New directors find out quickly that the last 2 days of EVERY month are a mad dash to try to find more wholesale orders. Whether the production is needed to meet the $4,500 per month minimum (which is what most sales directors are struggling to do) or whether the director is trying to finish up a car or unit club, it’s a never ending battle. They let you believe that scrounging for orders is just something that happens in DIQ. Then you become a director and see that this is routine.

“Dialing for dollars” (calling consultants at the end of the month to get them to place orders) has been going on since the beginning.  There is never a concern over whether a consultant has actually sold any products. This is all about orders only. It’s a common theme in Mary Kay. Your sales director begs or otherwise convinces you to order inventory you don’t need or want, because all she really cares about is her own commission check or car production.

This document gives clues to the consultants who are most likely to order. It’s easier to get someone to order if you tell her she’s going to lose her recruits, or she’s close to the next level, or some other false “goal” (think consistency club) is put in front of her.

Isn’t it great that they call this activity “treasure hunting”??? Let’s be honest. If these women had a legitimate need to order, they would. They don’t need the sales director hounding them. But it’s protocol in Mary Kay. And if anyone quits Mary Kay and complains about having ordered products she didn’t need, she will be told it’s all her fault and she should have said no. (All while the sales director continues dialing for dollars because she knows it works.)

Here’s a comprehensive set of instructions to doing the dialing the right way:

Directors,

The countdown is here to month-end, & the adrenaline is rising…your goal is in sight, but production is short. Where do you find it now? Your diligent efforts over the next two days could DOUBLE your production & increase your paycheck by even more than double!

There’s no telling how many more consultants you can still recruit & activate by Wednesday, just by being out in the personal space of your prospects & operating with an energetic sense of urgency!

Preferably the groundwork has been already been laid for you to cross the finish line victoriously between your personal business activity & that of your unit in the last 28 days, & now all that is needed is focused followup on the phone.

Today is the day to view or print some reports. Think of them as treasure maps to production!

Be sure you have connected & downloaded the most recent reports into your Director’s Desktop Office Manager.

1. Look at your recruiters and their teams and treasure hunt there first:

• Check your personal team to secure your own 13% Love Check. Have 5 of your team members ordered? Do you have in at least $600 wholesale yourself.
• What Red Jackets have an “I” by their own name, yet have team members who have ordered? Unless an activating order goes in by Wednesday, she will lose a Love Check. Alert her immediately!
• Now check for 9% & 13% potential upgrades with Team Leaders & above…what Team Leaders are short of $600, yet have 5 team members who have ordered?…could order? What TLs have in $600 themselves, but are short of 5? A quick, excited phone call to those Red Jackets may be just the motivation THEY need to cross the finish line beyond what they are seeing today.

2. Now go to your report on unit consultant wholesale production. Compare to last month.

• Who placed an order last month who could be inspired to begin a Consistency Club pace by placing a second order in August?
• Who has been in the Consistency Club, but hasn’t ordered yet in August? Have your office assistant call every one of these Consistency Club pacers just to remind them that the end of the month is [day of the week] & what that schedule is. (Give her a script). I cannot tell you how many times this has produced orders, just because the end of the month had crept up on busy consultants who had no intention of giving up their Consistency Club status!!! Yes, they thank-you for conscientiously reminding them every month!

STRATEGY NOTE: If you do not have a Consistency Club promotion going in your unit, don’t allow another month to go by without placing a priority on this promotion! I have been running one for 15 years, & it has been the single most significant promotion I have ever run to maintain consistency in both my production & my paycheck. I have consultants who have placed $225+ orders every month for 8, 9, 10 YEARS!

• What new consultants came in during the month who have not yet ordered?  Has she been reminded of the deadline for her new consultant product bonus?
• What other new consultants need to place initial orders before the end of the month? Are they aware that an order placed at the beginning of the next month will experience a long shipping delay? That DOES make a difference to new consultants! New consultants in qualifying units and/or on car teams probably have no idea that the timing of their order makes a big difference to someone else’s goal. If this new consultant has a Team Player personality, she will want to know that her timing can benefit a team goal. How you communicate that must be sensitive, but what has often worked for me was taught to me years ago by my Senior Director “If you are going to be ordering anyway, is there any way possible you can do so by this Wednesday?”
• Check ordering patterns over the last 6 months…who is “due” to order by her traditional pattern? ( Example: usually orders every other month & has fallen out of pattern? Is she ordering? If her pattern has broken, why? Red Flag…)

3. THINK: Who has told you recently that she has sold a lot of product or “needs to order”…what if you call & offer to facilitate getting that inventory order in for her today before the end-of-the-month rush, so she can give the best service to her customers? From now on…anytime you hear that from a consultant, write a note to yourself in your day – timer the last week of the month…”Has __________ ordered yet this month?”

4. Finally, look at former consultants (inactive, but not yet terminated). Who will lose her wholesale buying power if an activating order doesn’t go in by the end of the month? Could a quick reminder call from you make a difference?

Our work is cut out for us, leaders, so put on your running shoes! Cross the finish line this month with your tongue hanging out, & whatever the scoreboard says, hold your head high! If this month is going to be great, we must MAKE it great!