Free micro guide · 10 pages · 15 minutes to read, 30 to prepare
What To Say To Get Paid More
Fifteen years in sales. Not once did a manager offer me a raise. Here are the five sentences that worked instead.
Written by Nikita Balanov. Fifteen years on a payslip, a seven-figure portfolio, no company sold and no inheritance.
9-5 Fastlane
Micro guide
What To Say To Get Paid More
Nikita Balanov
10 pages · 15 minutes to read, 30 to prepare
You will probably recognise this
Who it is for: Anyone who is good at their job, knows they are underpaid and has been putting off the conversation. Particularly people who have been waiting to be noticed.
You are good at the job. You know roughly what you are worth.
The conversation has been on your list since spring.
The blocker is not courage. It is that nobody ever gave you the words.
I was terrified of that conversation. I had the numbers, I had the results and I still sat outside the room rehearsing. Nobody teaches you the words. So you either never ask or you go in and say some version of I feel like I deserve more, which is the single worst sentence in the English language for this purpose.
The myth
If I am good and I keep my head down, somebody will notice and pay me what I am worth.
The reality
In fifteen years, across every company I worked for, a manager offered me a raise exactly zero times. Every increase I ever got came from a conversation I started. Your manager is not withholding it. It is simply not their job to initiate it.
What is inside
- Why I deserve more fails and the sentence structure that replaces it
- The compensation conversation written out word for word, both sides
- Exactly what to do when they say no, including the version where no is useful
- Two more scripts most people never get given: renegotiating a commission structure and negotiating an offer before you sign it
- The one page evidence sheet to build before you walk in
Five of these conversations, one a year, took me from €2,000 to €12,500 a month. Same industry, largely the same work.
From here to there
What you walk away with
You have a written compensation case and a date to use it.
Who wrote this
Nikita Balanov. Fifteen years in sales. Started knocking on doors in a town of two thousand people in South Estonia, then spent five years renting carpets to restaurants for €700 a month. Best year later on was €243,000 against a €50,000 base. Today holds a seven-figure portfolio that pays a five-figure monthly income.
No inheritance. No company sold. No exit, no options windfall, no crypto. A payslip and about five decisions.
Verifiable: the career is public and dated on LinkedIn, both companies are on the Estonian business register, the numbers come from real payslips.
What To Say To Get Paid More
Fifteen years in sales. Not once did a manager offer me a raise. Here are the five sentences that worked instead.