Market Research Edge

Using Sales per Employee to Target Markets

1. The Sales Per Employee (SPE) measure is a useful efficiency indicator available in BizMiner Market Research and Financial Analysis Profiles. The SPE measure can help focus on productive marketing targets, or identify areas where relatively low industry efficiency creates competitive openings.

2. Sales Per Employee is just what it says: Industry sales are divided by the number of employees in the industry (or segment) to produce a dollar figure representing the volume of sales per employee.

3. Sales Per Employee data is reported out in industry-wide, small business and startup segments of each industry. Financial Analysis Profiles contain SPE data for the segment analyzed, while Market Research Profiles include the measure for all three segments.

4. Within industries, sales per employee is used to compare efficiency of production – as well as the marketing and sales effort – between individual firms and the industry averages.

5. As is the case for all benchmarking measures, Sales Per Employee can be significantly affected by product mix and the relative value-added of each product.

6. Conclusion: Unlike many other efficiency measures, the Sales Per Employee measure takes the actual production process (of goods or services) into account, rather than just the final financial results. This contributes a more rounded perspective on company and industry segment efficiency to the overall analysis.

Sales Per Employee tables are included in every one of BizMiner's 900,000 online Market Research Profiles, available for over 15,000 business segments. Market Research Reports are available in both national and local versions covering over 250 US metropolitan areas.

Available online at www.bizminer.com/market-research-report.asp.