With or Without Inventory, Filling Mary Kay Orders is Tricky

Mary and Jane are two women who caught the Mary Kay fever and decided to become consultants. (While Mary and Jane are fictictious, their experiences are based on those of hundreds of other women.)

Mary doesn’t want to start her Mary Kay “business” with that “empty wagon” Mary Kay Ash mentioned, so she orders $2400 (wholesale) of inventory. Now she’s set and ready to start selling.

She holds her first “class” and is happy to have a few orders. But as she proceeds to fill those orders, Mary is suddenly dismayed. Two of her customers ordered several of the same lipsticks (or eye shadow, eyeliner, blush, moisturizer…) and Mary only has enough of those shades to fill part of the order. Now what?

Mary has a few options:

1. Order additional inventory from the company: But this means that Mary will have to pay the flat shipping amount just to receive a few additional items. That shipping charge makes the cost of those few items much higher.

2. Trade with another consultant: Although not talked about much, this is a very common practice among consultants. If you’re out of a moisturizer that you need, you swap products of equal value with another consultant.

3. Call your director and buy it from her: This is strongly discouraged by the company, but it’s done all the time anyway. If you’ve ever seen the endless shelves of inventory that a director has, you know why they’re more than happy to sell product to consultants. Many discount it slightly less than what you’d pay if you ordered from the company.

4. Have your customer wait for weeks until you’ve sold enough to have at least a $200 wholesale order to justify the shipping cost: Not the best option.

Meanwhile, Jane decided that she wasn’t going to buy any inventory when she became a consultant. She held classes and took orders, promising delivery within two weeks.

Jane holds a few classes but doesn’t sell $400 retail. She needs to order at least $400 retail ($200 wholesale) to get her 50% discount, so she orders a few extra things to get the order total up. Her order arrives in a week and her customers aren’t bothered by waiting for their product.

Over the next few months, Jane doesn’t hold any classes and has a few individual appointments. But the orders from those appointments aren’t very large. Still, Jane orders the product from the company and pays the flat shipping charge. She realizes that she can’t keep doing small orders every few weeks or that shipping charge will eat into her profit.

At the beginning of the next Mary Kay quarter, Jane’s “earned” 50% discount expires, which means she has to order at least $400 retail from the company initially during that quarter to get the 50% discount on her product. One of Jane’s customers calls her and needs a lipstick. But Jane hasn’t been selling much because she’s been busy at her “real” job and had some family issues to tend to. She doesn’t have the lipstick, since she doesn’t carry inventory, but she doesn’t need to, or want to, order $400 worth of product just to get one lipstick. And if she just orders the lipstick, she not only won’t get the discount but she’ll pay the flat shipping charge on that one item.

These dilemas are what women who’ve been in Mary Kay have faced.

The more you build your customer base, the more likely you are to run dry on certain items. So you order more inventory and keep more of each item. And still, with thousands and thousands of dollars on your shelves, you run out of something. Even if you decide to stock only what your previous customers have purchased and use regularly, it still happens.

It’s a tricky balancing act that’s nearly impossible to perfect.

Popularity: 3%

Singer Jewel This Year’s MK “Kiss For Country” Spokesperson

Singer/Songwriter Jewel is the spokesperson for Mary Kay’s “Kiss For Country” campaign this year.

The second annual event enlists celebrities to make their lipstick-coated lip print on a card to be auctioned off, with proceeds benefiting the Mary Kay Ash Charitable Foundation to benefit women affected by domestic violence.  Martina McBride was recruited as spokesperson for last year’s inaugural event.

To kick off the event, Jewel joined a group of 25 Mary Kay Consultants to help clean up the backyard of a women’s shelter in the Nashville area.

This is a great cause.

So why does the cynical side of me worry about the women in shelters being subjected to a recruiting pitch by those MK Consultants?

Popularity: 2%

“The Mary Kay Way” is Back in Print

After over 20 years since its original publication, The Mary Kay Way: Timeless Principles from America’s Greatest Woman Entrepreneur is back on bookstore shelves.

The book, which contains Mary Kay Ash’s words of wisdom on running a business, has been updated to include a forward written by her grandson.

Popularity: 1%

Active Consultant Jennifer says “I don’t know what kind of units you people are in, but my unit rocks.”

Your Name: Jennifer

Date Joined MK : 04/14/07

When Left MK or Still Active?: still active

Initial Inventory Purchased: 1200

How were you recruited?:

I signed up to get the discount, and then started the business part of it.

Memorable experience you had in MK:

Helping my recruiter debut as a director by working my business.

What did you learn from MK?:

Well, I don’t know what kind of units you people are in, but my unit rocks. Actually, when I started, I was part of an adopted unit. Our adopted director went above and beyond to train us.

What are you doing now? :

I declined a position at my son’s school in order to further my Mary Kay business. I want to be home with my youngest daughter, and Mary Kay offers that to me.

Additional Comments:

You have to be smart people. Realize that this IS a business, MK IS out to make money. But, Mary Kay Ash was pretty amazing, and the company compared to other ones out there is pretty cool too. You get out of things what you put into it. My adopted director always says when presenting to guests that this business is not easy, but that it is totally doable and rewarding if you work hard.

It seems that unfortunately many of you just got hooked up with the wrong kind of people. I have never felt pressured or any thing of the sort, only supported. I hope that you won’t think so badly of MK in general, but realize that there are crappy people out there. I hope you might be encouraged to just find the right unit and director, because the benefits can be awesome, if you realize that all the inventory, campy songs, and silly prizes don’t matter. Figure out why you need MK, and then find the people who will actually help you meet those goals. If someone who is not going to make any money from me was so willing to help me meet my goals, surely you can find someone who can help you.

Good luck!

Popularity: 2%

Mary Kay Cosmetics Video From 1977

Thought you would enjoy this classic video featuring Mary Kay Ash herself!

Popularity: 3%

Doing Mary Kay “your way.”

Lots of times, we get visitors who have decided that they are going to reject a lot of the Mary Kay hype and hoopla and do Mary Kay “their way.”

Usually, what doing it “their way” means is not giving in to pressure to buy lots of inventory every time new products come out; not trying to recruit everyone they come in contact with; not pressuring people to hold appointments or classes.  Read more

Popularity: 6%