You’re On Target!
Written by SuzyQ
We have our own vocabulary in Mary Kay. Along with the overused words like awesome and great and beelieve, we find ourselves ON TARGET for any number of things. The whole concept of being on target is meant to keep pushing you to the next level. You aren’t there yet, but you will keep ordering to get to the next level. These mini-levels are incentives to order to the next level. They’re the carrot and the stick, and you never actually get there…. there is always a next level!
- When we have one new recruit, we are ON TARGET for our red jackets!
- When we come in as a new consultant with an $1,800 inventory order we are ON TARGET for a Ruby Star.
- As a new Red Jacket we are ON TARGET for Team Leader.
- Future Directors are ON TARGET for directorship and are ON TARGET for their free car.
- New Directors are ON TARGET for Honors Society, Fabulous 50s and On the Right Track.
- Seasoned directors are ON TARGET for Unit Clubs, Trips and Cadillacs.
- NSDs are ON TARGET for Inner Circle.
- When we order massive amounts of product, we are ON TARGET for the court of sales.
- When we bring lots of personal qualified recruits in we are ON TARGET for the court of sharing.
With just a little more effort from our unit… if we all pull together… the team work makes the dream work… we can get ON TARGET… it’s never too late.
ON TARGET is one of Mary Kay’s most subtle and effective manipulative techniques.
It appears that you are being congratulated for achieving ON TARGET status, but the reality is that you will be required to do more. More recruiting, more ordering. Most of us remember getting the first “You’re ON TARGET for______!” call from our director and how excited she was for us. Most of us had no idea what that meant, but we picked up on her excitement and enjoyed the attention. And then, we are told what we need to do to “Make this happen!” The false recognition is a set up for the manipulation to follow.
Being ON TARGET for something in Mary Kay really means that YOU have become the target.
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You’re right on target as always, SuzyQ.
One could be aiming dead center on the bullseye, but at the last second, YOINK! Someone moves the dartboard and you hit the corner. Buy a new dart and throw again. DINK! Now there’s Plexiglass over the target so your dart just bounces off. Here, buy a heavier dart that can punch through the Plexiglass. AHEM! Someone coughs in your ear just as you throw so you miss the dartboard completely, and it bounces off the light cover and the ricochet nearly plugs some guy so you and your friends get told to leave the bar… Oh, wait, that was that girls’ night out with Terri and Shelly back in 1997. Oops.
Anyway. Go ahead and buy the super-duper Patriot dart with laser tracking system, noise-cancelling feature, and diamond drill tip, and TA-DA! You finally hit the sucker, and earned your Red Jacket, trip, car, junky earrings, whatever. All it cost was three expensive darts and a lot of aggravation! Bring on the next board!
To switch metaphors for a moment, some early video games had a phenomenon called a “kill screen” after you maxed out the level counter. The game had no data for levels beyond the limit, so it would just mishmash any kind of random nonsense together and throw it on the screen, making an unwinnable, unplayble level. Or else the obstacles would move so fast it was humanly impossible to beat them, or the timer was so short there was no way of completing the level in the time allowed.
Having hit the bullseye, you’re ready for your next throw. Only this time the darts are even more expensive, the target is smaller and bounces around at random, the Plexiglass is twice as thick, the distractions are twice as loud, and if you don’t hit a bullseye this time, you’ll be shunned and thrown out of the bar without the fun of getting drunk first. Maybe you make it and survive DIQ! Keep throwing to keep your unit!
Lather, rinse repeat, as the obstacles get harder every time and every level is a kill screen.
For those on the hamster wheel (switching metaphors again) why are you continuing to waste your time and money on a rigged game you can’t win? Do you refuse to let your children play claw machines because they’re rigged against you? Do you refuse to play slots because they’re rigged in the casino’s favor? MLM is even worse because the sums of money and time commitment are huge and have real-world consequences.
Hand in your unthrown darts, walk out of the bar with your head held high, and go party with your real friends without a Look Book in sight.
I’ll always remember as a new consultant, my director telling me that I was on-target for a Mary Kay car. Of course, this was only because I placed a $3600 wholesale order and was close to $4000 that month from reordering product. (Mind you, I had absolutely no recruits). I had no understanding of what she meant, but she sure liked bragging that she had an on-target car driver in the unit.
Such a strange business model!
“being on target is meant to keep pushing you to the next level.”
The next level. The next car. The next prize. The next trip. The next carrot.
Brilliant strategy. Keeps the troops motivated and sounds oh-so-good when telling family/friends/customers you are “on target” for ___________. Makes it sound like you are “this close” and need their help/support/money.
The Carrot of Hope.
Is that also like saying to your family that you’re “stepping down” from being a director? That one really cracks me up.
Stepping down!! What a joke. I was “fired!” What was funny was that my director and NSD were in a panic that I’d say the wrong thing to my team about me not being their director anymore. I’ve never had so many “coaching” calls.
And at every step, you are “ON TARGET” for financial ruin, exhausting overwork, and loss of social networks.
Honestly, you’d be better off working AT Target then being ‘on Target’ with MK!