Benchmarking is the process of comparing products, services, and procedures to those of organizations that are recognized as leaders in one or more areas of their operations.

Companies can use the benchmarking process to identify the optimal performance standard based on their competitors' success and to see whether a performance gap can be addressed by improving their performance.

Benchmarking's ultimate goal is constant improvement, which all businesses should strive for. For example, a business could buy a product from a more successful company, examine what makes it different from theirs, and develop strategies to outperform it.