So I was pleasantly surprised while having dinner the other day with my business partner at a local restaurant. This restaurant is owned by an entrepreneur who “get’s it.”

I know for the fact the owner is a consummate marketer and his success is evident at the large number of restaurants he owns.  As a matter of fact, he just published his first book, which was available for purchase as we entered the restaurant.

But this is not the smart strategy I am referring to.  The smart strategy, and one you can steal for your business, is what happened at the conclusion of our dinner.

When the waitress appeared with our check, she also handed both of us, two pieces of paper (notice she didn’t give us just one set, but two – one for each of us).

The first was a “business card” giving us a 20% discount at a future visit.  This is an extremely smart strategy to study for several reasons.

•    First, it was presented as a “thank you gift” for visiting that evening.  Who doesn’t want to be thanked and acknowledged for their patronage?

•    Second, the discount was substantial enough to get my attention.  Had it been a 5% discount – the card wouldn’t have mattered.  But a 20% discount is worth holding onto.

•    Third, the owner understands that consumers are funny and while they may enjoy dinner at his restaurant, it doesn’t mean they’re coming back.  By offering a substantial future discount, he tapped into human nature knowing that few of us can pass up saving money while enjoying a nice meal.

The only improvement I would suggest to him is putting a deadline on the card so that it forces me to use it by a certain date.  It could be a generic “Must Use Within 30 Days” or he could leave room for the waitress to stamp a date based on my visit date.

The other piece of paper was an invitation to join his VIP Club.  Again this example is worthy of study for several reasons.

•    First and foremost, he’s making a serious effort to get my attention and contact information.  I am sure he has an impressive marketing follow-up strategy by both email and direct mail.  I wonder what I will receive on my birthday and anniversary?

•    Second, he’s giving me several reasons to give him my contact information, including lunch at a 50% discount, giveaways, event specials, etc.

•    Finally, he’s reassuring me that my information is safe.

If you’re a bricks and mortar business owner – how can you use these two strategies in your business?

If you’re allowing people to visit your location and not giving them a BIG reason to want to return and be contacted by you in the future, you’re leaving large amounts of money on the table.  Study the Doc Magrogan example and use it in your business to improve your marketing!

Anyway, after tossing and turning for 30 minutes, I got out of bed.  Since the thought of working out at 4:30 AM wasn’t too appealing, I went down to my home office.  Typically, I would have jumped into the daily routine of checking emails and working on my to-do list.  However this morning, I promised myself I would do something different.

Staring at me, from across my office, was a training product I purchased five months ago.  The set of rather large binders and DVD cases looked quite impressive sitting on my bookshelf, still in their original shrink-wrap.

Has this ever happened to you?  You invested in a course, book, whatever, with the best of intentions, but then allowed life to get in the way of taking action to absorb the knowledge contained within it?

If I was a betting man, I would guess you’re probably nodding your head right now.

It reminds me of how I “met” Dan Kennedy.  Several years ago, I bought Dan’s “Ultimate Sales Letter” book.  Rather than reading it right away, I put it on my bookshelf.  There is sat… for years, until for whatever reason, I finally pulled it off my shelf, read it and used the strategies he outlined.

The rest is history.  In the few short years since reading Dan’s book, my life and business have been completely transformed (with the keyword being “completely”).  As a matter of fact, it was just four weeks ago when Dan flew by private jet to spend a few hours with me and more than 300 local entrepreneurs here in the Philadelphia area.  He did this to acknowledge the success of my local GKIC Chapter.

This all happened because I finally took action and read that first book.

But, I digress.  Back to what happened today.

I promised myself this morning would be different and I pulled the training product off the shelf, unwrapped it, put the first CD into my computer and sat back with pen in hand.

90 minutes later, I had the blueprint to generate at least a quarter million dollars in NEW revenues during the rest of 2009.  The funny thing is that I had the genesis of the idea floating around my cranium for the last several months, but it wasn’t until I heard the words of the guru that the idea and how to implement it finally CLICKED (the spontaneous “Hallelujah” almost woke my daughters up!).

And this all happened before 7:00 AM!

I’ve now made a new promise with myself to complete the entire course by this Sunday and more importantly begin implementing immediately.  I will update my progress this blog.

My point with all of this is we all have untapped resources and opportunities literally staring at us each and every day.  Whether it’s an info-product, book, CD course or relationship, chances are you have untapped sources of prosperity all around you.

Do you see them?  And more importantly what are you going to do about them?

Promise yourself to seek out and take advantage of an untapped source of opportunity that’s staring at you this very moment.