The Gold Leaf Close
Written by The Scribbler
Mary Kay nsd Pam Shaw shows you how to close a recruit while you are at the event or at the unit meeting by using a leaf dipped in 14 karat gold.
Scrib’s note: Are you a guest at your friend’s unit meeting? Beware – the directors have something extra-special lined up for you at its end, and if you’re not prepared, you’ll be sucked in quicker than a pigeon into a jet engine. Steel yourself, post a guard your emotions, and know before you go!
Purpose: Close guests while they are at the event so that you capture the excitement of the moment and eliminate unnecessary follow-up to maximize your time.
IMPORTANT !!! Take ownership in your close! Make the stories yours and expect them to get our of their seats! Critical is correct use of music and applause when you ask them to come up! I trained my unit not to move, not to close a notebook, not to grab a purse or rattle keys during a close. Cell phones and beepers had better be on vibrate, cause if something went off during my close, somebody had better be bleeding badly!
3 reasons to close:
1. Most people recruit out of stirred emotion and hope.
2. Most people don’t intend to recruit when they do – now or later.
3. Follow-up is where we lose the recruits; it is important to close on the spot.Say to the group, “Let me share with you the 4 qualities we are looking for in order to accept you into our company:”
1. Integrity. We are looking for women who have integrity because you will be Mary Kay in your own neighborhood!
2. We’re looking for people who like people! If you are thinking, “That excludes me; I just don’t like anybody I work with,” then that’s okay! Can you think of a time when you DID like people? If so, then it’s quite possible that you’ve been at your job too long!
3. Thirdly, we’re looking for a woman who has a giant inside just screaming to get out! You know that you have abilities and talents that have gone untouched, untapped in your current workplace – we’re looking for that person with a giant inside!
4. And last, but not least, we’re looking for women who are decisive! Decisive women who are able to say, “You know, I don’t know anything about teaching skin care or color cosmetics, but this sounds great and I need a change in my life.”
“And so, I want to encourage you that if this sounds like something that you would enjoy, then be decisive! You know being decisive is the opposite of being “wimpy”! Wimpy sounds something like “I have to go ask my 25 friends and family what they think I should do with the rest of my life.” That’s not what we are looking for at all. We’re looking for someone who does realize that this is the opportunity of a lifetime and that $100 will not change your standard of living today, but it could absolutely change your life tomorrow!”
“We’re looking for women who don’t hide behind their husband; and don’t get me wrong, it is so important to have a fantastic and communicative relationship with your husband but you know as well as I do, that when you use this excuse, “ I have to ask my husband”, that is the greatest line in the entire world! Men aren’t that stupid. In general, they want you to be very happy and so his answer is probably going to sound a lot like this, “Honey, do whatever you want to.” We’re looking for decisive women!”
“If you have any of the 4 qualities that we are looking for and you are at a place in your life where you need and want more than you are currently getting, then I would like to invite you to turn over a new leaf in your life tonight and become a part of our fabulous company! The Gold Leaf is symbolic in Mary Kay and is given to a woman who is decisive enough to turn over a new leaf with her life. I have a 14-karate gold dipped leaf that I would like to present you with tonight if you are brave enough to come up front!”
(Coach your unit to begin applause right now, while people are coming! Don’t be surprised if no one comes at first. If no one comes up say the following: “If you are simply too shy to come up front, I would be honored to present this gold leaf one on one before you leave tonight.”)
Scrib’s note: By the way, Miss Shaw tells us that her “14-karate” gold leaves were acquired from a wholesale jewelry website “off a chain for about a buck each.” Go get one from the gumball machine at the Bijou Cinema 7 for 50 cents and spare yourself the ruthless manipulation of these Utopian kumbaya meetings.
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Why, oh, why can we not delete our memory of this stupid close?! 30 years ago, I can see how memorizing it would’ve been. But, if you handed me a gold leaf today, I’d think you were chintzy and not legit. I remember actually looking for them off her site, researching how to buy them and incorporate them into my guest events.
Thanks for the icky memory!!
I’ve never heard of the gold leaf close, but I guess maybe I wasn’t in MK long enough and didn’t attend enough events (haha). But I do remember our guest events had a ton of applause and music! Like it super annoyed me, which is why I never wanted to go to those stupid meetings to begin with. It all felt so fake.
It probably was fake, especially all of us Directors onstage saying we made an “executive income”. Very few are. The Gold Leaf Close was created by Pam Shaw, and I’ve personally never seen it used live, only heard from her how she used it to build her unit. It’s a script to recruit new team members, but SO cheesy!!
I was invited to one of these unit meetings by a friend-so glad I told her no straight away-although it took her a few times to accept the word no. She tried to make me feel bad that I wasn’t helping her in some kind of challenge she said she was in-whatever.
The same, tired scripts used to invite a guest. It hasn’t changed a bit!
It’s obvious that these ladies in MK have been around much too long. To even mention integrity and MK in the same sentence is dubious. Training is free lol. Right from the beginning truth barely exists. The company started out with half truths. The praise someone to success using cracker jack box trinkets needs to end. I can remember a few Monday night meetings where the praising was phoney and the sales were non existent. I am happy I never saw a gold leaf. My SD gave away bonus point paper certificates that were meaningless, unexplained and never of benefit. They weren’t ever cashed in because for over one year sales and recruiting were abysmal under the narcissistic control of my SD. Her other director rarely joined her for meetings as they did not get along. At Seminar she didn’t sit with our unit. It didn’t matter because her golden days had ended years ago. The way she stayed relevant was by sabotaging and stealing the recruits of her DIQ’s or others.
Exactly. My $1,500-2,000 trips to Seminar weren’t free. Yours? Ha ha!
A woman of integrity would tell the truth. In order to be considered by MK, all you need is $100 and a good line of credit. They don’t give a crap about the other things.