Why MK Consultants Visit Pink Truth
This comment was left on an article and deserved to be highlighted as its own post. We know many Mary Kay consultants visit Pink Truth over and over again. If they’re happy in MK, why do they keep reading?
To those of you who read and don’t post, please really think about why you’re here. Obviously it’s not to spew hatred towards this community, so why are you here?
For me, initially, I was just a curious red jacket. What on earth could anyone have to say negative about Mary Kay? An abusive director? Wow that sucks, glad mine’s not like that; I guess I don’t need to worry.
Maybe a few months pass and you return to look again. Why? For me, we had an adoptee who was a faux queen of sales. Basically she could claim whatever number of sales/parties she needed to ‘win that week’ and my director was none the wiser, though everyone was deeply suspicious. This consultant would stand during the hype of “stand up if you sold $100 this week. Stay standing if you sold $200, $300? $400?!” She’d just wait until she was the last one, every single week. She was a walking red flag. I knew she was lying, but what could I do? Why should I care? Hmm, pink truth talks about how we don’t truly track sales… interesting. Well back into the fog, maybe I’ll be back.
A year later, I’m broke. I want to go back to school, and I’ve grown embarrassed of the MK window decal on my car. I bought the most expensive one. It looked great when my car was newer, but now my car is old and in need of heavy servicing that I really can’t afford. I’m ashamed to represent MK in such an embarrassing car, so I remove it.
I’m feeling guilty about the tiny bit of relief I feel. The relief of not having to keep up with that part of the facade. Now, no one will know I’m in MK unless I tell them. So if I look as broke as I am, it’s okay. I don’t have a sticker saying “I’m rich” on my car.
I return to pink truth, and they’re talking about the ugly side of fall retreat, career conference, and seminar. I feel more relief. I’m not the only one feeling completely overwhelmed about scraping up the money to go.
I get the second job, and see two $25 charges on my pro pay account for not keeping my account active. I’m furious, and I cancel it. I realize the security I’m feeling having a job with steady pay and it terrifies me. Am I giving up, dreaming small!? Walking away from the career of a lifetime?
Then my sister places a $115 order. Perfect, extra cash! Oh but, I’m not active. I’m due for another activating order. That’s okay, I need stuff anyways. But now I’m spending money after receiving an order, and that just doesn’t feel right. Back to pink truth. Ah, not alone again. It’s difficult to turn a profit with only 50% margins. Those are actually quite low, and shipping, gifts, discounts, gas and time all eat into that profit.
Hmm, maybe I should quit. I do, and I’m flooded with relief along with some really uncomfortable confrontation of debt. Some rehabilitation on being a genuine person, and establishing friendships that don’t have an alternate agenda of party holding/introduction to more people who might have parties.
I give my customers my director’s number, but surprisingly they don’t really reorder. Most of them didn’t actually love the products, they were just trying to support me. I feel a bit embarrassed, but relieved that my director won’t know how little people actually ordered from me. I start trying new products, and they’re better than MK. I learn more from Skincare with Hyram than I ever learned in MK. I realize how little I really knew, and I considered myself a great consultant.
I start a career, and I have benefits. I’m never expected to share a hotel room, my meals are paid for, and I don’t pay for training. I pay off my credit card.
I go back to Pink Truth and realize that I’m still not alone. Many have the same stories. It’s a transition out of the fog. But no matter what, you’re not alone. You’re not the only consultant struggling secretly, and it’s okay to walk away from MK. I’m glad you’re here; it’s time you get some well deserved rest and remove that terrible burden from your shoulders. You’re not alone. Again, it’s okay to walk away.
Visit the
Maybe a few months pass and you return to look again. Why? For me, we had an adoptee who was a faux queen of sales. Basically she could claim whatever number of sales/parties she needed to ‘win that week’ and my director was none the wiser, though everyone was deeply suspicious. This consultant would stand during the hype of “stand up if you sold $100 this week. Stay standing if you sold $200, $300? $400?!” She’d just wait until she was the last one, every single week. She was a walking red flag. I knew she was lying, but what could I do? Why should I care? Hmm, pink truth talks about how we don’t truly track sales… interesting. Well back into the fog, maybe I’ll be back.
The slow erosion of integrity, as it was so aptly espoused a few days ago.
“Then my sister places a $115 order. Perfect, extra cash! Oh but, I’m not active. I’m due for another activating order. That’s okay, I need stuff anyways. But now I’m spending money after receiving an order, and that just doesn’t feel right.”
A perfect example of those qualifying minimums at work. This is one of many Mary Kay policies that get you to order way more product than you can ever hope to use or sell. And it should be understood that this is their goal.
But there are NO QUOTAS IN MARY KAY! NONE! Lol.
Dear Curious Consultants,
The nagging feeling in the back of your mind that keeps you coming back here? That is not “fear” or “doubt” or “negativity” or “the enemy”. That is cognitive dissonance. You KNOW being in Mary Kay requires you to act in ways that go against what you know is right. Leaving can be scary. I get it. But the freedom outside the Pink Bubble is fantastic.
My grandmother always said those nagging doubts were Jesus tapping you on the shoulder trying to tell you something. Inside the bubble it’s so loud from all the huns shouting at Jesus to help them flounder along for another month that they never pay attention to what happens in the quiet moments.
If you believe that Jesus will answer your prayers, he will, but not when or how you think he will. It’s not going to happen at a Mary Kay gathering where they’ll try to get you high on hallelujah. He’s not going to appear in a rosy cloud at the right hand of Mary Kay Ash as angels strum harps and sing the glory of foundation brushes, and he’s not going to crown you NSD and say “nyah nyah” to whoever’s been doubting you.
Just once, shut out the clamor and listen to what goes on when it’s just you and him. That’s real prayer.
A real business wholesale prices work like this as in margin wise.
Buy for $0.10 sell for at least $0.70 but usually $1.00
50% “profit” margin would you barely get any way, you have your costs and taxes which can take it down to 10%
Trust me MaryKay isn’t selling making them for $1 and selling for $2 more like cost pennies to make most of that stuff. Like the makeup alone is a one big batch. Smh
Exactly. Mary Kay’s true wholesale is a fraction of what they charge consultants. What Mary Kay refers to as wholesale to the consultant is actually retail from Mary Kay corporate’s point of view, since the consultant is the actual target customer. Mary Kay Corporate skims their profit off the margin between their true cost and what the consultant actually pays. Baked into that “wholesale” price is the massive distribution cost associated with their expensive MLM distribution model.
After adding up Mary Kay corporate margin and the massive MLM distribution cost overhead, this “wholesale” cost to the consultant is greater than the market retail for competing products of higher quality. This is why so little product is ever sold at all, much less at Mary Kay MSRP (twice “wholesale”).
MK Corp will get a bump in “sales” this month as the sales force members max out their credit cards to finish up Seminar production and “earn” their awards.
Right, I don’t like the terms that Mary Kay makes up in reference to margins, etc. “Keystone”, which is a common non-MLM industry term, basically means selling the product at double the wholesale cost, which I guess is what MK means when they say fifty percent.
Every industry has various profit margins for what is considered successful. In mattress/furniture, we strived for a gross profit of double (wholesale of $500, retailed for $1000 for ex) and then had to factor in so many other costs (“free” delivery is never FREE, delivery trucks+insurance+drivers+fuel are super expensive) to get to the net profit that would keep us in business.
Or there’s the high volume/low margin setup like Dollar General or Walmart…work on thin margins but the high volume allows that to be successful. One problem I have with Mary Kay and all of the free gifts, BOGOs, etc that Bots offer is that they are making their margins razor-thin and that can only be successful if they have high sales volume. Three or four sales a week (which are generally low-dollar as well, right, like a mascara or a lip gloss) at thin margins (and those are gross margins; wait til the other costs of business are accounted for, like cute gift bags, gas to drive there, paying a babysitter so you can go there) are not going to bring in much if any net income.
It seems like we don’t hear much about legit sales professionals (those who understand the things I’ve listed above) leaving their legit gigs to sell Mary Kay or other MLMs. It’s women who are working non-sales, legit jobs (sooo many teachers and nurses, what a shame) who assume they can make profit in MLM. Because they have no frame of reference to understand that what they’re being told by their recruiters is NOT how selling really works.
*dismounting my sales soapbox, thanks for reading*
It’s difficult to turn a profit with only 50% margins.
“Only 50%” is right. Anyone who has worked in retail knows that 50% is break-even, at best. But Mary Kay makes it sound like easy money. Yet another MK lie.
It seems they also don’t discuss gross and net. They make it seem like if you buy $1000 worth of products, you end up with $1000 in profit. 50% is your gross profit before expenses (and even many don’t sell items at full retail). Net is what you take home after all your expenses (the gas, the catalogs and supplies, meeting and conference costs including food and transportation, the clothing, the inventory costs including the inventory still sitting on your shelves and the stuff too old to sell, etc) and that is what you should be looking at. Looking at all those expenses, it is easy to see why many people, even those who sell a lot, are in the red.
From my past sales career in mattress/furniture, here’s a tip related to this: while pretty much every store offers free delivery, it’s never truly free. Delivery costs are huge (drivers, trucks, insurance, fuel…) so if they offer a lot of free delivery, it is ABSOLUTELY built into their retail prices/profit margins. So, if you’re buying a mattress or furniture item and you’re able to pick it up yourself, ask for a bit of a deal on the retail price. Depending on the store (independent vs chain and whether they’re able to negotiate), you’ll probably get it. I did that for many customers who could pick up their stuff. Less hassle on my end, they’re happy with the deal.
Congrats to all of us that aren’t exhausted from the June 30 madness, who didn’t have a list of orders pending they’ll go through to hit a goal, and who didn’t order BOXES of product we didn’t need just to push our units over a deadline. July 1 is all about “a fresh slate” in MK, and we were taught that today is the day “everyone is tied for #1”.
I don’t stand with a calculator in hand at year-end, and, honestly, I don’t even think about it anymore. Every once in awhile, I’ll have a memory hit me where I realize the day or month that it is and what I used to spend ALL of my time doing. I worked Sundays. Nights. Weekends. Holidays. For those reading this and wondering if what we’re saying is true, know that it’s in your recruiter and Director’s best interest to not tell you the real truth of the hours and days they work. Otherwise, no one would ever join!
To those that missed their goals last night, you should know with total confidence that you’ll see people at your next meeting or Seminar that will be celebrated for their ILLEGITIMATE win. They bought it. They used names to create “team members”. They’ll gloat, cry, thank God, and tell you straight to your face they worked hard, yet it was only their credit card and integrity that did all the work.
And if you’ve decided to be free from all that, welcome!