A Sales Director’s Letter to Her Unit
This is a heartwarming email that a sales director sent to her unit as she was leaving Mary Kay. Three cheers for the truth!
I wanted to take a moment to let you know that I was just notified that as of 1st of next month I am no longer your Sales Director with Mary Kay. The company has chosen to terminate me due to our unit’s lack of production (orders).
As many of you know, I had a baby not too long ago, and we have had several personal issues here at home. I did ask for an exception given this along with my 11 years with the company, but it was denied. Normally these exceptions are granted without a problem, almost all of my offspring have been given them at one time or another, but they have chosen not to extend this courtesy to me even though I have never asked for an exception before.
I have truly enjoyed getting to know everyone and will miss the friendships the most, so please stay in touch! My door is always open as a friend so please feel free to call or email me anytime.
A few thoughts that I would like to leave you with:
- Never under any circumstances feel pressured to order product you do not need. No title or status is worth the stress that this will put on your finances and relationships. You should order based on your sales, period.
- Do not be tempted to recruit a ‘body’ to reach a goal. By this I mean a relative, friend, or even good customer that just wants to do you a favor and has no intention of selling the product. If you have to pay for their kit or order DON’T DO IT! Again, no title or status is worth the stress that this will put on your finances and relationships.
- Remember that no matter who contacts you, or what they promise, you do not have to do anything you don’t want to! Stay true to your family and what is best for you and them.
Should you ever consider moving into a leadership position:
- Please be 100% sure that you have very strong consistent sales (true retail sales, not just ordering), a very large customer base of at least 100 consistent customers, and a very strong team without cutting any corners.
- If you attend a Sales Meeting, ask to see the 1099 of the Directors you meet with so that you can get a good idea of what the actual income is like. They can print this out for you online right from Intouch. Or, if they are a new, ask to see a copy of their last month’s check, which again can be printed out from Intouch. Then gather a list of the actual expenses (such as $300 for the Director’s Suit, several hundred per month for training center, etc.), that way you can make an informed decision as to whether financially it will work for you.
- There is a lot to consider in moving up, and you are always welcome to contact me if you have questions on this. I hope you will make a truly balanced and informed decision if you go that route.
Thank you for your support and friendship over the years, and again I hope you will stay in touch. Take care and I wish all the best to you and your family!
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Wow, what a great letter from a SD to her unit.!
This letter sounded like it might be from a SD I knew. But then it hit me, this letter can be from ANY SD in Mary Kay!
They are all under the same pressure to recruit, to get women to continue to place unnecessary orders, to do whatever it takes (buy a kit/order) for a recruit and never take a break from the hamster wheel.
What amazing honesty that this soon-to-be ex-SD has written in this letter. Letting her soon-to-be former Unit Members know to ask for the 1099s, to ask to see that last commission check (not just hear about that one BIG one from eons ago), and to not feel pressured to do anything.
All of us here know that pressure and the constant game of “smoke and mirrors” is the only way to “make it” in Mary Kay. But in the end, this letter is proof that it is not what you have done cumulative for MK Corporate, but it is all about what you are doing today.
I’m positive that this will be a blessing and a welcomed relief for this SD and her family!
If that’s what she was telling her unit before the baby, it’s no wonder the Director above her wanted to kick her out.
So now that upline Director gets to claim her unit and try to do damage control. Good luck with that one. It’s hard to fight against truth. Harder still when your inherited unit is full of women asking embarrassing questions in front of your pinked-in established unit.
Exactly!! One can only hope that most of that Unit “heard” what she was telling them in that letter!
It is so important that SDs not gloss over the Truth when they leave, whether it is a voluntary discission or a Corporate one.
“If that’s what she was telling her unit before the baby, it’s no wonder the Director above her wanted to kick her out.”
Dissent is not allowed. They just used her baby/home life as their cover to hide that her being fired was out of retaliation by the company.
Stellar!
Let’s face it, the reason most of us got sucked up the career path was because they painted a picture of what the job was that was missing 95% of the actual conditions.
You EXPECT that your Unit, once built, will grow and always get bigger with each IBC having more and more customers. You do NOT expect that in 6 months most of your people are terminated.
You EXPECT to be able to pay down your debt from multiple months of “stretching” for Star, Princess or Queens Court, contests, or car qualification. You do NOT expect that stretching becomes WORSE as turnover continues!
You EXPECT that expenses are minimal, having no idea that Directors pay for everything…you do NOT expect that meeting room rental fees are insufficient, travel to build other areas, Company dress, Maintenance of trendy sugar sharp image, Year end prizes, monthly prizes, retreats and events, product giveaways, house keepers and part time assistants will be sold as “necessary” in order to advance.
Nope, once you are on the wheel, you are on the wheel, and you best keeping running full out because attrition is eating up your Unit behind you…a fact that NO ONE shares, while you are courted into DIQ.
PS. Funny how the honest ones do NOT get the “exception”. See how this company just SHINES with “The Golden Rule”?
I’m surprised she didn’t get the exception. My ex SD has gotten several (she even missed the opening of the 50th extravaganza at seminar bc she was on the phone begging for more time). She’s only been in 5 years and a SD for 4.
I thought MK never let anyone out of their clutches.
Well, if you are prone to full disclosure as this SD was, you really need to be gone. You are “not giving your Unit the best chance to succeed.”
Yup, you are now a huge liability and no longer an asset.
A “wanting to honest” SD might hold back on pushing someone up the career path. That could tumble the house of cards. Not even the slickest NSD could explain that. But having the rogue SD gone can easily be explained by any lie that they make up.
This is just sad. Mary Kay wants to present this as your “own business” yet you can get fired???? Smh How sickening.
Exactly.
If it really WAS “your own business” Mary Kay would have to buy your unit from you. Bottom line.
The fact that Mary Kay can cancel your consultancy or directorship at any time, with no compensation or recourse of any kind ( it’s in the contract), means you do NOT own your Mary Kay business.
Absolutely!!! That is awful, such as waste of time, money and emotion. Not worth it at all.
How unfortunate for this woman. It was pretty clear that her being fired was a hit job put out by MK for her being honest with the recruits. As hard as it is to have to start over again so soon after having a child, it can be done. Best wishes to her new beginning away from the Pink Beast
When my offspring SD was faltering I was coached by other SDs in the Sacramento area we lived in, to write a letter of support for her to the company and she’d receive her exception. If I didn’t she would not receive her exception. I did, she got her exception. We repeated this struggle one other time until she quit. The struggle was too much. We both were relieved with her decision. Her Unit went into my Unit making my Unit larger. But our relationship was ruined.
In the above scenario I can see SD saying she wrote a letter of support but lying about it.
I am glad the above SD was so specific with her warning details. Especially for those coming to PT and reading the warnings.
However I wondered if this SD received her exception would she of told her Unit what she knew or would she of continued the facade? A real tug of war for this SD. Income for the family, years of investment, what will befall her Unit if she steps down.
Was her warning for Unit or was it for the detriment of her SSD who would reap the reward of her hard work expericing the degree of prodding deception her SSD would force upon her women in her Unit. Probably both.
The emotional havoc especially after having a baby would be mind bending. I would compare it to a separation after eleven years of marriage. Knowing a terrible mistake was made with the decision to marry this individual you thought was fabulous.
Then over the years invested you comprehend your mistake and realized you’ve married into a family who produce Narcissists.
Once you put the pieces of what has been going on in your life for the last eleven years you plan an escape. You salvage what life you have. You leave recognizing the “business opportunity” was not an opportunity at all but what was needed for this family’s praise and worship supply to keep it going.
You saw you life was being suck out of you and others by the Narcissist family who used you to breed nourishment for their family or more Narcissist.
Once you know what you know you want to warn everyone but you realize no one would believe your findings. You up against 300,000 or how ever many committed praise and worship suppliers the family has grown to.
I choose my last words for the IBC reader to perhaps comprehend what she is experiencing. The confusion being done to the minds and hearts of women in MKC.
The macabre slaughter of life by MLM, especially MKC who claim to enrich the lives of women.
The very word enrich isn’t for the new recruit but for the Narcissists MKC. They lure trusting women into their nest with trinkets and a promise of a better life style so THEY can be enriched and survive. They wink wink by devouring their own in order to enrich and feed those that have crossed over to the evil side and keep the secret of what is really going on.
“Was her warning for Unit or was it for the detriment of her SSD who would reap the reward of her hard work expericing the degree of prodding deception her SSD would force upon her women in her Unit. Probably both.”
When MKC receives exception requests, they check with the SSD, ESSD or NSD to see what the financial impact to the greater unit will be. Exceptions can be granted if it benefits the whole unit, especially if the requester has large personal production. Exceptions can be denied if she has a greedy upline who covets the unit’s consultants and their production for her own commission benefit.
Exceptions have nothing to do with personal situations. It’s just another numbers exercise.
So happy this Director has had the courage to write this letter. No Golden rule by this company when they make it impossible for those having a baby, cancer or any other health issues to fend for themselves. Yes indeed narcissism from the top. No such thing as owning your own business. Worst is 11 years devoted to a company that blames this director even after she’s had a baby and decides to clue others in for the extreme faults of this mlm.