“No One Held a Gun to Your Head” and Other Caring Responses from Mary Kay Consultants

So many of the women who get out of Mary Kay have emailed me regarding the comments they have gotten from other Mary Kay consultants and directors. It’s also not uncommon for many current consultants and directors to show up on the PinkLighthouse Forum to tell everyone that

I keep hearing  the same responses out of the mouths of those who are still in Mary Kay. So often so that they sound like a broken record. I know Mary Kay gives their representatives scripts to use to get customers. I’m seriously starting to wonder if they also have scripts for blaming the consultants who leave.

Here are just a few of the lines I’m sick of:

“You obviously didn’t work your business.”

“There are bad Consultants and Directors, but they are the minority and the Company certainly doesn’t endorse their behavior.”

“Why don’t you get a life?” (This from people who spend lots of time online criticizing us.)

“Quit blaming the company for your failure.”

But there is one line that always get trotted out when women discuss the tactics used to convince new consultants that they needed to order thousands of dollars of inventory to start their business (known as front loading).

What is that line?

“No one forced a gun to your head!”

No…I guess no one DID hold a gun to our head.

But there were certainly some very cleverly crafted arguments used to persuade us that we would be nuts not to.

We were told that we had to order enough inventory to get to “profit level”, whatever that is.

We were told that you “can’t sell from an empty wagon”.

We were told that women didn’t want to wait for their products and that if you had inventory, you could not only satisfy their desire for immediate gratification, but they would be tempted to purchase more. Perhaps. But lots of customers also have no problem at all waiting for their products. Some even prefer it.  As for increasing sales, that may be true, but in my experience women knew how much they could afford and tried not to overspend. Many times those impulse buys can come back to haunt you in the form of buyer’s remorse and the ensuing return.

So why is it that the same Mary Kay consultant or director who thought you were such a GREAT prospect when they convinced you to sign up so readily abandon you when, after realizing the realities of the “opportunity”, quit?

Then suddenly, you are a loser in their eyes. You just didn’t try hard enough.

There are specific tactics used by Directors and Consultants to get you to override your normal “gut feelings” and doubt. But somehow, I never hear the critics acknowledge that such practices are convincing and effective.Blaming the victim isn’t pretty.

If you can’t help it, could you at least get some new lines?