Every year in March, we at Beaton look forward to announcing winners of the Client Choice Awards. And while many firms are excited to receive an award, the bigger reward for both winning and non-winning firms comes afterwards.
All firms participating in the awards gain access to our annual competitor benchmarking study, Beaton Benchmarks. Client feedback not only determines winners in the awards – but the same feedback can offer unrivalled insights into how your firm performs among similar firms of your profession.
Where are you succeeding and where are you lacking, in comparison to similar firms? Beaton Benchmarks can help you answer these questions.
This article explains how a head-to-head analysis of your firm against your strategic competitors can optimise your growth and profitability.
What is competitor benchmarking?
Competitor benchmarking involves comparing your firm’s results and performance to that of key competitors in the same industry.
You can benchmark your firm’s performance against how firms perform in areas that could impact your success. This could include things like pricing, service attributes, brand, value perception, net promoter score, ease of doing business (with clients) and overall client service.
Uniquely, this reporting compares how your clients think of you with how your competitors’ clients think of them. It is a level of intelligence that is almost impossible to otherwise get.
Benchmarking your firm’s results and performance to similar firms can provide insights on where you may have a competitive advantage.
What is unique about Beaton Benchmarks’ competitor benchmarking?
The key difference distinguishing a Beaton Benchmarks report from other benchmarking research is that we compare using client feedback and client ratings drawn from the annual Client Choice Awards. We believe client ratings are the most important and objective measure of success. Clients are, after all, the people who will pay for your services.
“A key aspect of Beaton Benchmarks is the competitor data that has been collected over time. This allows firms to track their position relative to a selected competitor set and take steps to improve year on year.”
What is a head-to-head analysis?
A head-to-head analysis is a specific report available in the Beaton Benchmarks suite. It compares your client ratings across different areas with one or more of your closest competitors. In this way you can effectively benchmark your firm “head-to-head” with key firms that are most likely to win business from the same clients.
For example, under “brand” metrics we would directly compare scores on brand awareness, the extent to which clients and prospects will consider using your firm and the degree to which the market associates you with key drivers like reliability and innovation. Your ratings are pitted against your strongest competitors in the same profession and strategic group.
Our competitor benchmarking thus provides a critical indicator of how likely clients are to use your firm, and why.
“In addition to comparing a firm’s market position and performance against the average of the chosen competitors, the firm can use the head-to-heads charts to show exactly where they stand against the individual competitor firms on a range of key measures.”
Why is it so important to compare results head-to-head?
All competitor benchmarking aims to identify areas of strength, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in your business. Identifying these things ultimately helps your leadership make informed decisions to improve performance.
However, who you compare results with is crucial.
If you want to stand out in a certain market or be the best in a niche area, simply comparing results with every kind of firm won’t help much. A head-to-head analysis can give you the additional information you need to be the best. It will identify the high performers in those areas and drill into detail as to why they are succeeding. This allows you to compare your results with firms that really matter to your market share. A head-to-head analysis specifically identifies where you need to improve to win more clients against competitors, and which attributes clients already rate you highest for.
To be the highest performer, you need to compare to other high performers. And this is crucial in professional services, where our research shows every industry, from law, accounting, built and natural environment to IP specialists, is becoming increasingly competitive.
If you aren’t benchmarking against your closest competitors, you may be falling behind.
How to utilise benchmarking data from the Client Choice Awards
To utilise benchmarking data from the Client Choice Awards, you first need to participate in the awards.
This article explains how we collect and analyse client feedback from tens of thousands of clients of firms as part of the award process.
When firms enter the awards, they agree to have their client feedback benchmarked against that of other firms in their category (those being competitors in the market). We keep this data secure, de-identified and confidential – only announcing the winners and finalists. We share only your firm’s specific data with you if you request it in a Beaton Benchmarks report.
To find out more about Beaton’s benchmarking products and how they can benefit your organisation please visit our Competitor benchmarking page or contact us to discuss your options with a Beaton partner.
To learn more about the Client Choice Awards visit the website.
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