Who Is Selling Mary Kay Products? Not Chelsea Claytor!
At first glance, you may be impressed to hear Chelsea Claytor say that she has sold $200,000 of Mary Kay products in 5 years. Wow! That’s a ton of makeup.
But then you dig into the claim, and realize what nonsense it is. The number is a lie, and it’s simple to see.
1. She didn’t sell $200,000 of products. She may have ORDERED $100,000 wholesale over a period of 5 years. But she didn’t sell all of it, and she certainly didn’t sell all of it at full retail value (which is what her $200k figure assumes).
2. Chelsea didn’t make 50% on what she Remember all the discounts she gave when she was trying to finish the Cadillac? It is routine to give discounts and give away free products to hostesses. There are also all sorts of costs involved in selling products. Best case scenario (with minimal discounts), you can plan on making 40% of what you sell. But with discounts and giveaways, it’s ore like 30% (or even less).
3. If Chelsea really ordered that much stuff, she would have been in the court of sales multiple times over the last five years. It takes $40,000 of retail orders per year to make it, and she’s allegedly ordered enough to qualify each year. (Sure, I understand that some years she could have ordered more, other years she ordered less.) So how many times has Chelsea been in the court of sales?
Yesterday Chelsea posted this on Instagram:
So for the calendar year 2019, Chelsea had sales of $53,127 to her customers. We know she did a ton of discounting throughout her quest to qualify for Cadillac. I would bet that this represents at least $35,000 wholesale. Take of that amount and take off all the expenses related to selling products, and she is looking at about $15,000 in profits. For one whole year of selling.
We’ll never know for sure exactly how much she sold and how much she discounted things. If we assume that she did order $100k wholesale from MK over the last 5 years, she probably sold that stuff for a total of $150,000. Even if you assume a modest 5% of that for expenses related to selling, you’re down to $42,500 of profit on those sales.
$42,500 of profit over 5 years…. or an average of $8,500 per year of profits from sales of products. (2019 was higher than average because she was putting in the production for the Cadillac herself.)
What if I’m totally wrong, and the discounts she offered were much lower? Maybe she sold the products for 90% of the full retail value, or $180,000. In that case, with 5% of her selling price again going to expenses, that’s $71,000 of profit on the products. Sounds good until you remember that’s for 5 years, so we’re talking $14,200 profit per year on product sales.
Do I need to remind you that you cannot make a living selling these products? We’re talking about a die-hard Mary Kay lady who is all in for life… and even she can’t sell enough products to profit at more than a minimum wage level.
Visit the
am I reading this wrong, look at her customers the transactions….all year most people ordred just one time, and some people ordered only twice. That is not a good base when you only see your customers once a year.
Average purchase per transaction? $68.55
Average purchase per customer? $116.76
Oh Chels, Chels … that’s not even one Miracle Set per customer!
How much of that $200,000 is from “double credit” months? The months where you order $1,000, then Mary Kay pretends you ordered $2,000 and applauds you at Seminar for “selling” $4,000?
In a real business, there’s a word for overstating your sales figures to look more profitable or get rewards. That word is “FRAUD!”
You gotta wonder if she ever Googles herself…Pinktruth.com is the first entry for her name.
I’d be curious to get her side of things. I’m sure we won’t, but…
She has been reading along. 🙂
let us not forget the time she posted on Instagram where she sat on her couch and made appointment after appointment because she was in a slump in her business.
And really how much MK does one customer need? Sure they add new products, but it’s nothing like shopping at Sephora. Those average purchases/transactions per customer are dismal.
“it’s nothing like shopping at Sephora.”
I hit Sephora yesterday. Collected my Milk Makeup birthday gift, and cashed in the few points I had for a NARS Orgasm blush. Quite a nice little haul. Free.
Isn’t the Milk line great?! Looooove the lash primer!
Is anyone surprised with the kind of restrictions imposed on a supposed retail selling “business”? It is so ridiculous when you stop and think about it. But, when spun a certain way, some people will believe anything. The rules state:
“4. To protect the Mary Kay® trademarks and trade name by obtaining the Company’s written permission prior to my use in any advertising (including but not limited to the Internet) or literature other than Company-published material. I understand that display or sale of Mary Kay® products in or to public, retail or service establishments of any kind (including Internet retail or auction sites) is prohibited under the terms of this Agreement. I agree that I will not (directly or indirectly through any intermediary or instrumentality) offer for sale, or facilitate the offering of Mary Kay® products for sale through such establishments or websites (including, but not limited to, eBay and Amazon). I understand that the obligations in this paragraph survive the termination of this Agreement.”
Not only are you to rely on people you know or can directly approach, there are no protected territories. In fact, you’re encouraged to recruit your own and maybe your only customer.
There is a reason there is so much focus on hope, dreams, positivity, and opportunity. The facts, numbers, and entire “retail selling model” don’t add up.
And we will entice you to purchase at retail value the appropriate approved literature. Corporate is restrictive, but much less so prior to internet. Meaning now corporate shoves approved literature etc on a limited basis via pdf. It is a money aspect ( to make sales reps purchase paper shiz. And I learned it; where else but Pink Truth.
NSDs and directors are left motivate the team, so here we see at pink truth the wonderful and ancient “less than professional” flyers they produce, recycling/cutting/pasting and sending around for decades.
To look at more statistics to prove how dismal day to day sales really are:
Assuming 6 work days per week per 365 days a year. No time for vacations, holidays, etc.
Not taking into account repeat customers great statistic – calculated above.
Transactions = 775 per year translate to 2.7 transactions a day.
Customers “served” = 455 customers per year translate to 1.6 “served” per day.
Wow!
This gal needs to really up her sales game, isn’t she competing with the big girls in MK and others (Sephora, Ulta)? She could actually take a job at either place, work her way up, and have much more money/opportunity than MK. As in transactions and customers. Great topic-thanks to all.
You know…a decade ago when I worked as an artist for Dior, I generally worked an 8 hour shift 3 or 4 days a week. A bad day of selling was $300, my average was $500 and at least a few times a month, I had $1000 days. Now, this was Dior and not MK.
If I take my average of $500 and use the low end of a 3 day week, I sold $1500. I worked nearly every week, but I took vacations and during slow weeks, I didn’t work. If I multiply this times 45 weeks, I sold $67,500 per year. For my last few years, my hourly rate was $21. If I multiply this out using 24 hours per week X 45 weeks, I made $22,680 or 33% of what I sold. If I multiply it out on the high end, (4 days X 32 hours X 45 weeks) then I sold $90K and made $30, 240.
And guess what? I didn’t have fake credit. I sold what I sold. I didn’t have to recruit anyone to be my competitor. I didn’t really have other expenses since we had to wear black and often given Dior tees to wear. My benefits were free product and real training. I loved that part-time job.
$21/hour selling Dior? Wow, that’s impressive! Thank you for breaking down real numbers in the cosmetic industry. A $500 retail day is an exception in MK, most definitely not the average!
Here is what I see: 1.) Let’s pretend she really sold $200,000 in 5 years. Let’s pretend she had no costs. This equals $100,000 profit ÷5 years = only $20,000 a year profit / $1,667 a month. If you can live on that, be my guest. Subtract out gas, office supplies, postage, schedule 2 (not counting other expenses) and you have nothing really left for all the hours you work. 2.) $53,000 in sales for a whole year is not something I would be proud to post as a director or anyone who claims to work MK fulltime. Giving the benefit of the doubt, this equals appx. $26,000 annual profit/ 2,166 a month minus expenses listed above. Minimum wage ($15/hr) would be $2,400 a month minus taxes with benifits of workmanship compensation and social security at the minimum. Now if we were to compare earnings with a professional like age woman instead of minimum wage high school and college students……sorry, you should have went to law school. You would have earned more in your lifetime.
I am 100% on board with your analysis and feel the same way. But…. what they say is that the director commissions are their REAL income, and the sales of products just brings EXTRA income. Sigh.