Written by SuzyQ

Whoo hoo! I have a new recruit! “She will sign Saturday morning, she gets paid Friday! This is so much fun and so easy!!!!” Until Saturday comes, and there is no response to your calls or text messages… the email address you had for her bounces and suddenly you can’t find her on Facebook (did she block you?)…

This is so common, it’s pathetic. We all live for new recruits. Product in your basement may be your “ATM” but recruits (team members) are your retirement income. Except that so many do not sign.

The typical scenario is like this: You take your “guest” to your Mary Kay meeting on Monday night. Your director is ON that night and your guest is so excited! YOU are so excited!!! Your director is soooooooo excited!!!! Your director calls your potential team member to schedule an interview, and suggests coffee or lunch and SHE GOES! The fact that your director giving is her a free mascara or a limited edition product “for her time” is a factor, but still…

SHE IS IN! She is so excited again! Your director was soooooooo good and your potential team member is all but in the bag! You call her. She squeals, you squeal! All you have to do is wait until she gets paid. No biggie. You send a thank you note. Your director sends a thank you note. You are imagining all of the applause and “Atta girl’s” you will receive at the next meeting. This is great! It’s easy! This “layering thing” works! ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS ASK! Wow.

Until Saturday comes and she has disappeared from the face of the earth.

Your calls to her are unanswered, your director’s calls to her are unanswered. The emails bounce like rubber balls. No response to multiple text messages, even the “just checking to see if you’re okay” one. You can’t find her on social media, and you wonder if she has blocked you. Your voicemails increase in urgency. You are talking to your director frequently. She asks you to give it a day or two and try again. You agree and do so.

Your new best friend and team member has bailed. You will not get a response. Trust me on this. Who knows what happens? They find Pink Truth? Talk to someone else? Have an unexpected bill? Feel pressured and then calm down and think rationally? Realize that all of the marketing information shared at the meeting, and then restated again at the “interview” sounds too good to be true?

It happens to all of us. Really. Even directors, even top directors, OVER AND OVER AND OVER. More often than not. We learn as directors not to “count” the person until the agreement has been submitted. Then we hold our breath until we determine how much inventory they will come in with.

Please understand that there is a period of time between the actual signing of the agreement and the “Inventory Talk.” When a newbie signs an agreement, she is under the impression that her total expenditure will be $100 + tax and shipping. She is not told that there is more…

As directors we are taught that we lose $600 wholesale on the inventory for each day that goes by after an agreement has been signed but before she whips out her credit card and buys the inventory. We like to set up an appointment to do the inventory talk with the newbie within 24 hours of the agreement. We go through the usual spiel, using the company brochure, or we copy another visual one off the internet… and off we go.

We hit the ordering bonuses, the “freebies,” the Star Consultant program, the recognition, the full wagon scenario, the website, the business kits, etc., like our lives depend on it. They do. The more production we bring in, the bigger our checks. Most of us bought the spin from corporate that “Mary Kay does not like her directors to have other J.O.B.S.” so this IS our income.

The worst scenario is when a unit member (or a director) has a NEW POTENTIAL RECRUIT at the end of the month. It is critical they sign NOW and come in with inventory. We know how quick someone can get a credit card. It is hard to avoid the desperation that oozes through the pores of the struggling director who needs just ONE star to finish a car, or do production, or get an award or whatever.

Consider this. Products change frequently. They have to in order to keep things fresh and to get everyone excited. But when those products change (and you never know which ones are next), you’ll have obsolete inventory. You could have a huge stash of inventory, and someone will order something you don’t have… leading you to have to order again. It’s an ugly cycle, this whole inventory thing. And your director and the company will discourage trading or selling inventory between consultants, because every time that happens, they lose out on an order that would have been placed with the company.

There is a reason that people change their minds after saying they will sign their agreements. They were smarter than we were.