He's Seen It All

Most people in high-ticket sales have experienced one side of the payment problem.

Warren has experienced all of them.

Sales rep. Manager. Sales agency owner. Business owner. Over the course of several years, he's occupied every seat at the table. High-ticket sales. B2B. Corporate. Even door-to-door back in the day.

"I've seen it all when it comes to sales," he says.

And what he's seen isn't pretty.

The 37-Day Wait

For those unfamiliar with how high-ticket sales actually works, here's the reality:

You close a deal—could be anywhere from $3,000 to $30,000. You earn 10% commission. But you don't see that money today. You see it next month. Maybe.

"Typically it's every single month," Warren explains. "They tie it up based on the first and the last day of the month."

Do the maths. If you close a deal on January 1st, you have to wait until the 7th or 8th of February to get paid.

That's 37 to 38 days.

"That's a long time," Warren admits. "That's a long time."

This creates a predictable pattern across the industry: sales spike in the final two weeks of every month.

"We all know that payday is around the corner. If I close more now, I'm going to get paid more on the seventh of the following month."

The flip side? The first two weeks of every month are motivational dead zones. You close a deal on the 1st, and the dopamine hit of actually receiving that money is over a month away. It's abstract. Theoretical. A number on a spreadsheet.

Speaking of spreadsheets...

The Google Sheet Problem

Here's something that would shock anyone outside this industry:

The entire commission tracking system for most high-ticket companies runs on Google Sheets.

"Majority of companies just use a Google Sheet," Warren confirms. "They zap the payment from the processor into a Google Sheet and they call it a day. They have a VA that goes in and double-checks the payments. Sometimes there's human error."

Let that sink in.

A virtual assistant—often working remotely, often juggling multiple clients, following an SOP they were handed—is responsible for ensuring you get paid correctly.

"So you're telling me that not even the business owner sometimes goes and checks? It's some virtual assistant that just checks up the numbers and then says everything's okay?"

"Yeah. I mean, obviously depending on how big the business is. If the business is quite small, the business owner will have time to do it. But if the business is doing, you know, $300K, $400K, $500K a month plus, typically there'll be VAs who present the data to the owner."

Hundreds of thousands of dollars flowing through a system managed by a Google Sheet and a VA following a checklist.

What could possibly go wrong?

The Business Owner's Perspective

Here's where Warren's experience gets interesting. Because he's not just a victim of the system—he's also had to operate within it.

As a business owner, he's intimately familiar with the cash flow nightmare that creates late payments:

"We used to just have a vault in our Mercury account and we'd have money set aside. We'd know, okay, that's going to be paid for the reps. But like, that's always managing cash flow and making sure that we put money aside for reps at the end of the month."

The problem? Overlapping billing cycles.

"The last 37-day cycle hasn't technically completed, and you're already getting sales in from the next. So we're one, trying to hype up the team to close more deals during the month. And also we're like, okay, let's make sure we pay them the previous month."

Money comes in. It sits in one account. The lines blur between "revenue from this month" and "commissions owed from last month." Business owners—especially new ones—start spending money that isn't theirs.

"The way that most people do it is: money is in the account, and if the money's in the account, they pay it out. It makes it very hard to understand what money is yours. Especially if there's money coming in for the previous 37 days that you're then paying out on the seventh. You don't want to accidentally send too much to yourself or to other expenses and then not have enough for your sales team."

When Stripe Holds Your Money

Even business owners with good intentions can get blindsided.

Warren experienced this firsthand:

"We had one time where we had a hold on Stripe—like 20 or 30% of our income—because of maybe one or two disputes."

One or two chargebacks. That's all it takes.

"When that happens, I mean, you're talking about usually you pay 25% to your sales team anyway. So like an extra 25% that you need to leave aside that could have been paid to yourself in that particular month."

Do the maths: if you're paying 25% to your sales team and Stripe suddenly holds 25-30% of your revenue, you're now looking at 50%+ of your monthly income that's either owed to others or frozen.

"We were lucky that we had a treasury. We were lucky that we had money aside, and eventually it got released on Stripe. That's how quickly payday can come around. That's how quickly it could disrupt cash flow."

Warren's company survived because they had reserves. Many don't.

The Motivation Death Spiral

Here's something business owners rarely talk about publicly:

When you pay late, you lose money.

"Sometimes if payday is late on the 7th or 8th—let's say it drags on to the 10th, 11th, 12th, which it has in the past—I'll see a massive dip in the team's motivation, but also the number of sales that they close."

Late payments don't just hurt the rep who's waiting for money. They hurt the business owner's bottom line.

"So I'm actually disrupting my own business if we don't get these guys paid out on time."

It's a self-inflicted wound that compounds every cycle. Pay late → team loses motivation → fewer sales → less revenue → harder to pay on time → pay late again.

Story #1: The Airbnb Policy

Warren's first major experience with non-payment came early in his high-ticket sales career.

He was working with a client in the Airbnb space. Things were going well—until they weren't.

"I was parting ways with their team, and they have a policy where if reps leave halfway through the month, you're not entitled to your commissions from the deals that you've closed."

Read that again.

If you leave mid-month—for any reason—you forfeit every commission you earned that month. Deals you closed. Money you generated for the company. Gone.

"Which is a crazy policy."

Warren asked for his money. And asked. And asked.

"I didn't get it. Which was like $4,000 to $5,000."

This wasn't a grey area. These were closed deals. Revenue the company received. Commissions he'd earned under their agreed terms.

They just... decided not to pay.

"That was around the time where I was starting in high-ticket sales. And I'm glad that I had some money set aside, because that month, if I didn't have anything put aside—or if I was living paycheck to paycheck—$4,000 to $5,000... that would have crippled me. Like, I would have had to move home."

Story #2: The $10,000 Agency Nightmare

Later, as a sales agency owner, Warren experienced the problem from a different angle.

His agency was owed money by a client. Then the relationship soured.

"The client and I decided to part ways, and they just didn't pay for weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks."

He won't name names. "I don't even want to be involved in the beef."

But the damage was done.

"This was about $10,000, which would have been used to pay a couple of sales reps for myself."

Here's where Warren's story diverges from most: he paid his reps out of his own pocket.

Think about that. A client owed him $10,000. That money was supposed to cover his reps' commissions. The client didn't pay. Instead of passing that loss down to his team—people who had done their jobs, closed their deals, earned their money—Warren absorbed the hit himself.

"I ended up just paying the reps out of pocket myself."

How common is that?

"I have a feeling that's like a one out of ten million case where the business owner or sales agency owner actually pays the reps out of their own pocket just because it wasn't the sales reps' fault."

One in ten million. That's the odds of finding a leader with actual morals in this industry.

"There's many sales agencies out there who wouldn't pay their own reps out of pocket."

To this day, when other agencies ask Warren if they should work with that client, his answer is simple:

"No. Unless you're using something like Payday, why would you even bother working with them? Because you don't know if it's even going to work. You don't know if they're even going to pay you."

The Warning Signs

After years in this industry, Warren has learned to recognise when payment isn't coming:

"The client doesn't respond for a long time. They start ghosting their messages."

Then come the technical removals:

"You get kicked out of Google Workspace. You get kicked out of Slack. You get kicked out of the CRM."

Radio silence follows:

"You receive no messages. They don't even respond. Maybe they open your messages but they don't respond."

By then, it's too late.

"That's when you get a feeling. You're like, what's going on? What's happening here?"

The Industry-Wide Epidemic

How common is this problem?

Warren's estimate is sobering:

"For every sales rep you speak to, at least one in two have experienced late payments slash not being paid by an owner."

One in two. Half of everyone in this industry.

Breaking it down further:

"80% have experienced late payments. Probably one in three have experienced not being paid at all."

80% late. 33% completely stiffed.

These aren't outliers. This isn't "a few bad apples." This is the norm.

The Real Cost

When you don't get paid in this industry, what happens?

"The reality is there's not much they can do at all."

Loans? Not an option.

"A lot of incentive-based earners cannot get loans because their income isn't regular."

So what do you do when you're living paycheck to paycheck and that paycheck doesn't arrive?

"They'll have to reach out to their family. They'll have to ask their mom for a bit of money or something. Because if they don't get paid, they don't get paid. Where's the money going to come from?"

The consequences can be severe:

"If you're living paycheck to paycheck, if somebody doesn't pay you, you can go in debt. You can end up in a serious hole."

And at the extreme end:

"I've seen it—even to the point where, God forbid, you go homeless. Your rent is due and it's over and your landlord kicks you out."

Warren pauses.

"And that's happened to many, many people."

The Coffee Question

There's a detail in Warren's account that hits differently than the big numbers.

"I really fear for the reps out there who are living paycheck to paycheck. Who do get disrupted by having payments a couple of days late. Who are questioning themselves when they're buying that coffee. Should I get it? Do I have the money for it?"

That moment of hesitation at the register. The mental calculation of whether you can afford a $5 drink because you don't know when—or if—your $5,000 commission is coming.

That's the daily reality for people in this industry.

"Or you're worried about paying rent. Or don't know when rent money is going to come in. Like, I really worry for those people. And then the business owner just... not paying them."

The Power Imbalance

As someone who's occupied every role in this ecosystem, Warren sees the fundamental problem clearly:

"As a sales rep in this industry, you don't have power. You don't have any power to go up against the business owner. Take them to court? It probably costs you more than your commissions for that month—even if you did earn $10K, $15K, $20K. And oftentimes they're located in a different country."

Geography makes enforcement impossible.

"Especially for those reps who are working internationally. Because if they just don't pay you—like, are you going to pay for a flight to where they live to go confront them in person? You didn't get paid."

The irony is brutal: you can't afford to chase the money you're owed because you weren't paid the money you're owed.

"Whereas if you work with somebody up the road, it's very easy to go up and ask them like, what's going on?"

Remote work was supposed to be freedom. For sales reps, it's become a trap.

The Trust Problem

Every new rep who joins a team is making a bet.

"For the people who come onto your team, especially those newcomers, they want those guarantees. They're putting a lot of trust into us because they have no idea if we're a good company or not."

Warren is self-aware about this:

"If we have good morals, they have no idea. We can tell them we do, but they have no idea. It doesn't exist until the money hits their account."

Finding trustworthy companies is like finding a needle in a haystack.

"You're always going to have a bad actor. We vet for bad actors. But at the end of the day, you cannot detect 100% of them."

What 1% Actually Buys

Warren's company now uses Payday. When asked what he'd pay for instant commission processing, his answer is revealing:

"We're paying 1% right now. 1% for zero worries."

What does "zero worries" actually mean?

"There's no worries at all about HR, payroll, people getting paid. And there's no worries when it comes to the end of the month having an extra 20% of total revenue from the previous month aside to pay the team. It's already paid out. It's already taken care of."

No overlapping cycles. No cash flow calculations. No praying Stripe doesn't freeze your account at the wrong time.

"I wouldn't even call it a price. I think it's just an investment."

The Competitive Advantage No One Talks About

Here's something Warren sees playing out in real-time:

"If you're in a Discord community like AST or Fancy Sales Training, and you're seeing tons of job offers come through—they've all got these 37-day cycles—and you see one that's instant commissions? More than likely you're going to test it out. Even if it's something you've never sold before."

The talent flows toward security.

"Why would they not want to work with your company? I think it'll get to the point where if you're not using Payday, reps will not want to work with you. Because why would they work with you if they're not protected?"

Even compensation becomes secondary:

"If they could earn less—maybe even 20% less—in a different company, but they're getting guaranteed payments and it's on time every time? I think they would take that."

20% less money. But 100% certainty they'll actually receive it.

That's the trade-off people are willing to make. That's how broken the current system is.

The Question Every Rep Should Ask

From someone who's been a rep, a manager, an agency owner, and a business owner—someone who's lost over $15,000 to non-payment across his career and paid $10,000 out of his own pocket to make his team whole—the advice is simple:

Ask how you get paid before you ask how much you get paid.

Because a 15% commission on a 37-day cycle with a company that might ghost you is worth less than a 10% commission that hits your account the same day.

"We're motivating them every single day because I'm getting them used to knowing: as long as you get a deal a day, payday is every day."

Every day. Not every 37 days. Not "when the client pays us." Not "after we sort out the Stripe hold." Not "once we fund this other thing first."

Every. Single. Day.

"You close a deal Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday—you get payday every single day. You get a dopamine rush, dopamine rush, dopamine rush, dopamine rush, dopamine rush. Money hitting your account every single day of the week."

Warren pauses.

"Who doesn't want that?"

NOTE: Names and identifying details have been changed to protect privacy. The experiences described are real.