YOU Are the Target
Written by Cassie
Many folks visit Pink Truth and are surprised or appalled at the personal accounts of women who were manipulated by their Mary Kay sales directors and National Sales Directors. They are so excited about their new businesses, and their directors are so kind and seem to really care about them, they cannot imagine that any of the accounts here at Pink Truth could possibly happen to them. They rail against the true stories posted here simply because it has not happened to them. Yet.
How do you know if your recruiter or sales director is as honest and forthright as she seems to be? How will you know if you are being played, or groomed for a career in Mary Kay regardless of whether you are interested in such a future for yourself? How can you be sure your director is not working on gaining your trust as she slowly lays a trap for you? In short, how do you ensure you are not conned by a highly trained manipulator? Here are a list of red flags you should watch for if you are a Mary Kay Consultant or thinking of becoming one:
- Ask how your recruiter will benefit by signing you up. Then compare notes here at Pink Truth. If she did not explain each way that she profits by having you in her unit, allow yourself to wonder why she would not take the time to make the situation crystal clear. She is in business to make money, not to lead women to a blissful life. She intends to profit from you, make no mistake about that. If she is gushing about enriching your life, realize that if that was her priority, she would be doing this with no intention of gaining from your decision.
- Do not fall for the Husband Unawareness Program. Many directors are trained to make you feel like a fool if you are not willing to make a decision without getting “permission” from your partner concerning signing up for Mary Kay or placing inventory orders. Don’t be rushed into a decision. Do as much research as you can.
- Don’t believe it when Mary Kay is described as a “dual-marketing” business model. There is no such thing. MK is a Multi-Level Marketing business plan and is designed to benefit the upper levels of this product-based pyramid scheme.
- If you are told that the Mary Kay business plan is taught at Harvard, call the University and find out for yourself that this is a bald-faced lie. Ask your recruiter exactly how much you will be expected to pay for training, because it is not free.
- Don’t make the mistake of believing the time-honored MK lie that your personal use products can be claimed as a tax deduction. That is not true.
- Find out why Mary Kay Cosmetics does not track retail sales yet claims to be the best-selling brand. Is it possible to ascertain how much product is actually sold to real customers? Realize that when MK doesn’t track retail sales, then the person who buys from them is their customer. That’s you.
- Ask for documentation that shows how many MK consultants are in your area. When they won’t give the information to you, ask yourself what business would not research the local competition. How smart is it to invest in a business when you are not allowed to find out the basic realities of your possible customer base?
- Find out how you are allowed to advertise. Because you do not have a brick and mortar business that draws in customers, you should be able to advertise in the way you see fit, right? Wrong. Not in Mary Kay. You will be very limited in the ways you may advertise.
- Ask what your expenses will be as a consultant. If you are not told that you will be asked to attend countless out of town conferences, seminars and career meetings at your own expense to get the training you need, you are not getting the full picture. Find out how much the samples are. What other items will you need to buy to conduct skin care classes and facials?
- Demand a legal record of actual profit from your recruiter, including all sales and expenses. If your recruiter dances around this, and won’t provide an actual tax return, be very wary. If she waves a commission check in front of you, realize that one payment is just that: one payment, once upon a time. And that check does not reflect expenses or chargebacks, which is a bill that she receives from Mary Kay if any of her recruits returned their products to the company.
- Don’t order products to meet a goal, win a contest, or help your unit. An actual business does not ever tie up their cash flow with unnecessary inventory.
- If you ask about when the company plans to change formulas or overhaul packaging, and you do not get a clear answer that you can truly verify, stop. This happens constantly in Mary Kay with no warning and little notice, and your products immediately become obsolete.
- Do not use your sales director’s tax preparer. Often MK directors use accountants who will fudge the numbers for you, or overlook inconsistencies and only care about collecting your fee. When you are audited because your tax return is flagged, pointing to possible fraud or claiming a hobby as a legitimate business, you’re on your own, baby.
- Ask yourself why you won’t be invited to training events if you don’t bring a guest. Makes no sense, right? Why would you need a guest with you to receive training? Know that the name of the game in Mary Kay is recruiting and if you are not building a team, you are not worth their time or the space that you take up. You are just not earning them a sufficient amount of commissions if it is just you ordering small amounts.
- Ask your recruiter how you will get customers. If you are told to hit up your friends and family, ask yourself if a legitimate business owner relies on her mother and best friend to get her started. If you are told to go to the mall and strike up casual conversations, “warm chatter”, and give compliments to total strangers, picture yourself actually doing this. Realize that you would have to do this to gain customers, because you can’t hang a shingle in front of your house, and open shop, waiting for the masses of women to buy overpriced, mediocre makeup and skincare.
- If you are told that you would make a great director, find out why she thinks that. Are her reasons valid, or is she just stroking your ego? What does she actually know about you? Know that she needs you to quit being a stick-in-the-mud consultant and start recruiting in order for her to move up the career path.
It is important to remember that your director is spending time with you because you have the potential to earn money for her. This is not a game, it is not playtime, girl time, or a mission she is on. No matter what she says, she did not join Mary Kay to enrich women’s lives.
Many directors seem to be gloriously prosperous, thrilled to have found the golden egg, and act as if they desperately want you to have that too. Most are drowning in debt, trying to get someone who will earn them commissions to help them dig their way out the money-sucking pit that they fell into, and can’t find another way to do it without filing for bankruptcy. Please spend some time here at Pink Truth and do much research before you take your next step.
If you are so excited about this business opportunity that you finally feel “alive,” and can barely breathe, calm down. Be rational and systematic, because you are putting yourself in danger by thinking about a business in emotional terms. You have blinders on. Your reality is distorted.
Are you displaying that excitement about becoming a MK consultant or sales director? Are you noticing that this person is suddenly really excited about your future and paying increasing attention to you? If so, you’d better watch out, because you are putting a bulls eye on your forehead, and you are her saving grace. You have become her target.
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“Demand a legal record of actual profit from your recruiter…”
Put another way, “Hey, this does sound interesting. Once you are personally turning a true business profit at this (better than $50K/yr or so), as shown on line 31 of your own Sched C, I will hear you out. Until then, I am not interested.”
If the recruiter comes back to you again, just reply with, “So, let’s review that Sched C together…”
You wouldn’t invest in a hot dog stand without wanting to know how many other stands are in the area, and asking to see the expenses and income. Don’t let ANY business persuade you to invest in them without seeing their actual business records.
The Schedule C does not breakdown profit/loss from retail sales. It literally could be all pyramid scheme recruiting commissions on line 31.
I wish we would all stop requesting to see it, or make the distinction that we’ll need to see profit/loss numbers of actual product sales to non-affiliates. After all, that is the business they are selling to the recruit.
Char, line 31 is “net” profit, not gross commission revenue. Unless this person has other small business income, this is a very good metric for the health of her MLM business. No one in their right mind would report a positive profit for a small business that is losing money.
Research by Jon Taylor shows that MLMers overwhelmingly report losses on their Sched C. Amway reps brag about how much they write off for their “business”. Besides, if anyone is making anything decent in MLM, they’d have to make estimated quarterly income tax pre-payments or face penalties for underpayment when they file their annual return. This is real…I’ve been there (don’t worry…not from MLM revenue!).
I can’t imagine a money-losing MLMer reporting a profit just for the “pride” of it. They will find write-offs six ways to Sunday to get that number to zero or negative.
“line 31 is “net” profit, not gross commission revenue. Unless this person has other small business income, this is a very good metric for the health of her MLM business.”—
I think there is a misunderstanding.
I realize #31 is net profit (or loss), not gross commission revenue. The issue is it literally could be all pyramiding commissions (minus pyramiding deductions) reported on line 31!
The IRS instructs: 1099 pyramid commissions earned are entered in the same place as sales receipts, on Income Part 1, line 1. The two aren’t separated; it could be both, or either.
Imo, you cannot conclude the health, or lack thereof, of an MLM business if retail sales to non-affiliates aren’t accounted for, regardless of the overall numbers. Healthy = Legitimate and as advertised. Endless-chain recruiting where no product need ever be resold is not legitimate, BUT this could produce a net-profit on a SC.
“No one in their right mind would report a positive profit for a small business that is losing money… I can’t imagine a money-losing MLMer reporting a profit just for the “pride” of it.”—
I’m not sure how you concluded that from my post? Not sarcasm, I’m perplexed.
We would need to know what amount was reported from the 1099, and what was profit/loss from sales itself for the implication of our SC request to be on message. I’m assuming our main message is: Prove to us Mary Kay is not a product-based pyramid scheme, and that you make a profit from selling MK cosmetics as their “sales force”. The SC cannot not do that on its face.
Right now when we ask, we are essentially saying, “Show us the money.” And because this is MLM, that would likely be from pyramid commissions, i.e., “Prove to us how much you make from scamming others, and we’ll be satisfied.” Not!
I realize we never expect them to show us the money, but that’s besides the point. We’re giving them the chance by asking. What if an NSD swung by and showed us a profit on Line 31? Are we good with her actions on how she got to that net profit?
Far too many people say, “MLM is a scam because you don’t make any money.” That’s misguided; it’s a big ball of deception using tried and true cult tactics in a big fat con game. The lack of profit is supportive evidence, Tuesday’s article, but not the only reason as the above quote simply implies. The basic quote leads you to nothing about the lies and manipulation involved. It makes it sound like it’s just a lousy business venture.
I don’t really want proof that the person is, or isn’t, making money as pyramid schemer. Both are committing the same crime; one is a net-winner, and one a net-loser. (Until proven otherwise with follow up clarification of self-awareness, I stand by my assessment that Monday’s article only read like a net-loser mad at the Mary Kay mothership for not helping her. To me, “cruel” would be continuing on in directorship scamming others if Mary Kay HAD helped, enabling her to recoup money from new victims – which was the desire implied in the article. I digress.)
I want proof that there is a net profit from the practice of retailing Mary Kay products. This is the business they advertise.
Since we already know that net profits from sales to non-affiliates is almost non-existent (save the few outliers); and retail sales is certainly not the priority or preferred path anyway in the inherently flawed MLM system, I feel we are only legitimizing their pyramid scheme business by asking for the Schedule C in general terms.
When asking about training and events, don’t let your recruiter BS you about how “everything is optional. It’s totally up to you whether you go to Seminar, Career Conference, Fall Retreat, whatever.” Dig in.
How much pressure will be applied to consultants to attend? Will you guilt trip and manipulate those who OPT not to go? Ask this: “How many events/trainings are SUCCESSFUL consultants expected to attend? And how much do those cost per year?” Then double or triple that figure. Because I guarantee you she’s underestimating the amount, likely because she herself doesn’t know.
“Ask for documentation that shows how many MK consultants are in your area. When they won’t give the information to you, ask yourself what business would not research the local competition. How smart is it to invest in a business when you are not allowed to find out the basic realities of your possible customer base?”
This is super important, because so many Friday critics pull out the “it’s no different than opening a McDonald’s!!!” argument. A legit franchisor won’t let you open a location without a business plan and research proving that the location is viable, to prevent market saturation and cannibalization.
Unless you’re Subway but that’s a whole other whoring business.
Yeah Pop, this one always gets me, too. Prob because I spent a good part of my career as a territory sales rep/manager and we were guaranteed physical territories. After having worked in that arena for so long, if a hun tried to recruit me, the absolute first thing out of my mouth would be to ask exactly what territory she’s “recruiting” for me to sell to, and if she offered up some version of “oh we don’t have territories and it’s awesome because you can sell to ANYBODY, ANYWHERE”, I’d laugh and walk off, but not before asking her to tell me how many consultants there are in my town/county, just to see her response.
And of course the whole McD argument gets to me as well. When you receive a franchise, it is carefully protected in your contract…and McD Corporate won’t just hand out franchise agreements to any Joe Bag of Donuts that asks for one. They are vetted big time and must have significant investment money to even be considered. Yet with the MK opportunity of a lifetime, one only really needs to be breathing to be “ chosen” to join. Lulz.
“Are you displaying that excitement about becoming a MK consultant or sales director? Are you noticing that this person is suddenly really excited about your future and paying increasing attention to you? If so, you’d better watch out, because you are putting a bulls eye on your forehead, and you are her saving grace. You have become her target.”
This is why I keep saying know yourself and what you want for yourself, not what someone else is telling you to want. Your upline does nothing that doesn’t benefit them to your detriment.
There was an article not long ago of how-tos for directors, to grind consultants through DIQ, which requires the DIQ to recruit and spend money like crazy, both of which benefit the director. Part of it was to pick a “DIQ of the Month”, then when she fails turn your attention on someone else for the same treatment.
Do you want to move up the career ladder? Do you know what it entails? Are you willing to put yourself and your family through that? Will you be able to live with yourself afterwards?
If her highest commission check was 5 years ago, then what’s her average check for the last 6 months.
A great question and one that is met with 1) well that’s just the check I happen to have a copy of to show you, I get checks like that; or 2) dodging the question entirely and “bringing it back around” to expressing flattery of the recruit and asking HER questions
Great post Cassie!!!
Have you ever had a copay on your vehicle?
For all Kbots: dual marketing exists but it does not exist in the way Mary Kay defines it.
An example of dual marketing is a clothing manufacturer will sell their clothes out of their own stores but also sells businesses to businesses, such as another clothing boutique (AKA another real business not an MLM). They are using two different methods to sell to end customers.
This more aptly can be described as dual distribution but hopefully you understand what I’m trying to say.
Dual marketing is also when two manufacturers team up for a campaign: soft drink maker and hot dog maker selling their products as a package, sharing the costs of the campaign.
It has NOTHING to do with the number of hands a single product passes through, or the number of levels of upline your inventory purchases are supporting.
This is a fantastic post, Cassie! Yet you know the pink- kool-aid- drinkers are all “YOUR A BUNCH OF NEGATIVE MEAN LOOSERS” and it’s a shame. But hey, they are real-life successful business owning #bassbabes and we’re just a bunch of jaded Debbie Downers.