Benchmarking is silly.
Too often I meet people who base all of their most important business decisions on industry benchmarks.
Benchmarking is based on the myopic belief that no other industry faces challenges like yours.
Or maybe, it’s the comfort of knowing you’re part of the status quo and not rocking the boat.
You see, there’s a continuum of being smart in business.
At the very worst, it starts with trying to figure out everything yourself.
It progresses to staying abreast of those in your industry and your competitors – sometimes copying their actions and following the herd.
But from there, the real breakthroughs occur when you’re able to open your mind and see how the solutions from other industries can be completely novel in your own.
That’s why I’m so excited to be hosting the first ever Evergreen Summit in just a couple of weeks (details here).
An event where people from wildly different industries will be getting together to talk about the challenges, and most pressing sales, marketing, and customer-related challenges in their industries. There is nothing like putting yourself in a learning environment like this.
Everyone will walk away with a better understanding of their own issues and own experiences based on the experience of the entire collective.
Have you secured your spot yet?
When one of my earliest restaurant clients embraced a ‘Members Only’ section on their menus, you can bet that the idea didn’t originate from other restaurants… And you can best it raised eyebrows with their competitors, but it also added 30% to their profit margin year over year.
What upsell technique can you borrow from another industry?
What marketing strategies have you seen recently that could work well in your industry?
What experience have you had doing business with someone else that you can borrow and apply to your work?
Was there an example of exceptional customer service recently, or something that surprised and delighted you, that you could use in your business?
Instead of following the industry benchmarks, what if you start setting them?
