Today, they posted an event called Chicagorama. Here is the copy they posted.
I just love January! First off, I get to go someplace warm every year (warm and sunny Houston this time)) with my Mary Kay girlfriends! Secondly, I get to participate in the best Director planned workshop in the entire country- that's Chicagorama and you need to be there!!! How do I know it's the best??? Corporate MK thinks so too and we are known nationwide for this!! The best part is you get to go and start your New Year with a BANG!!
Picture this: The holidays are over and so are you! Over tired, over fed, over spent and maybe your clothes are over tight! You are thinking that you really need to get going with your MK but you feel sluggish because of the 'over' syndrome! Not to worry because you have a ticket to Chicagorama and you know it's going to be great! You can hear the exciting music and you picture yourself in the Red Jacket March as you enter the room to the Applause of the Chicago Directors and your sister consultants!! You wave madly as you cross the stage and pose quickly while I snap your picture.
Wow- here are the NSD's Sandy Miller and Pam Ross and after reading their bios (BELOW), you couldn't wait to hear them speak!! Mary Kay multi-MILLIONAIRES telling you you can do it too! You are really pumped and ready for some training on the basics- booking, coaching, selling and recruiting. You can't wait for that one idea that is going to help your skin care class slaes double and wrap up this Seminar Year! The day is flying by and you can't believe it's one o'clock and time for lunch with your frineds! After lunch, it's back in the ballroom again for some excitement and motivation! What a day! Time to leave but you know you can do anything! Now you have captured a new dream for you and your family and you are ready to start the year with a BANG! !
Sounds great, doesn't it!! Well, it is. You'll want to register NOW because it will sell out- it does every year and I have to get the tickets in by Nov. 30th. I will only order a ticket for you if I have your check, so mail it to me or bring it to the meeting ASAP. See the attached flier in this email for all the details. You can go on Friday January 11th OR Saturday January 12th. Friday tickets are $40 and Saturday tickets are $50. Both include a wonderful hot luncheon with a yummy dessert. There are headsets available for Spanish classes too. More details to follow in December, but for now, we have to order tickets before they sell out.
As far as the dinner goes, you must attend Chicagorama in order to attend the dinner. Everyone can attend day classes, but you must qualify for the wonderful, semi-formal dinner! The dinner has qualifications that must be met by the end of the quarter- Dec. 15th:
$1800 wholesale and 2 ($600 qualifed recruits) OR
$2400 wholesale and 1 ($600 qualified recruit) OR
$3000 wholesale
The dinner has been described as making consultants feel like they are in a fairy tale. Picture wearing your most exquisite dress and walking into a beautifully decorated room with your significant other. You feel so happy, you just know you are walking on air. You dine on surf and turf- yuuuuummmm and it's FREE!! Your guy is so excited that you earned the dinner and so proud of you that he just can't stop smiling. Oooh la la! They just brought in the desert!! Wow!! Don't worry about the calories; you plan to work them off with all your bookings! It's almost time to cross the stage. There you go..... It was wonderful................Such a magical evening and YOU were there!!! It was awesome to see you there and celebrate your success!!
Get your ticket and set a goal to be among the elite winners at the dinner! I WANT YOU TO BE THERE WITH ME!!!
Sounds like it could be a good time to me... But PT in predictable fashion has the following complaints.
1. You have to buy $1800-$3,000 worth of product so it is not free
2. The food is not any good
3. The post has spelling errors.
I simply must ask... again... because they have complained.... again...
1. Do you guys not understand the concept of incentives? You are supposed to SELL that much product, not just buy it. Buying that much product with no intention of selling it just so that you can attend a recognition dinner IS a bad idea. Whether your director cares what you do with that product or not doesn't even enter this equation. The intent of this is OBVIOUSLY that you are SELLING at this level, not BUYING.
2. I have been to events (in MK) where the food is excellent. I don't know what the food is like at this event. I guess this may be a valid complaint... not exactly 'the evil corporation at work' but valid.
3. ummmm.... are you really going to go after spelling? MK is evil and you should run the other way because they don't know how to spell? Have you read some of the posts and comments on your site? On my site? I know that some people (myself included) can't look past spelling errors easily. But this is not really evidence of MK being a bad experience. It is more like an side whisper to an equally nerdy friend at the event that you are enjoying yourself at. (psst. by the way, did you notice that she said 'desert' instead of 'dessert' hee hee)
For anyone that has never planned an event, please listen carefully.
Planning an event (especially as big as this one) is a lot of work. It takes time, thought and effort. The fact that someone is interested enough in your success to create an event like this should be cause for appreciation. If it doesn't "do it for you", don't go. If you are not at the level of sales that would earn you the reward, don't go into debt to earn something that is not yours. If you have ideas for what would make it better, recommend it to the director.
Why do I have a problem with Pink Truth? Because they call this evidence. Evidence that Mary Kay is out to get you. This is evidence that they are trying to help you. They are investing in you.
Anyone?
Posts
I don't agree, David. If MK is awarding sales, then they should award sales. If someone is really working their business then they will not mind showing their receipts to prove it. Aren't those sales sheets on In Touch. You should have to fill them out to be able to go to these events. That way there is no doubt. No one could ever come back and say they bought their way up. This has been a complaint for so many years that MK should do something about it just to shut people up. I've been to some of these events. The price you have to pay for "free" training is ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteIf people order wholesale to buy tickets to an event when they have sold less than the order reflects, whose to say they won't fudge sales sheets? I can fill out a sales slip right now and show a $300 order. Doesn't mean anyone paid me. Mandating a sales slip would not change the fact that there are people out there who would be dishonest. It's equally tempting--and easy--to forge a sales slip as it is to place a wholesale order. Then the company would have to go to great lengths to prove money was exchanged and if cash was involved, that's near impossible.
ReplyDeleteFor the record, I've never heard of Chicagorama. Has anyone else? Our area directors are hosting a retreat in January, but it's completely local and no wholesale/retail requirement to go. We just have to pay for the room. Honstly, if I don't have the money, I won't go. I like the retreats. They are always fun for me--I like them better than corporate events at times. However, if I don't justify the cost with sales activity, I don't deserve to be there. Self discipline. Self responsibility.
I have a feeling MK awards sales based on wholesale because they expect the sales force members to use sense and place orders that reflect the actual activity. They have even made changes to becoming A1 by allowing cumulative online wholesale orders to add up to $200 in a month. The incentives--free bonus products, star prizes, etc.--are designed to help setting goals. When I first signed up for MK, my friend's father said he knew a woman who bankrupted herself in MK. I said, (at my wise old age of 27 and a few days) "I can see how that would happen if she kept ordering products to get prizes and not making the sales to justify, but we're not supposed to do that." He didn't really have anything to say to that.
When I joined MK and saw the prize incentives, to me, it was no different than selling candy bars for grade school fund raisers. You know the ones: Sell 200 boxes of candy bars and you get a Sony Walkman. You could stockpile a supply of candy bars at home and get the prize, but have you really earned it? It's really a matter of individual integrity. That's my honest opinion.
The bottom line is this: It's dishonest to order more wholesale than actually sold. By placing the wholesale order, you're saying to your director, your NSD, you recruiter, and MKC, "hey, I sold double the amount I'm ordering!" If you didn't sell it, it's dishonest. It's no different from faking a sales slip.
It's possible that so many in the business have become too focused on getting the offered prizes, tickets, etc that they do "whatever it takes" to get them rather than working their businesses the way Mary Kay Ash had intended (selling and recruiting) and reaching their goals, thus EARNING the prize, ticket etc. In reading the debate in the blogs, I feel, as a new consultant, that I have inhereted some sort of MK "culture of corruption." It's a little disheartening.
ReplyDeleteI agree with shadesofpink, the goodies MK offer us to reach our goals are merely incentives. Let's not get caught up in earning the prize for the sake of the prize. Let's earn it by working our businesses.
To everyone in the debate, reread Mary Kay Ash's autobiography or read it if you haven't already (it is so very inspiring.) Incentives motivated her to work her business. And that's what she has given to us for our businesses.
Oh, Anonymous! I love that you mentioned Mary Kay's autobiography! I reference that book like a textbook. It not only tells of Mary Kay's life, it outlines just how she wants the business model to work. Excellent point!
ReplyDeleteAgain, I will say that I think those on pt protest to much. It is really sad that they don't have a life and that they have to put fear into others to make themselves feel good.
ReplyDeleteI think a retreat would be fun. Being in South Texas there aren't many around here. Well, I would like to go to one. I went to seminar this year and I enjoyed it. I will probably go back to the next one. I went to career conference and it was in San Antonio and I enjoyed it also. With that being said. I think that it is great if you can go and if not that is OK too. We all have to realize what we can and can not afford to do. Again it is our business and we are independent and can run it the way that we see fit.
Have a great evening
Bren
Thanks everyone for commenting... some good thoughts here.
ReplyDeleteJudi,
First, I agree with shades that sales sheets (or any system shy of barcodes and registers that track inventory and sales) are not going to solve the problem.
If people are intent on buying prizes, which we ALL agree (including PT) is a VERY bad financial deal, they are going to figure out a way to do it. When you hand people the opportunity to run their business any way they want, there will always be people that try to take the easy way to the top. (or in this case the prizes) The easy way usually doesn't work. That is why (I think) we see the ones complaining are the ones that tried to do it the "shortcut way". Whether or not they were instructed to do it that way is another story. I believe that some are. If I recall your story correctly, this was actually taught to you.
If you put on "the shoes" of the company for a second and consider your options for measuring sales, I suspect you would come to the same conclusion they have. What is the most accurate way to track sales without forcing our consultants to buy expensive equipment and subjecting them to reporting every detail of their sales, discounts, etc?
If you were in that decision making situation, what would you decide?
From a cost effective standpoint and to provide convenience of use for consultants, I would do exactly what they do. Can you suggest a better way?
Second, I have discussed elsewhere the free training. But since you brought it up here, I will reiterate.
The free training is:
A. Demonstrating how to use the product and how to demonstrate it to others. You are usually trained by observing. Your director/recruiter *should have* taken you to a class/party/facial and/or warm chattering.
B. Phone calls. Mentoring calls, question answer calls, and the like are there to help you learn to do what you do better.
C. Conference call. Once a week my wife's director has a conference call for all the consultants in her unit. I think this is common practice... Anyone else?
D. Meetings. This is the first one (so far) that sometimes costs money. The one my wife goes to is free (her director has a location that doesn't charge to use the room) I have heard that you can usually find one in your area that doesn't charge. Anyone else?
Even if there is nothing nearby that is free, this is now a different level of training and investing in your business. You have already been taught how to present and sell the product. (picture the 'training' you got if you have ever worked retail)
That basic training is ongoing. Again, we face the dichotomy of 'the good directors' and 'the bad directors'. A good director (provided you are pursuing your business) will continue to spend considerable time helping you get to the next level.
Consider though, someone that is only placing $200 every quarter. What training does that person need?
The training IS FREE. The extras that are extremely valuable (if you want to keep getting to the next level) are going to cost extra. Have you ever looked at how much it costs to attend training sessions in "the real world"? A successful speaker does not come cheap.
Shades,
I liked your point about fund raisers! I remember when rice crispies (yes, the cereal) was having a special promotion. Buy three boxes and you get a teddy bear. My mom wanted to get that teddy bear for us (my sister, brother and me). As you know, one bear does not share well. So we had to "win" three bears. She bought 9 (NINE) boxes of rice crispies!!!!
We got our bears, but we were tired of them LOOOOOOOONG before we ate through those NINE boxes of RC!!!! And my parents NEVER throw food away. We had to eat ALL nine boxes before we could get any other brand of cereal!!
Anonymous,
I think your observation goes a long way to summing up the problem here. Current MK'ers have inherited a culture of corruption. It is there and it does take work to avoid falling into it.
Thanks everyone, you make this site what it is!