New Mexico - High Dollar Bob

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An old Army buddy contacted me one summer and wanted to know if my wife Ann would be interested in selling Mary Kay skin care products.

This old Army buddy was a Warrant Officer female who was selling Mary Kay skin care products in anticipation of her retirement. Apparently she was doing a very good job in skin care sales and already had her own sales team and a red car.

My wife Ann, who was also friends with my old buddy, had a full time job that she enjoyed and was not interested in selling skin care products.

I on the other hand was already retired from the Army and was between full time jobs. I asked my buddy if men were allowed to sell skin care products for Mary Kay.

The answer was yes, so I signed up as a Mary Kay Skin Care Rep and got my pink case, a training manual, and of course a sales manual.

On Monday of the next week I attended my first Mary Kay sales meeting. In this little town of Alamogordo, which may have had 25000 people in it. There were 35 women and two men who sold Mary Kay skin care products in Alamogordo, NM.

Yes, there was another man in attendance at the meeting. I had a great time at the meeting, which was held every Monday to keep the sales force motivated. I must say I was motivated at attending a meeting with 35 women every Monday night.

The second sales meeting was good but Mary Kay sales meetings are motivational and intent on getting a person to spread the word, sell, sell, sell, use the arms length rule (tell everyone with in an arms length about Mary Kay) sing, memorize, practice sales, make contacts, and do the job.

This meeting was intense since I had not sold anything in the previous week. Mary Kay sales managers are not shy and will put you on the spot in a minute when you do not make sales, but will also help you learn how to make the sales.

I decided I could sell a lot of lip stick and hand cream to women without being to caught up in the facial makeovers. I knew how to lead the make over class (no hands on facials in Mary Kay for anyone, male or female, the customer does the facial while you walk them through it) but I found out that women liked having me lead the make over but did not want to take off their make up in front of me.

Yes, I had several make over classes, but no one would take off their make up, but they would buy the product. That is when I decided to push Satin Hands hand cream and lipstick.

I knew that in this little town, which was located on a major highway that everyone had to use to get to White Sands National park, I could sell Mary Kay skin care products to tourist. Yes, tourist who were passing through would stop at the diner and steak place in town, see my Mary Kay sticker on my truck window and seek out the owner of the vehicle-me.

In every instance the women tourist needed lipstick and hand cream. I would just happen to have what they needed in the back of my truck. Yes, I was selling Mary Kay skin care products out of the back of my truck in a parking lot.

Laugh if you will, but I was selling cases of the products weekly. One tour busload of women softball players bought a case of lipstick and a half a case of hand cream!

My third Mary Kay Sales meeting found me being the high sales person of the week. I got the nickname of High Dollar Bob, since I was the high sales person at most sales meetings for a six-month period.

You could say my most embarsing moment, though satisfying, was being a Mary Kay sales person when no one else would hire me.

I left the life of pink sales after a year to go back to my real job of being an information and intelligence officer for the U.S. Army. Strange but true.

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