The Power Of Benchmarking

Business data is very important, and reviewing this data is crucial to business success.

An example of this happened to me this week. A client had lower than expected sales for last month. Why? He had no idea. 

For me, this is no good, we need to know why. Is it a trend? To solve this I suggested he looks at the following data.

Benchmark Period.

• Last 12 months compared to the same period a year earlier.
• Last 6 months compared to the same period a year earlier.
• Last 3 months compared to the same period a year earlier.
• Last month compared to the same period a year earlier.

Benchmark Data.

• Revenue
• Number of Jobs
• Average Dollar Sale Value
• Top 20% Invoices
• Who were the Customers?
• Are they still buying?
• Frequency of ordering for these Customers.

The result was more Orders were being received, so the business was busier, but the Order value was lower. Why? Looking at the top 20% Jobs from the previous periods showed a decline in Orders from the top...