According to the Mary Kay website, there are approximately 16 women selling Mary Kay products in the Napa area.
Kathrina McAfee, manager of corporate communications at the Mary Kay corporate offices in Dallas, said there are approximately 60,750 Mary Kay independent beauty consultants in California. The company does not provide information on turnover rates.
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Rich Campbell, associate professor of marketing at Sonoma State, said a strong belief in the company and product is one key to success in a multi-level marketing organization. With that, “it’s easy for them to sell their success story,” he said.
However, “lots of people can’t sustain success” in multi-level marketing, he cautioned.
“You have to have to be a salesperson, a manager, a recruiter, and have the energy and attention to detail,” Campbell said. “Most people are good at one dimension or two, but have a hard time doing all of those.”
The majority have “moderate or occasional success when they first get started and it trails off,” he said. Ultimately, “there is a very small percent that are tremendously successful.”
As one of the successful ones, Nelson said, “I don’t let days go by when I don’t do anything.” Even when on vacation, she’ll reach out to friends or other possible clients, or offer to provide a facial with Mary Kay cosmetics.
“To me, that’s fun,” she said. “I want to share the product.”