Sellers, suppliers and retailers are interested to offer these groups more benefits because it gives them access to a large market in one go. If the founders of the 50 Up club can go to a product or service provider and say 'we have over 100,000 members registered' it is a powerful incentive for the supplier to provide a much better deal.

What is often over looked by groups that have large memberships is that:

1. They can get a better deal as a group
2. It can be an additional way to raise funds at the same time

Everyone wins, the buyer who gets a better deal, the membership group that can get a referral benefit and the seller who get a large customer.

Big business has been doing it for along time. They get better prices when they buy things because they order allot or often.

There is one snag for the membership or association and that is that someone has to do the leg work. It does not just happen. I will use cars as an example since these articles are about car buying.

For a group to get benefit they have to have the following:

1. Usually a membership of over 500 whereby they can prove that they have regular communication with that membership in total.
2. Someone has to be a focus point for communication, marketing, statistics gathering and management
3. That someone has to prepare a presentation of their membership and approach suppliers and get them to sign agreements.
4. In the case of vehicles, expertise in the industry is preferred in order to make contact, put the case and then make it happen.

Is there an Answer?

There is an answer but unless you are prepared to hand over your mailing list you may still have to do some of the work.

Fortunately, there are a select few organisations that can offer their expertise to you as a group and do some or all of the above.

National Fleet Finance is one of those for finance products and they have joined with National Motor Club to provide vehicles. Together you can get finance and car buying deals for your membership and in some cases a benefit to the organisation.

What sort of membership?

Industry associations, schools, sporting associations or large clubs are just a few. Bigger the better is obvious but sometimes you can increase your size by adding in family members or corporate members that have large employment.

There are however some important factors to make it work for you and your membership:

1. You need to have significant information on your membership demographic. (Obviously things like age and vehicle buying habits of your membership are important).
2. You need to motivate your membership to utilize the service (there can be a tendency for members to think they know better or doubt the value). If the service is not used the supplier will soon lose faith in your group and withdraw.
3. Your communication to members needs to be clear, regular and professional. You need to be proactive, allowing the service provider direct access to your membership.

Good service and product providers will work with you and give you advice how to do it. Listen and act.