Sales Director, Please Stop Telling Mary Kay Lies
Written by PinkyMcStinky
This is the final letter I sent my Mary Kay sales director, who told me she felt hurt when I decided to quit. I needed the closure of this letter, and it felt good to speak my mind!
Sales Director,
I understand that you FEEL hurt. I FELT the same way when it finally and fully occurred to me that this “opportunity” was built, and unfortunately continues to thrive, on outright lies, half-truths, master manipulation and the fleecing and frontloading of brainwashed consultants. But what I’ve FOUND is that the joy I have in sending back thousands of dollars of product, and the knowledge I now have of how MK and all other MLMs destroy people’s lives, and the intent I have of encouraging everyone I know to stay out or get out of them will enrich my life forever.
You want to improve for the future? Stop telling people there are no quotas (because you know there are quotas for keeping the consultant discount and remaining active, going on-target and staying there, keeping directorship, etc..) Stop telling people MK is number one in skin care and cosmetics (because you know that MK Corp. doesn’t track actual sales to a final retail customer, and therefore has no idea if non-consultants are really buying this stuff.)
Stop telling people “they can’t sell from an empty wagon” (because you know that people wait for any products ordered on-line or through other home-party scenarios.) Stop telling people that they receive free training (because you know that you charge $20 a month for Girls Night Out, in addition to the cost of other events.)
Stop having consultants give out Alison Lamarr’s layering phone call (because you know that she no longer even works for MK… and has moved on to her third MLM thus far.) Stop encouraging consultants to fill out their own orders to bridge the gap between what their team has purchased and their quotas for staying on-target (because you know you advised XXXXX to do that right before Conference. )
Stop celebrating consultants for ordering until you know they are selling what they have on their shelves (because you know that when I told you I felt like a fraud for getting all the accolades just for ordering a store, you said “We all start out that way, but you’ll sell it eventually and then you’ll get the recognition for placing reorders.”) Stop telling consultants that “everyone with skin” is their customer base (because you know that even if they get this customer base, you’ll be pushing them to recruit… in effect turning their clients into their competition.)
I know that your response, if any, to this will be that “no one held a gun to my head” or “I just didn’t bee-lieve enough” or any other of the many scripted lines that dictate all functioning in MK. I remember many times that I told my friends who had spoken to you or met you that you weren’t as fake as they believed, because you were always so upbeat and cheery and you couldn’t fake that all the time… until the day when I started realizing that you were just using scripts on me.
Do you want to know the first time I REALLY started listening to the voice in my gut telling me this was all wrong? It was the beginning of February, and XXXXXXX had already asked me to hold her starter kit check because she was short on cash and still had a lot of questions about MK that she wanted answered. I had no problem with that, and honored her wishes.
You, on the other hand, upon finding out that I didn’t sign her up and process that check, told me that “I should have just deposited it anyway.” Do you even remember that? And if you do, do you even realize the treachery involved in your instruction? How does it enrich a woman’s life to cash a check that she can’t afford for a business that she is not even sure she wants to pursue?
Or the time that we were on the phone with XXXXXX, and she stated repeatedly and clearly that she may one day be interested in MK, but she couldn’t even begin to consider it now. And what did you do? You asked her to “grab her credit card and driver’s license because that would be the only information she wouldn’t know” when filling out the agreement. You heard her say NO more than once, and you still pushed at her. What you probably don’t know is that I called her back the next morning, in tears, and apologized for your behavior and my complacency on that phone call. Not that it matters now, but you could have cost me a client, and you most certainly cost me (and yourself, in the long run) a team member.
I hope that sometime in the future you will fully see and hear what I’m saying here. I know that, if you’ve even made it this far in my email, you can’t and won’t receive any of this right now. Maybe when XXXXXX has to add a new car payment to her finances (on top of her medical bills) because her team couldn’t pull production (which you should have seen coming because it took no less than 50 people contributing in various ways to “Project Hope” just to get her there) you’ll see it.
Maybe if you ever decide to really look at your Schedule C and 1099 (and add in ALL the time you spend on MK… every minute for phone calls to customers, recruiting prospects for yourself and your team, conference calls for your unit and other units, new consultant training, conferences and seminars and director training/events, etc.) you’ll see it.
Maybe when you get audited and realize that deducting an ALL-EXPENSE PAID vacation/training session is not exactly legal, you’ll see it. Maybe you won’t.
I can only hope that you don’t crash and burn. I can only hope that the women whose small dreams you pushed to million-dollar-dream proportions (to fulfill YOUR dream and increase YOUR commission check) don’t crash and burn. I can only hope that MK and all other MLMs (because that is what it really is, and you know it) crash and burn, and one day we can all be free from the clutches of this insidious and dangerous scheme. I can only hope…
Until that day, the only thoughts I will have of my experience with MK will be one of disgust (for having gotten involved in the first place) and of joy (for having seen the light and gotten out before it ripped me, my family, my finances and my sanity apart.)
Peace to you. I hope you find it one day…
XXXXX
Visit the
I love how they’re bragging they “sold out” of their new mascara and that hundreds of thousands were “sold”, but, in reality, the consumer didn’t buy them. It was just the sales force stocking up on them.
Another factor that made me so ready to resign from Directorship was being so frustrated and sad I couldn’t have a real, legit contest based on sales because no one would sell enough! Contests couldn’t be based on retail alone, either, because you had to have them ordering so that you got a commission that would cover the cost of the prize. (J Lo rings come to mind.). When unit members sold just $300/week, they got full, blown up recognition at meetings. $300? Recognition at the MAC or Clinique counter wouldn’t even start until THOUSANDS of dollars are sold. $300 weeks, if you think about it, would be $1,200 in monthly sales, but only $600 gross profit. So, someone making $7,200 gross profit/year is earning recognition? They’re the “Stars”?
Since it is June 15th, I’m wondering how many Directors and NSDs will be staring at their monitors tonight. Just waiting and waiting and waiting…
I still think of that every single June. All over the US and Canada…probably globally as well…the year comes to a close in just 14 days, so every single 2%er is stalking the stores, dialing the friends neighbors and customers, resurrecting the “dead” “T” consultants, BEGGING, and, well, let’s say it, DECEIVING new targets as to how GRAND their life is, while they actually project themselves into the Lifestyle of their NSD, instead.
The NSD’s dangle the carrots…the pictures of loving friendships, exotic trips, jewelry, company benefits, first class everything, just to keep them on the treadmill.
The fact remains, that in order to continue on in Mary Kay, you have to willing to “dupe” a lot of people on some potential lifestyle they will never attain, so that you can keep your own fantasy alive, and all the while, those .01% who have already arrived there, play Academy Award winning parts to indoctrinate the willing. Wake up, Directors. Wake up. This is choreographed financial abuse, because they KNOW you aren’t selling mass quantities of product, profiting as successful businesses. They KNOW you are willingly going in to debt to fund their “goal”, “trip” or status.
They are asking you to, and you are saying “yes”. And then you do the same to your Unit.
Without real profitability, this is entirely an enormous FRAUD, and YOU, Sales Directors, are keeping it going.
“…so every single 2%er is stalking the stores, dialing the friends neighbors and customers, resurrecting the “dead” “T” consultants, BEGGING…”
So true. Today my ex-director both called and emailed me asking me to come back to the unit even though I’m the one who terminated my agreement. Thank goodness for caller ID and junk mail! It will be interesting to see how many times she contacts me during the next two weeks during the “dialing for dollars” marathon.
This is one “dead” PUC who plans to stay that way.
The worst feeling is the shame of realizing your gut instincts were right in warning us to follow our values. The best feeling is when we finally come out of the pink fog and return the product. Better still is in finding Pink Truth and getting validation for the humiliation of having been conned by an mlm cult. A phoney, soul sucking, deceitful con that has been going on for fifty years. Men at Corp and MK heirs that are focused on the bottom line on the backs of sales women and their families. Right from the start the company was based on half truths. MK is not studied at Harvard, there is no free car, you don’t own the business, there is no where to advertise, the market is definitely saturated etc. Most Directors and even the NSD’s do not make an executive salary. There are many costs including: weekly dues, advertising, gas money, packing products, giving away products etc. Avoid this mlm and trust your gut when a director begins using decades old scripts to promote an mlm model that needs to finally end.
This letter was phenomenally well-expressed! Did you ever get any response?
Wow…what a great letter.
This piece ROCKED!!! Obviously she didn’t bother to respond right? I’m only TOO certain that she just “blew you off”! Keep us posted!
This is the first time on this site and all I can say is the letters I just read hit the nail on the head. I am a consultant and just haven’t been able to really get in to the selling, I am not a pushy person so not really very good at the sales. Absolutely everything I have gotten in training has been scripted and when you are setting in meetings You realize that s scripted also other than to call you out on no sales without actually pointing and calling your name.
OnTheFence … are you considering sending product back and quitting before you lose more money?
I never put my money into inventory I could not afford it and I knew right off the bat they were disappointed in that. The only thing I order is the 225 every 3months for my personal use and I stopped going to meetings. My website is up for renewal and I am not sure I want to keep it. I have had several text and emails pushing the conference but I have never attended any of that.
Don’t keep the website. Call corporate and terminate your agreement. Don’t let yourself go inactive because your director could “resurrect” you without your knowledge or consent.
This is a gut wrenching letter. When the day comes that you finally realize how you were used and manipulated by scripted sales techniques, to ultimately use them on your own team, and how you became a COG in an upline wheel, whose main purpose was to enrich an NSD’s and heir’s life, while destroying/diminishing those who trusted you to come into this business, it is hard to look in a mirror.
Successful selling consultants represent a MINISCULE percentage of the IBC population, and usually have an angle unavailable to the masses. No amount of self deception will change this fact.
“Successful selling consultants … usually have an angle unavailable to the masses.”
Oh, yes, the angle. Like, um, your mom is an NSD, that’s definitely an angle. Or, maybe you buy tons of inventory under different names and sell it off to a wholesaler or exporter. In the meantime, you require your down-line to hand in juvenile “Activity Sheets” every week to prove they’re working their business.
Just curious…who IS making money at Mary Kay? I don’t get it. How high up do you have to get to start making money? People don’t keep doing something for nothing. My sister was almost recruited to sell Mary Kay, but I showed her this site. She got out fast, but she is so disappointed. But what we’re trying to figure out if it’s so bad, why are people still staying? Is it just a matter of hanging in there until you reach a certain level AND THEN you make money? Just trying to figure this out.
The culture of not quitting is huge. Very few make the “executive income” we were all tempted with. Directors that qualify for the trip each year and a good many of the Nationals make that much (> $100k/year), but more than 99% of the sales force never will. We were taught that miracles happen (MK Ash actually had a book called that), quitting is the only way to lose, and that negativity is not tolerated. Sure, people are successful, but statistics and real numbers can’t be argued with.
Just when I would feel at my lowest and on the verge of hanging it up, I’d go to one of the 3 company conferences and see people earning what I dreamed of. Yet, if I went to one of those people with my valid, factual concerns, I was treated like a loser and ignored. I’d often get told to “pray about it”, “get a Gold Medal (5 new personal team members in 1 month) and that fixes everything”, read ANOTHER self-help book…and on and on.
It was always OUR fault we weren’t moving anywhere. Not the company’s, nor the market’s. This perpetuated attendance at anything that was ever offered, which amounted to thousands of dollars spent in registration fees, travel costs, and time away from our family and lives. We were taught “those who show up go up”, yet the people teaching you things at these events and their how-tos were never duplicatable. It really does amount to timing and luck because, otherwise, every Director would easily become a National, and all Nationals with family members would have Nationals debuting left & right!
Tell your sister a happily-resigned pink Cadillac Director sends her congrats on avoiding a real mess and mistake in her life!
Lana, it is a combination of “hanging in there” duped by the training that “the only women who fail at Mary Kay are those who quit”, along with the intermittent successes that happen. You can go 3 months, maybe able to recruit two people who do nothing, and then on month 4 you find “an Emerald”. Wow, you say! See it works! Only to find yourself back at the production bottom a month later. It is IDENTICAL to gambling…you get sucked in thinking, “just one more…just one more” until a decade has gone by. You are told it is based on YOU and your work ethic, but it has NEVER been about YOU. It is always about who you RECRUIT and how able they are to buy a full store, fall for your indoctrination, or jump on the career path.
All MLMs are the same. People are fed lies that they want to believe are true. No matter the MLM, the reps are told that the system or business model or marketing plan is “perfect.” Therefore, YOU must be the problem. “Get over yourself, follow the scripts, don’t overthink things, don’t re-invent the wheel, our marketing plan is proven to be successful!”
People stay in until they finally see the scam, or until they simply run out of money and/or go into debt.
Or they tell you…”Other people are making money with XYZ company so why aren’t you”? Again…it’s YOUR problem, when it’s really the COMPANY’S! Bummer huh? Yeah!
I have so much inventory just sitting on my shelf. I have finally come to the realization, in my heart of hearts, that I need to say good-bye to MK.
Please send back every ounce of product you can. Anything you purchased within the last 12 months. Click the link at the top about Returning Inventory.
It’s OK to grieve the loss. Just know, you didn’t do this to yourself. A well-oiled machine with over 50 years experience lied to you. You are only guilty of believing their lies. Take back your life, and never fall for this kind of scam again. You’re among friends here. (hugs)
I almost fell for this MLM scam. My goodness, am I glad I told the sales director that I would think about buying inventory and she could get back to me the next day. I did some research that night and asked God for wisdom. The wise choice, of course, was to not go into debt. She had me so close to signing up for a credit card with 0% interest. I told her no, I would sell product as people ordered it. She wasn’t happy to hear that, but she was then on to the next thing. Then she wanted me to quick sell $600 worth of product before June 30th so that she could earn her year-end prize(s) (not even sure what that is, I was just recruited). She wanted me to book a party for my friends and family within 2 days notice. Unfortunately for her, no one was available. I feel sorry for this woman, she must be completely brainwashed. I am supposed to go to a training meeting on Tuesday, but from the sounds of it, it will be a lot of indoctrination and bull-crap. I’m sorry to find this out, because initially I was so happy about it. I thought, hey I’ll be meeting new people, making friends, making a little extra money on the side. How exciting. But the balloon’s air was let out. I guess I’ll have to make friends another way. I can’t believe the phony sales tactics she wanted me to try, with all the coercing. I’m pretty sure I would lose my current friends before I would make any.