The Value of Outside Help for Developing and Executing Benchmarking Projects

February 15, 2019 Brian Bamberger

Estimated reading time: 3 mins

Strategic benchmarking may be the perfect way to increase your visibility, add value to prospective clients, and get useful market data. But, the process of setting up a benchmarking project, gathering information, and analyzing the results can be daunting.

The good news is that an external partner has experience, a fresh perspective, and resources to develop a successful strategic benchmarking project that cultivates valuable insights and drives brand awareness among your target audience.

Experience

An outside partner has the experience necessary to create an efficient, successful benchmarking project while bypassing costly mistakes.

An outside partner:

Provides insights to determine what to benchmark. We know the types of insights needed and how to interact with participants to get those insights.
Offers creativity and experience in developing insights from the benchmark. We can “think outside the box” to ask the right questions, dig deep, and discover what information matters most to you (and your target audience).
Understands the market landscape and where the benchmarking effort should focus. We keep an eye on industry trends, important events, and other factors that may impact the types of information gathered. For companies that serve pharma, it’s particularly important to partner with an outside resource that has experience developing benchmarking projects within the pharma industry.
Gains buy-in from within your organization. We advocate for the benchmarking project and help onboard team members across your organization.

Fresh Perspective

It’s easy to miss the forest for the trees when you are bogged down in day-in, day-out administrative grind. An outside partner can shed new light on data you already have and help you determine the best way to gain and use additional data.

An outside partner:

Provides a wider view of the industry and its challenges. Because we work across areas of focus, we help clients see the bigger picture. Knowing where the industry is headed and shaping a benchmarking project accordingly helps ensure the best outcomes.
Increases the breadth of the topics covered in the benchmark effort. We know what topics to dig a little deeper into and how to best get the desired information from participants.
Gathers ideas from across many companies. Because we consult with multiple pharma companies we know (1) who the major players are and (2) how to best approach them. Accessing information from multiple companies boosts the quality of the data collected while increasing your company’s visibility.

Resources

An experienced partner will use resources developed through previous engagements to streamline the benchmarking project.

An outside partner:

Drives benchmarking projects efficiently using frameworks and tools. Our own proprietary methodology has been developed and honed over the course of other successful benchmarking projects. That means we know what works and what doesn’t and can develop an efficient project that quickly drives the insights needed.
Knows how to invite and communicate during the process. Because we’re external to your organization, we can often communicate more freely and openly with your staff. We also know how to work with participants to establish rapport and foster conversation. This helps us rapidly achieve the desired results.
Uses an established process for benchmarking that lessens the burden on existing staff. Our approach uses the input and expertise of your existing team to fuel our process but not to put undue strain on them. With an established process, we know what information we need from staff and can get to the heart of the matter quickly.

Conclusion

The best strategic benchmarking projects rely on outside help for design, execution, and analysis. The combination of your in-house capabilities and our executive-level experience, fresh perspective, and resources creates a cost-effective, impactful benchmarking project that drives insights and increases visibility within your target audience.