How to Book From Facial Boxes
One of the biggest challenges in Mary Kay (or any MLM, for that matter) is getting new people interesting in holding parties. Where do you find these women? You can only hang out in Starbucks or the aisles at Target for just so long, hoping to give someone a “sincere” compliment in order to move the conversation toward Mary Kay.
One very old method of getting new leads is the facial box. You get a business to allow you to but a box or fishbowl at their register, and women put their contact information on a slip of paper under the guise of winning something. Typically they’re going to “win” a facial and a small gift certificate to use toward a purchase. Of course the catch is that everyone “wins” and the whole point is to get people to have parties that they share with a few of their friends.
There is a script for everything in Mary Kay. Here is NSD Kristin Sharpe’s script for booking women from the facial boxes. These days we don’t call the women who win, we text them. This script is pretty aggressive in asking women to get 5 of their friends to join. And the giveaways can add up quickly when you’re giving each hostess a full sized product and a $25 gift card. I know the idea is that you easily make that back when they have the 5 friends join them, but it all eats into the profits.
The 50% profit they brag about never really ends up being 50%, does it?
Visit the
This from the NSD who had the largest unit meeting in the entire country…but who also has outrageous attrition. People don’t stick around her for long.
Cold calling in today’s world of skeptical people who all have Caller ID is asking for disappointment. The business model is severely outdated, and it felt that way for years even before I left.
Ridiculous.
Even 20 years ago the methods for getting new customers seem outdated. And they’re still using the same things today.
More importantly, the methods were never effective. Sure, you’d occasionally get one person who spent a bunch or signed up to be a consultants after doing a facial box. But most of it was wasted effort.
Cold calling anyone whose name and number you collect at a MK party is also
Illegal if the person is on the National Do Not Call List.
If you don’t have an established business relationship with that referral, or you don’t have her written permission to call, that name and number is useless.
Notice how Mary Kay Corporate, who always has your best interests in mind (ahem), never set up a way for their consultants to access the list. Oh no, that would require them to spend money.
They prefer to shift the risk of fines and penalties onto you, the consultant. It’s just another way the company takes advantage of your lack of selling experience.
Unfortunately, that law does not include “right of private action”, so an individual can’t sue anyone who violates it. And the FTC isn’t interested in actually enforcing it.
The IBC can claim it was a “referral” and it’s your friend’s fault for giving your info.
I promise you’ll feel so pampered!
“I promise you’ll feel so pampered!
“…as I sit you down in front of a tiny mirror at a card table and make you do your own ‘facial’! Such much pampering!”
Jut looking at what goes into both bags (as well as the time to put it together) tells you the profits will be little to none. Section 2 items add up fast and a full size hand cream AND eyeshadow?
I’ve lived on this earth long enough now that I do not get excited about a free hand-cream.
The mint tho, omg
Of the three people that put their name in the box, if any of them texted back it would be truly a miracle. Most people are onto that ruse.
That’s exactly what I thought, too!
How “wonderful” of Mary Kay Corporate to transfer all of the financial risk and advertising expenses to the consultants. It sure is a “godly” and “wonderful” company that cares about its consultomers, huh?
Mary Kay is all for change when it’s to their benefit. They change the product line on a continuous basis, in a stated effort to stay “on trend.” What they are really after is new inventory orders from their consultomers.
But no way will they allow open use of social media for advertising. They can’t let it get out how saturated the market is, so all IBCs must toil in near anonymity, warm chatting, setting out facial boxes, buying leads from David’s Bridal, and essentially getting nowhere.
And what about the ridiculously outdated dress code? Why must everyone wear skirts and hose? Perhaps part of it is tradition, but I think it’s primarily just part of the cultish mind control system in Mary Kay. It’s easier to control how they think when you’re already controlling how they dress.
Nothing says “glam” like a mint!
Am I missing something here? The article says, “Here is NSD Kristin Sharpe’s script for booking women from the facial boxes,” but I don’t see the script.
Also, way to just perpetuate plastic pollution as that “glam bag” would go straight in the trash. Wasteful on so many accounts. One of their selling points is the zero carbon footprint that isn’t possible when your main business model is frontloading a bunch of chemicals in plastic bottles that no one ever buys or uses. We all know this ends up on EBay but how much of this unused mess ends up in the garbage.
Oh goodness… I guess I bypassed the photo with the script!