linked from Mary Kay Opinions 
What I find amazing is that this website was basically started by someone disillusioned by MK. Yet, again and again and again, the 'positive' women in MK are claiming some sort of territorial rite to this site, abhorred to find that women will express their open and honest experiences here and are subsequently demeaned to "negative are just negative", yet seem to imply that the 'positive' ones in MK have some divine gift of being more discerning than those ill gotten ladies who aren't as successful as the 14,000 US directors. I would think that if a website started out as negative, why would someone look at it thinking it was a positive one? No one is 'forced' to read all posts here, they have 'free will ' to click on any they choose to look at, so if they are offended, it's because they let themselves be by 'clicking' onto an opinion that may not be their own. This site is not a debate to reconcile the ills in MK, this is about people writing true feelings and ALL feelings should be RESPECTED by ALL, that is called MATURITY.
Good Lord you "positive women" in MK!!!!!! Do you think you are the only ones on this planet who know the meaning of positive??? Can you possibly consider that RESPECT is part of being positive???? Does not every other MLM which exists claim to be God First and positive? You claim to be positive, yet you belittle those who have been lied to, cheated upon, etc., by women in this group and become so turned off by this deal that they would rather go to Ebay to purchase Mary Kay, there is nothing positive about that attitude.
Thank God that Ebay accepts items so that consultants can move their products. It is not a 'lazy way' as a poster referred to it. It exhibits someone's initative and creativity to sell product or move discontinued product. What direction does this company give to consultants to move DISCONTINUED product when they discontinue it so rapidly (Sugar scrub was hot at Christmas, only to find it on the discontinued list a quarter later!)....what about that? What do you advise to those consultants who were encouraged to order 12 or each of those types of Sugar Scrub or even more, since it would be so hot???!!! Not supposed to switch out stuff, that's a no-no, that would be 'stealing from your director's pocket'.
This business does not emphasize SALES, it emphasizes ORDERS, what you ORDER from the company. And, it's not supposed to be called "management" anymore, it's supposed to be referred to as "moving up the career path" as cited in a recent issue of Applause magazine. There is no problem about getting commissions from 'sales'. I think that if you have a downline who SELLS product, I mean SELLS, you should get a commission, however, if your downline only ORDERS INVENTORY and purchases MORE INVENTORY, but does not SELL it, there is something really wrong with that set up. That system set up, to me, seems to encourage that the more ORDERS they PLACE, the more COMMISSION the UPLINE gets. Who then, cares about what they SELL when the commission is not established upon that part?
Personally, I think that Mary Kay, Inc, should only give commission to directors on what the consultant actually SELLS TO CUSTOMERS, NOT WHAT THE CONSULTANT ORDERS FROM THE COMPANY.......WOULDN'T THAT CHANGE THINGS???!!!! I think that'd be the way to go, I think it'd make the playing field really fair. Think about it.
Stella Stevens - 25 Apr 2004
Women are NOT encouraged to order product that they are not selling. In our area, we reward on orders placed, but they must be backed up by the sales (accomp. sheets, etc.). From a Director's position, we have to discourage women all of the time from ordering just to order to win a prize, etc. Ordering just to win a prize & not selling anything is damaging to their business, but no matter how hard we try to explain this sometimes, consultants will still order large amounts of product. Whose fault is that? It is not the company's fault, or the Director's - it is the consultant. When the limited edition product comes out, we advise consultants to order 1 to sample, 1 to sell. Pick one of the items that you can really get excited about & order for yourself & have extras on hand of that item. I have been around in this company long enough to know that there are two sides to every story, & usually it is poor money management, lack of discipline & not attending trainings that destroy consultant's businesses. We do recommend beginning with inventory - you would not believe the # of customers I have picked up because their consultant never had product on hand & women do not want to wait. Customer Service is so crucial & 9 times out of 10, if a customer has a choice, she is going to pick a consultant that can give her the service she wants IMMEDIATELY, & not 2 weeks to 1 month from now.
Each individual has control over their decisions, but when things go wrong & the discipline is not there, everyone blames the company & directors.
Kaye Mellott - 26 Apr 2004
So which is it? You tell them to NOT order product they are not selling, yet you ENCOURAGE purchasing inventory which hasn't been sold yet. In my circles, orders were the name of the game and I think that thousands of women can attest to that. Directors can be pushy to purchase inventories throwing tons of prizes in and have been known to go out and buy real diamond/ruby/sapphire jewelry to entice those women to purchase these inventories and/or place orders without EVER turning in a Weekly Accomplishment sheet. In my year with MK, as a director, I only saw one Weekly Accomplishment sheet. Hear this ladies.....this is what is going on. As much as it horrifies you, that all is not done as 'by the book' as in your area, it IS being done. Women are being tantalized with all kinds of things in this business and that is NOT THEIR FAULT.
MK is pitched not as a business opportunity at recruitment, but as FUN AND EXCITEMENT, work as little or as much as you like, then once you get hooked, buy your 'needed inventory' so that others won't have to wait for you to order, an inventory that you really don't have a say as to what to order, let alone are familiar with any of the products and are therefore stuck with them, then it becomes a business venture and you find yourself working more and more, being gone to more and more 'training sessions', purchasing plane tickets to this and that to get excited so you can go back home and ORDER MORE product to 'help' your recruiter out or 'help your director' keep her title or car or whatever she's after. It's pitched as pretty much a social club and by the way, you are no longer supposed to refer to rah-rah sessions as 'training'. It is to be referred to as "EDUCATION".
What you must understand ladies, is that not all is the same in all MK circles. Things are different in different areas, but I speak of the norm. If you do not believe me, read the archives in this website as well as the links to other forums. There seems to be a distinct division of opinions, but both true experiences...good and bad. So, it's futile, as I said before, to try to reconcile this. It's just not possible.
I believe it IS the director's and company's fault for setting up this organization as an order based organization and it IS the director's/company's fault for giving prizes for wholesale orders placed.
When a new consultant comes in, orders her 'star' order, 1800 or more, woooo hooo, she gets recognition out the whazoo JUST FOR PLACING AN ORDER and YOU BLAME HER?????? Hellooooo, is anyone awake out there, can you see what could be wrong with this picture? She gets so much recognition, then is enticed to do it again the next quarter, then all 4 quarters so she can 'cross stage' at Seminar and hold a little blinking light! So she's gonna spend at LEAST $8000 just to maintain star status. There is alot of provocation to place orders in this business and that does not belong to the consultant, that belongs to the directors and the company. They are told that their directors won't even bother with them unless they purchase at least a 'star' inventory.
Then there are all the bonuses for $600 orders, both to the directors, as car points, to the recruiters..so it is the aim of the company to get newbees to at least order the $600, so 'you can get your free stuff'. The directors have goals to get the most 'qualified recruits' (those who have 600 or more in ORDERS, again, not SALES, but ORDERS). Directors 'educate' their women to look for those with 'credit' - now why would that be? So they can go SELL??? Or, would that be so they can ORDER? Oh my, my. The poor consultants get blamed for everything, nothing is the director's fault, nothing is the company's fault.....no one is dangling things in front of them. Little, very little operates based on 'sales you made', it's all about orders placed. If I had a scanner, I'd love to show you some newsletters from directors if you doubt this to be true.
This is Wendy I would LOVE to put my newsletter on here!!!! I can see your points and I am not saying that this awful stuff doesn't happen but like I said many posts ago, how in the world would MK ever be able to be perfect in an imperfect world...it's impossible!
Even if it were set up differently, there would still be problems and issues that would arise. You state, as well as the other who post against MK on here, that all blame is put on the consultants and how many times have I said that I know there is bad stuff that happens. I have ended up with the ex consultants from other units in my unit and have heard some of these issues. I do things differently as does my circle of Directors and I'm sure we are not the only ones. There are many strong christian Directors with a conviction for helping other women. I don't encourage my ladies to get credit cards or loans...yuck! That means debt and I don't like debt for them...it's robbing them of their income if they are paying interest for too long. If they do get an inventory on a credit card, I keep them accountable to sell through their inventory and pay that CC off in a few months.
I did a debut with a new consultant on Sunday and a few of the gals were running really late and I couldn't stay for them. I sold only $130 with the 1 that was on time and this new consultant was determined to do a $600 order by the end of this week and I knew it and I also knew she would want to do it whether she sold it or not. I have not even done an inventory conference with her but she saw it in the brochure that she got in the kit. So I left my entire display there and it was a filled Travel Roll Up that consisted of Demo's, some body care and then my other sample bag. She sold, after I left, another $600 by herself! Debut's work and now she will have no debt with her inventory! I know I am not the only Director doing these because they were taught to me.
I don't dispute some people getting in over their heads....I really don't. I don't dispute that maybe the inventory conference was done and now they got inventory and things have come to a stand still. I try to focus my consultants goals on something other than the initial inventory because it's almost like once they get the inventory done and that was their goal, things stall. We focus on sales and bookings.
If this helps anyone out there, even other Directors, then I hope this brings an end to all this. No one on this website knows me personally but I do put a great effort in making sure I don't take advantage of anyone. That's why I seem so passionate about these posts I put on here. Anyways, maybe someone learned something and I would be happy to share my debut format with you. It's pretty easy and you can email me for it if you like or call me (612) 588-1569 Wendy
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Wendy: What happens after the 'debut'? How many times can a gal 'debut'? What happens to her 6 mos on down the road, even a year? What are most women in your unit like, what do they do, what percentage of your unit sell weekly like you do? Since you have been in Mary Kay....how many people have come and gone in your unit?
Wendy:
This is the honest truth as unbelievable as it may sound, most of the people who had a debut will stay for quite some time, by that I mean years. I have found that the debut give them the confidence they need in themselves and in Mary Kay. They see that the product sells, they see that I believe in them enough to do that for them and they see that there is no debt for them. Some of them have even heard from other consultants about poor choices in buying and not selling and having debt and then after starting and seeing it can be done differently, they become loyal.
I have almost 100% of my debuting unit still in my unit. I still offer to do a class for those who seem to still be juggling their life. I have 1 debut/trunk show scheduled in May with a gal I originally recruited back in DIQ. This way she will get lots of sales and get up to date on the new products.
Then I have those who let their year pass and many of those will come back and rejoin when life settles down for them. I just had this happen twice in the last 4 months. The first one was from my original DIQ team. I contacted her to tell her that her year was coming up, she decided to just let her consultantship go. Then 6-8 months later, I got a call and she had customers contacting her and had sold to them $250 of products and she needed to get back in quick.
I can't describe what most my women in my Unit are like. There are too many and I don't know why that matters. In a nutshell I have everything from being on welfare-laid off-housewife-corporate and then some with PhD?'s. I have one who is making as much money as our National Sales Directors and she is a financial planner.
I think I said this before that only about 10% will sell the product like I do. Now obviously not all as much as I do but around $300+ weekly. The others may be hobby/personal use and they have appointments here and there that generate sales. Many of them will hold an appointment before they order and I can tell you that those appointments are enough to order. Then of course there are some who just order because they want it themselves.
There's a mix of what type of consultants a Unit has and the activity of those consultants. I couldn't even tell you without doing some heavy research what my turnover has been. As I sit and think about it, I can remember people who came in and then moved or had a baby or lost their job and got depressed or realized it wasn't for them. I wish I could retain 100% and I wish I knew a magic trick on how to do that, but it's simply impossible. If there's one thing I wish I had for this business, it would be a magic globe. I could see what the outcome would be for her and then her decisions would be simple. I say this alot at my interviews with people. But I simply cannot know what her future will be in MK and if she's willing to give it a shot, I am willing to give her my best.
I also ask that each consultant call me/email me as much as possible. The ones who call the most seem to get where they want to get quicker. I work hard with each new person and there's alot they have to work on in themselves from the very beginning. They bring all their life baggage with them, they bring their work habits with them and they bring their personal insecurities with them. We teach alot of Pat Pearson material which is all about personal growth and in this business, what is going on inside can come out when you are working with people. Whether it be your customers or team members, you start to notice areas that you need to work on. This business has helped me and many other people overcome alot of our personal issues and baggage and in turn we work better with people. So when someone is new, those "issues" that she brings can make her go into a stand still as she realizes she has some insecurities. Sometimes the consultants didn't even know they had that kind of insecurity until she became a consultant. I am there to help her get through those and show her that all of us started with those same issues but we had to grow through them and then of course sometimes new consultants and even more seasoned consultants just decide they cannot do it. I really suggest the Pat Pearson material as it has helped alot of women out there.
I went longer than I wanted on the Personal Growth stuff but I hope it helps. Of course some are just not cut out for MK and realize that and it may have nothing to do with Personal Growth but in my experience of training, I have seen consultants reach a point of having to hit their personal growth issues head on and then they don't. I have had the wonderful opportunity to see many, many shy, incsecure women push forward in spite of their fears and make huge strides too. They are so proud of themselves and so is their families and when it comes right down to it, maybe that's why they started MK and maybe they won't stick with it but the Personal Growth experience they got can't have a price tag put on them! Thanks for reading this LONG post. Wendy
This is Wendy again and I have to add one more thing. I would put a wager out there that the consultants who have come through my Unit, may have gotten into another Unit and after possibly starting with Inventory right away after an Inventory Conference with their new Director, became successful and wondered what was wrong with me, their old Director. I have certainly read enough posts on here that the initial inventory helped alot of consultants look at this as a business. I do have some who start with inventory before their debut and then cancel their debut because they have already met with all the people they wanted to meet with at their debut, because the new consultant was so excited. I have one new gal doing that right now. She is already holding appointments and selling her inventory and her debut is a week from Saturday. So for some, starting with inventory is best because it gives them product to sell right away. For others, they should wait until after their debut. It really takes good judgement and sometimes that's hard. Remember my magic globe? That would be useful when trying to help her figure out what's best for her and sometimes a lack of funds answers that question right from the beginning quite easily. Thanks, Wendy
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