What You Heard at That Recruiting Event
Written by Raisinberry
One of our big problems is that when we were introduced to Mary Kay the information we were told was grossly overstated. Mary Kay Corp has attempted to clean up some of the outrageous statements, designed to sell you on the opportunity, but not with too much fervor. If you had the facts, you might decide to pass. So, in an effort to balance the hype with the truth, here you go:
1. When the Directors walked upfront and introduced themselves, the “high check” or “number of cars won” figure they shared was not an average monthly check and did not include chargebacks or expenses. In many cases, we have heard that top check from the same director for over 10 years. You, dear guest, don’t know that. They are hoping you will assume it’s an average and jump to the conclusion that all those ladies in suits are just neck deep in cash. They aren’t. The “premier” level directors average about $20,000 per year; Cadillac Directors average about $45,000 before expenses and depending on offspring. Expenses are easily $10,000 to $15,000 per year or more. New people don’t know that Directors buy all their own prizes, pay for their meeting rooms, newsletters, suit, shoes, training events, and even get their so called “free” car payment deducted from their commission check when their Unit isn’t ordering enough.
You were told that weekly meetings are not mandatory. They aren’t, but the minute you get there you will be told that you won’t make any money if you don’t “plug in” every week. The pressure to attend and the attention you will get will draw you in.
You were told that you don’t need inventory. When you go to orientation you will be told that you do. You will be told that “successful” women have a full store around $3,000 wholesale. You will be told you cannot take a profit until you get to “profit level,” which of course is $3,000 worth. This is FICTION.
You are not dependent on foot traffic (and you don’t even have access to it), therefore you do not need full shelves. Having inventory based on a product line of over 200 products means you are taking a crap shoot as to whether the stuff you have is the stuff they might want.
And having more than one of anything is even more ridiculous, since you will never have volume selling (legally). Its strictly convenience to give it to the buyer at the point of purchase. Back in the day when consultants held 10 classes a week, it may have made sense. It has been DECADES since anything close to that level of selling occurred. Back when I was a director, they told us that the national average of skin care classes held per month was ONE. I doubt that has changed.
You were told you would have three avenues of income: sales, reorders, dovetail commissions from classes you booked but gave away. You were told you could have a website presence, and sell “on the go, on the face or on the web.” This makes selling look easy and income from sales look awesome! You were given sheets that show different earning scenarios depending on how many classes you held a week, with the resultant reorder profit amounts. ALL FICTION.
You will sell friends and family who want to help you, and those first weeks in business will be about your best. From there you will have a few re-booked parties, and they will begin to dwindle until you can’t reach them after they have rescheduled a number of times. Women will avoid you. You will then be encouraged to put out fishbowls and give free facials and try to turn them into classes. all with strangers. You will have to overcome your fear of talking with strangers and learn to give sincere compliments to anyone who will give you eye contact and smile, so that you can book them. Your entire waking life will become an ulterior motive of who can you talk to, who can you book, who can you recruit… because if you ordered inventory, on the advice of your director, it is now rotting on your shelves.
You have to advertise your MK business, but there are all sorts of rules about what you can post on social media. They’ll tell you that you can have a Facebook page, but again you can only post “approved” messages. The idea that Mary Kay Inc. will help you advertise with the internet is FICTION. Reorders will not be anything like you expect. Certain customers will be loyal and stay with you, however many will attend the class that their friend may have and switch allegiances. Because the market is so saturated, discounted products abound and you’ll have a hard time getting customers to pay full price. (Bye bye to the 50% profit they told you about!)
If you join anyway and your director tells you to have a business debut, which seems like a good idea, it is actually a mini guest event for your sales director to find new recruits. She will recruit your friends and family before you even get a chance to have them hold a party or order or introduce you to more customers. You will be told this is for your good (to move you up) but moving you up is for the director’s benefit, not yours. You will not know this, of course.
You will look around and wonder if the area is saturated with consultants. It is. Only they aren’t actively pursuing the “dream.” The vast majority of consultants make up a sea of personal use consultants who tried it, figured it out, got out, but kept their discount. They are called the “base unit.” Then there is 2% who got suckered up the career path and ended up doing star, car production or unit production on their own credit cards, and now HAVE to continue to try and dig out. You will not be told ANY of this.
These are only the INITIAL facts that are hidden from you as you consider the Pink Bubble. This is why Pink Truth clamors for full disclosure. Because directors are trapped in a predatory system that needs new recruit production to survive, your best interests will be hidden from you, and hers will be encouraged. This, sadly, is only a tiny portion of what you need to know about the real facts you didn’t hear at that POSITIVE and UPLIFTING Mary Kay Guest event.
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Yep, no lies were told in this post! I went through the same exact experience of uncovering the truth. All of the rules and limitations with social media and vendor events were the worst. I remember being told vendor events are a great place to get new customers but then was told I couldn’t actually exchange products for money there. I’d need to fill out a sales ticket with what they’re interested in and call them back once I left the event so we could arrange payment and delivery. And they always pushed that everything needed to be done with a phone call…who is really going to pick up a phone call about a couple of lipsticks or mascara? Women buy makeup and skincare products in the moment. Once they’ve walked away, they’ve likely forgotten about it and you. MKC is not actually interested in helping consultants sell.
It’s such a short road from being fed the lines at a recruiting event, to signing up, to learning and regurgitating the lines to others. I could never stomach that. NSD told us to always say that you’re in a contest, everyone wins second prize in a basket raffle (free facial, of course), and if someone asks if you “won” a car yet, that it’s on order!
So a month ago when I won a free facial in a draw, and the consultant offered me a gift to bring a guest because she needed faces in a contest for car qualification…. That was all true, but I should repeat it all to start my own recruiting? Got it. That sounds legit.
When your director isn’t sharing how much she sold and recruited EVERY WEEK, you’ve been had. When your unit isn’t growing, you’ve been had. When other unit members aren’t consistently selling several hundred dollars, every week, you’ve been had. Believe me, if sales (NOT ORDERS) and recruiting are happening, they would be shouting it from the rooftops! When they try to show a high check, look at the date and note how many there are. It was most likely a one time fluke years ago. This is what I noted in my first few meetings and never went back. Ask yourself after a meeting, “Did REAL training occur? Or was it a ra ra hype people up gathering?” Be honest…when figuring out if your business is making a profit or loss: honestly tally your week’s sales subtract every cost of that product (postage, cost of goods sold, gas, phone, tolls, etc. expenses) and divide by the ALL the hours you spent that week doing MK (meetings, driving, presentations, warm stalking, phone, texts, www time, etc.). If you are not paying off your credit card each month, that’s your first red alert. Running the above numbers is your second red alert. After paying to replenish what you sold, there will be little to nothing left. You honestly will be lucky to make $2+ an hour, if you are honest about expenses and your hours invested. Third, compare your MK monthly pay to a min wage job that pays half of your social security and has some sort of benifits. See how much you are losing each month? If it was so easy or profitable, why are so many in MK for years and not directors or NSD’s? Don’t make excuses for them. Ask the grown up questions! I saw this my first few months in MK as new high school grad, 1983. Why can’t you?
Once you understand MKC’s business model, all of this starts to make sense. MLMs like Mary Kay do indeed have a tiny market of real, outside customers. But the vast majority of product ordered goes unsold or sold at a loss. Some is given away in BOGO sales, some as gifts, some donated, some returned, but much of it, sadly, ends up in the landfill.
Very little of the product is actually sold at MSRP. Consultants discount it (often down to their “cost” or below) just to move what little they can. Besides, the moneymakers in MLMs like Mary Kay are not doing so through outside product sales. If they were, they would not brag about the “highest check”. Rather, they’d show you a ledger and/or talk about volumes and margins. And the last thing they’d want to do is recruit competitors in their same geography to sell the exact same products to the same target market!
So MKC is in the business of fooling their customers into thinking they are business owners so they order way more product than they can ever hope to sell or use personally, and then convince these same folks to recruit others to do the same, ad infinitum. Need proof? Look at the incentives. Mary Kay rewards ordering and recruiting, with no corporate incentives associated with actually retailing the product outside the downline. Just notice how NSDs never talk about their personal sales…if they even sell at all. Just staying “active” requires them to order regularly. What happens to that product? My guess is it is donated or tossed so it does not pile up in the NSDs’ homes.
It was never about the product. It’s all about building and exploiting a downline, with the product as a “cover”. Wake up ladies…it’s all a sham!
“Mary Kay rewards ordering and recruiting, with no corporate incentives associated with actually retailing the product” … every sales person I have known who was working for a real business was paid, promoted and got bonuses based on SALES.
From Day One, consultants are encouraged to give discounts and free products to book parties and get sales. Newbies imagine they are successful because they seem to be moving products quickly. See? Easy!
They are love-bombed, applauded and cheered by their upline, who convinces the newbie they are on their way to the Pink Cadillac and the top of the Company. Woo-hoo!
This scenario is played out every day on social media.