One of the great tools that a business owner can use to grow a business and beat the competition is benchmarking. This tool works for both established and new businesses. But, before adopting benchmarking, you should find out the aspects of your business that need enhancement.
So, after looking inward to discover the area of your business that requires improvement, the next step is to study your competitors. Check out what they do differently from you and how the strategy is bringing results for them. Consequently, you can come up with an action plan for achieving your set goals.
Here are ways to make benchmarking work for your business;
1: Find Out the Demographics of Your Prospects and Customers
A good place to start benchmarking in business is to decide on the demographics that suit your business. These may include gender, age range, profession, average income, and economic status. After prioritizing certain demographics, you can sit back and also find out other groups of people that may also be drawn to your business.
Here’s an instance; if you sell children’s clothing items, your demographics will be basically parents and guardians since they are the ones who buy their kids’ clothing items. But, you may also target others who are not parents or guardians but may need children’s clothing items for gifts or donations to charity causes.
2: Assess the Prevailing Economy in Your Area
Every business person would want to set up a business in a location where people around are most likely to patronize the business. But much more, you should also look at the economy of such an area, whether or not it is stable. A stable and thriving economy would guarantee that the people in the area would have purchasing power. Hence, your business will experience growth sooner or later.
3: Project into the Future
Forecasting is an important activity in a business. You can outsource business forecasting to experts. You definitely want to know what the future holds for the business you have ventured into or about to venture into.
Some of the great sources for projecting into the future trends in the industry you operate include relevant online articles and trade publications. You should target the online articles created by industry watchers. You can use the outcome of the projection to determine your customer’s tastes and likes in the future.
For instance, a projection may reveal that people between the ages of 14 and 40 may never visit a conventional shop in the nearest future to buy any item. So, if your demographics are basically made up of this age bracket, you need to build a robust e-commerce website.
Finally, use questionnaires and surveys to determine the areas you need to improve in your business.
Daven Michaels is a New York Times Best Selling Author and CEO of premiere global outsourcing company, 123Employee. The company employs hundreds of young bright individuals on three continents. His International event, Beyond Marketing Live! Inspires entrepreneurs to build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.
1 thought on “Benchmarking – How Does It Work in Business?”
Everything is very open with a very clear description of the issues. It was really informative. Thank you so much Daven Michaels