--- title: "ITR Experts Say: Benchmarking Your Performance Versus Your Markets" description: A valuable self-assessment tool, benchmarking provides firms a barometer of their performance relative to their markets or peers. image: https://blog.itreconomics.com/hubfs/pexels-photo-212286-1-1.jpeg --- # ITR Experts Say: Benchmarking Your Performance Versus Your Markets A valuable self-assessment tool, benchmarking provides firms a barometer of their performance relative to their markets or peers. [ ITR Economics ](https://blog.itreconomics.com/blog/author/itr-economics) Jul 25, 2018 --- A valuable self-assessment tool, benchmarking provides firms a barometer of their performance relative to their markets or peers. At ITR Economics, we often help businesses with this process by plotting their 12/12 rate-of-change (for sales, orders, or any other metric of company performance) versus the 12/12 rates-of-change for the vertical markets into which they sell. The resulting output indicates whether the business is underperforming, outperforming, or simply keeping pace with market growth. Typically, rise in a market-specific 12/12 will correlate to rise in the company sales 12/12, and decline will correlate to decline. This is not surprising, as the market data is a demand driver for the company’s sales performance. However, parallel movement between the two data streams is not the only possibility. If the market underlying a company is accelerating (indicated by ascent in the 12/12 rate-of-change for that market data), but the company’s 12/12 is declining, or vice versa – if the company 12/12 is rising while their market 12/12 is declining – it’s often a sign that forces other than the macroeconomy are impacting company performance. To maintain accurate benchmarking efforts, company leadership must explore, clearly understand, and account for these forces. There are both positive and negative factors that influence performance and cause businesses to perform differently than their markets. Positive factors that can result in a company outperforming its markets include: - Market-share gain - Implementation of successful promotional or marketing campaigns - Merger and acquisition activity - Entry into new, previously unserved vertical markets - Successful price increases - New product launches that fill existing gaps in portfolios Negative factors that typically cause a company to underperform its markets include: All extra-market developments, positive and negative, must be recognized to maintain benchmarking integrity. ITR economists **[consult](https://www.itreconomics.com/content/consulting)** with clients on an ongoing basis to help identify and account for these factors. Please **[contact us](https://www.itreconomics.com/contact)** at [itr@itreconomics.com](mailto:itr@itreconomics.com) if you’re interested in exploring company benchmarking for your business, or to discuss other ways to gain better insights into your firm’s performance. ## Similar posts Executive Strategy ### [Use the Business Cycle in Your Budget Planning for 2024](https://blog.itreconomics.com/blog/use-the-business-cycle-in-your-budget-planning-for-2024) As your company works through the budget planning process for 2024, proper use of the business cycle will help you lead your team on the path to... ITR Economics Sep 12, 2023 Executive Strategy ### [Helpful Resources as You Start the Budget Planning Process](https://blog.itreconomics.com/blog/helpful-resources-as-you-start-budget-planning-process) ITR Economics provides some helpful resources to help your business start the budget planning process later this fall. 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Join our email list today to receive these insights. ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "ITR Economics", "url" : "https://blog.itreconomics.com/blog/author/itr-economics" }, "dateModified" : "2021-06-08T17:21:06.095Z", "datePublished" : "2018-07-25T14:54:00.000Z", "headline" : "ITR Experts Say: Benchmarking Your Performance Versus Your Markets", "image" : [ "https://blog.itreconomics.com/hubfs/pexels-photo-212286-1-1.jpeg" ], "mainEntityOfPage" : { "@id" : "https://blog.itreconomics.com/blog/itr-experts-say-benchmarking-your-performance-versus-markets", "@type" : "WebPage" }, "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "url" : "https://blog.itreconomics.com/hubfs/ITR%20Logo%20-%20Light%20Backgrounds-1.png" }, "name" : "ITR Economics" } } ```