How to be a Successful Mary Kay Consultant

You make money two ways with Mary Kay.

1. Retail Sales

2. Recruiting

1. Have a sense of urgency about your business. You have to have a desire to achieve your goals. Whether it is to sell $300 a month or to become a Sales Director, you have to have the desire and motivation to work it.

2. Create a strategy. Develop a plan on how you will work your business and stick to it. Be consistent.

3. Only take advice from those that you are willing to exchange places with. You don't want to take advice from someone who is not selling anything or who is always negative about the business. Take advice from other successful people in the business.

4. Work on yourself. Write down all of the positive things about you and then write down the things that you need to work on. Use this list as a reminder to work on those things and do it. Do not compare yourself to others. You will always try to be as good as they are when you are a different person and have different positive points and different negative points. Be yourself and work on yourself.

5. Mary Kay scripts work! DO NOT make up your own words to sell the product or try to book appointments. The company has so many different tools in place to help you with what to say. They tell you exactly what to say. Use it. I have made the mistake in the past of making up my own words. They did not work. I then started using the company scripts and they work. I was truly amazed. They may sound cheesy to you at first but trust me... they work. Use them.

6. Make a goal poster. I keep my goal poster updated monthly. Cut out pictures of things you are working toward. Write down things you want to accomplish. Put them all on this poster. Keep the poster updated. Most importantly you want to make sure your goals are applicable for where you are at this point in your business and life. You would not want to put a picture of a pink Cadillac on your goal poster if you just signed up and have not sold anything yet. That is a goal for a little later in your Mary Kay career. You may want to set some goals for monthly sales at this point or even a picture of a Red Jacket. All of those goals make sense for a new consultant.

7. Build Relationships. Building relationships with other women is so important in this business. It is great to sell someone $1000 worth of makeup the first time you meet them. But what if you never talk to them again. You never followup and never call them to check and see how they like their makeup. They will probably never buy from you again. You have to be that persons go to woman for their beauty and skin care needs. The only way to do that is to build a lasting relationship and yes, friendship with them.

8. Complete your Weekly Accomplishment Worksheets. These worksheets reflect exactly what you have done for the week. It is a reminder of what you need to do. Especially if you have set goals for sales. I have made the mistake of not doing my weekly accomplishment worksheets and it really hurt my overall sales. It was not visible to me what I had done and therefore did not tell me what I needed to do to accomplish my monthly sales goals.

9. Don't be cheap when it comes to your customers. Give them gifts. Give them discounts in their birthday month. Make them feel special. This helps to build that relationship and shows them that you care. Mary Kay has so many little inexpensive gifts under Section 2 products that you can purchase to keep in your inventory for your customers.

10. Be a professional sales person. It is okay to laugh and joke with your customers. It is not okay to be negative and use inappropriate language. You are representing Mary Kay. There will be times when there is alcohol at some of the parties you go to. You are there to do facials and consult on makeup. Do not participate in drinking. I would also suggest to host to not have alcohol but you know you can't always control that. You can control yourself. Be professional.

11. Ask questions. Never assume anything.

12. Learn the art of telling a story. Tell your customers about why you joined Mary Kay. Make it interesting. Tell them success stories about how others have found the Mary Kay opportunity and loved it. Everyone loves a good story.

13. Become who you are talking to. Learn the different types of personalities and become that when you are dealing with people. You don't want to be hyper and bubbly to a person that is really low key. You will probably scare them off.

14. Don't take on other people's problems. This is where I messed up a few times. I would recruit women who needed money but they had so many issues and problems that they thought I could save them. It is not your responsibility to save women from their problems. Look for women to recruit that are willing to work and want better for themselves. It is okay to listen and show them how to make a difference in their life. Don't take on their drama.

15. Watch the scoreboard. You are in sales. Watch your sales and continue to work toward your sales goals by making them visible. Goal posters and weekly accomplishment sheets help with this.

16. Don't be pushy. Be pleasantly persistent.

17. Be careful with the amount of inventory you purchase. I can not stress this enough. The company wants you start off by purchasing inventory. I have made the mistake of purchasing a large inventory without knowing what I really needed. I would suggest you wait until you build up a descent customer base before you invest in a large inventory. You can then keep in stock what your customers use. Otherwise you are left with things that will sit in inventory and not get sold. Please be careful with this one. It can leave you with a huge debt and non moving inventory.

18. Follow the companies guidelines on what to do with your money. They guide you on what percentages you should keep as profit and what you should put aside to put back into your business.

19. Set up a separate checking account for your business only. This way money does not get mixed up and you know exactly what profits you have and what you have to put back into your business.

20. Go to your unit meeting every week! This is where you will find your inspiration to work your business. This is where you will find all of your training tools.

We all get told "no" when selling. You can not take that rejection as a personal reflection on you. You have to keep on trying and you will find the yes you were looking for.

1. Do not take no personally. It is kind of like asking someone if they want a piece of gum. If they so no it does not mean that they dislike you. It means they don't want a piece of gum at the moment.

2. Do not take forever to rebound from rejection. You will get people who don't want to have a party, a facial, or don't want the product. Don't allow yourself to get into a rut about it. There are just as many other people out there that do want the product. Go find them.

3. Memorize some of the common rejections and memorize your response to them.

4. Feel, Felt, Found. Gloria Mayfield Banks, Elite National Sales Director has a great way to deal with rejections by Feel, Felt, Found.

   I know how you FEEL....

   I had another customer who FELT the same way.....

   What they FOUND is....

Do not take on team members who are needy and want to dump their issues and problems on you. I have made this mistake once or twice and it is not a good thing. Here are a few good characteristics to look for when recruiting team members.

1. They know that they are destined to have more in life.

2. They value education.

3. They can embrace the companies philosophy.

4. They get excited about impacting others.

5. They are willing to work.

6. They want a high degree of independence.

7. They are willing to be part of a team.

Yes. Mary Kay is worth it if you are willing to put in the time to make it pay off. Things don't happen by osmosis. You have to put in your effort to get back from it. You have to set goals and put plans in place to achieve them. You have to work your business like a business. It is not a hobby or just playing with makeup. It is a serious commitment. When I have put in the time I get good paybacks for it. When I don't have the time to put into it I don't get anything from it. Don't go jumping and buying $3,000 worth of inventory and then complain that you are in debt. You have to come up with a plan and work it.

The women are great in this business. They are always willing to help. Go to your unit meetings and you will find a group of women there that will be by your side for a life time. I can not tell you how many good friends and supporters I have found in Mary Kay. It is worth every bit of effort you put into it.

Good Luck with your new business adventure!