Know-How Exchange : Career/Training

My gut reaction: Don't push your luck.

For a relatively small amount of money (5% instead of 3%?), it's not worth bringing this up now. You never know how your boss will react, and you already have a 10% bonus paid right up-front.

Instead, continue to do outstanding work that will demonstrate that you're worth a lot more than they're paying you.

Dear ppcguy8,

For the client benefits you're bringing in I'd say you
are worth more than you're being paid.

HOWEVER ...

I agree with Michael. Now is NOT the time to be pushing one's luck ... because although the squeaky wheel OFTEN gets the grease, the wheel that CONTINUES to squeak once it's been greased can be REPLACED.

So, take the money, say thank you very much, and carry on doing a great job.

I hope this helps.

Gary Bloomer
The Direct Response Marketing Guy™
Wilmington, DE, USA

Focus on documenting/cementing your expertise for your review. Think of this as marketing yourself to your company. Showcase the work (both solo and team efforts). Your goal isn't short-term reward but long-term benefit. The documentation will help you frame your argument (at a later date) for a raise as well as help you should you decide to look elsewhere.

As Jay said, "Think of this as marketing yourself to your company." You have some "features" listed, NOT benefits. To that point:

1, I'm responsible for performance of our 6 largest ppc accounts spending $1.5 + million / year.

2, The guy in the mail room handles 100% of the invoices for every customer. Shouldn't he get a big raise?

3, In marketing, we need a unique selling point - What's yours? How can we measure it?

4, What are the needs of the customers?

5, Your end customers are ONE segment

6, Your company is another segment

7, What's each segment's needs and what USP do you provide for each?

Admittedly, my boss's soft skills are much more honed than mine.

1, Is "soft skills" an important "feature?"

2, What's the value of these to your company?

3, How do you measure that?

4, What's stopping you from developing these?

I'm also heavily involved in project management for new ppc landing pages for all these clients. In addition to setting up, and interpreting results for A/B and multivariate tests.

1, So what? Do you know the difference between a pig and a chicken in breakfast? The chicken is involved and the pig is committed. Involved isn't something that generates value.

2, Setting up and interpreting results - How does this generate profit for the company? How dies this generate profit for the clients? Do they know this or is it something that they are "buying, expecting, part of the price they pay?"

3, Are you unique in this or are there others who do this?

I'm involved with training our new analyst which is a group effort between my boss and I.

1, Great! You're a good team player. And the company pays you a descent wage for a team player. You do what you're told and don't get in the way.

2, Get the difference? You're describing what you do in terms of things you should be doing for your position or things that you help a team of people to do. There are no stand-out things that really generate unique selling points or quantifiable profit for the company or your clients. There's no value statement. I'm not saying that these don't exist! I'm just pointing out that your "marketing plan" for yourself doesn't include these items. Get it?
I hope this helps.

Wayde

Take the money man!

if it were me, I would do three things.

First, I would accept the extra money thankfully.

Second, I would invest in my career by studying other aspects of marketing... maybe the soft skills you referred to

third, since I am personally an entrepreneurial kind of guy, and since I do not believe that most businesses will be offering substantial raises or bonuses for several years, I would personally set up a small noncompeting marketing enterprise.

Let's assume that your boss is reading this post. It is not a good idea to express all your true feelings and long-term plans in an open forum. If you would like to continue this discussion more privately, please feel free to send me an e-mail.