Mary Kay Scripts: Overcoming Objections
So the real deal with Mary Kay is recruiting and frontloading . A small amount of product sales occur from time to time. But the real money is made in recruiting, and directors are usually pretty up front about it. Well, it’s hard to conceal that it’s all about recruiting when all the Mary Kay events are focused on recruiting new marks!
The below scripts come from a director handout that was meant to be made into flashcards. Yup. Flashcards. So you can quiz yourself on the right answer to any objection. Check them out…
Objection: I don’t have time.
If I could teach you how to earn an extra $100 per week — that’s $400 per month — working 3 hours a week, and eventually double that to $200 per week, could you find 3 hours?
Objection: I don’t have any money. If you think she’s just saying she doesn’t have any money (but she does)…ask her…
Do you have a credit card? Do you know somebody who loves you with a credit card?
If I could show you how to earn your $100 back in 2 weeks, could you find someone to help get you started?
If you could find the $100, is this something you would like to do?
Objection: I’m not the sales type.
Would you believe that probably 90% of the women who start Mary Kay are not the sales type? (yes)
If I could teach you how to show this product and let it sell itself, without being pushy, would you feel better about doing it?
Do you believe that women love to take care of their skin with great products? (yes) If I could teach you how to help them do that, rather than trying to SELL them something, would you feel better about doing it?
What was the first thing I said before I showed the sets at your class? (You’re not under any obligation to buy anything) Did you feel that I was being pushy? Did you know I sold $___ at that class? Women love to shop!
Objection: I don’t know anybody.
Do you know one person who might be a practice face for you? (yes) If I can teach you how to turn that one person into all the other faces you will ever need, would you be willing to learn?
Do you know that many of our most successful consultants didn’t start with people they knew? If I can teach you how to meet people, would you be excited about a Mary Kay business?
Objection: I don’t wear makeup.
Do you feel skin care is important? (yes — if she says no, you probably don’t want to recruit her) Would you be surprised to learn that the majority of products we sell are skin care and body care, rather than makeup?
Would you be surprised to learn that many of our most successful consultants and Directors don’t really wear a lot of makeup — but they are committed to good skin care?
Would you be surprised to learn that the majority of your Mary Kay income will come from women buying skin care and body care, rather than makeup?
Objection: I don’t want to talk to strangers.
If I could teach you how to build your business without talking to strangers, would you be willing to learn?
If I could teach you how to build your business without talking to strangers, would you be excited to give it a try?
Objection: I need to talk to my husband.
What will your husband say?
If she says, “He’ll do whatever I want” … So when he says that, will you be ready to start, or do you have more questions for me? Great! When will you be able to talk to your husband? (Set a time to call her back.)
If she says, “He won’t want me to do it” … May I make a suggestion? (sure) Explain to your husband that you want to purchase a starter kit so that you can beginning buying your products wholesale. Then tell him that you’re also interested in the business opportunity — so after you order your kit, you’d like him to come to Orientation with you and get his opinion of the business as well. Then when you come to orientation with my Director, both you and he can hear a lot more and decide how much you want to do with the business end of it. Do you think he will agree to that?
(yes) Would you agree with me that we can pretty much get our husbands to let us do whatever we want, as long as they know it is important to us? Just let him know it is important to you!
Objection: I don’t think I’d like doing Mary Kay.
Let me ask you a question. If you WERE going to do something like Mary Kay, what would be the reason?
Would it be to get you out of the house?
Would it be for money? Would it be something that is just yours? (wait for her answer) If I promise to hold your hand and teach you how to do this, what would keep you from getting started today? (then she’ll give you the REAL objection)
Objection: I’m too shy.
Would it surprise you to know that some of our most successful consultants were extremely shy when they started their businesses, and they have done very well?
Would you like to be less shy? Can you see the value of doing something that is fun and might bring you out of your shyness AND earn you money in the process?
Would it surprise you to know that most shy people are very sincere, and sincerity is one of the best qualities a Mary Kay consultant can possess?
Objection:I know someone who did Mary Kay once and she didn’t make any money/failed/etc.
Would you agree with me that there is probably someone in every single occupation on earth that hasn’t done well while other did?
(yes) So what makes you think you wouldn’t do well?
Would you agree that her lack of success might have more to do with her personal situation than with Mary Kay?
Let me ask you a question. Have you ever worked with someone at your job who failed or quit? (yes) Did her quitting keep YOU from being successfully at YOUR job? (no) The same is true of Mary Kay. We each have our own opportunity. It is not dependent on others.
If they give you a bunch of objections and you can’t get them to say yes or no…
(In a soft voice) May I ask you a question? (yes) Do you think you’re just scared? (yes) Well, what’s the very worst thing that could happen to you? (wait for her response, then say)
Do you want to know what I think? (yes) I think the very worst thing that could happen to you is you save 50% on your products for the rest of your life — does that scare you?
I totally understand. I felt that way myself, but here’s what I’ve found. We’re all scared when we start something new, but what’s the worst thing that could happen to you (wait for her answer) And what’s the best thing that could happen to you?
———————————-
So if you’re trying to turn down the Mary Kay lady and she has a comeback for everything you say…. just tell her “I don’t want to.” There is no way to overcome that objection. No excuse can do away with the fact that you don’t WANT to. Just keep repeating it.
P.S. I would love to see how someone would “teach” me how to get Mary Kay customers without talking to strangers. Impossible!
Visit the
If… if… if…
If you could prove that your “if” claims are real and ethical, and pay more than minimum wage after expenses…..
This is all so manipulative and creepy, I feel somewhat ill having read through it. Peppering the mark with questions, forcing her to stay engaged. “Would it surprise you to know ___?” “Would you agree with me that ___?” Continually burrowing into the psyche of the mark, elbowing objections aside, keeping her off balance as she’s forced to respond again and again, until she’s backed into a corner and gives in.
Oh, but when she later sees the truth for what it is and gets out, it’s somehow her fault for joining in the first place. “This business isn’t for everybody, you know.” (See almost every single Friday letter from PT Critics.)
Tell me, Critic, where in any recruiting script is any mention of Mary Kay not being a good fit? Nowhere, of course; during recruiting, Mary Kay fills every need for every person. You won’t find “It’s not for everyone” in any recruiting script. Just in the post script.
And let us not forget our other favorite post script chestnut: “No one held a gun to your head.” Well, sure, most con artists don’t use guns. They use manipulation and emotional blackmail instead. A gun isn’t, ehhh, subtle.
There was training in the early 1990’s that a we paid for, a man taught that sales is about wearing down the person with questions. Also in a class each time a person nods yes, you are making progress. And asking people to raise hands is also a buy in…..then you sell a ton of product. Ya right!
David somebody? I remember something about that,
David Cooper?
Yes, and Bill Cantrell, John Maxwell, others. If only I could recoup my money I spent for 20+ years of training products, webinars, seminars, career conferences, jump starts, retreats, leaderships, New Director education. It makes me sick to think how much $ I wasted for a fruitless endeavor.
I bought far too many John Maxwell books. I was the one that needed to change, not MK, right?
Sadly most women are taught to be polite. Our politeness is used against us. First by either convincing us or bargaining with us about some MK scheme. Fake Make over, (Most in MK have no certification in cosmetics so they can’t do an actual facial). Those boxes for pretend draws that they leave at some poor hair salon or other business. Those phoney invites for guest make overs which are actually recruiting schemes. It’s no wonder most facial and other make up parties often end up cancelling. Worst is the effort some poor IBC puts in and then drives to a house where the owner isn’t home. When you bug, beg, harass someone with false praise, or dishonest scripted decades old disinformation, in 2020 very few want your MK products or get rich mlm.
Loved my director’s fake surprise that a facial box wasn’t a cash cow and was instead full of insults and racial slurs.
“Surely it was just a bad placement!”
Yea the lighting in that corner was weird, made people feel comfortable to deposit profanity.
“ Would you be surprised to learn that many of our most successful consultants and Directors don’t really wear a lot of makeup…”
Yes. Yes, I would be surprised, as the ones I’ve seen cake the $h!t on.
We should create a script to counter this macabre manipulation.
MK Vulture – “What prevents you from signing your IBC contract right now?”
Poor harassed soul: “I promised a friend that I will be her IBC and she told me that I cannot register with someone else, it hurts the Golden Rule”
Read it with the Google girl’s voice.
“(In a soft voice) May I ask you a question? (yes) Do you think you’re just scared?”
(In a voice from the Pit of Despair) “NO. ARE YOU‽!!!” (Lean forward and stare directly at her. Do not blink.)
That should do it.
If they ever get to that point with me I’d just start laughing in an unhinged manner and when they’re like “?” I’d be like “oh god you’re serious! “ and then start laughing again
Yes, we need a script. Learn to say “I don’t want to” firmly as many times as it takes. Practice saying it with various accents, but that’s the only line you need.
The problem with telling them that you’ll sign up under someone else is that they’ll immediately start pressuring you to ask your IBC for her blessing to sign up under them instead, especially if your IBC lives elsewhere. They have no reservations about stealing recruits from someone else despite their assertions that doing so would be unethical.
I would like to turn this one around … if it’s such a great opportunity, how ’bout they front me the money and I’ll pay them back in 2 weeks. “If I could show you how to earn your $100 back in 2 weeks, could you find someone to help get you started?” Just look straight at them and say “Yes, and it’s you.”
I thought about that too. LOL
Corporate is fronting as much as they can, in this case the $30 sign up. Fantastic observation.
cindylu-
Also perfectly correct about driving to peoples houses and they are not home. Worse yet, looks ok on the outside and is a snake pit of some sort. Not safe.
Yes! It’s disturbing just how many stories there are about going to a sketchy neighbourhood or being in a gross house and the person telling makes it seem like a rite of passage! No thanks.
Or creepy/angry husbands watching from a distance. I have never gone through a flip chart so fast.
There was a girl adopted into my unit who was a faux party queen. Aka, she was a 10 parties per day pretender who would hoard prizes and recognition. This girl’s director was an NSD, who was obviously too busy to call my director and say the consultant didn’t do 57 parties that week.
But this faux queen of everything was notorious for putting out Craigslist adds for parties, and dovetailing them last minute to unsuspecting consultants thinking they just scored a killer party. Surprise! You’re in a meth lab and nobody knows where you’re at.
What is dovetailing?
That’s when a MK consultant can’t make it to the party for some reason and passes it off to another one.
We always fell for those parties that were going to “change everything”, didn’t we?
Ah the hostess who volunteers to do quarterly parties. That glimmer of hope that maybe you can find a handful more like her so you don’t have to work so hard.
And by working hard, I mean: Working 35 hours, only to be paid for one hour (at least it was $50/hr!?). But then you spend 24hrs trying to piece together the order from various consultants because you somehow didn’t have her 3 items in your 7k inventory. Now you’ve worked 59 hours for one hour of pay, drive to her house, and she says “oh, I realized I actually had a second mascara so I don’t need that one.” $50 hr is now a $41 hr and lucky you, you have a weird brown mascara that’s 10 years old. ?
You definitely are one of us on here with real experience packing bags and hoping for a miracle in MK! Your description brings my early Consultant days back so clearly.
100%
Yes. Old product. Especially if you trade with an older Director. They always pawn off the oldest junk first. Good thing I knew product codes.
This script is another indication that the sales force are really the customers. Overcoming objections is what one does in sales jobs, not when seeking business associates!
“No.”
I don’t give them a reason, not even “I don’t want to,” just “no,” and make them squirm. If they press forward, say, “I said no and that’s final.”