My Mary Kay Experience
Written by Cat
Hi! I signed up for MK just about a year ago because I went to a party, liked the product, and who doesn’t love a 50% discount? Like you, I thought I knew all the pros and cons of MK. I was clear with my recruiter that I was signing up for personal use only, and I would not be recruiting and I would not ever go to Seminar.
My starter kit arrived, and the manipulation started. My director pressured me to buy a $600 inventory package, even though I had already said I was doing this for personal use only. I declined, so she pressured me to apply for a MK credit card. It did not go over well when I said no to both of those things.
Then my director invited me to “new consultant training.” I joined the Zoom meeting, expecting an overview of product lines and help navigating In Touch. Nope, I got an hour of discussion on “how to sell the opportunity and turn no into yes.” Remember, I signed up for personal use only, and was up front that I was not interested in recruiting.
I agreed to let my recruiter host my “grand opening” party. I figured, even if I’m doing this for personal use only what would it hurt to sell a little? Of course, I had to pay for a website and ProPay then, two expenses I had not anticipated. My recruiter of course got a couple of my friends to join “practice interviews” to help with my training, so I had to spend time sitting in on those. Remember, I’m not interested in recruiting.
Then my recruiter who was in DIQ got her directorship. Her first training offered was on “layering.” I thought, I’d be so annoyed if someone did that to me. What’s that about MK and the Golden Rule?
Then my sweet cousin booked a Facebook party, so there went more expenses in section 2 products, free shipping, prizes, and hostess gifts. She convinced two of her friends to book parties, but neither one of them held. One bailed on me at the last minute, after I’d spent time setting up her party. The other one just politely avoided me. After that, I sat down and put every dollar in and every dollar out into a spreadsheet. After two parties and other friends/family sales of about $1800 retail, I had made a whole $30 in profit after expenses.
It was pretty easy for me to just fade away from MK because I didn’t have inventory I needed to liquidate or return. In the end, I spent a lot of time and made next to no money. What happened to that full time pay in just a few hours a week that we were all promised?
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Consultants in DIQ will always welcome a personal use new consultant because they need the “bodies” to finish. They also think once you receive your kit they can manipulate you into wanting to run a “business” and get that initial qualifying order. That’s where the Senior Director steps in to apply the pressure. Thank goodness this woman was strong enough to say no to an order and no to the credit card! It’s unfortunate she got roped into the FB party, but at least she didn’t lose too much money in her brief encounter with the cult.
The Senior Director was awful. She asked for a time when we could talk, so I gave her one. She insisted that we needed to talk sooner. She pressured me to set up a time for a call, and then didn’t call. She texted to set up another time for a call, then didn’t call again. She texted with an excuse, and set up a call for “sometime Sunday afternoon.” At this point, I was beyond irritated with her for being disrespectful of my time and I felt like I was being manipulated. On Sunday, she actually did call. I was out running errands because I wasn’t going to sit home waiting on her. Since I wasn’t home by my computer with credit card in hand, she couldn’t give her inventory spiel.
She eventually did call, at the time I had originally offered. I told her no, I wasn’t going to spend $600 on inventory. At the time, there was a promotion where a new consultant would get free products with a $600 order. She kept going on and on about how she didn’t want me to miss out on all these free products. If I had purchased the products for myself from MK, I would have spent $55. That just didn’t make sense to me. This was during the pandemic when everything was shut down. All parties were virtual, and every order had to be shipped. Inventory made no sense to me.
Then my recruiter kept following up about my inventory order, and telling me about the MK credit card. I finally told her that I have plenty of credit, and I don’t want inventory. Maybe that was rude, but both she and her director had crossed lines with me by that point.
The fact that it was during the lockdowns makes it even more obvious that she was trying to frontload you for the sake of frontloading you.
Let’s see, if you buy $600 you have to pay sales tax on $1200… at 6% sales tax that’s $72. That’s more than the cost of the “freebies”.
And of course whatever you’re frontloaded with, it’s not going to be what your customers want, so there’s more ordering, tax, and shipping…
No wonder you couldn’t make a go of it. You’ve got way too much common sense 😉
And yet another deceitful tactic telling you there was a “special” for free products with a $600 wholesale order because as long as I can remember there has always been a free product bonus with orders starting at the $600 level. You really weren’t any help for the DIQ and her senior if you didn’t at least become active with the minimum $225 wholesale especially if the DIQ was in her final month of qualification. THAT in itself was the reason for all the pressure to order inventory.
All right, critics, Cat didn’t let herself be conned into buying inventory, opening an MK credit card, or going to Seminar. She did the training, even though it was completely not what she wanted, sold the stuff, did the parties. And made a whopping thirty bucks for her troubles. If she did everything right, why wasn’t she sitting on a mountain of cash?
“Then my sweet cousin booked a Facebook party, so there went more expenses in section 2 products, free shipping, prizes, and hostess gifts.” As always, everything presented as a way to get ahead just means more cash outlay for the consultomer.
I imagine it’s forbidden to use anything but official Mary Kay paraphernalia even though Amazon has mirrors, sample trays, applicators, and everything else for dead cheap. I can’t find prices for Section 2 itmes on the website but I imagine they’re as mediocre and overpriced as the rest of the stuff. You have to pay for your own samples and of course the hostess gifts have to be lavish enough to thank her for actually holding the party.
Face it, no matter how you try to make it work, the system is rigged against you somehow.
She DID NOT buy inventory, open a MK credit card, or go to Seminar. …. if she had done all that, Mary Kay lore says she would have been on her way to success. Reality says she would not have made $30 she would be in debt a few thousand.
The so-called training was awful. I expected to learn how to use the In Touch website, how to find information and marketing materials about the product, how to run a party, how to demonstrate the product…you know, training you would need if your MK “business” was actually about marketing and selling the product.
It is impressive that Cat was able to sell all of her stuff. But that was to friends and family, which is not sustainable. This is what tricks the new recruits into believing this can be a business.
The only way to make real money in retail is to sell to strangers…and lots of them. No one buys these overpriced MLM products from strangers. Most of MLM retail sales made are likely pity purchases by F+F. Once this warm network dries up, it’s on to recruiting. And so it goes in every MLM…
Of course, I had to pay for a website and ProPay then, two expenses I had not anticipated.
The start of extracting of as much money out of the consultomer as they can.
Guess she got off easy, only some wasted time. For once, a real (albeit former) Mary Kay consultant has disclosed their net profit on here! You see, there is a first time for everything.
I put every dollar in and every dollar out into a spreadsheet. And I made sure that for every dollar I put on my credit card, a dollar went back into my bank account. Even with meticulous recordkeeping, I was shocked at how little I ended up making.