http://www.pinktruth.com

From a Mary Kay sales director to other sales directors:

Hey Ladies,

I'm not sure if everyone realizes this, but every single time we go to a negative MK site "just to see" what is going on there we increase their hits which causes their sites to come up higher on search engines.

What does that mean to us. It's simple. Anyone who is thinking about becoming a consultant could have her dream taken from her if she decides to go online to do some research herself and happens to land on one of these sites. Now we all know that our success is this company is up to us and that we are bound by God & the company to do it the right way. We also know that there are those that haven't done it right and we need to pray for those they hurt and for them to.

I thought it would be fun to tell you about some of my favorite lies told in Mary Kay. Lies? Lies, you say? But you thought Mary Kay was a “Christian” company!

Wrong! It’s a company that exploits Christianity for monetary gain. By spouting things about Christianity, they get women off their guard. Their defenses are lowered, and they’re more likely to believe the lies they’re told.

So here are a few of my favorites..

• Just one bad apple in the bunch – Sorry, but if you look at Mary Kay recruiters in general, the vast majority of them tell lies to recruit. Many of the lies are lies of omission… They don’t tell the potential recruit how low their sales really are, the true quotas that are required to move up, and the fact that an estimated 99% of women actually lose money with Mary Kay.
• Mary Kay products sell themselves – Anyone who has ever done Mary Kay knows what a total lie this is. Of course, there will occasionally be a customer who is hunting for a consultant. That’s rare. One in a while you’ll find an excited hostess who has a bunch of spendy friends at her party. That’s rare too. What we know is that the actual market for Mary Kay products is very small. There is a very tiny pool of women who are legitimate customers buying the products. There are certainly not enough of them to allow many women to turn a profit selling the products.

Everyone used to love me.  I was a Miss Go Give, in the Applause and everything.  I helped everyone and was known for building leaders.  I always taught and spoke at all the events.  I was going to be a NATIONAL sales director for Mary Kay Cosmetics and everyone knew it!  My offspring loved me, and I loved them right back.  We were going all the way.

Then, after our fall retreat, when I was at top of my game, everything started to change for me.  We had our song, we had our area name, we had our t-shirts, we had our sparkly pins, we were going to make it happen…. but something was just not right!

Many things led to my change of heart, and you can read my 20 Reasons post to see more about that.  But what was and still is the most difficult part of making the decision to leave MK was disappointing and hurting my Directors.

A piece written by our member JTA, a longtime Mary Kay sales director who came close to becoming a national sales director, and then decided to give it all up.

1. I really analyzed my offspring’s production - About 1/3 of my offspring are at Grand Prix level doing that production regularly. After expenses, as you can see from the info posted on PT, that Grand Prix directors do not make very much money, 20k per year at best. The other 2/3 made and missed production, mostly every other month. Many of these were actually placing HUGE 2-4k orders on the odd months themselves to make the production happen. Almost always, in my National’s newsletter, the majority of the top 10 of personal wholesale were from my future area. This is heart wrenching. It is listed to be celebrated, like their personal sales are so huge, but I KNEW then and KNOW now that they were not selling this much. The orders are placed simply to make production. Add to this that several of those do National Court of Sales. So they are celebrated for this, when behind the scenes there are major debt issues, warehousing of product, etc. Very sad.

That's right. I wasn't a lazy loser. I was very successful in Mary Kay, just like several of the wonderful ex-directors here on Pink Truth. I was Top of Class, Fabulous 50s, a pink Cadillac driver and had 3 offspring.

It has been one year since I returned to a full-time J.O.B. (Joyful, & Overwhelmingly Blessed!) As I reflected, I realized that with my J.O.B. – I actually spend MORE time with my family than I did in MK --- and more time with family was the whole reason I joined Mary Kay Cosmetics.

One Year in J.O.B.: More time with Family
One Year in MK: Less, much less, time with family

Here is the latest on the lawsuit Mary Kay Cosmetics brough against Touch of  Pink Cosmetics and Amy and Scott Weber. It doesn't look good. Touch of Pink asked for the court to throw out the jury verdict and/or to order a new trial. Both of those were denied.

The court also ruled that Touch of Pink must pay Mary Kay $1,139,962, which are the company's pre-tax profits from 2005 through 2008. (For those doing the math, that's 4 years of business and about $285,000 of profits each year. And for those who care about the numbers, Touch of Pink had $3.8 million in total sales over that same period.) 

Even worse, the court granted Mary Kay a permanent injunction against Touch of Pink. Ultimately, the court concluded that Touch of Pink harmed Mary Kay because of the confusion of customers.  I believe that Touch of Pink has been very clear that they're not affiliated with Mary Kay, but the court disagrees with me. The court also said that Mary Kay is being harmed because the company cannot control its image as presented via Touch of Pink's actions.

The injunction prohibits Touch of Pink from:

Here's an idea being promoted by Mary Kay nsd Sherill Steinmann. It sounds great, until you get to the bottom line. Read all the way down and then see my comments at the end...

How to get New Names – the easy way!

Take 10 profile cards and slide in a plastic sleeve protector – your goal is to get 10 new ones filled out EACH WEEK! When you see a sharp woman … ask her “Have you ever heard of Mary Kay – are you one someone’s mailing list?”

If YES – “who is your consultant?” – you say – “Oh, I heard she was wonderful”

You've heard this Mary Kay lie many times before: $3,600 wholesale on your shelf is considered "profit level" inventory, and until you get to that level, you shouldn't be taking any profits for yourself out of your "busines."

Realistically speaking, there is very little profit in Mary Kay to begin with. But this "concept" twists the financial aspect even further and uses faulty logic and bad math to convince consultants to place large initial orders.

Here's how the Mary Kay explanation goes:

Please study this chart prior to sharing inventory with your new consultant. Study how long it takes to get to profit level.

Begin with 600 wholesale – Need to place 10 months of 600s to arrive at minimum of 3600. Reinvesting before making a profit.

Begin with 1200 wholesale – Must place 8 months of 600s to equal 3600.