If you love shows like “How It’s Made,” this article is for you as we’re taking a deep dive into what all goes into producing NALP’s Financial Benchmark Report and why the process matters for companies relying on the report to make smarter business decisions.
One thing that’s important to understand is that benchmark studies are not the same as a census study. Censuses focus on statistical significance and projecting results to an entire population.
“Benchmarking is different,” says Greg Manns, vice president of industry research with Industry Insights, Inc. “The goal is to help companies compare themselves against similar firms — whether by sales volume, employee size, region, business focus, customer mix, or profitability.”
Collecting and Verifying Data
During the period of time the survey is open, Industry Insights seeks out enough comparable companies within each peer group. Manns says more is always better, but even with five to 10 responses per group can provide valuable data.
After the survey closes, Industry Insights takes anywhere from a week to two weeks to conduct data cleaning, where they carefully review every submission for accuracy, consistency, and completeness before any analysis begins.
“We look for situations where instructions may not have been followed or where the numbers don’t logically align,” Manns says. “For example, if a company reports relatively low revenue but an unusually high employee count, that may warrant a follow-up conversation.”
Sometimes data cleanup can be as simple as a formatting issue or confirming a figure was entered in the right category. Other times, if the numbers don’t make operational sense, they will reach out to the participant to reconcile them.
Because not every company organizes their financials the same way, Industry Insights also works closely with participants to map their numbers to the survey categories consistently.
“The goal is to create consistency across all respondents, so the resulting benchmarks are truly comparable,” Manns says.
Interpreting the Data
Once the data has been verified, Industry Insights then works to segment the data in several ways, including by primary business emphasis, customer mix, sales volume, company size, employee count, and geography.
“The most valuable benchmarking comparisons happen when companies are grouped with firms that operate similarly to them,” Manns says.
The Financial Benchmark Report also highlights ‘high-profit firms,’ which are based on return on assets. This allows end users to study how the strongest performers operate differently from the typical company.
“Often the most actionable insights come from identifying what the best-performing firms are doing differently in areas like labor management, pricing, overhead control, and asset utilization,” Manns says.
One of the most difficult parts of analyzing benchmarking data is distinguishing short-term anomalies from a long-term trend.
“We typically look for patterns that persist over multiple reporting periods and across different segments of the industry before drawing broader conclusions,” Manns says.
Industry Insights will also take external factors into consideration. For instance, during COVID and the years following, there were unusual spikes in revenue growth and profitability driven by economic conditions rather than permanent operational changes.
“Meaningful trends tend to show consistency over time and are usually supported by both the quantitative data and the qualitative feedback respondents provide through open-ended survey comments and conversations,” Manns says.
Tracking Emerging Trends
Because the Financial Benchmark survey is conducted on a regular basis, Industry Insights can also monitor emerging trends as they develop.
For example, the report has expanded over the past two years to include additional compensation benchmarks, gross profit by work type, and technology and automation-related questions.
Last year’s responses showed participants view automation as a way to scale more efficiently, rather than as a replacement for employees.
“What will be especially interesting over the next several years is seeing how those operational changes ultimately show up in the financial benchmarks — whether through improved productivity, stronger margins, lower administrative overhead, or the ability to grow revenue without proportionally increasing headcount,” Manns says. “I also think it will be important to monitor whether companies that adopt technology earlier begin to separate themselves financially from the broader industry.”
By collecting, standardizing and segmenting the data, Industry Insights helps ensure the report gives landscape companies a meaningful way to evaluate their performance against peers and identify where they may have opportunities to improve.
Click here to take part in this year’s Financial Benchmark survey by June 30, 2026.
