This message was posted in a “Mary Kay sales director only” group on Facebook:

Anybody have an email you send to a new DIQ’s team members? I have a new DIQ with a very weak team and I really want to encourage them to rally behind her! Thanks!

And the first thing I thought about was the ethical dilemma that this director should feel. Sending a letter to team members doesn’t make them strong. Chances are, these team members will always be weak.

I don’t pretend to know whether or not the unit member was pushed into DIQ  (Director in Qualification) simply because she had enough warm bodies to do it. But if she was, how ethical is that?

What if the unit member wanted to go for DIQ without regard to what the director thought? Does the director have an obligation to try to talk her out of it if the director knows she is going to fail because of the weak team?

The director has to know that this woman is going to fail, in all likelihood. Women don’t go into DIQ with weak teams and come out with strong units. They don’t go into directorship with a weak unit and turn it into a strong unit.

What responsibility do Mary Kay directors have to advise their unit members on this issue? Were any of our former directors ever in this situation? What did you do?

13 COMMENTS

  1. More hope on their parts that the magic words will Make It Happen. Just like their signed tickets stating that they WILL debut as NSD by a certain date, or a Facebook post declaring that they WILL buy… I mean sell… 250 large this quarter. Somehow the debut never happens and the goals are conveniently forgotten.

    I’d bet a nickel that the DIQ was pushed into it because her director is anxious to rise in rank. She should back off both the DIQ and her downline and have a serious look at her own motivations and what she thinks a house built on a bog will get her in the long run.

    11
    • Magic words like:

      Hear my heart.
      Take God as your business partner.
      A Heartfelt message.
      Redouble your efforts.
      Have a heart to heart talk.
      Have a solid plan. SOLID!
      Did you it’s God first, family second, career third?

  2. “I have a new DIQ with a very weak team ” Who recruited and trained her? Who encouraged her to submit? Who should have helped her recruit a quality team? OH, this lady who wants copypasta to miraculously turn that weak team into a strong one that can boost her up a rank.

    12
  3. It’s another example of how divorced from real business MK is. If you’re a manager at a real company, and you’ve got a manager under you whose team isn’t up to par, you don’t promote the leader and pray that her team will magically improve. You’d meet up with her first and try to find out what her management skills are like. And you’d meet with her team members to find out what’s going on with them, and figure out your next move based on what you learn.

    Fancy these sugar-sharp businesswomen not knowing that.

    15
    1
    • Oh, but Popinki, surely you are overlooking the need of the SD to have a DIQ who is too weak to succeed but has a team of consultants that will buoy up the SD’s numbers when the DIQ flops and the SD absorbs her team members. THAT’S the point of pushing towards DIQ, isn’t it?

      11
  4. “Rally behind her” = Spend large sums of money that they may not be able to afford in order to help someone else achieve a goal that does not benefit them in the least. Nauseating.

    14
  5. Do you have to go into DIQ when you have the minimum number to enter? I’m thinking strength of the team should be a consideration not just warm bodies with credit cards. Then again if you were smart you’d rack up the number you need to succeed and do a one month DIQ.

    • That’s a great question! I would expect that if the consultant is bothering to recruit members, she probably will be amped to get to director status and might be forging ahead without actually being ready. But HER SD is motivated to have consultants making her look good while also bumping up the monthly production numbers, and then, of course, the lure of consultant’s failure if prematurely entering DIQ and SD’s bonus consultants if DIQ fails.

      On the other side, DIQ candidate may have an aggressive SD who is pushing consultant to recruit regardless of the quality of the candidates and the consultant is just trying to keep the SD off her back. Hence a weak team that the consultant doesn’t want, or wants but knows the team is not ready, but again, needs to keep the SD sending those love bombs and pledges of undying love and friendship that will vanish with the arrival of a consultant’s returned inventory lol.

      A business plan to effectuate a strong team….hmmm.

      3
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    • You don’t HAVE to, but you will be strongly pressured to because IF you succeed your director gets a boost up the pyramid with an addition to her number of downline directors. IF you fail, she gets the benefit of your intense focus on ordering and recruiting. If a director can keep someone in DIQ, churning through her unit, she can basically coast on their efforts.

      • This right here ^^^^ they can feast off your efforts. Just keep breadcrumbing the failing DIQ with the word salad from up above –
        “You’ve got what it takes.”
        “God’s timing isn’t always our timing.”
        “What you think about, you bring about.”
        “It’s a numbers game. You need bigger numbers.”
        And on and on.

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