Here’s an “inspirational” story about a Mary Kay consultant who puts Mary Kay before her family. Something doesn’t sound quite right if this woman has a full-time job, works part-time as a paralegal and also holds 4 to 5 skin care classes a week.

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How To Be Like DIAMOND SEMINAR QUEEN Judy Wertheimer

Judy, as you may or may not know, is the consultant who sold over 800 hydrating products for the Hydrate America challenge and was The #1 Consultant in the nation for the challenge.

Judy has been in MK for 8 years, has over 800 customers (more like 900 now), and has been in the Queen’s Court of Sales every year she’s been a consultant, and was Queen of Sales for Diamond Seminar three times. Her story was featured in the August 2003 Applause magazine as a “lifestyle profile.”

A consultant had attended the same training center as Judy had the BRILLIANT idea of calling Judy up immediately after career conference and picking her brain for over an hour. Here are her notes:

“All I can say is, Judy is amazing! She works full time for Dakota County, and part time as a paralegal. She has six children (not sure of their ages), and also cares for her semi-invalid husband. Oh, AND holds 4-5 skin care classes a week!!!

How? First tip: Weekly Plan Sheet! Her schedule goes like this: every Sunday she sits down and fills out that week’s sheet. Monday is her unit meeting; Tuesday, Thursday (evenings) and Saturday are reserved for skin care classes, Wednesday and, if necessary, Sunday are for customer service calls, and Friday is reserved for spending time with her family. She has the most amazing customer service ethic.

In order to offer the best service as efficiently as possible, she sets each new customer up on three “maintenance” programs:

1. Mascara reorders. She puts a little sticker on the mascara with the date it should be replaced (3 months from date of sale). If the customer replaces it on time, effectively ordering four mascaras a year, the fourth one is free.

2. Basic reorders. Same thing, essentially. Reorder every three months and get your fourth basic (cleanser, moisturizer,foundation) free. You could sure do this with the Miracle Set if you wanted to!

3. Customer appreciation card. Punches for every $100 in sales – after $100, turn your card in to go into a drawing for $100, $50 or $25 in free product (drawn once per year.) Obviously, your best customers will have 3, 5 or more cards in the drawing! Tell your customers, “you have a better chance of winning my $100 than you do of winning the lottery!”

Judy’s tips for classes:
Pick a hostess program and stick with it. She offers $75 for $25 OR $100 for $45 if they choose $25 worth of skin care supplements. If you want to offer a new incentive, offer a variety of “theme” classes.

In addition to the class hostess program, Judy also offers a Preferred Hostess plan – for holding 3 classes in one year. After the third class is held, that hostess gets 10% (20% if she has higher attendance and class sales) off her orders for the next 12 months, plus birthday gifts, first to try new samples, extra basic skin care discount when three referrals purchase the miracle set. At the end of the 12 months, they have to do the program again (3 new classes with NEW faces at each class) to regain their Preferred Hostess discount – OR they can do their next 3 classes during their discount year to keep the discount continuous. Make sense?

Also for classes: Judy maintains an attitude that:
1) EVERYBODY should leave the class with at least the basic, and EVERYBODY leaves the class with their second facial booked, whether they purchase or not. As a potential MK customer you are entitled to TWO facials, one tonight and one in a week or 10 days to follow up on anything you choose to purchase, and also to take a closer look at your own personal skin care and glamour needs.” Judy likes to say that every guest has 7 people behind them for you to meet – letting that guest leave without getting the booking is kissing those 7 people goodbye without ever having met them! So book their follow up before you even THINK about selling them anything. They are ENTITLED to it, right? Judy sets up her class table with an open roll-up labeled with the guest’s name, hanging on the back of her chair, and also an Ultimate Miracle Set (Judy uses the hydrating supplement in place of the Visibly Fit) behind their mirror.

At the individual close, Judy asks, “You know Sue, I know the basic is a given for you, so what else can I do to make you feel beautiful tonight?” SHE ASSUMES THE SALE!

Then – I love this – if the customer is interested in purchasing only part of the roll-up – say pockets one and three – Judy physically removes pockets two and four, and sends the customer home with HALF a roll-up bag! TRULY! Their follow up facial is “a great opportunity to earn the pockets you weren’t interested in tonight!”

Sending them home with only the products out of the pockets doesn’t give them an incentive to complete the bag. Judy almost always sells in sets because she doesn’t believe that there is a product in our line that isn’t complimented by another product.

First, the first Saturday of every month, Judy holds a mini-open house called “Box & Bag” Saturday. I think this idea ended up in the file center a while ago – the doors are open from 8-8:30, and your customers come in and shop right off your shelves (or dining room table, or wherever) until 9:30 or 10:00. Judy provides coffee or juice – bring your own mug – and muffins. I don’t know how long she’s been doing this, but it works – every month she has huge numbers of women lining up outside, waiting for her to unlock the door!

Second, one other Saturday per month she has what she calls “Round Table Saturday” where she books appointments only at her home, with time slots at 10, 12, 2, 4 and 6. She gets the invitations out to her customers prior to the event and when they call to book their time, she asks them – and this is key! – “Do you want to reserve one chair, or two so you can bring a friend, or would you like to book the whole table and receive hostess credit as well?”

Again, it’s a tradition for everyone to bring their own mug for coffee, juice, cider, whatever. How fun!”

GO FOR IT LADIES!!!

Love and Big Huggz,
Penny Dimino
Independent Sales Director

There are a couple of sad things about stories like these. One, that this woman apparently has no time for her family while she pursues Mary Kay. And the second, that stories like these aren’t told to actually encourage women. They’re told to make women in Mary Kay feel guilty for not doing as much as the subject of the story. Guilt can be quite a motivator.