This time around I have inventory and I have no problem with having a lot of it. My director was very gracious and never pressured me to buy unnecessary inventory. In fact, when we had the big "inventory discussion" she was more interested in knowing how many hours I wanted to work my business and what my career goals were before she made any recommendations to me. Since this was my second time around with Mary Kay, I knew going in that I would not do this unless I could afford to maintain a respectable amount of inventory because I am not a patient person and I want to be able to complete the transaction at the point of sale and deliver the products to the person when they pay for it or at their skin care class. My director never suggested an amount to me. I had already made the decision how much inventory I wanted when I decided to sign up and it was based on what I could afford to purchase without having to borrow money.
I have become very good friends with my director and I trust her completely to have the big "inventory discussion" with my recruits because she doesn't push them to purchase a ton of inventory. She really does try to find out what their goals are and what they want to do with their business and what they are able to handle financially at that time in their lives. Another thing about her is that she truly listens to what people are saying and she responds to them based on what they communiate they want from their Mary Kay business. She sends emails on a daily basis that offer all kinds of information from training, motivation, other success stories and shares what is going on in her own personal life. These e-mails go to everyone in her unit. If you want to talk to her to get some advice on a situation or just need a pep talk, she is always there for you - irregardless of how much inventory you have in stock.
My national is Robin Rowland. I have met her several times and have been on several retreats with her - both small and large. She is a woman of integrity and has worked very hard to get where she is today. I can't imagine her pressuring someone to purchase inventory they don't need. She is a very humble woman who has been successful by sticking with it and hanging in there through tough times as well as good times. Her first year as a consultant, her class average was $35.00. I have been to her home and can tell you from first hand experience, that she lives a very modest life when you consider how much money she makes. I have had many conversations with Robin about recruiting and she is very adamant about not recruiting people who don't love the product because if your recruit doesn't love the product, she will have a difficult time selling it. She considers it to be very unethical to concentrate on recruiting and getting people to load up on inventory in order for a director or consultant to make their production goals. Her philosophy is to concentrate on selling your inventory and getting people to fall in love with the product first and I agree with her.
My director is very goal oriented and concentrates on teaching us to sell the product and helping us to make our own personal sales goals. She does of course have production quotas to meet every month and this is her full time job so her income does depend on what the total production of her unit is. However, I have never ever ever felt pressured by her to place an order unless my inventory was depleted and needed replacements.
I would also like to add that learning to sell cosmetics is not always something that comes naturally for people. Many of us have had to acquire the skills necessary to learn how to get bookings with people and how to present the products in a manner that is appealing to the prospective customer and how to close the deal. For me, this was not something that came naturally and I have had to master those skills over time. It can be very discouraging at times but I have never given up because I know that it can be done. I have had my fair share of no's from friends and relatives. I have had plenty of $0 facials and have had products returned as well. But I have learned along the way and improved dramatically on getting yes's from people. I have learned not to ever take it personally if someone doesn't want to book or doesn't want to try the products or buy the products.
I have recruited about 10 people in the past two years - with very very little effort on my part. One person returned her inventory - which was her right to do and something I assured her she could do if she decided it wasn't for her. She was refunded 90% of her money on all Section 1 items. The other 9 consultants are still in it in some way or another. One girl has earned the use of a car (she took the cash instead) and due to circumstances in her life, she was not able to continue in the DIQ program, but is still selling and sells a lot of product every month.
I have noticed something about all of the people in my unit and on my personal team - the ones that work their business sell their products and move up quickly. But it does require stepping out in faith and getting out of your comfort zone and taking a chance that someone is going to say no. The girl on my team who won her car put out facial bags at 22 businesses in her neighborhood. The first 13 places she went to turned her down cold and refused to allow her to put a facial bag in their store. The next ten after that said yes. What if she had stopped at 5 or 6 and said to heck with this? It took her a few days to get the bags out there but as a result of her putting facial bags out, she had over 500 names to call on the telephone and offer facials to. Many of the people she called weren't interested, but she didn't focus on the no's. Instead, she focused on the yes's and booked all of those people to come TO HER HOUSE and have facials. Several of the people were so excited they booked skin care classes before they even met her. Her first month that she did this, she managed to facial 30 people in 30 days and had over $3,000 in sales. She got better and better after that and her sales just kept going up and up.
My point is this - if you are going to sign up with Mary Kay and purchase inventory you have to be willing to get out there and work your business and sell this product. You can't worry about getting no's - everyone gets them including Estee Lauder. In fact, one of my recruits is a former Estee Lauder counter girl and tells me everytime they have a gift with purchase promotion, the counter girls are required to cold call all of their customers and presale them the week before the promotion. Her manager set her goal at $3,000 which was based on a 12 hour work week. If she didn't make her quota, she would be warned and if it happened more than once, she could be fired. If she did make the quota, she got some free estee lauder products. She never took it personally if someone declined. She didn't have time to worry about it. She just kept going through her customer lists and celebrated the victories when she got closer to her store mandated goal. Imagine if all of us truly worked our business like a job and set a $3,000 presale cold calling goal before the pcp announcements went out. One of the girls that works the counter where my recruit used to work sells over $1 million a year in Estee Lauder by herself. That floors me when I think about it. But she comes in on her days off and stays late - off the clock - to reach her goals - and she doesn't even make commission on that - she makes a salary.
Mary Kay is a great opportunity but you have to take responsibility for yourself and know that it takes a lot of hard work, you have to learn to handle rejection well, and you have to learn how to sell products and book and hold appointments with people. Don't be disillusioned into thinking that you can run a business simply selling to your friends and family. No one ever got rich in any business by just selling to their friends and family. You have to market your business, provide good customer service and be disciplined in generating and following up on leads.
Lisa Baker
www.marykay.com/lisalynnbaker
Mary Kay Second Time Around LisaB - 26 May 2005
Here is an excerpt from "The Business Power Plan", from the "New Consultant Area" of Robin Rowland's website (as of May 31st, 2005.) (You can google her name if you want to see it for yourself.)
I. The Skin Care Class II. The Facial = $200 average sales = $ 75 average sales = 3 to 6 people attending = 1 - 2 people attending = takes 20 minutes = takes 5 - 10 minutes by holding Weekly.... Gross Profit Weekly Gross Profit Monthly 1 SCC & 1 Facial $ 137.50 $ 550.00 2 SCCs & 1 Facial $ 237.50 $ 950.00 3 SCCs & 2 Facials $ 375.00 $1,500.00 3 SCCs & 3 Facials $ 412.50 $1,650.00
I looked throughout the New Consultant Area, and could find almost no other information on the times it would take to hold these events than what's given here. (There was an indication that there were meetings or training sessions to attend. Also brochures showing prizes you could get for ordering inventory, and a sheet to calculate how much you should have for personal use.)
So it appears to indicate that holding 3 SCCs & 3 Facials would take 20*3 + 10 * 3 == 90 minutes per week. Wow! Well, okay anyone would realize some preparation would be necessary. So lets be pessimistic and think that prep work would take twice as long as actually holding a class or facial. So now we're talking 4 and a half hours week. Gee, that is a lot of money for such a little work. Great!
Later on the same sheet:
To determine the amount of product you'll want to consider having on your shelf, let's take a look at the number of faces you'll be working with. With your current schedule, if a Class takes 20 minutes and a Facial takes 5 - 10 m inutes, how many are you willing to fit into your week?
# of Classes weekly ____ x 4 Faces per Class = ___ Faces # of Facials weekly ____ x 1 Face per Facial = ___ Faces Now determine how many faces you will be putting the product on MONTHLY.... Total Faces weekly ____ x 4 Weeks = ____ Faces Monthly!
Okay, now that I've decided I'm willing to put in oh, even 6-8 hours of work each week... how much inventory will I need to support that? According to this same worksheet... hmmm, that's a lot of faces. And it is the largest number that she suggested (okay sure, it might not be realitic to be able to book much more than that.) I'll surely need at least the medium suggested amount of inventory. Okay, that would be $1800 - 2400. Great!
> ... the ones that work their business sell their products and move up quickly. ...
> The girl on my team who won her car put out facial bags at 22 businesses in her
> neighborhood. The first 13 places she went to turned her down cold and refused
> to allow her to put a facial bag in their store. The next ten after that said yes.
> What if she had stopped at 5 or 6 and said to heck with this? It took her a few
> days to get the bags out there but as a result of her putting facial bags out, she
> had over 500 names to call on the telephone and offer facials to. Many of the people
> she called weren't interested, but she didn't focus on the no's. Instead, she
> focused on the yes's and booked all of those people to come TO HER HOUSE
Wow. She didn't mind having all those strangers come to her house?
> and have facials. Several of the people were so excited they booked skin care classes
> before they even met her. Her first month that she did this, she managed to facial
> 30 people in 30 days and had over $3,000 in sales. ...
Hey, great. That's getting pretty close to the $1650/month profit level that we just figured (using the information our woman of integrity gave us, and then giving it a pessimistic spin, just to be safe) could make by working 6-8 hours/week. Hmm... I wonder how much time it took, though, to put together those bags and drive to the ... um... was it 22 places, or was it 22 places that said yes plus 13 or more that said no?... and talk to all those business owners... Wonder how far she had to drive to find that many likely business owners. And theb to call all of those 500+ people... and hold the facials. Hmmm... that's starting to sound like more work than we'd realized. How come Robin Rowland didn't tell us about the 500+ phone calls? Oh, and maybe it's not so close to the 1650/month profit. After all, it must have taken over a week of work beforehand to get all those bags put together and into the stores and wait for the responses and make the phone calls and schedule the bookings. So I guess it's more like 1500 in 6 weeks, except that we'd better subtract the cost of the facial bags and gas for all that driving around. And, um, she didn't offer a prize drawing to get that many names out of "facial bags", did she?
Gee, if I had all this information, I don't think I'd have bought so much. Obviously, my "pessimistic" estimate of the time would take to earn that much was optimistic indeed. Why didn't I get this information from Robin if she has so much integrity? It couldn't be she was trying to talk me into more inventory than I need, could it?
RachelSuddeth - 30 May 2005
_____________________________________________________________________________________
June 1,2005
What's up with the nit picking? If you have a J.O.B, does your employer pay for YOUR gas or time involved in driving to and from work? Do YOU get to deduct gas/mileage or take a 2 hr lunch break? Some MK consultants actually joined MK "knowing" that work was involved in order to make $$$$. By having some inventory on hand, she doesn't waste time on deliveries. I call that good time management skills.
500 Names gave her LOTS of leads for her effort. I use to play a "10 NO's in a row" game and rarely if ever could I actually get 10 no's in a row.
3 classes at 2 hrs each (incld. prep time and driving) = 6 hrs
3 facials at 1 hr each (incld. prep time and driving) = 3 hrs
1 - 3 hr for calls
2 - 5 hrs making bags
Total hrs for week = 17/$412.50 = $24.26 per hour Deduct $3 per class for hostess gift = $9 (tx deduction) - $412.50 = $403.50 ($23.74 per hr) Not a bad hrly wage at all.
The 3+3 is very realistic, your director is very wise in teaching you how to sell and promotes sales activity.
Kathy
[RS] I think I accidentally deleted some of the above with my last reply so I just put it back in
> What's up with the nit picking? If you have a J.O.B, does your employer
> pay for YOUR gas or time involved in driving to and from work?
Driving all over town (or maybe to several towns?) finding 22 places that will actually accept the facial bags is a lot more than driving to and from work each day, and it is not in any way time or expenses that were told to the consultant at the time she was making her inventory purchasing decision. Jobs that involve driving to several locations during the day often either provide the vehicle or reimburse for mileage.
> Do YOU get to deduct gas/mileage
Nope. I work at home, so I have no need to.
> ... or take a 2 hr lunch break?
Actually, I set my own hours. Most of the jobs I've had over the past 5 years have had flexible hours and I could often take long lunches.
> Some MK consultants actually joined MK "knowing" that work was involved in order to
> make $$$$.
Well, if they actually did, they didn't get that information from their recruiter. The papers from your national claimed it takes 20 minutes to do a skin care class. That's so far from reality, I don't even know what to say to it.
> By having some inventory on hand, she doesn't waste time on deliveries. ...
Most people I've known found that no matter how much inventory they bought, they often didn't have whatever their customers happened to order. And the usual case is that consultants go to selling appointments at others' house. So are they supposed to be psychic and know in advance what to bring so they don't have to deliver? Or do they bring several of everything in the catalog?
...
> 3 classes at 2 hrs each (incld. prep time and driving) = 6 hrs
> 3 facials at 1 hr each (incld. prep time and driving) = 3 hrs
> 1 - 3 hr for calls
> 2 - 5 hrs making bags
> Total hrs for week = 17/$412.50 = $24.26 per hour
> Deduct $3 per class for hostess gift = $9 (tx deduction) - $412.50 = $403.50
> ($23.74 per hr) Not a bad hrly wage at all.
If we assume your estimates are correct, that's an awful lot more time than your national was advertising (or at least the paper found on her web site was claiming) when she asked the new consultant to decide how much time she was willing to spend, and translate that into how much inventory she needed to purchase. The document was dishonest.
And your time estimates are still low. If it's 1/2 hour each way to your SCC, there's 1 hour driving. The demonstration plus closing with each guest will take at least an hour. The prep time includes reminding the hostess, trying to get her to give you the contact info on the guests, calling each of them, (reminding & pre-screening, trying to talk them into bringing a friend), putting together sales packets for each of the guests, wrapping prizes, and packing up your stuff. Then there's work afterward, doing the paperwork on the sales, repacking your stuff (checking inventory and supply levels), preparing the orders you weren't able to fill on the spot (there's always at least one), likely cleaning mirrors, taking the checks to the bank & your order to the mail (or else delivering it) and possibly ordering or shopping for more supplies.
> The 3+3 is very realistic, your director is very wise in teaching you
> how to sell and promotes sales activity.
No, it's not. I've never met anyone who managed to have 6 selling appointments in one week, much less do it consistantly. It's way more than most people can do. And my director never did anything to teach me how to sell. I don't think she knew how to do it herself. She only knew how to recruit.
RachelSuddeth - 01 Jun 2005
I am a new consultant and I would like to know how the facial bags work and how much does it cost.
Thank you....
Babi Bilu - 07 Oct 2005
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