An Ex- Mary Kay Director Tells How She Lost Her Directorship

Mary is an ex-director who got caught up in the do-it-fast mentality. Her senior wanted to go NIQ, and needed one more director to do it. Mary joined Mary Kay Inc. in 2005, and started with a full inventory. She was encouraged to buy $600 wholesale each month (that’s how you get your 13% recruiters check, otherwise it’s only 9%). Now she is $18,000 in debt.

She went into DIQ after only a few months as a consultant. She had 4 genuine recruits, and her director convinced 4 more of her customers to be personal use consultants. Voila! Mary had the 8 needed to go into DIQ.

As you can imagine, Mary didn’t have the necessary production to complete DIQ, so she added a couple thousand wholesale herself. Add to that career conference, new director training, seminar, director’s suit, training center fees, and prizes.

Here’s how Mary says she ended up “falling out” of directorship:

1. I went into directorship so fast because I was “encouraged” to by my sales director, who was my friend. She wanted to go into NIQ and I had to finish DIQ by a certain date to help her achieve that and I spent thousands to make production to help her achieve that goal, only to have others not finish, so she didn’t make it anyway.
2. I now have only 20 active team members, but all directors have to maintain an active team of 30 members for her to maintain NIQ, so recruiting is being pushed big time. So the goal is for each of us to personally recruit a lot of new consultants, and I just haven’t been able to do it.
3. Because I’d been in such a short time when I went into DIQ, I didn’t know about all of the costs and the time involved in being a director. It was quite a shock to find out how much money is required in awards, a place to hold meetings, newsletters, unitnet website, and MORE, besides being encouraged to get office help so you can “focus on income-producing activities.” And there are so many meetings fordirectors!! Meetings with your senior, with your national area, etc. Plus, you are expected to go to every recruiting event hosted by nationals. When is there time to hold classes?? It’s all about recruiting, not getting customers!
4. My senior director told us one day that she had several pages of people returning inventory, but that just means her consultants are working hard on recruiting. To me, it’s obvious that people are being pressured into buying huge inventories!
5. One of my consultants cancelled her debut one night because her daughter had a dance competition and made it to the next competition, that happened to be the same night. My director said, “She doesn’t have her priorities straight.” Again, that took me by surprise because I thought family was the priority.
6. When I had to miss my unit meeting one night due to a family situation, I was lectured about my “lack of committment.” I thought we were all supposed to be independent contractors? Shouldn’t I be able to decide how I want to run my own business?
7. If someone is not going into DIQ, then she won’t take the time to answer their phone calls or talk to them after meetings. She says they are just a waste of her time, she’s got to focus on those who are going somewhere.
8. I won’t ask people struggling to make ends meet to order just so I can make production. I’m struggling now myself because of this debt, so I can’t do it to someone else who is worse off than me, especially the single mothers.
9. At career conference and seminar, if a consultant was not a star, then she was completely ignored. She couldn’t come to dinner with us, or spend the evening with us. If a consultant spends the money to come to those events, I think she should be allowed to participate in some of those events with her director. She may not get all of the rewards, but she gets to enjoy the feeling of belonging in the group–wouldn’t that be more motivating?
10. I can sell approximately $1000-1500 a month myself, but that’s not enough. After all of the expenses of being a director, and saving up for seminar, leadership, etc., and buying new product, I never have made a profit, and I can’t get rid of all of the product I “built up” by buying my way into directorship.

The saddest part of this is how “normal” it is for sales directors in Mary Kay. The do-it-quick mentality has only made these things worse. Women aren’t fully informed about all the expenses, responsibilities and day-to-day “stuff” that is involved with being a director.

And I don’t blame THEM for not knowing these things. How on earth would they know to even ask about them or consider them? They are constantly told that their senior will tell them what they need to know and their senior is looking out for them, etc. So not true.

Similar Posts:

• An Open Letter To My Offspring Director
• Mary Kay Directorship Production = No Problem
• Mary Kay Opinions: The Mary Kay Way is to Cheat and Justify
• The Cliff Notes Version of Allison LaMarr’s Training
• A Mary Kay Director’s Letter to Her NSD