Chelsea Adkins Sold $85,000 of Products! (No, She Did Not.)
It’s been a while since I talked about false earnings claims in Mary Kay. The easiest false claims to identify are the ones regarding how much product was sold. Take this one: Chelsea Claytor Adkins said she sold $85,000 of products in the seminar year that ended June 30, 2020. No, she did not.
What REALY happened? Her calculated “retail sales” for the seminar Queen of Sales contest was $85,000. That’s a completely bogus number. It takes everything she ordered at wholesale, multiplies it by 2 (to get to full suggested retail price), and adds on a whole bunch of “double credit.”
So the falsehoods come about because they:
- Assume she sold everything she ordered. She did not. Chelsea has thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars of products sitting at her house. How do I know? A few days ago she posted in her IG stories about how much inventory she has. If she has 27 contours on her shelf, you know she has tons and tons of stuff. Nobody needs to carry that much. (But remember she DID buy her way into a pink Cadillac.)
- Assume she sold everything at full suggested retail price. She did not. Chelsea has massive sales to push a ton of product out the door. So doubling the amount she ordered creates a number far higher than what she actually brought in.
- Play the double credit game. During certain months, the company doubles what you order for purposes of the seminar contest. It’s simply meant to get women to order more than they ordinarily would (you have to take advantage of double credit!). And overall it increases the lie about how much was pretend sold.
Visit the
Totally not related to this topic really, but did anyone get tired of clapping at seminar? It’s continuous for hours. Sore palms. I mean, doesn’t that kind of defeat the purpose of applause if it goes on for four hours for thousands of women on stage? I dunno. Just sayin. I have a very clear memory of wanting to take a break from the frigging applause. Plus, the effect was discouraging for me, rather than motivating. I thought, why are these thousands of women succeeding, while I haven’t sold jack squat? Maybe this isn’t right for me. I quit directly after.
While you were clapping and saw a person like Chelsea being recognized, did you truly think she sold 85k? How long were you in, and was it PT that brought this funky math to your attention? I’m guessing your upline just played along with the charade, and no one enlightened you of how the con game was played?
Yes I truly believed they were selling that much. I was in for about 6 months, concluded that I sucked, slunk away and tried to recoup financially. This was 2000, so no Pink Truth to enlighten folks. My uplines ignored me and now I know why. I had no potential to recruit.
I think a lot of women believe that the products are sold. It’s hard not to when the ENTIRE upline parrots it over and over. She wouldn’t order if she wasn’t selling! She sold $85,000. Look at how much they sold. It gets repeated over and over and over.
I most hated standing when NSDs walked in a room or onstage. Clapping was watered down, especially when you’d see people you KNEW had not been selling that much.
Legitimate wins are worthy of applause. Nothing else.
I realized it when I went to trade with a consultant and she had a whole 3×8 or larger closet filled with MK. She tried to get me to buy some other items also. She was also on Queens court of sales for a few years and yet never stood at meeting for selling . Soon after her Director stepped down, she is not on scoreboard and neither is her former Director.
Stepping down from Directorship gives others validation that it’s ok to remove the facade.
I had the same experience, with a different MLM. All the people I was so jealous of eventually quit too, so that tells you how this works right there.
85,000 is the highest for the area and even still it’s a fake number?! Not even 27 contours can cover up the math Chelsea.
That is an excellent point.
Not Even with a ton of concealer underneath. LOL
Good One parsonsgreen ?.
P.S. And to the apparent little troll running around giving every comment a ?, I get that it’s your only childish resort, when you can’t argue with MATH & FACTS ! But..Nobody’s Listening to ya!
Chelsea literally just told on herself. Having 27 of anything MK in your inventory meant you bought your prize/level/car/”promotion”.
And I don’t buy she sold that much this summer. We were just at the beginning of the thick of the pandemic.
I was a Director with offspring and didn’t have 27 of anything in the inventory I returned, either. Strong point!
“you bought your prize/level/car/’promotion’.”
Her husband must have a good job.
He is a police officer. I don’t think he makes a ton. She has massive credit card debt, as she mentioned on her IG stories the other day.
Did you grab a screen shot of that?
Take a guess. LOL. 🙂
That’s a very expensive sash and bouquet…
*waits for another Michelle Cunningham* expose.
How are these women convincing people to order $1200 or more worth of inventory in these times???? You are doing the classes or whatever virtually so you can’t use the line that they want to take the product with them right now. How are they recruiting and schilling inventory these days????
I think one of the selling points is the $30 sign up promotion. As far as inventory, my guess is that if they do order, it’s more of personal use/immediate family & friends – not necessarily huge orders. But, this is all just a guess for me.
You’re actually spot-on. Our average was $1000/new Consultant. My Sr now brings in <$600 wholesale each. The commissions in Applause are lower than ever, and that backs that up that it’s nationwide and not just localized.
I have to say, I bought the $30 virtual kit. I don’t know what I really expected to get. But I thought I would have immediate access to the personal website. Not so, until i make that first $225 wholesale order.
I M reading through this site and it’s heartbreaking.
Also, going along with my previous comment – I think for prospective recruits, consultants try to make up in volume what they would normally do for first-time large orders. So instead of having 3 or 4 new recruits who place a $1200+ order, they will get 9-12 new recruits ordering $300-$400 worth. Which, let’s be honest, if you’re “filling a tub with an open drain”, this method isn’t sustainable either especially in this economic climate.
it flies off the shelves. remember?
Well Shay most things do when you sell them under cost ?, and BOGO! It’s terrible business economics, but a good way to clear out space. LOL
It’s been forever since I looked at their eyeshadows. The quality is so visibly poor that I’m shocked someone would post such a terrible picture of the product. My brain wanted to read the caption differently.
“Any other mk ladies out there having issues of low quality with your recent purchases?”
Or
“Any other mk ladies out there have a full dang inventory in your house but scrape by to afford your own eyeshadow?”
Another unprofessional post that screams “I’m not a good at marketing/selling my product.”
Must be deafening in the echo chamber.
So, 41 people she “shared the opportunity” with means 41 less customers for her to (not) sell product to, because now they can buy whatever they want at wholesale. Such a successful “business” plan.