CETA Edge: Benchmarking

by Diane M. Calabrese | Published April 2026

 

 

Aspiration, inspiration, and verification fuel successful businesses. Verification? Yes, it’s essential to put a reality check on aspiration and inspiration.

An owner cannot pursue every dream. Or, at least not without the means, which in this instance usually includes a combination of financing, personnel, equipment, and space.

Distributors in our industry have ready access to help conduct the assessment needed to execute, modify, or jettison ideas. Help comes in the form of a benchmarking program offered by CETA, the Cleaning Equipment Trade Association.

Thanks to support from the manufacturers Alkota Cleaning Systems, Kärcher N.A., Mi-T-M Corporation, and FNA Group, CETA members can participate in a benchmarking program as a benefit of membership. Participation is optional.

1. Calvin Rasmussen, president of Royce Industries L.C. in West Jordan, UT, currently serves as the chairperson of the CETA committee on benchmarking. An enthusiastic proponent of participation, Rasmussen has written extensively about the utility of the metrics that derive from participating in benchmarking.

We recommend visiting the CETA website at CETA.org and clicking on the benchmarking tab to read Rasmussen’s detailed examples of findings that accrue and how they may be used.

It’s easy to understand why distributors participate in benchmarking. They want to fortify their businesses.

But why do manufacturers step forward to support the program? Karl Loffelholz, channel sales manager – commercial pressure washer, with Mi-T-M Corp. in Peosta, IA, explains. “We sponsor the CETA benchmarking program because we believe educated dealers build stronger businesses,” says Loeffelholz. “While we don’t benchmark as a manufacturer, we see firsthand how valuable financial awareness is for our dealers.”

The resulting awareness brings benefits all along the business-to-business chain. “When dealers understand their numbers, it creates better conversations with our sales team and leads to better outcomes for our end customer,” says Loeffelholz.

The illumination provided by the profit report and performance analysis report that each participant in the benchmarking program receives cannot be overstated. Shedding light, as well as opening doors to possibilities—that’s the poetic way to think about benchmarking.

And Gus Alexander, CEO of FNA Group in Pleasant Prairie, WI, elaborates. “In my view, benchmarking is the front door to better financial performance.”

Benchmarking meshes completely with the philosophy of Alexander’s company. “Our company helps distributors improve margins, cash flow, and valuation,” he explains. “CETA benchmarking creates the clean, comparable financial data that makes that work possible. “

Alexander has a vision of what sponsorship means to his company, its distributors, and the industry. “Sponsoring benchmarking positions FNA as a neutral, data-first partner, not a consultant parachuting in with opinions,” he explains.

“Distributors see the numbers first, then decide if they want help acting on them,” says Alexander. “The bottom line is it strengthens the entire channel,” he adds.

In other words, each link in the industry becomes more solid. “Healthier distributors mean better suppliers, better lenders, and a more resilient industry,” says Alexander. “In doing so it provides alignment with FNA’s long-term interest, not just short-term engagements.”

There is a simple and important bottom line. “My company supports CETA benchmarking because better data creates better distributors, and better distributors create a stronger industry.”

More light on any subject is a good thing, and benchmarking provides it.

“Distributors who participate in CETA benchmarking stop managing in the dark,” says Alexander. “CETA distributors that participate gain peer level insight that improves margins, strengthens lender and supplier conversations, and reduces costly trial and error.”

It’s all about verification. “If you’re not benchmarking, you’re assuming you’re competitive; and the fact remains that CETA benchmarking replaces assumptions with proof,” says Alexander.

Verification matters. It keeps a balanced check on inspiration, preventing leaps before appropriate scrutiny. Conversely, it gives a lift to inspired ideas that are feasible.

In past considerations of benchmarking, we have discussed the importance of data over gut feelings. As in, it’s great for a distributor to have a sense that things are going well. But it’s better to verify all is well with numbers, especially numbers that suggest how to do things better.

Yet we skipped across the history of benchmarking. It’s an interesting history, clearly summed up in a 2015 article by Robin Mann titled “Expert Point of View Note: The History of Benchmarking and Its Role in Inspiration” (Journal of Inspiration Economy, volume 2, number 2). To read the open access Mann article see https://www.academia.edu/33200540/The_History_of_Benchmarking_and_Its_Role_in_Inspiration.

Mann cites the 1989 book by Dr. Robert Camp titled Benchmarking as a “ground-breaking” volume in which Camp drew on his experience in benchmarking at Xerox. Camp advocated for going beyond comparing data with that of competitors to identify places to improve.

The going beyond entails recognizing best practices from whoever had them and learning from them to develop even better (superior) best practices. The verification that derived from the metrics in benchmarking was to become a source of inspiration (i.e. a business can always do more).

Mann’s paper makes interesting reading. We recommend it. One notable aspect is that in its own assessment of benchmarking use, Xerox evaluated more than 200 benchmarking projects of other companies to try to assess the best among them.

The number of benchmarking programs available to businesses is great. But even distributors who may be involved with other—in-house or external benchmarking programs—should consider participating in the CETA program as well. CETA benchmarking has the advantage of being tailored specifically to distributors in our industry.

Profit Planning Group is the third party that collects and analyses data for CETA benchmarking participants (and we reiterate there is no cost to participate for members who wish to do so).

Yes, participants in benchmarking submit financial data for aggregation and analysis, but the identities of participating companies are never revealed. Until a participating company has received its first report, it may be unable to appreciate fully the places where easy improvements in operational procedures can be made.

For instance, just a few days of courtesy time to buyers who are routinely a bit late on payments could add up to a preventable loss. How could it be prevented? By setting terms for payment a little shorter with less lenience (e.g., penalties).

Many small changes add up quickly. Benchmarking results bring clarity.

That clarity derives even if a company’s profile puts it far and away ahead in every metric. Reassurance of being ahead is not to be taken as an endpoint.

Even if every runner in a race surpasses the standing record time, it’s only the beginning of the next challenge. Instead of stopping with self-congratulations, the runners will begin preparing to beat the new record. And runners are always striving to beat their individual best record.

Distributors improve by challenging themselves while looking for ways to gain an edge against their competitors. The intense focus on improvement is the path to sustained excellence and a strong industry.

CETA’s benchmarking for distributors takes place on an annual basis. So, if nothing else, a participant can compare its results year over year. A worthwhile endeavor. Not yet a participant? Why not consider becoming one in 2026?

Two facets of benchmarking: Measure a company against its peers. Measure a company against itself. But do measure.

True enough that gut feelings can and do often power success. Heed them. Trust them. But still verify first.