I used to be a Mary Kay consultant. I sold the products for many years and developed a small, but loyal group of customers. I wanted to make some extra money to pay for my husband's truck. I bought the whole "You can't sell from an empty wagon" manipulation that the sales director, also my recruiter, layed on me and purchased a large amount of inventory BEFORE I ever learned how to sell or how to find customers. I never learned how to sell, but I sure learned how to stalk people. The sales director (SD) told me that it was for my benefit that I had all of this inventory, that I would sell more. I later figured out, once I was in the company longer and understood the whole pyramid scheme, that as my recruiter, she made at least 13-25% off of all my orders. Since she was a director she also got bonuses for recruiting me with a large order. She didn't care if I sold anything, she only cared that I ordered product.
Here was a trick that many, many SDs , including mine, use when gaining a wide-eyed recruit - they order for you first time. They order lots of product that they know that you won't sell. For instance, if you live in an area with one prominent racial group, they order skin care and color that won't look good on your group of expected customers. They might have you order product that will soon be discontinued or have a packaging change. They know well in advance and just happen to not tell the newbies. Or they might order a lot of men's skin care or perfume that won't sell much outside of a holiday. Why would they knowingly do this? So that the consultant has to order again, of course and so that the recruiter makes money off of that order.
They tell you that "The product sells itself." That is such a lie. First, while they will tell you that the brand is the #1 selling brand of skin care and cosmetics in the country, what they don't tell you is that the end customer is the consultant, not a real customer. Most consultants, around 90%, quit with product still sitting on their shelf aging away and are mislead with their ability to return it. With 90% of recruits leaving each year, that's a whole lot of new people a recruiter has to replace along with pulling those large initial orders so that she can continue to be a SD or car driver. The truth is that any consultant can quit and return all of the product she bought within the last year, today's date and back 12 months, a rolling year. However, many recruiters will tell consultants that they can return their product only in the first year. Not true.
Mary Kay does not track actual sales from a consultant to a customer, only to consultants. Once a new consultant flies through her warm market (friends and family), she struggles tremendously with stalking strangers in grocery stores, her kids' sports groups, etc. to meet new people that she can convince to hold a party for her. Let me tell you, you find yourself going to all kinds of levels of low in order to convince that unsuspecting person to agree to hold a party. These women are told to offer a compliment such as, "You are such a sharply dressed woman, I just had to tell you how much I like your...(fill in the blank)" Another one I was told to do is, "I'm in a contest to find 30 women this month to be a model for me. You would make an awesome addition to my portfolio." Or the ever popular booth gimmick. You set up a booth at a local event with a big basket that you say you are giving away. No one actually wins it, but now you have lots of names and numbers who you can call and say, "You didn't win the basket, but you did win a lip gloss and a free pampering session. Who do you know who deserves to be pampered with you?" The contests are not real. You make them up or your director does.
So you might wonder why women would continue to rack up untold amounts of debt to stay with a company like this. It's because MK uses cult-like tactics to convince and love bomb women to continue on, all wrapped up in their version of Christianity. The sell the dream that God will bless them with wealth and material things. Each week they insist that you attend "sales meetings". There is nothing that happens at these meetings that help consultants sell anything except recruiting more members. They reward women with bling and bags (they look flashy but are cheap or knock-offs) if they recruit and order. Each year on a national level they have prizes for women for recruiting and ordering. Notice, that I didn't say selling. Remember, they don't track actual customer sales. However, the sash they get to wear when they are honored says "Queen's Court of Sales". Why is she a queen of sales? Because she herself bought the most that year in her area. Many, many women buy their titles and positions within this company.
I know personally numerous women who had tens of thousands of dollars of product sitting on their shelves. They were in tremendous debt, but they had shiny, bling-bing jewelry, knock-off coach bags, girl's night out overnight trips, coffee mugs, and other incentives they received for placing big orders - whether they sold it or not. Women crave recognition and MK delivers it to them if they buy more product. For those who place humongous orders over the year, they get bigger bling and bigger trips. But we're talking in the tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands here. It's all taxed and not gifted. Their is also a cast system displayed by red jackets, suits and sashes with pins that women wear so that their rank is evident without having to say anything. Again, some women want recognition and a sense of belonging. If they can buy their way into this group and be fawned over by spending money on product they don't need, well then, they'll do it. Others join because their sister, mom, best friend, etc. asked them to to help them make a goal. They didn't intend to start a business but once in were love bombed and deftly convinced to buy much more product than they originally intended. Truly, group think can have a strong hold on someone. That's why cults are so hideous. They get you to eliminate the people in your life who might dare question your decision and behavior or to ask for proof (like a Schedule C) that there is profit from a sales director to me made. Oh no...these are Negative Nellies and you need to surround yourself with supportive people. Now they have you in their pink fog and you become devoted to the mission/religion of MK.
One of the things that those in the pink fog will say is that no one held a gun to your head to purchase all that product. No, they didn't, but those directors have scripts designed to either entice the consultant or play on her emotions depending on her DISC personality type. And they do use them effectively. The SD might plead to s..t...r...e...t....c..h to help out the unit. "Can't you just put in a little $200 order to help the team earn the use of a free car?" BTW, the car isn't free because it has huge co-pays if the consultant doesn't produce enough orders from her team, and you are required to use the high-priced MK car insurance. Second, it's not a team car, because only the recruiter gets to drive it.
There comes a day when the consultant realizes that products on Ebay are cheaper than what she can sell and make a profit on. She goes on Craigslist and sees that there are dozens of consultants who are quitting and selling their inventory for below wholesale costs. Her area is saturated with consultants and she discovers that women find the product overpriced for drugstore quality products. She realizes that the women whom she looked up to in this business encourage less than ethical tactics, minimize the risks and true costs, and only look at women for what orders she can get from them rather than as a friend. Finally, when a woman decides to send it all back for a 90% refund because the thousands of dollars sitting on her shelf didn't help her make the money she thought it would, she literally gets shunned by the very people in MK she thought were life-time girlfriends. That's the ultimately sad and despicable part. She's made to feel like a loser and a "Negative Nellie" because she dare give up the dream. In reality she's made to feel bad for quitting because her recruiter and SD have to pay back to the company any commissions they made off of her orders when she returns that product. These dreams only work for the top 1 % of women who got into the pyramid years ago before the country got saturated and by conning them out of their money up front.
It's an evil system designed to manipulate women out of their hard-earned money for a dream that fails over 90% who try. They misuse the Word of God, claiming things that God never intended. That's why I refuse to support any direct marketing company or MLM. This includes groups such as Pampered Chef, 31 Gifts, Longenberger, Amway, Shakley, or any new one that pops up. If you think that MK is the only one that's like this, read this testimony recently posted by one of the top Avon elite representatives in the nation, a woman with a PhD:
http://www.pinktruth.com/board/index.php?topic=2693.0
I stayed in a long time in the 90's for about 8 years while I taught Head Start. I didn't make a profit for the first two years. I made a little in the following years, but not enough to justify my time and hard effort. In reality, I made less than minimum wage when you add up my time and expenses. You may think that your MLM or DM company is different. I can guarantee, that like a casino, the house always wins. All of them have recruiting and ordering tactics and scripts designed to make the house win. To read more about true stories from people like me, Sales Directors and a NIQ, go to www.pinktruth.com. I'm interested in hearing your stories.
Let me share two that I explored this Thanksgiving week-end. Maybe I can persuade one of my readers to try something new, close to home. The first event, Weihnachtsfest (Christmas fest), was held in my Swiss hometown. We tasted a variety of chilis for the local chili cook-off along with hot cocoa and homemade cookies. The downtown was lit by luminaries and the local stores had specials. Children enjoyed a live nativity, a tractor pulled trolly, and a petting zoo. It was a small event, but beautiful and just the right note to start the Christmas season. Even my husband got lost in wonder at the flower shop/gift store decked out better than a Hollywood Christmas movie set. Gone were the crowds, the pushing, and the big deals. Instead, a crisp, clear night full of smiling, peaceful people surrounded us.
The second event, Holly Trolly Shopping, was in a nearby small city. Who wouldn't like riding a trolly? This was a new adventure for me and I didn't know what to expect. All I knew was that the trollies were free and that there were two routes that traveled around the city, dropping the travelers off at different points. They advertised pop-up market stops along with regular stores and establishments. How fun! My only exposure to the "pop up" concept was from a reality show called Gallery Girls that included a story line about pop up art. I wondered if pop up markets might be similar. Parking downtown was free, and the first pop up market was right where I wanted to start the trolly shopping. First, the huge popcorn bucket sign advertised all I wanted to know about this pop up. Dill, candy apple, and caramel were just a few of the interesting flavors available to try. My favorite vendor created unique jewelry out of car and truck parts. Yeah, it sounds weird, but I couldn't pass up a necklace made from a '65 Chevy truck and a '60 VW bug. I hopped on the trolly and got off at the fort. Yes, a recreated stockade fort. Re-enactors demonstrated and sold authentic pottery, food, iron work, woodwork, and other items available to people who lived here 200 years ago. The trolly meandered past Science Central, and another small shopping neighborhood before winding back to the downtown area. I hopped off at a couple of other places by the art museum and browsed through a local art gallery.
