[mattm]

I belong to a bicycle and triathlon group in my home town. We have a sponsor that is a local restaurant. We start and end our group rides at this restaurant to bring business their way. We also have about four functions a year either at this restaurant or catered by this restaurant. This activity combined with the members of our group trying to frequent this restaurant more often seams to be a good value for their marketing dollars.

What I have noticed and find even more interesting is that this restaurant and one of the running shoe stores that also supports our group have started advertising for each other in their stores as well as in e-mails that they send to their customers.

Does anyone have any other ideas about how to leverage groups to increase sales?

I know that book groups are always looking for quiet comfortable places to have their meetings. Has anyone figured out a way to contact these groups and schedule rooms during your slow times?