diff --git a/bench/Makefile b/bench/Makefile
index 534c55c3..bfd1f1b0 100644
--- a/bench/Makefile
+++ b/bench/Makefile
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
-CXX	= g++
+CXX	?= g++
 CXXFLAGS	= -march=native -Wall -Wextra -pedantic -std=c++11 -pthread -I../include -fmax-errors=1
-CXX_RELEASE_FLAGS = -O3 -flto
+CXX_RELEASE_FLAGS = -O3 -flto  -Wl,--no-as-needed
 
 
 binaries=bench latency