How often does Mary Kay change products? Not often, according to the company! From Mary Kay’s online FAQ for customers :

Our core product lines are updated once every 3 to 5 years to take advantage of the latest innovations in skin care. And although we don’t do it often, we occasionally update our packaging to ensure that we continue to stay on trend and keep our presentation current and fresh. Remember that we’re in the fast-changing cosmetics business. Much like the automobile, fashion and consumer electronics industries, in the cosmetics industry, newness is what attracts customers to the brand.

One of the first things I was taught after I started Mary Kay was how to “reconnect” with old friends in order to sell the product. They get you to make a list of “everyone with skin” that you know, so you can start begging them to “help me meet a challenge” or “help me start my business” or some other lame guilt trip.

Once you get through your list of current friends and family, you’re encouraged to think of old friends you haven’t talked to in a while. You call them under the pretense of “reconnecting” (what a great buzz word), but then as soon as they ask what’s new, you launch into your spiel about this great new thing you’re doing (Mary Kay).

Recently Mary Kay Cosmetics made a change to the product return option for U.S. consultants. Previously, when a consultant requested the product return form, Mary Kay Inc. told the consultant the total amount of inventory she was eligible to return. She could return any products that added up to that total.

Now, Mary Kay will be telling consultants exactly which products they will be able to return.  Consultants will only be able to return the specific  products that they personally purchased from Mary Kay Inc. during the last 12 months  as described here:

I love it when Mary Kay national sales directors make up new words. Especially when they’re so fitting for a company that wants you to load up on product and get access to as much credit as you can so that you can keep ordering. This NSD refers to the “creditability” that you get from being a star consultant in Mary Kay. I think she means she wants you to have the ability to get credit…

This document is nothing more than a simple ploy to get you to order more than you need at the beginning of the seminar year. Remember that July is a rough month for most sales directors. They’ve just squeezed every bit of life (and money) out of their consultants by begging them to order non-stop to “meet the unit’s goal.”

Mary Kay nsd Pam Shaw teaches that ordering lots of products is the most important thing for any new consultant. Directors will have the most production when they coerce new consultants into these big orders. $3,600 is best!

Ah yes, the Mary Kay Preferred Customer Program. A program meant to help you service your customers better, get them to order more, and help you develop a better relationship with them. The reality? Another way for Mary Kay to make money off the consultant.

Make money?? The loyal Kaybots pooh-pooh the idea that Mary Kay would be making money off PCP. Surely the program is only for the benefit of the consultants. Really? Then why the minimums? Why make consultants have a minimum number on the list before they can participate. It’s not like it costs the company any more money if you have 5 people on your list of 50 on your list. It’s all computerized and there’s no good reason to make minimums other than to squeeze a little extra dough out of the consultants.

I love the idea of being debt free. I even love the idea of using Mary Kay Cosmetics to become debt free. The problem is, the second idea is nothing but a pipe dream for virtualy all the women who get involved with the company.

Sure, the concept is simple. BuY for $1, sell for $2, and you have an instant profit of $1. But there are many obstacles to that actually happening.

A former Mary Kay consultant comes clean about her interactions with her customers.

The truth behind the pink… false compliments, recruiting and sales tactics, ulterior motives, false earnings claims… all the norm in Mary Kay when someone is trying to move up!

1. I probably used a “sincere sounding” compliment when I first saw you so that I could start a conversation with you, and hopefully sell you some Mary Kay.
2. I used an event like a “Face Model” evening (which is nothing more than our regular rah-rah meeting with a new name to make you fee special) to get you to come and listen to a recruiting pitch.

This script was put together by a well-known Mary Kay national sales director who even calls the script “Dialing for Dollars.” She’s not even trying to hide the fact that sales directors must spend month-end calling consultants and coaxing them into ordering products they don’t need.

How do I know the consultants don’t need the products? If they needed them, they would have already ordered them! They don’t need a month-end call from a director begging for orders to do it!

This script instructs sales directors on how to get maximum ordering from consultants by using the following techniques, as interpreted by me:

I’m not sure how a Kaybot can presume to know the details of everyone’s life and conclude that anyone and everyone can hold 2 Mary Kay classes a week… but that’s not stopping them! Below is another one of those “if you can’t do it you’re a loser” type of rantings from a Mary Kay nsd.

In the Mary Kay world, “2 classes” is easy and anyone can do it. Those of us who have been in Mary Kay (or have had friends and relatives in MK) know that the hard part of that theory is actually finding women to book the classes, then hoping that they actually have them. That’s a lot harder than it may sound to an outsider.