Say No to Mary Kay!
I am not making this up. Someone really put together this handout with crazy, crazy nonsense about Mary Kay. This is the epitome of deception in the recruiting process. Oh my… have a look and add your own comments!
Some of the funnier falsehoods perpetrated in this document:
- Some 30 million customers purchase approximately 200 million Mary Kay products each year. (Consultants are the customers. And they purchase products they never sell to a real customer!)
- Mary Kay is #4 in Internet retail sales in the world. (Says who?)
- The Team Manager program was designed for women who want to work with a team, drive a free car, yet keep their jobs, while adding $18,000 to$20,000 per year to their income. The Team Manager position takes approximately 20 hours per week and can be earned in from one to four months from beginning with the company. (This simply doesn’t happen. It’s not part-time, and a car driver doesn’t make $18,000 to $20,000.)
- Mary Kay is #1 in brand loyalty among customers who buy skin care products. Three out of five women will buy the product after being introduced to it. It is estimated that 80% will continue to use the Basic Skin Care after they have been introduced to the product. (Says who?)
- Training classes are equal to college courses in marketing, communications, personnel, and small business management. Training is free and local. (Hilarious! Mary Kay “training” is simply about recruiting. There is very little to be learned other than how to recruit, and what you learn in Mary Kay … things like “be too dumb to doubt” and “fake it till you make it”… have no resemblance to college.)
- Management positions are possible with one to four months of qualifying time. You decide when. Income is $2,500 – $3,000 per month as a new director. (Completely fabricated numbers. New directors make about $500 to $1,000 per month if they’re lucky, which is less than minimum wage. Many directors are actually losing money.)
Click on the images below to see them full-size, and add your thoughts in the comments section.
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The internet retail sales number they like to use is from ORDERS by CONSULTANTS, which are NOT “retail”. Once again, it is that “magic” doubling of wholesale as IF it were all sold!
Maybe by Internet sales they mean on amazon or ebay!
Pinkjedi for the win!
That’s exactly what I was thinking; that they were sneakily including ebay, etc.
I suppose they meant to say that 60% bought after being introduced to the product, and 80% continued to use (buy) after buying. But I’m amused by the idea that 20% of the women using the product haven’t bought it. Maybe they’re sneaking into an MK’s basement to get the product?
98% of Mary Kay statistics are made up or paid for through advertising. Interesting fact, If you pay for an advertisement in industry rags (periodicals) they will name you a top 100, 10, or 5 company based on the size of the ad you purchased.
“80% will continue to use…”
For how long? Until the package runs out?
They buy again because of pity to support their friend or family member. When that person gives up, trust me they run to Sephora!
Notice she doesn’t say 80% will reorder. So maybe that means 80% of the 60% who buy (or 48%) don’t chuck it in the trash after a week.
I opened my travel kit and found a bottle of hand cream I brought home from a hotel last year. Does that mean I’ve “continued to use” the cream ?
47.8% of all statistics are made up on the spot… 😉
74.6% of all people know that! :p
I’m a graphic designer. I spy no fewer than four different fonts, and they’re mixing and matching bold, standard and italics?? This makes my head hurt!
“Fortune Magazine stated that one year in Mary Kay was equal to $4500 in training.”
Verify.
Explain how that dollar figure was calculated. Cite your source… issue date? Page number?
I searched Fortune Magazine’s website for the terms “Mary Kay” (152 hits) and “Mary Kay training” (35 hits); out of those 157 hits (going back into the 1980’s), ZERO mentioned Mary Kay training, much less this $4500 equivalency. ZERO
Lies and deception are the only way to lure women into the scam.
Sorry, 187 hits.
“We have a fleet of more than 12,000 cars on the road… Mary Kay has the largest fleet of company cars in the world.”
AT&T has a fleet of over 84,400 vehicles; 11,257 of them are alternative-fuel vehicles. Let that sink in… AT&T’s fleet of alternative-fuel vehicles alone, almost matches MKrap’s entire fleet.
http://about.att.com/content/csr/home/issue-brief-builder/environment/company-fleet-and-transportation.html
The astounding lies are so easily debunked.
It’s incredible that MK hasn’t gotten more lawsuits than they currently have. Not that they can control their sales force since we were all “independent”, but still. Lies everywhere you turn in MK!
MK Corporate CAN control the sales force, and they DO control it, by terminating agreements. They can do this pretty much whenever and to whomever they please, just by giving proper notice.
Just watch how fast MK Corporate moves to terminate agreements -or sue consultants- when their profits are threatened.
The problem is that they WON’T terminate an agreement when the lies being told bring them a profit. They just hide behind a thin veil and count the cash, while pretending they aren’t involved.
Been there, done that! You are “encouraged” to have in entropy readily available for your “potential” customer. My real concerns are the ingredients! Anyone thinking of or using or selling these products should really research what those ingredients are and how they can affect you./your customer.
Inventory not entropy
Entropy: lack of order or predictability; gradual decline into disorder.
Sounds like Mary Kay all right!
My friend says a Director keeps nagging them at work to stay late for facials. She’s called them 3 times during busy business hours to talk and to get an appointment set up for the whole office. My friend says they’re immediately turned off by her because no one ever wants to stay late, and now they REALLY don’t want to have anything to do with her because she’s being so pushy and aggressive.
This was one of the behaviors that gave us all a bad reputation and made us work SO much harder to gain customers and bookings. If the product was that good, it shouldn’t take multiple phone calls to get in front of people–they’d easily come to it!
She’s called them 3 times during busy business hours to talk and to get an appointment set up for the whole office.
Can they have the office manager or someone high-ranking call her and tell her to stop harassing the staff, that there will be no appointment for the whole office, and that Mary Kay Legal will be notified of the unprofessional behavior if she persists.
They have said no to her each time. Unfortunately, the legal department can do nothing about her behavior because she is an “independent contractor”. So, even if they called MK, the company can’t stop her from asking for business.
How about a court order telling her to stop calling … A firmly worded letter from that office’s upper management telling her that her behavior is verging on harassment and that she is to stop calling or legal action will be taken.
Mary Kay legal would probably rein her in because the embarrassment of getting an SD hauled into court for harassing an office staff is pretty bad.
Finding pinktruth saved me from losing a lot of friends!! Thank you I almost became a consultant but I found you before I signed on the dotted line!!!!