Pink Truth scratches head about Mary Kay's Innovative New Idea
The questions are as follows.
What do you think of the new service.
and
Judging by the responses of PT Readers (no longer in MK mind you) to this new feature, does anyone see any indication why MK may not have been right for them?
I'll give you a hint that I picked up from the main post.
Tracy (at least we think it was Tracy) said:
"You'd have to tell her to get online when she's at home and order her item via your site. And that means bye-bye sale because she won't want the hassle and probably will have changed her mind by the time she gets home."
Now, I know we are not supposed to say that they are being negative. We are supposed to thank them for shedding the light of their almighty truth upon our undeserving heads. But, and this is strictly from the perspective of someone that does not sell Mary Kay for a living, my first thought was, "Sweet, online orders can be shipped directly to the consumer, sounds like an upgrade" (or something like that)
For a community of people that owe their very existence to the internet (not the people, the community) it seems awfully negative (oops there's that word I am not supposed to use) to think that this will hurt a consultants business. Especially considering that it is an optional feature.
I am trying to imagine how long a consultant would last if they operated this way.
"Great, you want to buy the 'xyz' today! Now all you have to do is get on "the internet"... do you have one of those? Ok, good, than you have to find "my website"... do you think you can handle that? Ok, good..." proceeds to explain in painful detail how they can arrange to have the product shipped directly to them from the company, completely ignoring the fact that they have those products IN THE HOUSE AND COULD DELIVER ON THE SPOT, drives home and watches their online account anxiously waiting for that client to place their order online....
Again, I am not in Mary Kay, but even I can tell you that this is not what that feature was designed for.
Perhaps it is because I read a lot online about how to optimize your website in such a way that EVERYTHING is automatic that this makes so much sense to me. Obviously, I am not selling anything here, but if I was, I would want to set it up so that I did not have to lift a finger to fulfill your online requests for whatever I was selling. This is obviously a good step in that direction for Mary Kay.
Will it have a lot of kinks to work out? Probably.
Are there going to be a lot of questions? Does John McCain know how to "do a google"?
Is it a good step in the right direction? I think so.
So again, I ask, what are your thoughts about this new program?
Is this the first time you are hearing about it? (If so, there should be some concerns about how third hand information is getting to you before you hear about it officially!)
Is there anything about Pink Truth's analysis that you would care to disagree with?
The comment section awaits.
Posts
I think it should be offered to regular consultants and that they should not have to have star level orders to qualify for it, and that orders placed in this manner should count towards their quotas, or not-quotas, or whatever they're called.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like it has the potential to be a good thing; just depends on how Corp. handles it.
Mary Kay tried a version of this back in the late 97 or 98. It was called "Embrace Life" and the products from the Embrace Life line were available through online purchase only and were shipped directly to the customer. Any level consultant could offer it to the customer. But it failed miserably, although it seemed like a good concept, it was here and gone before you knew it. It came as a Christmas promotion. The products were supposed to be all about wellness, and zen and stuff like that, they offered scented candles, items with positive messages etc..
ReplyDeleteI dont know if the products is what made it bomb, or the prices or if customers did not like removing the personal consulant from the sale. But it was set up so a person would buy the product on the web, pay for it and it shipped directly to the customer and the consultant would get credit and her profit would be sent to her.
They must be revamping this program a bit to make sure it works this time. I wonder what they will do different. Some people claim they had success with it, but I never had one order from it. The inventory was not carried by the consultant on that line, it was only available through the consultants personal site.
Does anybody else remember this, or am I the only one on the site who has been in MK this long to remember it?(LOL)!!
That's a couple years after I was in MK. I would say it's the products to blame for that program failing. I mean what do ppl really buy most of? Skin care and color. If they could order a refill of moisturizer on there it could work, but for special seasonal items only? probably not!
ReplyDelete