As a privacy or security leader, you are an expert in managing risk and navigating complex regulations. But when it comes to getting budget approval, you’re often asked to speak a different language: the language of finance and sales.
This guide is your translator. But before we begin, let’s address the elephant in the room.
The Central Irony (And Why It’s Your Greatest Strength)
Yes, there is a deep irony in this process. Your entire career is built on enforcing the principle of least privilege and protecting sensitive customer data. Now, this guide is asking you to request access to a different kind of sensitive information: commercial and financial data.
This isn’t a contradiction; it’s an evolution of your role.
To move from a compliance guardian to a strategic business partner, you need to show how your work impacts the company’s bottom line. This requires you to step outside your traditional data domain. This guide and the calculator are designed to give you a legitimate, structured reason to cross that internal boundary, turning a moment of potential conflict into an opportunity for collaboration.
The Mindset Shift: From Guardian to Growth Driver
Your work is often seen as a cost center—a necessary function to prevent bad things like fines and data breaches. But the truth is, your work also enables good things: it builds customer trust, removes friction from the sales process, and allows the company to innovate safely.
This guide will help you prove that. By translating your team’s needs into financial impact, you shift from being a guardian of the company to a strategic partner in its growth.
Building Your Internal Alliance: Who to Talk To
You are the expert on risk, but you don’t need to be the expert on sales and finance metrics. Your goal is to partner with the people who own this data. Here’s who they are and what they care about:
- The CRO (Chief Revenue Officer) / Head of Sales: They care about speed, revenue, and pipeline. Frame your request to them as a way to help them close deals faster and protect revenue.
- The CFO (Chief Financial Officer) / Head of Finance: They care about profit, efficiency, and predictable costs. Frame your request to them as a way to reduce waste and turn unpredictable expenses into a smart investment.
- The Head of RevOps (Revenue Operations): This person or team lives inside the company’s CRM and sales data. They are often the best and fastest source for the operational numbers you need.
A Practical Guide to Each Metric
Here is a simple breakdown of each input in the calculator, what it means, who has the number, and a simple script you can use to ask for it.
1. Pipeline ARR (Quarter)
- What It Means in Simple Terms: The total value of all potential deals your sales team is trying to close in the current quarter.
- Who Holds This Number: Your CRO or Head of Sales.
- How to Ask for It (Your Script):“Hi [CRO’s Name], I’m building a business case to improve our deal review process. To quantify the potential impact, could you share the total pipeline ARR for this quarter?”
2. New ARR Expected (Quarter)
- What It Means in Simple Terms: The sales team’s goal for new revenue from new customers this quarter.
- Who Holds This Number: Your CRO or Head of Sales.
- How to Ask for It (Your Script):“Hi [CRO’s Name], as part of my analysis on sales cycle efficiency, could you provide the new ARR target for this quarter? This will help me model the cost of delays.”
3. ARR up for Renewal (Quarter)
- What It Means in Simple Terms: The total value of all existing customer contracts that are due to be renewed this quarter.
- Who Holds This Number: Your CRO or Head of Customer Success.
- How to Ask for It (Your Script):“Hi [CS Lead’s Name], I’m looking into how our internal processes affect the customer experience. Could you share the total value of ARR that’s up for renewal this quarter?”
4. Extra Days in Legal/Security
- What It Means in Simple Terms: The average number of extra days a deal is delayed because it’s waiting for a legal, security, or compliance review.
- Who Holds This Number: Your Head of RevOps or Legal Operations. They can often find this in the CRM data.
- How to Ask for It (Your Script):“Hi [RevOps Lead’s Name], I’m trying to benchmark our deal review timeline. Could you help me find the average number of days a deal sits in the ‘Legal/Security Review’ stage?”
5. Price Erosion (%)
- What It Means in Simple Terms: The extra discount the sales team has to offer to keep a deal from falling apart, often because of a long and difficult review process.
- Who Holds This Number: Your CRO or Head of Sales.
- How to Ask for It (Your Script):“Hi [Sales Lead’s Name], I’m researching how we can create a smoother procurement experience for our customers. In your experience, what’s a typical ‘get it done’ discount we offer when a deal gets stuck in a lengthy review?”
6. NRR Baseline / Target (%)
- What It Means in Simple Terms: Net Revenue Retention. A measure of how well the company keeps and grows revenue from its existing customers. A figure over 100% means you’re growing.
- Who Holds This Number: This is a key C-suite metric. Ask your CFO or CRO.
- How to Ask for It (Your Script):“Hi [CFO’s Name], I’m working on a proposal that I believe can positively impact customer retention. To build the financial model, could you share our current and target NRR?”
7. Legal & RevOps Rework (Hours)
- What It Means in Simple Terms: A rough estimate of the hours your teams spend each quarter on manual, repetitive compliance and sales tasks that could be automated.
- Who Holds This Number: You and your counterparts in Legal and RevOps can estimate this together.
- How to Ask for It (Your Script):“Hi [Legal Ops’ Name], I’m trying to quantify the time we spend on manual tasks. Could you help me estimate how many hours our team spends per quarter on things like filling out security questionnaires or manually updating compliance records?”
8. Loaded Hourly Rate
- What It Means in Simple Terms: The full cost of an employee per hour, including salary and benefits.
- Who Holds This Number: Your Head of Finance or HR. If you can’t get an exact number, a safe estimate is
(Average Salary x 1.3) / 2080. - How to Ask for It (Your Script):“Hi [Finance Lead’s Name], to do a cost analysis for a project, I need a general, fully-loaded hourly rate for our legal and ops teams. Could you provide an average figure?”
9. Investment
- What It Means in Simple Terms: The estimated annual cost of the new tool or service you are proposing.
- Who Holds This Number: This number comes from your research or a vendor proposal.
- How to Ask for It (Your Script):This one’s on you! It’s the “ask” for your budget request.
You’re Now Speaking Their Language
By following this guide, you’re not just filling out a form. You are initiating strategic conversations, building internal alliances, and gathering the evidence needed to build an undeniable business case.
You are translating your critical work into the language of the business.
Ready to put this into practice?
[Return to the Calculator] or [Contact Me] if you need help building the final narrative.