Crickets on Launch Day? Why Your High-Ticket Offer Isn’t Selling

If you’ve ever poured your heart into a high-ticket offer and launched it—only to hear crickets—you are so not alone!

In this episode, Business and Growth Strategist Melissa Glick joins us to break down what’s really happening when your best offer flops and how to course-correct fast. From building buyer-ready pipelines to leveraging curated events, we dig into the real strategies that convert, all while maintaining that real, relational approach. 

You’ll learn:

• Why your offer might be falling flat (and how to adjust it fast)
• How to spot the difference between freebie hunters and true buyers.
• A repeatable system for filling your pipeline using curated events
• Why selling isn’t gross—and how to feel good doing it

By the end of this conversation, you’ll be ready to rethink your launch, refine your sales engine, and start attracting ideal clients.

About Melissa Glick:

Melissa Glick is a business and growth strategist who helps solopreneurs and small business owners scale through smart systems and social selling. After building and selling a 7-figure tech company, Melissa founded Peak CEO to teach others how to break free from daily operations and grow with confidence. Her approach blends done-with-you systems for sales, marketing, operations, and finance, helping clients create predictable revenue and real freedom. 

Known for her blunt honesty and strategic mind, she’s passionate about transforming both businesses and lives—having done it herself, including a 100 lb. weight loss. Melissa specializes in organic lead generation, LinkedIn growth, and closing high-ticket deals without feeling “salesy.” When she’s not helping clients build sexy systems for smart growth, you’ll find her dancing, traveling, or leading powerful workshops that empower entrepreneurs to thrive.

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Transcript

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Natasha (00:00)

Hey friends, today I'm excited to introduce you to Melissa Glick. She's a business and growth strategist who helps entrepreneurs and small businesses scale through smart systems and social selling. After building and selling a seven figure tech company, Melissa founded Peak CEO to teach others how to break free from the daily operations and grow with confidence. Melissa specializes in organic lead generation, LinkedIn growth, and closing high ticket deals without feeling salesy. So today we're gonna be talking all about closing those high ticket sales

and why you might have launched a high ticket sale that flopped. And we've got some advice for you. So this is a really good one. Grab a pen and paper and let's get into it.

Natasha (00:37)

I am so excited to have you here. There's so many good things to talk about. I know we had just kind of been chatting about high ticket offers a few weeks ago and...

how people go to launch and sometimes one of the most heartbreaking thing is they're launching to crickets. And we thought this would be a really great topic for a podcast because I know there's so many people with wonderful services out there who need some more information about how to approach this because they have something really wonderful to offer people. They're just not quite sure how to sell it. So my first question for you is what is the biggest mistake you see coaches and consultants making when they're launching these high ticket offers and they just flop.

Melissa Glick (01:05)

Yeah.

Yes. Okay. So first of all, let me just say that this happens all the time. I have made this mistake myself.

and I have learned from it. And so now I am thrilled to be able to share lessons learned with your audience because the feeling of I have this like amazing thing that I know I can help people with and I want to share and going to try and sell it and then it flopping is like it can be soul crushing. And so I'd want to give everybody some positive hope that it's not the end of

of the world and I think that's a big thing that we're gonna talk about here today. So I think one of the biggest mistakes that people make is that they build this offer in a vacuum. And what I mean by that is that they focus on what they think their audience needs and not on what their audience is actually asking for. And a lot of times people will build an offer, which is what I did when I

first started being an online coach slash consultant slash strategist is I built my offer before I even had an audience.

So it didn't go well. spent six months building this course and then nobody wanted it. So building an offer in a vacuum when you have no validation, when you've had no real conversations, when you're just assuming that people want something from you and then being surprised when it flops is kind of the biggest mistake that I think people make because just because you can help somebody with something doesn't mean that people are going to pay you for it, especially

at a high ticket level.

Natasha (03:00)

That's so true and I love that you pointed out that you know Some people are feeling really alone because I think when this happens it can really easily become a statement that like I'm not worthy I'm not good what I have to offer isn't good when really it's more about the sales and marketing and the actual hitting the actual need or even just having an audience so

Melissa Glick (03:14)

Yes.

Natasha (03:19)

To help people out, would love to know for like that person who's just launching a high ticket offer and they're hearing crickets, where should they focus first?

Melissa Glick (03:20)

Exactly.

Okay, so if this happens to you and it's going to happen to you, I think it has happened to every single one of us who's been at this for a while is like just take a breath and like step away from it for a second and

go back to conversations that you are having with your actual audience. If so, if nobody's buying whatever it is that you're trying to sell, it's gonna be your offer. Something needs to be tweaked with your offer. It's your audience, like you've got the wrong offer, the right audience or the right offer in the wrong audience, or it's your messaging, or it's any combination or all of the three. So I think you kind of have to start by saying,

the right offer for the right people and is now the right time. I think this is really pertinent for right now because there's so much negativity right now. There's all this polarization going on about this is good and this is bad and this is what's happening and this is not happening and so people are panicked and I think now is a time when you really have to

dig in and

not be a vitamin, but be a painkiller. People want the painkiller right now. They're in pain. And whereas there might be times in our economy where people are willing to take the long approach, take the vitamin approach, but when people are panicked and when they have an immediate pain, this is when people actually want the problem solved, like right now. And

And if you can take this information that you have that you're getting from your audience, feedback insights about what happened, what went wrong, then you can get feedback and you can make adjustments fast and stop trying to scale something that hasn't sold yet and tweak it and then go back out.

Natasha (05:24)

I love that metaphor of the painkiller and I think that's so true in the economy right now that people are there's a fear based thing going on but there's also a watching where their dollars are spent so you really have to be addressing a pain point like people do still have money to spend but they're being really strategic and where they're spending it right now so you have to be really strategic too.

Melissa Glick (05:45)

Exactly. mean if you look at You know people getting laid off budgets being cut companies cutting back. It's on

jobs and roles and vendors and services that aren't seen as painkillers, right? These are not affecting our bottom line. These are not solving an immediate problem. And it's seen as like the vitamins or the fluff, and that's what gets cut. And so if your offer is seen as that, then that, you know, this is a situation of urgency. It's not the right time. Yeah.

Natasha (06:16)

Yeah, yep. I love the call to

action. We got to be strategic and really step into it and solve that problem. So I know you talk a lot about building a pipeline. What does a real working pipeline look for these high ticket offers and businesses?

Melissa Glick (06:32)

Yeah, so a pipeline, a real working pipeline isn't just names on a list, like, these are my leads. That's not a real working pipeline. It is, a pipeline is a system that moves people, like through a funnel, from stranger to buyer. So in the world of high ticket,

There are several different components of what this continuum looks like. So at first it's going out with authority building content. And so these people need to know who you are and you build authority by being that expert, being that knowledgeable person in this specific area. And so you can do that through your content, but it has to be authority building content.

Then moving along through this continuum, you have your targeted outreach and your engagement. So this is continuing to work with these people, building your authority, but doing so in a way that's targeted. So you're going out and looking for people and leads to fill your pipeline. You're not just waiting for them to come to you. There is going to be some inbound and that's what you're drawing to you with your content.

But then there also has to be this aspect of outbound because building a pipeline With the right people means you're being intentional about who you're building a pipeline for it's not just everybody it's the right people and So you're going out and with social selling when you're when you're when you're trying to build a business online and you're using Instagram or LinkedIn which is my favorite medium you know who these

people are. You have their name, you understand what they do for a living, and you reach out to them. And you start to engage with them through commenting, through liking their stuff, through sliding into their DMs and having a conversation with them. And this is how you build trust. Right. So now it's authority building and now it's targeted outreach and engagement. And then you move into... So before I get to the next part, I want to talk a little bit about

that you kind of chuckled when I said sliding into people's DMs. And so I kind of want to talk a little bit about that because sliding into DMs has some negativity around it, especially when it comes to not dating, right? We're talking about business. So everyone loves to bash this idea of getting pitch slapped.

Natasha (08:45)

Yes.

Melissa Glick (09:05)

So a pitch slap in the DMs for anybody who doesn't know what that terminology means, it's basically like a cold or a robotic sales message that kind of gives you the ick. Like you followed somebody or they followed you and then they immediately slide into your DM and they try and sell something to you. So the idea of the DM isn't the problem. What the problem is, is the bad outreach.

Right. It's the way that person

did their outreach and because we're doing targeted outreach and engagement and you're trying to build trust with somebody, if they pitch slap you and it's done in an icky way, they're losing the ability to have you fall into their pipeline. So, you know, we have to kind of be aware of what our approach is in the DMs. You kind of, you can't really skip over the connection part of it, the context part of it, the value part of it and go right

into this like slimy sleazy sales tactic. that's kind of what I mean about like sliding into DMs and how that's important in building your pipeline. And then the next piece of building your pipeline is having these meaningful conversations so that they buy from you. And your pipeline is predictable. So it's like...

I think of a pipeline as a faucet and you can turn the faucet on or off. So if your pipeline is dry, you open the faucet and water flows. If you are now

have you picked up a bunch of clients, your group courses are full, then you can just close the pipeline for now and you control it. And so this is a repeatable, predictable process that you have of being able to bring people in inbound, bring people in outbound through going through this continuum. And that's how you build a pipeline. And I have

my way of the offer or what I'm able to do to really capture those people. And that's through what I like to call curated events. That's, yeah. ⁓

Natasha (11:18)

So yeah, I

love that. And I just, want to go back to the DMS for just a second because I'm a big fan of DMS. I did a mini chat with Instagram and grew one of my clients audiences by about 20,000 people in one year without anything paid other than mini chat, which is insignificant, like less than a hundred bucks. Yeah. And once you scale it, it's a little bit more, but you know, most people are like, you don't grow that much organically on Instagram anymore and it is possible.

Melissa Glick (11:36)

15 bucks a month or something.

Natasha (11:47)

I didn't find, well, at first when I started learning about DM selling, was like, who wants another DM? But especially on Instagram, you're giving something like a lead magnet and value and people are commenting on the post for the lead magnet. So it's not actually a cold lead. Someone is actually asking you for something. You've started a conversation and as long as you respond conversationally, providing resources, DM selling is super effective, but that relationship piece is what I'm picking up.

from you is you know need to build a relationship. You need to court someone before you take the next step in the relationship.

Melissa Glick (12:19)

Totally. It's like we don't approach it like a one night stand, right? We approach it like a long term thing.

Natasha (12:26)

Yeah, and real quick before we get to our next question, I just wanted to ask for that authority building content. Do you have any suggestions for how people decide what to do for their authority building content?

Melissa Glick (12:38)

Well, I think there's different avenues. I like to use carousels because you can get a lot of information on a carousel by swiping and you have like multiple different slides where you can share. I like to teach people things in authority building content. know, there's, know, we all know that you have different pillars that you talk about. So you have maybe personal stories, you have, you wanna talk about

different pillars of content and things that you're teaching. I think it's really important that you teach skills. I think this is like what we went back to earlier, it's vitamin versus painkiller. Like people want skills right now. They want to learn things because there are so much noise.

online, social media, internet, just in general, there's so many people who are trying to do this and get hop on this coaching and consulting bandwagon and you have to make yourself stick out and so you have to actually give value and teach people something that they're going to be able to walk away with and be like, she said this or he said this, I'm going to try it and like it and then they're going to want to come back for more.

Natasha (13:46)

Yeah, and I think there's a real key there, which is real value, because we've all been on the webinar where you get on and it's an hour long sales pitch. it's kind of like what we just talking about before. No one wants that. If you give me real value, then OK, now I might invest. But I think sometimes people are scared to give that value. But it never seems to take you wrong if you give that value upfront. It always pays dividends later down the road.

Melissa Glick (14:08)

Yeah, and just to take it a step further, we've all been on that free webinar where it's just one giant sales pitch and the value that they're giving is just regurgitated chat GPT stuff. And it's like, I want.

actual POV. I want actual experience. want actual knowledge. Like tell me what your experiences and how, and how this has impacted you or what are your stories on how you've been successful doing this, like the pros and the cons and you know, like actually give me something that I can't go and just Google or chat GBT myself. That is a complete waste of time.

Natasha (14:49)

Yeah, well, and that's so gold. mean, ChatGPD is a wonderful tool, but if you're not bringing in your stories and experiences to bring that learning to life, people aren't going to relate to it. And like you said, they can just go out to ask ChatGPD themselves.

Melissa Glick (15:01)

Yeah, exactly.

Natasha (15:04)

All right, so you said curated events. Those are also workshops, right? Is that, or is there a difference?

Melissa Glick (15:09)

Yes, so I'll

explain what I mean by a curated event. people buy from people and workshops, cohorts, master classes, all of these things let your leads experience you in action. And you're not just

Natasha (15:17)

Perfect.

Melissa Glick (15:36)

Talking about what you do. You're not just read, you know saying regurgitated chat GPT information you're showing them something like something important a skill or some life lesson or something they can use in there, you know their growth or Whether it's life or whether it's businesses that's important. So it's a low pressure It's low pressure for them and it's high leverage For you because you can really build trust fast. You can create this real value

and then naturally lead them to the next step. But here's where a lot of people go wrong and the difference between a free webinar and a curated event. So.

Curated event is I I named it that I don't know if anybody else calls it that I named it that and I talk about curated events all the time But it's a sales engine so it's like I said, it's high-impact and it's conversion driven and it's built to position you as an authority and drive high ticket sales and It's a way for you to control the faucet like going back to you know, the faucet on it on or off and so

Earlier I talked about the ways that you build a pipeline.

So in terms of this curated event, you attract the right people with your content. You invite them strategically via DMs to people that are already in your world, who you've been nurturing relationships with because you've known that you've got this event that's coming up. And so you start this process two months in advance and you deliver value so good that they are

scribbling notes and flooding you with questions. And then you leave this event with authority connection and you've got this amazing momentum and then they're ready to jump into your high offer.

Free webinars flop because of many reasons. One, they're built by ChatGPT, so they don't have any depth. They attract freebie hunters, not buyers. So a curated event costs money. It is a low ticket offer. So it could be 47, it could be 97, it could be 197, could be 297. I I arrange all of those for my curated events. They're not free.

because I don't want to attract freebie hunters. I want to attract buyers. And the other reason why a lot of webinars, free webinars fail is because there's no outbound DM plan. They just sit around and wait for people to sign up. And so this is not intentional at all. And so what you want to do is you want to build a room of interested people versus people who want freebies and who aren't buying.

And once you do, once you get this curated event dialed in, and this kind of goes back to what we were talking about at the beginning, sometimes you have to do your curated event and then you learn from it and then you do it again and it's a little bit better and then you do it again and it's a little bit better. Like you have to test and gain insights and gain customer feedback and you continue to sharpen and refine it every time you do it. This becomes something that's very scalable.

you build a pipeline, one curated event can fill your pipeline for months and then you just turn it back on when you're ready.

Natasha (19:07)

So good. I think a lot of business owners listening would love the idea of this faucet that when they need new business, they just turn it on. Their income's consistent. That's really lovely. And I wanted to ask you about the curated events. Are you hosting them on Zoom? I'm sure you can host them in a lot of different places, but do you advertise them on your channels as well as the DMs?

Melissa Glick (19:31)

Okay, so this is how it works. I might use a digital lead magnet or a free event to get people excited about my curated event. So when you think about the value ladder, you've got your free offers at the bottom, you move up the value ladder to low ticket to mid ticket to high ticket.

So with my curated events, which is my sales engine, I am there paid. And so I have to sell seats to my curated events.

So I might use digital, free digital lead magnets or maybe even a free webinar to get people excited and sign up for my curated event. I have to sell seats to my curated event. And I like to use this strategy called the sell out strategy.

when you're selling your low ticket curated event because it's not just about filling those seats. It's a calculated move to drive high ticket conversions. So if you use the sellout strategy, which is basically my curated events, like the ones that I have, they always sell out.

I don't wait for people to sign up. I would say 50 % of the people that sign up for my curated events are inbound from my content, from referrals. But the other 50 % are people who I've invited, I've strategically gone out and invited them to join my curated event. And then they sell out. And I've done this multiple times. And so with the sell out strategy, you can tell people that my events sell out. And that alone is proof of demand that builds

authority for you because people automatically want what other people are buying. And then talk about painkiller, right? This exclusivity creates urgency because nobody wants to miss out on this thing that you're teaching that's going to solve my pain.

And then this buy-in, right? People are joining. They know that you do this every three months or every four months. It continues to build trust. People are looking forward to it. This becomes something that you become known for. And when people pay, even if it's a little bit, then they pay attention, right? We are trying to eliminate those freebie people because they ultimately aren't going to convert. And then you've got this momentum now. This momentum, this door

is open now to your premium offer because you've got a room full of like, it's not warm leads at this point, it is hot leads who are in the room and they are waiting to convert to your high ticket offer. But here's the other thing about the pipeline is only a percentage of the people in your curated event are actually going to convert. Only a percentage.

And if you're selling HiHi Ticket, maybe it's one, maybe it's two, but that is not a fail. Okay? Because the rest of the people that are in that curated event now are going to give you feedback and insights. They are going to give you voice of the customer language about why they joined, what it helped them with.

why they aren't ready to move forward. And this is all language that you can now use in your content and to continue to sharpen and refine your offer for next time and maybe create even a different curated event for those people. They become referral partners for you. You now have spent a considerable amount of time with them. My curated events are usually minimum four hours. So maybe it's an in-person workshop that's four hours, or maybe it's a masterclass that's spread out over a month.

and we've got 60 minutes a week. It's like considerable amount of time building a relationship with these people who now become raving fans. So it's like the ultimate engine for your business. I don't really have another word for it because even the people that don't convert still help build your business.

Natasha (23:39)

Yeah, I hope everyone at home is taking notes because there's so much goodness and everything that you just said. one of the things is that consistency, right? When you're running this workshop, maybe every three months, people come to expect it. And sometimes we're launched, like I see people launching, you know, an offer, they launch it, it appears, it disappears. You never know when it's coming back or if it's coming back. And so this kind of, I call it like guerrilla marketing is not as effective because you don't have that steady stream. And.

The other thing I heard too was refining one idea. And this was an aha for me a couple years ago listening to an Amy Porterfield podcast where I kept reinventing all these new things because I'm a creative. I love to create, but I was missing the magic of refining and making something really wonderful because it can feel a little bit boring for you. Although I don't think it has to be, but mentally we think that until we get into the work that it might be boring to do the same thing over and over again, but really you can really refine and up level something. So lots of great takeaways here.

Melissa Glick (24:33)

You wanna know what's not boring?

Natasha (24:36)

I do.

Melissa Glick (24:34)

You wanna know what's not boring? A six figure business that's built on your curated event. Not boring. Not boring.

Natasha (24:42)

Yep, not boring, not boring at all.

I love it. So I know one of the other real challenges here is like selling feels awkward for a lot of people, especially online. So what are some tips or strategies you have for people to get over that fear of selling?

Melissa Glick (24:56)

Yeah, so I've been selling for like 20 years. I

I learned sales skills in a bullpen with a bunch of dudes wearing a suit where my Calls were logged and I had to make a hundred cold calls a day. I mean it was like boiler room for real that's where I learned my sales skills and Thankfully, that's not what my life looks like anymore But there's this like icky stigma around selling because people think that it's about having to convince somebody to buy but it's really not

It's about connecting with people, serving people, and relieving their pain, right? It's about being the painkiller for them. And so...

There's this like image of the ick and the pushy and the sleazy that makes people hesitant to sell, coaches, like especially coaches who are, you know, lead with empathy and, you know, want to be have a more agile approach that feels attuned in alignment with like who they are. But if you can flip your thinking about what sales means and think about it like

Helping somebody like somebody out there is Praying for exactly what you have to offer like what if what if their future depended on it? You know, like you can solve real problems for people. There are people out there who are looking for solutions and if Your courage to sell better could be somebody's lifeline. I mean like think about

the person who's on the brink of burnout or the person who needs health coaching or the business owner who's on the verge of not being able to make payroll or the CEO who's got a toxic culture and got employees who are leaving left and right. These people have real pain, real pain. And you can start to think about selling in terms of saving people's.

livelihood then it becomes a different conversation. So yeah.

Natasha (27:08)

Yeah, I love that reframe. I'm definitely someone who, starting out, felt that way and I was actually working in non-profit and you you have to ask people for money and I didn't want to ask people for money. I didn't want to be annoying but when I suddenly realized that...

I was hearing people say, you know what, I didn't hear about that fundraiser. I wasn't able to contribute. And what that meant for the organization, which in this case was animal welfare, was that these animals weren't getting the help that they needed. And people can always say no or yes, but if they're not asked, they can't respond either way. So just.

Melissa Glick (27:37)

Yeah, I mean, and

if you're doing things right, then you get on a sales call with somebody or you're in the DMs with somebody, they're already interested in what you have. So now it's just a matter of understanding sales skills, right? You don't want to...

be practicing on your prospects. Like you wanna hone your sales skills before you even get on those discovery calls and in those DMs. Like you wanna have some scripting, you wanna have some role playing, you wanna have somebody teaching you these skills so that, I mean, you're not wasting these golden opportunities because it's not like coaches, consultants, and fractionals are salespeople and they have like endless sales calls.

You know, it's like, no, we don't have that. We have four sales calls a month, maybe eight sales calls a month, that's it. You flub one of those, you know, that sucks. know, somebody who's selling cars, you know, they have 100 opportunities to sell a day. We don't have that.

Natasha (28:44)

Yeah, so important. So I know that you have an upcoming curated event probably in July. Your Pipeline to Profit. Do you want to share about that event?

Melissa Glick (28:55)

Yeah, so my pipeline to profit event is teaching people how to build their pipeline through their own curated event and so this actually came from this idea came from a different curated event that I have done many many times over now called smooth selling where I teach people my sales framework, which is called aced

And I take people through this entire framework on how to close their discovery calls. And after doing multiple, multiple of these events, and I've had 40 some people going through these classes at the point where I created my next event, they kept saying to me, Melissa, I love this ACE system that you've taught me. I love it so much, but I don't have enough discovery calls. I feel like I don't have enough practice.

What I need is I need lead gen. I need somebody to teach me, need you to teach me how to get the leads so that I can have more discovery calls. So here's a perfect example of listening to your audience, right? So I was like,

Okay, so I had this one event and from doing it and sharpening and refining it over time, I learned that my audience wanted what happens before this. I need, I need aced, I need smooth selling, but I also need what happens first. And so I created this.

this program called Pipeline to Profit, which is doing just that. It's teaching you how to do your lead jet and build your sales engine. And so I'm really excited about that. My next Pipeline to Profit starts this summer.

Natasha (30:41)

And where do people find you online to find out more about that and your other offerings?

Melissa Glick (30:45)

Yeah, so

best place to find me is Melissa Glick dot com. I always have my current events, whatever they are, are you can find them on my website. I'm very active on LinkedIn. That's my primary platform. And you can find me Melissa Glick on LinkedIn. There's not that many Melissa Glicks, but you'll know which one I am for sure. There's no question. And then you can also find me on Instagram and I'm just at Melissa Glick underscore on Instagram.

and yeah so that's where you can find me.

Natasha (31:17)

Awesome. 

We're gonna start to wind this episode down, but it has been so great to talk to you. There are so many amazing takeaways in today's talk, but before we wrap it up, I would just love to ask you, what is one piece of advice you'd give your younger self?

Melissa Glick (32:11)

Let's see, I think...

that

Stop trying to do everything myself. I ran a multi-million dollar tech company for many years. I was the co-owner, was the CEO, and I just...

for a long time before I really understood the power of systems, I felt like I needed to do everything. I couldn't get somebody to do it as well as I could do it. I could never get the buy-in. I could, I had to control everything. Like all these things that I felt really limited me in my growth and also just made me carry a lot of

literal and physical weight to the point where I became very unhealthy. And so this idea of like having to do everything myself, I wish I could go back and tell myself to ask for help sooner, invest in support, invest in growth and really kind of trust in the fact that systems create freedom. You don't really have to hustle your way to success. You can actually design it.

Natasha (33:26)

I love that. Design our success. I'm a big proponent of systems, so I think that's a beautiful place to end today. I'm just so thankful for your time. I really enjoyed this.

Melissa Glick (33:37)

Thank you

so much for having me. This has been a great conversation and good luck to you all building your pipeline.

Natasha (33:45)

Alright, goodbye everyone.

Melissa Glick (33:46)

Bye.