Helping husbands understand why ordering of Mary Kay products (rather than selling) is so important.

This is something that was posted by Dan Allison, sales director Lisa Allison’s husband back in 2004 on an unpopular and little-visited site called mkhusbands.com. Dan shows us all why it’s so important for those sales directors to push orders-orders-orders at the end of the year. It’s all about the orders, baby!

Dan’s post:

As some of you Mary Kay veteran husbands probably know, the fiscal year end for Mary Kay Consultants and Directors is June 30th. What does this mean for we husbands? Well, normally it means that these are two very important months to support your wife, months when she may start showing some signs of stress. Stress? About her Mary Kay career. In short, yes, read on so you can understand what you can do to help her through year end.

Year end for many Directors and Consultants means trying to stretch and attain the goals they set for themselves at Seminar last year. It might mean they are trying to reach the Queens Court of Sales, which requires them to reach $37,000 retail sales for the Seminar Year ending June 30th. Maybe your wife is a Director and she is trying to attain the Queens Court of Personal Recruiting (won in the Pearl Seminar last year by my good friend Leah Nelson). The Queens Court of Personal Recruiting requires a Director to recruit 24 quailified recruits in the Seminar Year. That means 24 new consultants who placed at least a $600 order.

Maybe your Director wife is working to qualify for the Top Director Trips. Let me just tell you from personal experience, these are some of the best trips I’ve ever taken in my life, as much for the friendships you make as for the awesome Mary Kay treatment.

The Top Director Trip for this year is to Hawaii for a week at the Grand Wailea Resort and requires a Unit produce $650,000 retail sales for the Seminar Year. If your wife really stretches she might make it to the Extended Top Director Trip. That requires $800,000 retail sales production for the Seminar Year. This year the extended trip happens before Hawaii, a trip to San Francisco staying at the luxurious Ritz Carlton.

My wife, Lisa Allison, and her Units goal this year is $1 Million in Retail Sales. An amazing accomplishment, this level of production also means you get a larger suite in Hawaii. The Top Director suite in Rome last year was enormous. It had separate bedrooms, a frescoed domed ceiling, a media room with large screen projection TV, a balcony overlooking Rome and several hot tubs, saunas and workout facilities. I can’t remember how many square feet it encompased, but it was bigger than my house!

So how do you help? The first thing to do is understand what your wife’s goals are. If she is actively pursuing them you probably already now what they are because there are goal posters all over your house. If you don’t know, ask now, she will probably be happy for you to know what her goals are.

Now that you know what the goal is, keep track of it with your wife and encourage her. It is amazing what a woman who is encouraged and supported by her husband can do. Ask regularly how she is doing in relation to her goal and encourage her. However, do not try to fix all the problems you “think” she has. That is our tendency as men, to fix things, but in this case you have to let her run her business and just be supportive.

You also need to give her the time to work her business. My wife generally works out of the house two days a week, maybe three. The first day is her meeting night, which she holds every week. My daughters and I have gotten in the habit of spending this evening with my parents. The girls look forward to it and want to spend time with their Grandparents, so it works out well for all of us. My wife also generally works on Saturdays.

It is important that I let her have this time happily, without making her feel guilty about not being around. I try to look at Saturdays not as time for me to play golf or do some other activity for myself, it’s a time that I get to spend individually with my daughters. I do not make my wife feel bad that she is not doing something with us. Instead I am involved with my girls and try to have dad fun with them by taking them to movies, to their soccer games, or to get ice cream (just don’t tell my wife). This way Lisa feels free to work her business and she is successful. Believe me, when she becomes a National Sales Director and I can retire, then I’ll have plenty of time for golf.

One other really important way to motivate your wife to success is to be proud of her. It will be hard for some of you, but you have to verbally tell her you are proud of her. It’s not difficult, it’s just not the way some men operate. So work at it, tell her you are proud, it will have a big impact on her. That’s one of the things Mary Kay the company does well, rejoice in success. All the glitz and glamour of Seminar is there to make your wives feel special. To feel like royalty. It is a big motivator for women. The easy part for you is telling your wife how proud you are of her has a similar effect, so verbalize!

I hope this helps you understand what your wives will be going through these next few months. If you have any questions, feel free to post in the forums.

Ron

Last Updated ( Thursday, 13 May 2004 )