You might ask, what does all of this have to do with selling?

Breakfast could be your ticket to new opportunities, new prospects, and new customers that could have a dramatic impact on your checkbook.

Many communities have breakfast networking meetings where sales and marketing professionals in non-competing businesses will meet on a regularly scheduled basis (weekly, monthly or quarterly) to discuss new companies, new customers, and new opportunities that they are working on.

The objective of these groups is to provide a steady dose of motivation and excitement by associating with other professionals who can join forces to help everyone in the group instead of doing their best impersonation of the Lone Ranger on a daily basis.

This type of group will often be found in major metropolitan areas and larger markets, but I'm a firm believer that it can work in any market. Participants in many of these groups will be sales professionals who traditionally are involved in a business-to-business environment. However, there is absolutely no reason why it would not work with any group of sales professionals, regardless of what they sell or who they sell it to.

When you find others who are involved in sales, you should ask them if they know of any breakfast networking meetings in your area of the country. Once you find one, ask the participants if you can come to one or two meeting to get an understanding of what they do and how they may benefit you by selling more RV's.

What if you can't find any?

Simple. Start one yourself.

Let's walk through the process and see if it doesn't make sense to you when we are finished.

Make a list of non-competing sales people who you think are selling to the same kind of prospect and customer you want to attract to your dealership. Start with a local automobile insurance broker who is insuring all those cars driving by your dealership each weekend. Next you may want a life insurance sales person who has a vast local following of successful business people who could be prime prospects for the RV's sitting outside your window.

You may want to recruit a local car sales person who sells a popular vehicle that can easily be towed behind a motorhome.

You should consider inviting the local postmaster. Who better to tell you who is coming and who is going in your town?

Do you have a few campgrounds in the area? Select one -- don't forget the group must consist of non-competing sales people. Only one sales rep from each type of company is allowed in the group. Perhaps the owner or the general manager of the campground would like to be part of your new group.

Don't leave out the local business-to-business sales people. Get the local copier sales rep or the local business furniture outlet. They know what is going on in the business community and will know who the movers and shakers are in your neighborhood.

How about the local travel agent? If you rent motorhomes, you have another option for them to talk to their clients about and send business your way. Once you get them to rent, then you may get them to buy.

A local banker would be a good addition and a real estate broker might also complement the group.

This type of information gathering will provide you with a list of prime candidates to form a breakfast networking group. This list of people should receive a personal invitation from you and be given the option of being the person to represent their specific industry group.

Next, you should place an ad in the local newspaper or business journal that is read by the types of salespeople you want to attract to your group.

As mentioned earlier, only one person from any type of business is allowed into the group at a time. If you have a car salesperson and they leave the group, then you can replace her or him with another car salesperson. It will be to the advantage of the group to keep a waiting list of new prospects so that you can have more people ready to join when one decides to leave.

Select a local restaurant that will work with your group. Each participant at each breakfast session should pay a set amount of money that will cover the cost of the meal, the tip, and the rental of the room that will afford your group a measure of privacy.

Following a good meal, each member in attendance will get up and bring two or three new prospects to the groups attention and answer any questions that other participants may have about the information being presented.

It is very important that sales generated from information presented at the breakfast networking meeting be brought to the attention of the members at the next get together. The success of the group will be dependent upon the quality of the leads presented and the successful sales that members of the group can generate from this information.

I have seen these group meetings generate some amazing results for the participants. As with any sales and marketing activity, the results you get will be in direct proportion to the efforts you and other members of the group put into the meetings.

As we have often said, selling is a 24-hour a day profession. This doesn't mean that you have to work 24 hours each day of the week, but it does mean that you better be thinking about selling for most of those 24 hours.

As market conditions continue to present challenges to many companies and dealerships in the RV industry, you must constantly be on the alert for new opportunities for creative prospecting and sales opportunities.

If you have done something unique at your dealership to attract people to the lot or increase sales, drop me a line and tell me about it. I would like to start showcasing some of your collective talents and success stories in our magazine.

Drop us an e-mail or letter and tell us what you are doing differently these days. Don't forget, the more we help each other, the more we help our industry.

Good luck and good selling.