At one of our unit meetings I was "queen of sales".  (No really, I did sell some stuff.)      Anyway, there were only 5 of us at that meeting so winning "queen of sales" was no biggie.  Guess what terrific prize I got?  A pack of Mary Kay Post-It Notes.  Woo hoo!!!   LMAO!!!

Luckyone,
I had to laugh at that last part about your "Husband saying what the H"# ll is that. 

I can just picture him saying that to you.

You know you'd think that they would be ashamed to even think about giving some of those gifts, I don't think that's the word I'm looking for (gifts).

Well, I got the pink ring, I can't believe I fell for that, and the ribbon, so silly.

I didn't get that much, the stuff I did get was me putting in orders, like the pink ring, the pink phone star prize, Barbie.

candlegirl

Because I never reached (and certainly won't be now) director status, I never gave prizes, but I did get some pretty crappy stuff.

In addition to the dollar store stuff (or things that I had seen in the $1 bin at Target or Michael's) we got a ring for being an on-target Circle of Excellence unit. It was supposedly a really big deal and all the directors that saw it would freak out about it. In reality, it was a Tiffany knock-off that turned everyone's finger green in a couple days of wearing it. I was so embarrassed because my new recruit got hers her first week and it tarnished her finger! I ended up giving her a different ring (from the multitude I had) because I felt so bad!

The other thing that I didn't win, but I thought was so crappy I didn't even attempt it was my National was having a contest for ordering (yes, ordering) $1,000 in the month of June (June - big surprise) or having one new qualified recruit (qualified is that magical $600 order) and you'd win these pink crystal earrings. That might not seem TOO bad, but I had just seen the earrings on www.thewhitneycollection.com for $7 and they were being discontinued! She couldn't even get something new and in style for us!

Last one was the I Love Lipstick challenge from the company. Not sure how many of you remember this, but when the unit achieved the goal you got a party pack from corporate to celebrate. My director made a huge deal about it, "When something comes from corporate, they go all out and it's going to be great!" So our unit achieved the challenge and anticipated this pretty cool party and a nice prize from the company, and we got. . . drum roll please. . . bright pink feather boas and plastic bead necklaces! Wow, that was worth it!

feather boas and necklaces from the company - that's pretty pathetic considering what they made off consultants for that promotion.

I sold my star ladders, too (I had two). I just can't imagine why someone would want that, and pretending they'd earned all those stars was all I could think of. If that doesn't show you the MK mindset, then I don't know what does! But hey, I suppose that's better than ordering all the product to get those stars (which I did!).

I think Sandy did this topic on her blog, and I loved her story about getting a Robert Jones facial, which she worked uber-hard for, and he only did one eye

that's a typical "prize" -  Dinner/Dessert/coffee with your director! And you're thinking the prize is the food, drink, or dessert...only to find out that the prize is really just being in the awesome presence of your director, and you buy your own refreshments. 

I've mentioned this before on my blog, but my worst prize was a star consultant prize in 2003 - it was the pink fleece jacket for an $1800 order. The first time I tried to put my hand through the sleeve, the lining tore completely away from the jacket. I was pissed.

I usually did  not turn in my paperwork to get the stupid prizes (even during diq).  My sr. kept getting on to me, but I didn't really want the prize.  When I was a dir. I let the consultants pick out of  a basket - usually section 2, some non-mk stuff...  I could not bring myself to offer much cheap jewelry.  I asked those that came what they wanted for prizes.  they were all pink too, so there was usually something they wanted.  I actually did things very low key and kept my meetings geared a lot toward product knowledge.  My sr. tried to get me to do the whole hoopla thing, but that is definitely not my style. 

M.d.T.- you sound just like I was- I wasn't one to do chants, songs or cheers, and I wasn't going to give out stupid prizes- it was hard though, but section 2 and even just products were popular, and at least things they could use to sell products- how many customers did a consultant get because of some glitzy ring? zero- but some samples- at least they can actually use them to sell products and make money for themselves- that was what I thought anyway. I wanted my consultants to sell, because I truly wanted them to make money- I wanted that for myself too- but alas, I wasn't, and they were'nt really either, so here I am-