- "You'll never make any money doing Mary Kay."
- "You can't find customers."
- "The market is saturated."
- "You have tried other companies - you won't last in this one."
- "It's all a cult."
Ignore them.
There are some people who thrive on making others miserable and tearing down their dreams. It is in their genes, I suppose.
There is a quote that says, "If you think you CAN do something - you are right. If you think you CAN'T - you are also right." Your mindset is so important.
Naysayers don't bother me. My dreams are strong!
Don't let them bother you, either. :D
Posts
Let me add this -
ReplyDeleteThere is a big difference in sharing what your personal experience in MK was and telling people that they will fail at something.
Your experiences are just that - yours. Sharing them truthfully is not a bad thing.
HOWEVER - I don't think it is right to tell people they will fail. It just isn't true.
i agree shay..
ReplyDeleteyou cant make up someones mind for them or predict their outcome for them.
People should be educated to the ups and downs and then make a decision.
So many top directors were told that they would never make anything out of this business and they are glad that they did not listen.
Go ahead and try, and if it does not work then Mk makes it easy for you to get most of your investment back. Not many if any other business ventures can say that.
We have a consultant in our unit who ALWAYS shares negative comments, and the bad part is, I don't think she's even working her business.
ReplyDeleteI find sometimes things do happen, class dates get changed, etc., but I don't dwell on those.
How do you go about "helping" a consultant like this? Any suggestions?
rural -
ReplyDeleteI think that is an excellent question!
I hope the others will be able to shed some insight on that!
:D
Rural, as a director, I would nicely, not with others around chat with the consultant. I tend to be a very posetive but realistic person. I know negative things happen but I do feel it is unfair for a consultant to complain about them at a meeting if they are her problems and the rest of the group may not be affected by them.
ReplyDeleteWith everyone so busy, my unit meeting is designed to give my unit members primarily training and a little motivation/recognition. I try to make it as quickly as possible as no one wants to spend hours at a meeting. I organize what we are training on and if I have to go off course trying to address other issues that may not affect others, it is not fair to the group as a whole. I am always available to discuss any problems after the meeting. This is out of respect for everyone.
I think if a director tries to let the consultant get her answers the training goes off topic, the director who may be trying to keep things on course appears to either not care about the consultant or doesn't appear to want to help. By trying to be gracious, it can send the wrong message. If she is trying to keep the meeting posetive, it may sound as if she is not sensitive to the consultants problems, however if she tries to address it, it is not fair to the others.
This is understood at our meeting but if on the rare occassion it happens, I will say something like, Susan, I understand your frustration and I have some ideas for you. How about staying a few minutes after the meeting and we can discuss them, I want to be able to finsih our training on time so I don't want to deviate too far from our topic. If tonight isn't good we can talk tomorrow, whichever is best for you.
I really do feel the director must take charge and I feel if she doesn't she is disrespecting the rest of the unit.
If it may be an issue that I might get a few consultants saying, yes, I have had that issue too, I will work on the topic at the next meeting.
I do not believe in sweeping stuff under the rug, because eventually it will come back to haunt you.
I also would never try to embarrass a consultant by calling her negative.
In the case you stated where the consultant is complaining but not actually working to have something to complain about, I will ask her to tell me how the situation happened and then ask questions. For example, she complains, "I can't get anyone to book". - I would say okay, tell me what you are saying to your prospect when you are calling her. ... Well, usually, its uhhhh..... and nicely, I will say something like it is hard to get someone to book if you aren't asking anyone. Would you like to get together with me and we can try to make a couple of calls together?
For those wondering... I have unit meeting that are "no guest" meetings and then we have meetings that are guest events. I do not do recruiting meetings, expect as an "advertised" special. I find this works much better for training my consultants.
As far as negative people, even if they are not downing your MK, I have found if I am around a person that is just negative about everything, they can just bring me down so much that I can actually get tired. So if I have a friend that tends to be a little "draining" I try to limit the time I spend with her/him in small amounts so I can bounce back and not allow them to pull me down. Doesn't mean I love them any less.
ReplyDeleteI have found some people only seem "happy" when they are miserable and nothing or noone is going to change them. So we just must accept and lovethem for who they are and where they are but in safe doses.
Negative for some reason breeds like wild fires. I try to stay away from it. Some people in any business like the drama that negative things bring into their lives. Personally I have had enough drama in my young life that in my middle life I can't stand it so I distance my self from it. I hear negative everyday and I just pray for them and don't add any fuel to it and move on.
ReplyDeleteI try and it always doesn't work however if life hands you a lemon add some sugar and make some lemonaide. Life is truly what you make it. My girls get negative every once in a while and I remind them that it is what they make it. You can chose to be happy or chose to be miserable I chose the first.
Have a GREAT DAY
Pink Bren
Shay - I think it's great you can stay so positive about al of this and you're taking another chance on MK. I don't care if you've done MLM like six or even ten times before. This time is always differenT and I'm sure you know a lot more about selling now. It doesn't matter how many times you've failed at a direct sales c omapny becuase anything is possible and you can always do better.
ReplyDeleteWe had one meeting back in January or December where my SSD told us to make a "Bug List." She said write down what's bugging you in your business right now and it can be anything. I thought it was really cool because she directly addressed the kinds of problems and dilemmas we were having and like MK4ME, she asked probing questions to the consultants about what it was we were doing in our businesses right now that was bringing unfavorable results. She then went over things we can change in ourselves to overcome the obstacles.
ReplyDeleteI think that is a great way to clear the air if there are frustrated consultants in the unit.
Thanks, anonymous -
ReplyDeleteWhy is it that when someone tries a Direct Sales company and then leaves, they are said to have "failed"?
When you (not you, personally, but people in general) look at a person's resume, there are usually more than one or two previous jobs listed. They may have stayed one, 5 or 15 years at the company, but left it for whatever reason.
The interviewer doesn't start the whole conversation by saying, "Tell me why you failed at your previous companies." No.
The interviewer might ask, "Tell me why you left your previous employer," or "What did you like least/most about your previous employer." He/She might ask about the successes/accomplishments you had at a previous job.
I don't see why DS companies are any different.
Every company has good and bad points. They just are not for everyone.
Shay, I think that the "failed" attribution is applied more than just direct sales or salespeople in general.
ReplyDeleteIt is also applied to those people who get out of a corporate or other "secure" position to do something on their own (i.e. direct sales, become an independent engineer, start their own medical practice, etc), then end that endeavor and come back to the "corporate world" or teaching or whatever their previous job was.
Because there is a certain cache (in the US) attached to being your own boss and doing your own thing, a person who comes back to working for someone else can easily be seen as a failure, or as someone who didn't "properly" do all the research etc about what they were getting into. Of course, the people making the definition of "properly" usually haven't stepped one foot out of their safe little 40 hr/week cubicle. As I said before, it's much easier to be a film critic than a film producer. (About the only person that quickly comes to mind of someone I respect who has moved from a position of responsibility and "doing the job" to critiquing and commenting is John Madden.)
Anon posted: I don't care if you've done MLM like six or even ten times before. This time is always different.
ReplyDeleteAnytime you do anything at a different time in your life there will be different results. Why? Because of other circumstances or events going on in your life at the time.
Timing is everything, someone may have started something when they thought they had the time to do it and then all heck broke loose and found they didn't have the time to dedicate to the activity. But later on life settles down and you can resume that activity.
Another reason one will get different results, as each day goes by in our lives, we gain wisdom, experience, and maturity. Of course when you have more of all of these skills, your experience in the same situation will be different.
For the most part younger folks tend to be less responsible than those older.
So we learn from our lessons and do better at whatever we do.
Shades -
ReplyDeleteI like that idea!
Shades of Pink and MK4Me -
ReplyDeleteThank you both so much for the great ideas!
MKShay - You Rock! Keep up, keepin' on!
Thanks, rural!
ReplyDeleteThanks, MK4ME and Shades for the great advice (as always!).