What metrics do you use to justify a pay raise?

This is a great question! Always use the metrics to support the story you are telling. You can get creative with this one and honestly— the world is your oyster when it comes to telling a story with metrics.

So firstly, share your qualitative story. "Since I joined the team, we have diversified our programs and channels where we have been bringing in a bigger of volumes of names"

Then you need to support that with a quantative story. 

- Where are your MQLs coming from? Are a majority coming from a new channel that you implemented? Look at the MoM change of this percentage and the volume of MQLs that have come from this one program (and share QoQ metrics). 

Some other metrics you could use: 

- Growth of the percentage of marketing sourced leads that turned into closed won deals/meetings with the sales team. (Ex. Did marketing originally infleunce 30% of sales qualified leads/or meetings and now it's 55% since you implemented your programs) 

- MoM growth of MQLs and other top of funnel metrics (like new names) since you joined the team or made a change

You need to plan a year in advance if you are looking for a raise. At the start of the year, sit down and discuss with your manager – on what you need to do to get that raise. You can both mutually agree on a set of goals/metrics and once there is sign off, you need to work towards meeting those numbers.

In demand gen, there are a few key metrics that you can focus on and commit to – depending on whether you are in a B2B or B2C setup, there could be some variation – but MQLs, SQLs, Opportunity Pipeline, Cost per Lead, are some key ones. The closer you commit to the bottom of the funnel (SQL, Pipeline, etc.), the higher your relevance to the organization and the stronger your justification.

This is going to be dependent on the success metrics for your programs. However, whenever possible, I would tie your efforts back to revenue. It’s much more helpful to justify a pay raise when you have directly contributed to revenue goals. I would also consider the following questions:

• How can I show my impact on revenue over time?
• What additional efforts have I taken on to further impact revenue?
• Are there any indirect metrics I can include that will impact revenue over time? How can I measure this?

I recommend focusing on outcomes or impact as part of your pay raise conversation. Launching projects and efforts are important. Providing clarity on how those launched efforts improve the business is even more impactful.