doesn’t add up.
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Lazy Gardens
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was told was that our business succeeds because we give 1:1 customer service and we build relationships – and that’s not possible with a storefront.
Every time I walk into the local home improvement store, several of the sales staff dive behind the lumber … we seem to have some kind of a relationship going.
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Kwis
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My theory is that it has to do with recruiting and saturation. If consultants could openly advertise and open storefronts, it would be much clearer to prospective recruits exactly how saturated their community is, making it much less likely that they would sign up and purchase inventory. Why would you agree to start a “business” when you know that there is someone advertising heavily in your town with the exact same business, or think they you could purchase and then sell a large amount of inventory starting from the ground up when there is a store already established on the next block?
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imewise
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A reader- Easy answer. Have you ever looked at the image of some of the people recruited into mk? (teeth missing, greasy hair, out dated fashion selections, dumb as a doornail?) there is not screening process to hire mk reps, people are begged to join, therefore they have no way of screening who is able to open a “franchise” or storefront and/or what it would look like. Therefore if that were the case, the company’s image will look like what it truely is in a short time. To sum it up they would have no control over some ugly tacky lady from representing them and using cardboard boxes as shelving. without that option she can simply be “independent”. The company cares only about an image of success.
I would like to add to the list
“the company offeres 90% inventory repurchase out of the goodness of their heart. ”
Actually it’s texas state law, Furthermore they would not be able to be a part of the direct sales association.
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A Reader
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Okay, that would make sense, then, from a company point of view.
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raisinberry
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Directors can advertise. At least they could join forces in a managed Yellow pages scenario, approved by the company. Other than that, the REAL reason is to hide the sheer numbers of consultants…especially in mid to large cities. In my neck of the woods all 5 seminars are heavily populated, a grand pooh-ba visiting could command full occupancy at a Holiday Inn ballroom. Imagine what the REAL consultant list would look like, if it included all the has-beens, personal users, and hobby consultants. – Would stop recruiting DEAD, if your prospect actually knew how saturated it is.
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beenthere
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I feel that one of the reasons MK does not allow store fronts is because if you knew there were 50 consultants in a 2 mile radius you would not dish out the dough. They want you to think that you are the only recruit and think you have a large customer base with little or no competition.
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ck
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I think women want the “Magic Bullet” and don’t really want to believe that they are gullible and can be lied to so easily.
And I think that what legitimizes the so called “business” is that there are so many “business” coaches out there like Belinda Ellsworth and Carrie Wilkerson telling women that “They can do it” if they buy their products.
Not to mention that Mary Kay itself tries to legitimize the opportunity by providing “education”. And the sad part is that if you listen to the “education, all you hear is anecdotal evidence but no REAL HOW TO… and the women/consultants swear by the training cd’s and events and SWEAR Up and Down that they are learning Skills that are priceless to their business.
And the sad part is that the finances of these women, who are other wise smart and saavy, goes on and on and on in one gigantic circle or spiral (if you will) right down the toilet.
All because Women are looking for Something and don’t really know what they are looking for or where to find it so they fall prey to the Mary Kay Machine.
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Linda
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It’s funny…I was just looking online to see if ‘Usborne Books’ home plan was a pyramid scheme (NOT to do it; just curious). So I was led to a site where a stay-at-home mom asked if it was and she got all sorts of comments back, like, no I don’t think so, and they sell them in stores so it must be okay etc. Then one lady wrote, it’s a multilevel marketing scheme and someone else quickly wrote: no it’s not multilevel, it’s bi-level marketing and there IS a difference. She did not elaborate of course.
What made ME laugh was all those people commenting on something they know nothing about. It was like when people call into hate radio and spout off a bunch of stuff to other people who spout the same stuff. Hope the original SAHM gets INFORMATION, not speculation. Thank goodness for this site, Pink Truth!
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TheRose
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I’ve never done MLM, but I’m not sure that person was helping when they claimed Usborn was “bi-level”. The prefix bi- means either “half” or “two”. The prefix multi- means “many” or “much”. Therefore, we might guess that multilevel marketers get paid on many levels, whereas bilevel only pays on two levels. Maybe I’m splitting hairs here, but if MLM is bad, then BLM would be much worse.
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TRACY
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“Multi” can also mean more than one.
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