Why Do You Need to Have Inventory?
Written by L J on May 23, 2008 – 4:53 pm -MK Ash was fond of saying that you “can’t sell from an empty wagon” in business, meaning you have to have inventory in your store to sell. That makes perfect sense.
But I don’t think it adequately explains why MK Consultants have to plunk down hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars to purchase “initial inventory.”
There are many home party companies and most of them do not require their representatives to stock inventory.
AVON, one of Mary Kay’s competitors, allows their reps to take product orders from customers and then place the order for product with the company. The customer receives their order about two weeks later. Many other companies, like Tupperware and PartyLite, work the same way.
Working this way just seems smart. For one thing, the consultant doesn’t have a huge up-front cost just to get started. For another, she never has to try to juggle her inventory to keep certain things in stock or try to get rid of lots of limited-edition or discontinued product that didn’t sell.
Mary Kay Consultants are told that having inventory on your shelf is motivating. It motivates you to sell because you want to get it off your shelf and convert it to cash. But many women find it to be paralyzing instead.
Consultants are also told that if they have inventory, customers will buy more and make more impulse purchases because they know you have it and they can get their hands on it now. While that may be true for some people, other women are perfectly content to wait for their products.
For Mary Kay Consultants, why can’t their catalog be their well-stocked wagon, as it is for many of the other direct sales companies?
Tags: initial inventory, Mary Kay, marykay
Posted in Articles & Commentary |
Colleen on 
Tam on 
Sassy_C on
May 25th, 2008 at 10:14 am
This is a great topic and one that unfortunately causes IBC’s lots of problems. You are exactly correct on the wagon quote - all uplines use that to pursuade inventory purchases. I certainly wish I’d remembered the other “wagon type” quote, “DON’T PUT YOUR HORSE BEFORE YOUR CART!”
It is difficult to determine what customers will want when you are first starting out and don’t have the customers.
May 25th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
I found having inventory actually DOES help sales…..
May 25th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
i am sure it can help sales…but mostly…most all the women..no i take it back, every single woman I encountered didn’t mind waiting. I came in with a full inventory and regret it 2 years later!
May 26th, 2008 at 10:09 am
I recommend keeping inventory of only skin care - Ultimate Miracle Products, and a couple of other products that you would personally use or would be easier to sell (mascara). Never stock limited products! I started stocking some colors when I saw that they were popular and would work on a large percentage of ladies - and even then, not too many.
May 26th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
IF you have regular customers, IF you have regular sales, IF you are not putting your order on a cc, then fine, keep only a few of the items you regularly sell on hand.
However, I think it is foolish to try and carry a “full store” as SD try to get you to do or to pay interest on something someone “might” want, sometime.
May 28th, 2008 at 8:26 am
Tam, you are right on! When you are a new consultant, you don’t know what you will need for your customers, you don’t have any!
Don’t trust your SD to order for you, because she only ha HER best interests at heart and she will load you up on a lot of stuff besides the basics.
I agree you may want to carry some of the basic skin care items, but tht rest can be ordered and once ou know you have some steady customers, you can stock the basics so you will have what they need when they need it.
Stocking Limited Edition only helps your SD and MKC. Nobody has any idea what will sell.
I would order only 1 of each and if there are a lot, stick to what you personally like. Never purchase Ltd Edition in the fragrance line, keep some samples on hand for customers to sniff and let them know if they want it you will order it!
May 30th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
You do NOT have to buy Inventory. You can either have it or not. I have some and it works great. I REALLY sell a lot more product at classes when women know they can take it home right then and there. But, of course, having tons of things I’m not going to sell is just plain bad business. The “stupid” thing is to buy a whole store-full of inventory and NOT plan on being with potential customers to sell it! Think people - if you want your own business, it is YOUR business!
May 30th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Donna, your last sentence wasn’t really necessary, was it? It’s pretty rude.
You said having things that you’re not going to sell is bad business and I agree. The problem is that Consultants can never be sure what’s going to sell. They have to predict what items will be popular and which won’t.
So a Consultant has to figure out whether to stock certain colors or shades and how many. Some things are easy to figure out and others aren’t.
Even when you have built up a customer base, there’s no way to know what you will sell one week to the next. You can three of one item and sell out of it in one day. Then what? You have to either trade or purchase it from a fellow Consultant or Director (which the Company discourages you from doing) or you have to place an order.
It’s a constant juggling act that is difficult to impossible to perfect.
So I can’t see how you can claim to have “some” inventory and have it work great. Of course, we don’t know how much “some” is.
June 1st, 2008 at 9:40 am
Quoting from Donna, “Think people - if you want your own business, it is YOUR business!”
Sorry, must agree to disagree on this. It is NOT your own business. Remember, you are an “independent contractor”. I cannot advertise any way I want, I cannot display anywhere I want, I cannot sell anywhere I want. I am limited to the “rules”. I do not own a business, because If I OWN a business, I can sell my business, if I want.
I must abide by the rules and attempt to “find” customers to purchase from me. Unless you see ALOT of people, or have time to solicit ALOT of people, once you have run through your family/friends/neighbors/co-workers, etc., THEN where do you go?
Most of the places I attempted to find new customers at, ie businesses where I do business, already have ? who works there who lets them purchase at a discount so that consultant can keep her min. order.
Quote from Donna “The “stupid” thing is to buy a whole store-full of inventory and NOT plan on being with potential customers to sell it!”
Tell that to the SD’s who encourage full inventory to new consultants! Of course, we all PLANNED on selling everything! Matter of fact, I’ll bet most of us were told by our SD’s that inventory would be “flying off our shelves”! We were all told how good we would be at this “business”! How easy it was and we’d make 50%!