Without Friends & Family To Propel Her, Can A Mary Kay Director ‘Warm Chat’ Her Way To Success A Second Time Around?
Meet Mary Kay’s Alicia Olsen.
Ms. Olson is a director that appears to be deep in the pink fog. Some may consider Ms. Olson a “rising star” in the Pink Pyramid who also writes a blog.
On her blog, Ms. Olson is attempting an interesting experiment–that is, to re-create her initial success a second time as an inspiration for new consultants.
Starting on “Day One” (October 27th), Ms. Olson writes that she has some “advantages” and “disadvantages” in trying to re-create her success a second time around:
- Some advantages: I am confident and experienced. I do not have to work around the schedule of my Sales director to do shares, welcome appointments, or debuts. I have more personal success stories to share. Also, this time I will not be planning a wedding and this time I will not have a job.
- Some disadvantages: my first time around I had a group of friends and family that I had the opportunity to reach out to. I really rode that wave of people for probably the first 6 months of my business. This time I do not have that group of people, so I am going to have to go out and find my leads. I have more free time which means I need more discipline. It is easy to waste a day when you don’t schedule yourself time to work. [Emphasis added.]
- Note: Ms. Olson’s comments above mark a common problem for Mary Kay Director’s and is often the first step that leads them into financial ruin and Mary Kay failure: Once a Mary Kay director has used all of her friends and family members to get her qualified, the well dries up. Then, if no new recruits sign up, the director often will “fake it until she makes it” by adding debt on she and her family.
On Day Two, Ms. Olsen shares her thoughts about IPAs (Income Producing Activities):
The rule of thumb is from 9am-9pm is the time for IPAs and 9pm-9am is the time for the other stuff in life.
Apparently, Ms. Olson spends 12 hours a day working her Mary Kay “business.”
On Day Three, Ms. Olson explains how she obtained 57 new “cold leads.”
Cold leads, explains Ms. Olson, “are the names and numbers of people who do not know I am calling and I have no idea if they will be interested in a free facial.”
Olson explains how she got the names and numbers by “warm chatting” the staff at her local Office Depot.
As noted previously, Mary Kay’s predators often rely on something called “warm chatting.”
According to one website, warm chatting is defined as:
An informal way for a Consultant to develop rapport by engaging in a casual conversation with a stranger, hoping to turn them into a customer.
What happens in the real world is something akin to a overly-exuberant Mary Kaybot stalking perfect strangers in grocery aisles, at the cash registers, at the mall, in the mall parking lot, on line at Starbucks, McDonalds, in hospitals, in greeting lines at weddings, funerals, or wherever there may be a potential Mary Kay target.
In the case of Ms. Olson, her “warm chatting” targets turned out to be the staff at Office Depot.
After a period of not posting on her blog for over a week, Ms. Olson writes about a “successful” day:
Some people would get very discouraged with my 20% success rate but I feel so blessed that these two women who booked with me today have an open heart and open mind and I know I am going to enjoy my time with them. PLUS they are bringing 12 other women into my life! So in theory, I called 10 women and booked 12! That’s a 120% success rate!
While her logic (and math) may be fuzzy, on the same day (in a separate post) Ms. Olson does share her “warm chat” script with her readers.
“I’m sorry, can i stop you for a second?
Would you be offended if I told you I just think you are absolutely gorgeous?!
I work in the cosmetics industry and I was wondering if you would be a model for me?
All you have to do is get a FREE midcrodermabrasion facial and take before and after pictures for me. There is no catch! You would just be helping me build my portfolio.”
If they say yes then I say “I am so sorry, I don’t even have a card with me, I wasn’t expecting to do this, but you were so beautiful I couldn’t help myself. Lets just exchange cell phone numbers” Then i wisp out my phone quick and let them put it in.
If they say no then i say. “Thank you anyway! And i just want you to know I genuinely think you are gorgeous!”
Unfortunately, Ms. Olson’s “warm chat” script appears to be like most “warm chatting” scripts–rife with half-truths all for the purpose of getting information.
To date, there are no further updates to Ms. Olson’s blog.
We’ll just have to wait and see if Ms. Olson can “warm chat” her way into re-creating her initial Mary Kay success, without the friends and family to propel her.
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