I've inserted my responses to each section in italics. I've inserted my opinion after each italic section.
Your experience is indicative of people that are serious about this "career" and people who are not. It's not Mary Kay Cosmetics' fault that you purchased $3000 worth of inventory and could not sell the product.
The primary issue is that people who are not serious are nevertheless encouraged to purchase a lot of inventory using techniques hinted at in the Mary Kay Inventory Loading PlanOk there are definately some bad or misguided apples in this business and I guess with a million consultants worldwide you are going to run into those who will say anything to get a sale or recruit someone. You can get started in your own business for $100 plus tax and shipping. That will give you the tools to learn about and demonstrate the product. For consultants or worse yet Directors to tell you that this is the "only" way for women to make substantial wealth in and of itself is completely wrong! However, there is the opportunity if you want to make alot of money. In addition, you can start your business with little or no inventory, however it is more difficult and requires more discipline. Without inventory you must be willing to let your customers know how long they will have to wait for their order and be sincere about getting it to them when you say you will. If you have the means and really believe that you can sell the products then and only then should you make the investment. I agree that you need to spend money to make money, but you need not go so far into debt that you cannot possibly sell your inventory before it becomes outdated.But that's just the start, because I'll soon learn that for most women, Mary Kay is the only way to only way to accumulate any substantial wealth... and if you're serious about achieving that wealth as rapidly as possible, certainly it's by signing on for a substantial inventory purchase.
Let me tell you a little bit about my experience. I originally purchased $3000 worth of inventory and another $600 within the same quarter. I followed the company plan that Mary Kay established a long time ago....I actually held classes! In return I've put money in the bank (I've turned my inventory over 5 times since starting my business almost 18 months ago), I've met a ton of wonderful women and I've grown as a person.
Let's just stipulate that some people are good at this, and some people are not.Yes Mary Kay does provide recruiting incentives, which are spelled out to all consultants. I do not know why anyone would think that recruiting incentives are abusive or inherently unfair. The handbook lets women know that if they choose to offer the opportunity to other women, they will recieve benefits from the company (not the recruit). It does a recruiter no good what so ever to have a team member sitting with product on the shelf and not turning that inventory over and thus reordering. If someone is encouraging you to order unneeded inventory just to get a prize or to "help" her achieve her goals, DON'T! Call her Director or your National for goodness sake! If a team member is having problems moving her inventory then I think the recruiter or the Director or even the National needs to talk with her and figure out what is not working for her. There a many ways in which to help get the product moved. Now if it just is not for her and she really cannot sell, and although I do think this is an awesome opportunity and that most anyone can be successfull it just isn't for everyone, then she needs to take advantage of the buy back guarantee.If you're successful, that means you've signed on new consultants, and explained to them the benefits of purchasing inventory.
Mary Kay provides specific incentives for signing on new consultants, as well as for inducing them to purchase inventory. This puts Mary Kay's program in the category of "abusive" programs. That's my way of saying that a program contains certain features that make it inherently unfair to the participants.
It's not an easy business and really shouldn't be for all that you can gain. It's not a "get rich quick" scheme. I will say that I made my decision to come into the company with the amt. of inventory in which I did. No one held a gun to my head. I did it because I knew that it would motivate me to work. I did and was on National Queen's Court of Sales my first full year w/ the company.
This is a variatino on the disclaimer that it's not a "get rich quick" program. Bugt this kind of disclaimer doesn't mean that they're not making unrealistic income representations.Mary Kay is not a "get rich quick" scheme, however some women have gotten rich quick. I think that it is a total misrepresentation to state that you can make more "overall" than "every" JOB with Mary Kay. Having said that it just depends on your situation. If you are working in say fast food as a cashier, you can make more in Mary Kay if you have 2 or 3 successful classes a week. Also alot of times Mary Kay women will say "Oh you made 300 profit at that class where else can you make 300 for 2 hours work" Now that is true however, you need to do that consistently to really make alot of money selling Mary Kay. Most Directors in Mary Kay encourage you to "Dream Big" and thus they show you those women at the National Level making the big money and taking trips. There is nothing wrong with that however, remember what is taught in the Mary Kay corporate marking info (which if your pc savy enough to find this sight I am sure you could find this info too:)) "Mary Kay has more than 1.1 million consultants worldwide, Fewer than 350 National Sales Directors, 14,000 Sales Directors in the US" So you do the math is everyone to this level of success? No. Is it possible? Yes. Mary Kay is not hiding these facts.To the contrary, it goes hand in hand with making such income representations, i.e. participants can expect to earn more than they could working a JOB.
Bottom line: you only get out of this company what you're willing to put into it. There's no one w/ Mary Kay or my director or my sister consultants that persuade me to do anything, whether it's trying to reach another prize goal or attending Seminar (which I do). This is my business and as long as I'm sharing this opp. with women and making sure that they understand that, I'm very proud of what I represent.
user LCWinckler at domain aol.com
The real bottom line is that someone who solicits you to become a Mary Kay beauty consultant may not have your interests at heart. The Mary Kay program provides them with incentives to convince you to become a Mary Kay distributor and to sign on for a large inventory purchase.I think it is atrocious for anyone to tell someone that they are less than for this business not working out. If the person who offered you the opportunity and worked with you on inventory did their job right you may not be in the situation of having alot of inventory that you can't sell. When you talk with someone about inventory it should be based on how many people they know today who would be willing to try and maybe buy the product. From there you will meet more people via referrels and such, but in the begining it is about the size of your current sphere of influence. To tell someone ok you have to order this much for this bonus or prize is just outright wrong! On the other side to let someone miss out on a bonus by not ordering an extra $50 or $100 is also wrong, you need to lay out the facts and let the woman decide! Nine times out o 10 she will make the right decision for her. I would caution any potential recruit to be somewhat conservative until she has her first couple of classes and gets a feel if this is for her or not. Again this business is not for everyone, it is for anyone who really enjoys working with people and selling a quality product. No one should be "talked" into the opportunity.The real key word here is "may" someone may or may not have your best interest at heart and you as a person need to do your homework and decide for yourself if this is the right path for you. Yes there are incentives, but the incentives really only pay off if your team member is successful! Again one inventory purchase no matter how large is just that one, it is far worse to have someone order alot and then not sell it and be unhappy and worse yet send her product back and close the door on this opportunity forever.
Some would say, well, what do you expect? Their business is to make money by selling to customers and recruiting distributors. People should understand that and exercise their good judgment accordingly. Yes the business is about sales. I am really confused as to why anyone would think it is not about selling a product. If you follow Mary Kays plan as intended you would sell someone the product, get to know them, ask them if they think they would like to try this opportunity and then only then recruit them. When women go out and try to just sell the opportunity without selling the product they are selling themselves as well as others short. Yes it is a great opportunity but first and foremost it is a great product.
But when this backfires, are we to tell the person who was sucked in by all these promises that it was their fault for being suckers? Well, of course we will tell them not to be so gullible, there are many people trying to part them from their money. But that in no way relieves the perpetrators of these actions from their culpability. Given that the Mary Kay program includes features that create additional incentives to create unrealistic expections, the Mary Kay organization deserves the blame for the results of this activity.
To the original poster:
I am very curious about these Queens in the Courts and have a question if you don't mind my asking.....Did you actually SELL all of what you ordered in your first year? If you did, that is remarkable and you deserve that title, but I was just curious, how much did you actually SELL of the $18,000 wholesale you must order to attain that title.
| Topic MaryKayOpinion211 . { Edit | Ref-By | Attach | Diffs | r1.4 | > | r1.3 | > | r1.2 | > | r1.1 } |
|
Revision r1.4 - 08 Nov 2004 - 16:21 by LisaDS
Privacy Policy |
Copyright © 2000-2005 by the contributing authors.
All material on this collaboration tool is the property of the contributing authors. Collect email addresses here. Ideas, requests, problems regarding TWiki? Send feedback. |