“You have to order before month-end!”
This is the lie they have been telling in Mary Kay for decades. They say you shouldn’t wait until the first of the next month to order because your products might be delayed.
Tell me: If wholesale orders from consultants are filled in the order they are received…. What would be the difference between ordering at 11:59pm on August 31 and ordering at 12:00am on September 1?
The answer: Essentially no difference.
The have always promoted that you’d have “a delay” if you ordered on the first of the month versus the 31st. Sure, the orders on the 31st will be filled before those placed on the 1st of the next month. But how much of a delay could you possibly have?
Don’t be fooled by this ploy.
Why would your director want you to order before the month ends? For her commission check. She’d rather have the commission on your order NOW than wait a month to receive it.
There’s a reason why you should not order at the end of the month, especially if you only place orders occasionally. Mary Kay places value on being “active.” You are active in the month you place your order and two months after that, or three months total. If you place your order on August 31, you’re considered active in August, September, and October. If you order on September 1, you’re considered active in September, October and November. So if you want to be active, then you’d be better off waiting to order until we’re in September.
I personally don’t think being active is a big deal unless you need to be active to continue to receive commission checks OR if you are trying to place your once-a-year order to stay on the books as a MK consultant.
Even of you have recruits it may not be worth ordering. If you get 4% on maybe 500 or a 1000 team production, is it really worth it for $20 to $40 to spend $275 for a minimum order?
Especially if you don’t need anything or if your customers don’t need anything.
Very true. I remember placing an order to remain active to keep 4% on a recruit who ordered $200. That’s silly.
But, then Pam Shaw is telling people they can’t control what happens except working hard. Essentially, it’s all our fault someone didn’t order. It’s our fault we lost our place in the unit newsletter because we didn’t work hard enough. It’s our fault we slipped out of a Red Jacket. And, then it’s our fault we’re frustrated on September 1.
As I’ve said before, MK is a very weakened business model that doesn’t work anymore. When your title and commissions depend completely upon someone else’s word being kept, you end up getting the blame that you didn’t do enough. No matter how many nights or weekends you gave up. No matter how many faces you did when you didn’t feel like it and sacrificed something else to be there. The end result is COMPLETELY up to your team/offspring/hostess keeping their word.
And now the push for Star orders by the 15th and hoping those people don’t fail their Director.
I also once ordered to stay active to receive a small 4% commission. We are both wiser now.
Thanks for sharing.
In MK you are your own boss except when it comes to feathering the nest of your Red Jacket, Director, NSD, the CEO’s and heirs. You are not independent. MK controls every aspect of how you run this mlm. In return they mostly do not advertise, constantly change the products, allow front loading and then blame the Directors and IBC’s for this failing 1960’s style scam.
And the lie that goes with this one….how long it may take to get your order delivered if you “wait too long.” A sales director having us live in fear that it may take a few weeks for it to ship to us. My director would flip-flop from how fast an order would arrive to how “backed up” things were depending of course on what she needed out of us.
And now with the closing and changing of distribution centers? What kind of time frame will ANY order actually get to someone? When we lived in Hawaii, orders could easily take two weeks, and shipping was outrageous.
The unit I was in was about 2 hrs from the Canadian head office in Mississauga and we’d still get the fear of orders taking a long time to process and ship. One of the area directors used to pick up all our orders which was actually really helpful and we could save on the shipping. I can’t remember the exact year, but MK did away with the the pick up orders to save money., probably eliminated someone at the warehouse pick up area. After that, it just started to get too expensive to ship, especially since it was a flat rate and all you needed was a couple of cheaper items.