Recruiting Mary Kay Customers is Bad
Written by Lazy Gardens
Did Mary Kay Ash say, “Nothing happens until someone sells something”? Or did she say, “Nothing happens until someone recruits someone.”? She said nothing happens until you sell something. Yet the company focus for decades has been on recruiting.
Your director will tell you it’s a good idea to turn your customers into your competitors (i.e. recruit them). Here’s one director telling you why you should do this:
Misconceptions of Team Building
Just wanted to clear up a few misconceptions of Recruiting or Team Building …
1. You will not lose money. Yes, 50% seems to be more than 4, 9 or 13% BUT I guarantee you that she will work harder to build her client base then she would to help you. She will reach women that you never knew about in her life…even if she’s your sister. Look at this … if she is a Star Consultant … your 4% is $72, 9% is $162 and 13% is $234!! The average client buys $50 in a Star Quarter—that’s only $25 profit. So which is mo’ money?
2. You are too busy to do more Mary Kay. Precisely, why you should recruit. She works…you make mo’ money. If you aren’t heading for Directorship then it’s your director’s responsibility to train her. You have a few things to do to help … but #1 is to hook her up with the Director!! You can dovetail for 15% of the appt sales to a team member and you make that fee plus when she orders, you will make a recruiting commission too. Perfect … no extra work for you…but mo’ money for you.
3. You are not too new. You don’t have to know more about the business to bring someone in the business. You don’t have to do anything but bring a potential to your director and ask her to interview her for you. Who are the potentials … anyone who buys Mary Kay from you and you like her!!! Remember that you are NOT giving her YOUR job but the potential of the MK business for HER. She might want a free car and you don’t. It’s the director’s job to train. If you know enough to say, “yes’ to MK…you know enough to recruit. Need mo’ money?
4. I am afraid if they say no to me then my feelings will be hurt. Ok, that statement sounds just silly enough to not warrant more opinion on my part. It’s just ‘no-for now’ … not even forever!
5. Will they think that I am some pyramid scam artist? No, they will think that you love what you do and proud to share this others. That is even more of a reason why sharing all the facts about a MK business is so important-once they understand the truths of MK … they could never think poorly of you. Oh contraire, they will respect you more even if they are a ‘no-for now’. This business is very impressive.
6. If you don’t think you know anyone who would be interested, because she has asked you or you have pre-judged them … then think again!! Did someone ask you to listen to the facts or did you ask them? 95% had to be asked first before joining MK. Chances are they are waiting for someone to believe in them enough to ask them, or they don’t know the truths and have made their own prejudgments about what we do. Don’t wait for someone to recruit one of your clients before talking to them … if you don’t ask them … eventually, someone will.
Here’s what I think about these things…
ITEM 1: I got news for you lady, 50% IS more than 13% everywhere outside Mary Kay Math class.
To me, recruiting looks like a way to end up with no money because you are chasing the mythical more money. She is asking you to give up a steady $100 a year profit from a loyal customer by converting her into a consultant. If the customer becomes a personal use consultant, as most of them do, your $100 a year profit shrinks dramatically. To get the commissions she is dangling in front of you, you not only have to turn customers into competitors, you have to get them to order “stars.” Look at your shelves, look at your “star orders.” How much money do you want to spend chasing this dream, and how many more women do you want to drag into the pink swamp?
ITEM 2: If you are too busy to book parties and sell, how the heck are you going to find the time to warm chat and recruit?
ITEM 3: If you don’t get them recruiting fast, they will start to realize that this is a flopportunity. It results in units and teams filled with untrained consultants.
ITEM 4: Learn to ignore your feelings, and just keep on working your business the “Mary Kay way”.
ITEM 5: You might not be a pyramid scam artist … yet. But the senior Directors and the NSDs are certainly Picasso-class pyramid scam artists. They wouldn’t be where they are today if they were 100% honest about the Mary Kay way.
ITEM 6: Don’t wait for someone to recruit one of your clients before talking to them … if you don’t ask them … eventually, someone will. Here’s how to “ethically” recruit someone else’s customer.
Visit the
The large majority end up doing a minimum order once or twice a year after maybe a 600 starting inventory. If you are lucky!! What a waste . I gave up all my recruits as they ordered when I was not active after slowing down on my business. Not worth spending $300 for an $8 commission.
ITEM 4: Learn to ignore your feelings, and just keep on working your business the “Mary Kay way”.
Shut down and don’t feel. Keep belieeeeeving in MK. Ignore your feelings. Wow. Can anyone say gaslighting? This is what abusers do. Your feelings don’t matter. Only my goals matter. Don’t feel just follow me.
Mo’ money?
More like “no money”. At least not for you, if Mary Kay is your go-to source of income.
MK Misled about a number of things including: Dual Marketing (It’s an mlm), Empowerment (in the end you’re in debt and have hurt others, Go Give (When I was sick, no one in MK cared), Being your own boss (It seems even NSD’s can fall from grace, the phony titles to sadly keep women recruiting or ordering (front loading) products, the fake free pink cars (Co pays), the pretend accolades that MK herself promoted to keep everyone buying or recruiting etc. Everything including Conferences, Weekly Meetings and especially Seminar are designed to keep you indoctrinated into the mlm. The very fact that MK likens the mlm to a bathtub which constantly needs to be refilled makes working in MK counter productive. Worst though is that MK dares blame you for its failing model. With the six foot rule, they prey on vulnerable women. 🙁
“Precisely, why you should recruit. She works…you make mo’ money.” —
“BUT I guarantee you that she will work harder to build her client base then she would to help you.” —
“You can dovetail for 15% of the appt sales to a team member and you make that fee plus when she orders, you will make a recruiting commission too. Perfect … no extra work for you…but mo’ money for you.” —
Does it ever dawn on the consultant being instructed that SHE is herself someone else’s recruit? Ding, ding.
LOL, “mo’ money!” The outdated slang in these things… honestly it reveals a tone-deafness and an inability to notice anything other than themselves.
“It’s just no-for-now.”
I HATE THIS SO MUCH. No is not “no for now.” No is not “I need more information.” No is no!
I hate that too. It’s the sum total of “training” that I got as a new consultant, and a big reason I noped out of further involvement with MK. “It’s the director’s job to train”: yeah, that’s all the training you’re gonna get.
Repeatedly harping on the importance of recruiting to get “mo’ money” (ugh) is an implicit confession that you’re leeching off of those below you. Are we gonna think you’re “some kind of pyramid scam artist”? Hell, yeah, we are, you as much as admitted it.
The tone-deafness of these Directors is astonishing.
So Mary Kay is openly admitting that the big money is in recruiting. Guess what that makes it, by definition? A PYRAMID SCHEME. ?????
If I were in a position of hiring a sales manager or executive for a non-MLM position, and the candidate shared her philosophy such as what is described in this post, I’d quickly put her resume and application in the “hell no” file. Her beliefs defy any and all retail/wholesale business logic.
“Mo’ money, mo’ money”…
For f***’s sake, please…STOP it. ??
There was a local tax preparation company in my area called Mo Money Tax Services. (I think they were trying to be like H&R Block.) ANYWAY, the local news station did a big expose on them because people were getting way less in refunds than they had expected. Turns out Mo Money Taxe Services had built into their client contracts that they would get 50% of the refund for their “services” plus whatever filing and service charges they came up with. When the reporter showed up to talk with the owner, he shut the door in the reporter’s face, and the next day, the business was closed and not answering calls. The state attorney general got involved and long story short, that owner is on trial in state and federal courts for tax fraud amongst other things.
My point is Mo Money is always a scam, no matter who is talking.