Motivating You to Purchase Products

Written by The Scribbler

When your sales director or NSD “believe” (or in Mary Kay-speak, “bee-lieve”) in you, it is easier to get you to order products you don’t need. The “business” of MK is based heavily on emotional manipulation. If you believe in yourself, you’re going to order products to “finish” a goal, even if you don’t need the products and you know in your heart you can’t sell them.

A few sample quotes from the pyramid toppers:

  • Believe in your ability to create what you want and know that you deserve to have it…abundance is God’s plan for us.
  • Sooner or later, I always get everything I really want.
  • I deserve the best life has to offer and I claim my share now.

The Mary Kay upline teaching of “You deserve it!” is more widespread than the latest fad diet. It’s a justifier, as in “I frontloaded 10 women with Emerald star orders this month, therefore I deserve to go buy myself a new soul from Target.”

We know that Mary Kay claims to be about enriching women’s lives, but let’s face it; obtaining wealth makes up about 98% of that enrichment. If an consultant has a down day in MK, she’s not advised to go take a walk with her children or soak up the sun on the back porch. She’s advised to “Think about the suit, the big paychecks, the Cadillac, and the diamonds.”

It’s all about the stuff. Why is that? Why put such a heavy emphasis on what one supposedly deserves to have?

Sociologists will tell you that people often spend money to buy things that increase their self-esteem and project the right image. They think they’ll be accepted and loved because of it. Is it possible that a major way of gaining self-esteem in Mary Kay means looking (and spending) like an NSD, otherwise known as “Faking it until you make it?”

Here’s a wild thought: Do you think large inventory purchases might fall into that category? Do consultants ever make inventory purchases so they’ll be “accepted and loved?” Mind you, if you need to order because you sold enough foundation this week, good for you! But if you’re ordering product because your director says that you’re “only” $600 away from earning yourself a quick jaunt across a stage, it’d do you a world of good to rethink your motivations. We’re not supposed to go into debt buying things we don’t need, with money we don’t have, to impress people we don’t like.

There’s nothing wrong with having dreams of a larger home or a better car, but when the “I deserve it!” mentality muscles itself into your life and props its feet up on the backs of your husband and children, it’s time to do some “negative” (i.e. ponder a view that does not glorify MK) thinking.

NSD advice like “Surround yourself with your goals – be obsessed with it!” isn’t so much for you as it is for them. If you’re obsessed with getting into a red jacket, driving a pink car, and living in a house with massive square footage, that pretty much guarantees fat commission checks for the folks at the top of the pink pyramid.

If you’re not obsessed with MK goals, however (i.e. staying content as Personal Use or only ordering what you need when you need it) your NSD probably won’t pay any attention to you. Are you okay with that? You should be.

A phrase commonly heard in MK is that “Women love choices!” You’re no exception. You have the choice to call out your upline’s materialistic motivations, turn your back on them, and encourage your peers to do likewise. You have the choice to refuse to tie your self-worth to a suit, a car, or a low-grade gemstone. And you have the choice to make business decisions that are for you alone.

For some, that could mean returning unsold product and boldly choosing a fresh path that doesn’t involve Mary Kay. For others, it could mean striving to focus on honest sales and good customer service. And for some women, it could mean something as simple as allowing oneself to question an aspect of MK and subsequently ask a fellow consultant if she ever felt likewise.

Make a wise choice today, girlfriend. You deserve it.

8 COMMENTS

  1. Wonderful article. It’s interesting to me as there are two things at play. There is whether materialistic things are important to you, and what you are prepared to DO to get them.

    It’s one thing to receive positive reinforcement for good things you do in your life; but the disconnect in Mary Kay is people are being pumped up to be PYRAMID SCHEMERS.

    Mary Kay = MLM = Endless-chain recruiting = Pyramid scheming

    Moral: No matter how much you bee-lieve in yourself. you must first identify what you are doing versus what you are doing it for.

    Walter White turned to drug dealing to take care of his family after being diagnosed with cancer, and we know how that turned out. Are you okay turning to pyramid scheming?

    Don’t know what pyramid scheming is? Read the last two articles.

  2. Gloria Mayfield Banks said herself when she made “history” said she loved the recognition (emphasis added)

    What it means to me to be the first African American to achieve the number one position within Mary Kay’s independent sales force is hope and possibilities,” said Banks. “Whenever someone you know or someone that looks like you achieves something that no one else has done, it just opens up a possibility. I tell people that I joined Mary Kay for the money but I fell in love with the recognition. Being around ambitious women who kept God first, family second and career third was intoxicating because I didn’t have that anywhere else.”

    Ok Gloria.
    MaryKay paid for the press release. ?
    https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mary-kay-entrepreneur-and-harvard-mba-reaches-pinnacle-of-success-as-number-one-us-independent-national-sales-director-300308542.html

    • Some of the reasons why people join gangs quoted from the LA Police Department:

      Identity or Recognition – Being part of a gang allows the gang member to achieve a level of status he/she feels impossible outside the gang culture.

      Fellowship and Brotherhood – To the majority of gang members, the gang functions as an extension of the family and may provide companionship lacking in the gang member’s home environment. Many older brothers and relatives belong, or have belonged to the gang.

    • Gloria Mayfield-Banks is EVIL. She has a Harvard MBA, she knows exactly how the MLM business model works, and as long as she gets her recognition fix, her
      Seminar Strut, her fawning press releases, she doesn’t care how she’s exploiting the African-American community with her affinity fraud.

      How many women and their families has she pushed deeper into debt and despair with her “hope and possibilities”?

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affinity_fraud

      • Gloria Mayfield Banks totally exploits AA ladies!

        I’ve seen her area director reports personally and over multiple years there was only about 5 of 40ish of her offspring directors making more then $5000 a month and none making over $10,000.

        I saw soooo many of her directors loose their units, go back to her unit then work at it again to get in DIQ.

        Looking back now it was sickening that I was a part of it all.

  3. Quick question: what if someone (unlike me) did join MK and routinely buy inventory, but sent each item back for a 90% refund (still a loss there) if she hadn’t sold it within 11 months and/or if MK removed the item from the catalog? Like, trying to rotate inventory? Has anyone tried that and did MK kick her out for it???

    • You can’t routinely send back for a 90% refund. You can do it once. One shipment, and then you can never order from MK again because you’re terminated.

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