Sell Those Foundations!
Written by Parsons Green
Mary Kay launched 72 new foundation options on May 16th. 36 shades in both luminous and matte finishes. To energize the ordering force, they’ve launched a new contest. If you order 10 or more foundations, you will get a special bling button at seminar!
If you’re part of the top 12 units in foundation sales orders, you’ll earn an invite to a special Flawless Face workshop and seminar recognition. You’ll also get a letter from Ryan Rogers himself.. To make things fair, the top 12 will consist of the top 3 units per division by unit sales. The top unit by sales average will also be invited.
Brigitte Iglay ordered all 72 foundations and is using a fancy paper plate method to match her customers.
Amy Kirby is one of ten consultants who are part of an elite squad known as the Mary Kay Global Social Squad. She’s having trouble using the Mary Kay virtual tool for foundation matching.
Michelle Hendrickson admits she hasn’t had much luck with the tool. She’ll continue to do strip testing in person.
Cynthia Lewis tried the virtual tool. She got the same result each time, but when she tried in person, it looked terrible.
Sarah Graham shares tips on taking the best picture for the tool. She’s found that Lori Hogg’s conversion chart is the best so far but it’s only available to people who have signed up for her $49 course.
Taylor McKnight will use the tool to match. She will then do another match with the customer in person, using those results to help train the tool.
Seriously, does any of this sound fun? How much money are consultants spending on full size tubes or even the limited edition sample sizes? If you went to Sephora to buy a new foundation would you be dismayed if the salesperson held up a dirty paper plate? Why does it seem to me like Mary Kay doesn’t seem to care enough to give their consultants the tools they need to properly sell to customers?
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Neither the stupid bling button or a photocopied letter from Ryan’s secretary do anything offset the major financial cost the consultants incur trying to have SEVENTY TWO foundations available for samples and inventory. A four year old would know these are not worthy prizes!
It’s almost like corporate has a bet to see how much abuse the consultants will continue to tolerate.
Wholesale cost on 72 foundations to demo is $1,008. Plus tax and shipping. Just for demos. That doesn’t count the 100+ foundations you were upsold by your director for your inventory that are now outdated. That doesn’t count the new ones you’re going to want to stock, because “successful consultants keep an inventory. You do want to be successful, don’t you??” That doesn’t count the super special extra elite top secret courses held by “experts” who aren’t even MK employees.
What a money pit.
“You can’t sell from an empty wagon!” Don’t forget that golden oldie, haha… barf
Also, if I’m a customer and I find my foundation, I don’t want to take the quiz after the fact to teach their AI tool, like one consultant suggests. I just want to take my foundation and be on my way, thank you very much.
That plate…holy cringe, Batman!
Providing color chits for the sales force seems reasonable, even at nominal expense. Behr sells a complete paint color chit set for ~$35 (over 1000 colors). My decorator has a set from each of the major paint brands, and we don’t touch a project without referencing those chits. Its a small cost but an important part of doing business for her. Sadly, if Mary Kay offered such a set, they’d charge top dollar for it to further gouge the sales force.
And this all assumes Mary Kay Corp cares whether you resell your inventory, which they don’t.
Besides that, her swatches will show how things will look in your home, with your lighting, in their final surroundings, and she’s an honest businessperson. Because A) she wants to please her customers who B) will recommend her to others and get her more business.
It’s like how paint and hardware stores will usually give you a sample of a color for free or low cost before you have to commit to buying a whole can+ (which you’re liable to return and make them lose money on the deal). It’s equal parts good customer service and butt-covering.
Mk, of course, doesn’t care if the consultomers sell any of what they buy, and we’ve seen time and again how little regard they have for the IBCs. They only care about keeping those orders rolling in.
Despite their title of “Beauty Consultant”, these women are undertrained or untrained. They are not professional makeup artists. Just watching them on videos and social media, you can see they are, in many cases, clueless and frustrated with all these shades. Yet, they’re promising the customer a “perfect match.”
These “Beauty Consultants” are relying on the costly method of trial-and-error. (Costly for them, not for Mary Kay.)
Shouldn’t the Flawless Face Workshop come BEFORE selling (aka buying up) a boatload of foundations? Shouldn’t a company’s representatives know how to use their tools before turning them loose on the public? If I hire a guy to redo my back steps I don’t want him slapping together a heap of planks and one of each type of screw they sell at Lowe’s because he’s got a chance at a rhinestone carpenter’s pencil and a virtual “Your Friend, the Screw” seminar months later.
How are they even going to pretend to keep track of “sales” since MK does not track retail sales to customers?
And no, I’m not going to train your AI tool for free because your company is too cheap and lazy to hire an AI developer. Not every tool is right for every job, and a junky took is useless. There’s a reason why saw blades are made of steel and not cardboard.
“How are they even going to pretend to keep track of “sales” since MK does not track retail sales to customers?”—
We at PT already know what they mean by “sales”, but it’s nice they admitted it here for all to see:
“The challenge runs from May 16 to June 30, but don’t worry if you’ve PLACED ORDERS on or after April 26; those will also count toward your challenge recognition.”
@Lurkers Mary Kay cares about sales to its consultomers. The more you order, the more the company makes. Ordering a bunch of stuff from MK helps pay the Rogers’ family and all their employees. It’s also nice of you to help support their great benefits like health insurance and retirement plans with your hefty orders. They couldn’t do it without you and your money. No one, especially the company, gives a flip about what you do with your purchases after you order, and this includes your upline. Well, if you return products, upline will care because the MLM commission they made off of your order will be clawed back.
$28 for a tiny tube of foundation, no thanks. The colors on the MK site are off, at least one “medium” is actually fairly light and based on that paper plate (really?) some light and medium colors look redundant. The darker luminous colors look greasy. That one model should have taken her septum ring out; the farm animal look is not attractive.
I’m not going to gamble with $28 on a color tool that doesn’t work. If I wore foundation I would buy it at the store where I can sample it first. No, I’m not going to train your AI tool for free.
When I became a consultant (back in the pink carrying case days) I received a tube of ALL of the foundations, full size cleansers, toners, and moisturizers, as well as the mirror sets, etc. I got it all as a part of the initial cost. It was a “deal” back then to join since you really did get your money’s worth with that initial kit. Now? They won’t even let you get samples once they run out. They want you to buy the whole product. My guess is that SDs will buy it all, get small vials and then charge a fee to IBCs to purchase a set themselves. Of course, they’ll get backlash from others calling in unsanitary and whatever else. But what are they to do?
Foundation is a thing of the past, isn’t it? My two 30 something year old daughters told me years ago “nobody wears foundation”. By that, I mean every day. A big event–night out on the town- yes. This isn’t the 80’s when we all had that plastic look about us.
All these ‘consultants’. have old stock on their hands. Now offering at a reduced price. What happened to the 50% commission they were promised on old product? Pffffft
Now that you mention it, I don’t know of anyone that wears foundation on a regular basis (other than maybe a mineral powder for oily skin or full face for a night out)…huh…
My skin has always been way too sensitive to even care about makeup, which in itself is very freeing. I wish consultants would free themselves too.
I wore it sporadically as a teen and I haven’t worn any at all since. I don’t want goop all over my face.
It’s fun to test colors but I have no reason to wear any.
The 36 different shades sounds like MK is trying to play catch up with Fenty (41 shades) and Haus Labs (51). That ship sailed a long time ago. They are late to the party and seriously $1000 for each of the 72 shades. Never mind the old foundations on the shelf that are now obsolete. MK discontinued samples so that consultomers have to buy the full range of full size products – more cash for MKC but less for the consultomers who are now $Xk in the hole. It was released as a buzz kit April 26 to directors and May 16 for IBCs, hence orders placed on or after April 26 being eligible for a letter from Ryan and a Temu trinket. Colour matching via selfies rarely works in practice – you have to swatch. AI selfies can’t take into account different lighting, skin types, oxidisation, etc hence the wrong shades it throws up. I predicted it’d be a disaster and I was right. I predict a lot of Younique-esque fails of orange and ashen faces.
Add to the aggravation of customers who now have to find a new foundation that matches the old ones, requiring a 2 hour party to find out if the old Beige 110C is the same as the new shade. What a kerfuffle. Other cosmetic companies keep things the same to avoid annoying customers. Customers hate changes like this.
Nobody comes out winning here.
I doubt that they made a lot of shades to compete with other brands. More likely…. they did the math. They know how many consultants and directors will “invest” in a full set for demo purposes, and how much they’ll buy to have inventory on their shelves. Simple math says the company gets a bump in orders, and the sinking ship needs the cash.
Hmm true I never thought of that – production cash cow for Ryan’s lawsuits and his new Gulfstream. As said above 72 demos are $1008 alone never mind the ones consultomers will need on hand to sell (albeit there’s not much demand for MK so it’s a moot point really). Although with MyShop I suppose having full size products as demos instead of samples is the only way to generate income for the shell game now everyone’s buying online and no more star orders needed.
Nothing says “I’m a professional” like a 3-compartment picnic plate with smears of makeup on it.
Indeed and everyone knows that our skin has the same undertones, oils and texture as paper so it’ll look identical on skin as it does on a picnic plate! Such professional much wow.