The Promise

When you first hear about high-ticket sales, it sounds like the ultimate escape.

No degree required. No ceiling on your earnings. Close a $40,000 deal, take home $4,000. Do that a few times a month, and you're making more than most corporate jobs will ever pay you.

That's the promise.

The reality? It took John two years—and close to $20,000 in unpaid commissions—to find any real stability.

"Throughout that whole journey of being on these different offers," he explains, "there's definitely been a lot of times where I've worked with offer owners. They've promised one thing. They've given me very, very different outcomes."

Different outcomes. That's a polite way of saying: they lied.

How the Game Works

For those unfamiliar with the industry, here's the basic structure:

There are two roles in high-ticket sales. Appointment setters book meetings and earn 3-5% commission. Closers take those calls and convert prospects into paying customers, earning around 10% commission.

The catch? 99% of these roles are commission-only.

You close a deal today. You don't see that money today. You see it in 30 days. Maybe.

"There is a lot of trust and faith involved with the person you're working with," John explains. "You have 30 days of you not making any money, but you're closing deals for the company. And so we have to rely on the company and have faith that at the end of the 30 days, they're going to pay you your commissions."

Faith. Trust. Hope.

Those are nice words. They don't pay rent.

The Tracking System (Or Lack Thereof)

Here's something most people outside the industry don't realise: the entire commission tracking system runs on Google Sheets.

Not some sophisticated software. Not an automated system with checks and balances. A Google Sheet.

"Every single time you close a deal, you go to the sheet, input your numbers," John confirms. "And if somebody had malicious intent, then yes, they could technically slide in like a deal or two here or there."

When a company is processing hundreds or thousands of sales a month, things slip through. Numbers get lost. "Mistakes" happen. And when the business owner is the one controlling the spreadsheet and the bank account, guess who loses when there's a discrepancy?

Not them.

Scam #1: The $50K Disappearing Act

John's first proper offer was with a sales agency working on automation offers. If you're in this space, you know the automation industry has a reputation—and not a good one.

But the real problem wasn't the product. It was the finances.

"One of the business owners mismanaged the finances," John recalls. "Money that was meant to be used to pay the sales reps. And B, used for inventory for these e-com products that we were managing for clients."

The day before the sales team was supposed to be paid out, one of the business owners withdrew $50,000 from the company account.

Gone.

"The agency owner basically didn't get paid out either. And so he told our whole team, 'Hey, I haven't been paid out, so I can't pay you guys out.'"

The result? The entire team—people who had spent the month closing deals, hitting targets, doing everything they were supposed to do—was stuck without pay for three to four weeks.

And they were still expected to work. Still expected to close deals. Still expected to perform.

Without knowing if they'd ever see a cent.

Scam #2: The Jordan Belfort Special

After that experience, you'd think John would have learned to spot the warning signs.

He did. But the next guy was better at hiding them.

"I worked with a guy for eight months to a year," John says. "And it was a lot of, you know, almost Jordan Belfort style—'This is the dream, this is what's going to happen.'"

The pitch was always compelling. The vision was always grand. The money was always "coming."

"When it came to paying us out, it was, 'Hey, we need to wait till X client pays us.' Or even when they paid us out, it was, 'Okay, well, we need to fund this in the company, just hold off another week.'"

One week became two. Two became three. Three became four.

Then it just... never happened.

Scam #3: The Accidental Success Story

This one's almost tragic because nobody involved was necessarily a bad person. They were just unprepared.

John helped scale an offer from zero to $150,000 in revenue in just two months. First month: $80K. Second month: $150K.

Sounds like a success story, right?

"That was his first ever offer," John explains. "One of the other guys that we were helping him scale up, he had never scaled it before, and he didn't expect us to close that many deals."

$220,000 hit the business owner's account. Money he wasn't expecting. Money he didn't know how to manage.

"He couldn't actually handle fulfillment either, meaning that the offer basically had to be closed for two, three months after that because he was overworked and overflowed with fulfillment."

The result? Mismanaged finances. Overwhelmed operations. And sales reps left wondering when—or if—they'd ever get paid.

"Everything just started to crumble at that point."

Right Now, As We Speak

Here's the part that really hits home.

During the interview for this story, John casually mentioned something that shouldn't be casual at all:

"Funny as it is, as we're speaking right now, I actually haven't been paid out by a client. Neither has the sales team. So we're kind of in limbo right now."

This isn't a story from the past. This is happening right now. To experienced sales professionals who've been in the industry for years. Who know the warning signs. Who vet their opportunities carefully.

It's still happening.

The Total Damage

Over two years in high-ticket sales, John estimates he's lost close to $20,000 in unpaid commissions.

"And that for some people is like a year's salary," he acknowledges.

A year's salary. Gone. Not because he didn't do the work. Not because he didn't close the deals. Not because he wasn't good enough.

Because business owners either couldn't or wouldn't pay him what he earned.

What It Actually Feels Like

When you ask John what it feels like to not get paid, his answer is immediate:

"Anxiety more than anything."

It's the not knowing that destroys you.

"When am I getting paid? How long is this going to go on for? Is it going to be a month? If it's going to be longer than a month, do I need to leave? If I need to leave, do I have another offer on the table? How can I go find one quickly?"

Sales is already an emotional rollercoaster. You're commission-only. Your income fluctuates based on lead flow, your performance, market conditions. You have to be conservative with money, always keeping reserves for slow months.

Adding the uncertainty of whether you'll get paid at all? It's crushing.

"It's a lot more stress. It's a lot of uncertainty versus stability."

The Hidden Career Killer

Beyond the immediate financial pain, there's a longer-term consequence most people don't think about:

Banks don't trust you.

"The bank wants to see stable income," John explains. "A lot of times even renting can be hard because if you were going to go rent a property, they want to see where your income is coming from."

If you're moving between offers—which you often have to do when one stops paying—or getting paid sporadically, financial institutions see you as a liability.

"It's harder to get a mortgage on a house if you wanted to do that. It's harder to rent a house if you wanted to do that. If you wanted to get a loan for something, it'd be a hell of a lot harder to do that."

You can be making $20K a month and still get denied for a basic apartment lease. Because on paper, your income looks unstable. Unreliable. Risky.

Not because of anything you did. Because business owners don't pay on time—or at all.

The Power You Don't Have

Here's the most brutal truth about being a sales rep in this industry:

You have no power.

"Agreements mean nothing. Contracts mean nothing," John states flatly. "No company is going to actually take you to a court of law, even if you've gone and signed a contract."

Even if you have everything in writing. Even if you have proof of every deal you closed. Even if you're legally, morally, and ethically in the right.

"It costs you a hell of a lot more money to take them to court than it is to actually get your commission. And you'd probably just be better off finding another role and getting paid faster than that."

So what do reps do? They walk away. They cut their losses. They find another offer and hope this one is different.

The business owner faces zero consequences. The rep loses thousands of dollars and months of their life.

Why Business Owners Do This

Not every business owner is malicious. John is clear about that.

"Everyone isn't like that. And that's where you have to kind of weed out and find the good people."

But for the ones who don't pay? It comes down to two things:

One: Naivety. First-time business owners who don't understand financial management. They see $200K hit their account and think it's all theirs. They don't set aside the 30% for sales commissions. They spend it on ads, on fulfillment, on themselves. By payday, there's nothing left.

Two: Morals. Or more specifically, the lack of them.

"90% of people in this space don't have morals," John says bluntly. "If you talk about the Miami Info guys, a lot of them have this mentality of, 'Hey, if they bought the program and didn't get results, it's their fault.' And if they get scammed, it's their fault for getting scammed because they're dumb for doing that."

That mentality extends to how they treat their teams.

"They don't really care for the reps because they view them as disposable. 'This person, he's a hassle, he's bugging me about commissions, let me just replace him with somebody else.'"

Disposable. That's how you're viewed when you're closing deals for someone else's business.

The Commission Breath Problem

There's a psychological phenomenon in sales called "commission breath."

When you haven't been paid—when you don't have money in your bank account—you start to subconsciously project desperation on your calls. You need to close. The prospect feels it. And paradoxically, you close less.

"Sales is an exchange of emotions," John explains. "When they feel that desperation, you'll actually end up doing the opposite. You start making less sales and it becomes a hell of a lot harder."

So not getting paid doesn't just hurt you financially. It hurts your future performance. It creates a downward spiral that's incredibly difficult to escape.

The business owner who didn't pay you last month is now costing you deals this month.

What Should Exist

John is currently on track to earn $20,000 this month. That money will (hopefully) hit his account on the 7th of next month.

But imagine a different world.

Imagine closing a deal and seeing that commission in your account the same day. Not 30 days later. Not "when the client pays us." Not "after we fund this other thing in the company."

Today.

"When you have a dopamine hit every day, instantaneously, you can imagine the different levels of motivation," John says. "If I got a sale—I got two sales yesterday. If I got the commissions that day, that moment, I probably would have pushed for a third."

More motivation. More security. More sales. More money for everyone.

"There's a level of trust where they can now trust the business owner. There's a lot less faith involved and a lot more systematic. It's not just blind faith and blind trust. It's: okay, there's a software, there's a system, I know this works."

No more anxiety about whether you'll get paid.

No more "commission breath" tanking your close rate.

No more banks treating you like a liability because your income is unpredictable.

No more cutting your losses and walking away from money you earned.

The Industry's Dirty Secret

This industry has a talent problem, and everyone knows it.

Good closers are hard to find. Great ones are even harder to keep. Companies complain constantly about turnover, about training costs, about reps who "just don't have what it takes."

But here's what they don't talk about: they're driving talent away.

"This is why this industry is not for a lot of people," John admits. "But there would probably be a lot more people willing to be in this space if there was more stability and safety."

Every time a business owner doesn't pay a rep, that's one more person who leaves the industry. One more talented professional who decides corporate jobs—with their boring stability and guaranteed paychecks—aren't so bad after all.

The industry is cannibalising itself. And the business owners doing the scamming don't seem to realise—or care—that they're part of the problem.

The Question You Should Ask

If you're a sales rep evaluating a new opportunity, there's one question that should be at the top of your list:

"How do I get paid, and what systems ensure I actually receive what I earn?"

If the answer involves a Google Sheet and "trust me," think carefully.

If the answer involves a third-party system that automatically routes commissions at the point of sale—where the business owner never touches your money in the first place—that's a different story.

Because here's what John learned over two years and $20,000 in lost commissions:

Trust isn't a payment system.

Faith isn't a contract.

And hope isn't a strategy for feeding your family.

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