This is a guest post written by a friend of mine - I'd like to be able to thank them directly and link to them online, but I have assured the author that their anonymity will be protected.
This is a piece about what it's really like to work as a MUA on counter, the pressures they face to sell, and how it feels to be that person trying to reach targets and hold down a job. I hope you enjoy it. It certainly made me think...
Image sourced HERE.
“This must be a great job, just getting to play with makeup all day!”
I find that people have one of two opinions about cosmetics consultants;
1. They just stand around all day putting makeup on themselves, putting makeup on other people and spraying perfume at random passersby. If only it was that easy!
2. They are pushy sales people who will put every product they can on your face, insist you absolutely need all of it and inevitably bully you into buying the lot!
I love my job in Cosmetics, I really do, but there is a lot more to it than just playing with makeup all day. Of course it has its perks – many of the leading companies offer great discounts for their staff. For example, all employees of companies under the now gigantic ‘Estee Lauder Companies’ umbrella receive 65% off all of Lauder Companies products as well as 75% off selected stock, past collections and gift sets in regional “Staff Shops”. Smaller companies generally offer between 20-40% off for their staff. Not to mention the goodies you get during seasonal training sessions and for some companies, every new launch send straight to your house just in time for the launch!
I don’t consider myself a sales person, I am a makeup artist. People buy makeup from me because when I do their makeup they feel better about themselves, perhaps I’ve taught them a trick or two about application, and they want to be able to recreate that look for themselves when they go home. That is not the case for everyone though.
More and more companies don’t care whether you can do makeup or not, they want staff who can make sales – lots of them, and big ones too. No matter how they try to dress it up they’re all after one thing and that’s Money. They figure they can teach anyone as much makeup as they need to get by on counter, what they’re looking for is hard core sales people willing to drag unsuspecting customers off the shop floor and sell products to them that they sometimes had no interest in buying. I’ve seen ex door-to-door sales people gain employment in cosmetics over fantastic and very experienced makeup artists!
When that is the attitude of the companies is it any wonder that some otherwise pleasant cosmetics consultants can quickly turn into desperate money hungry vultures. Imagine going to work every day knowing that your individual target for the day is just about achievable, but that whatever your short fall today will be carried on to tomorrow, pushing tomorrows target even further out of reach which will inevitably roll on to the next day and so on. The fear that at any point due to not meeting your individual targets you could face disciplinary action for effectively “Not doing your job.” In recent months I’ve even seen more than a few people sacked from their positions for no reason other than that they didn’t meet their target one month (never mind that it was January, just after Christmas and half the country was snowed in!)
So next time you think “I’ll just pop into that department store and get my makeup done” spare a thought for the person who serves you. We know not everyone can afford to drop hundreds of pounds on makeup in one go, so if you want to try something but can’t buy today, be honest about it and keep it quick. If you can afford to buy, then that would be wonderful!
Leave your thoughts on this below!
10 comments:
Thank you so much to your anonymous friend for writing this. It's always good to see things from another view point. I imagine it must be extremely stressful working in such a pressured environment.
What a hideous situation. :(
I totally agree with you: these are sales jobs, even more, hard sales, and that's very difficult.
I don't mind sales associates trying to sell me stuff, that's their job, but what I don't like is when they're trying too hard, instead of offering me the right advice and trying to sell me something that I am going to enjoy wearing.
I doubt the girls at my local shop are under much pressure, though - I have happened to be waiting while 2 of them were chit-chatting with friends who just stopped by to say hi (not even buying anything) and that really upsets me, it makes me feel like my business isn't worth their time. But well, I don't want to generalize, there are black sheep in every field.
Great post. I can definitely relate. I used to work at a MAC counter and it was one of the most stressful jobs I've ever had. I'm quite shy so the pushy, do whatever it takes attitude really made me feel so pressured to sell. We had outrageous sales quotas and it didn't help that I worked part time and on some of the most empty nights. How can we sell when there is no customers to sell to? It's a lot harder than most people think. They don't take into account how much scrutiny we're put under from our managers and the vast amount of rules and up-selling that must be followed even when approaching a customer. Not to mention the ongoing sales pitches that we have to repeat and bombard people with, even when they said they weren't interested. Honestly, if I could have just stuck to doing makeovers, I would have. I pride myself on being honest and I wouldn't compromise my integrity just to sell something to someone.
Thank you for a great post. It was very interesting to read it.And I understand what this person is talking about..
Thanks everyone for your comments - I think hearing about the pressures those who work on beauty counters has certainly made me appreciate the pressures they face a lot more - The irony is, if the pressure to make sales wasn't there, then the counters would obviously be a lot more approachable, and probably mean that people would buy more products!
wow! Thank you so much to your anonymous friend for writing this. I did not realise how much pressure the beauty counters people were under. I can count on one single hand how many times I have been at a beauty counter. I just dont feel comfortable there for lots of reasons. let's just say that I feel out of place.
The conclusion of this article ruffled my feathers a little bit.
“I’ll just pop into that department store and get my makeup done” > starting from £20 onwards for a foundation, I would expect I can turn up at a department store, have a color match on my skin, and have it put it all over my face without feeling forced to buy it.
'make it quick'? like the person would bother about my question or my enquiry if they know i only have £20 in my pocket.
liloo/tsunimee
Wow, this was really eye opening! I think I would get sacked really quickly if I worked at a department store, those sales targets sound horrible LOL D:
haha I am so not meant for the job! I agree sales people need to reach targets but I go around counters trying products for ages and dont end up buying anything, not coz I dont intend to buy but coz it takes a while to find the 'perfect' concealer lol. In fact the only time I buy products immediately from counter is when I have already done my research from home.
Thank you and thanks to your friend who wrote this.
I sympathise and I know I couldn't do this job myself, the pressure must be terrible.
Like liloo though, I'm not comfortable with the idea that we as customers should have to make it easier on staff by expecting worse service. The companies who make the policies should be the ones to ease the situation, not the people who are spending (or considering spending) large amounts of money.
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