Bestselling author Michael Port talks exclusively to OPEN Forum and reveals how it’s possible, even in this era of vanishing customers, to build a business that’s booked solid.

OPEN Forum: There was a moment as you [Michael Port] started your own business when you realized that clients wouldn’t just come to you—and that you had to be more proactive. What’s your top advice for anyone facing that same challenge?

Michael Port: “It’s never as simple as flicking a switch, or identifying a single thing you need to do to get more clients. I believe very strongly that no matter how proactive you are in your marketing activity, marketing alone will not get you clients.

I know it sounds like sacrilege, but it’s true. Marketing just builds awareness about your products and services. When your prospects have been made aware of what you have to offer, you’ll have an opportunity to showcase your credibility and earn their trust. Once trust is established, it’s appropriate to make sales offers that are proportionate to the amount of trust that’s been earned. You don’t do this by hard pitching, but by striking up relevant sales conversations with the right people.

That said, the simplest way you can be more proactive in creating awareness about your business is to cultivate your relationships thoughtfully and thoroughly. If you’re not a great user of social media, or if you don’t like speaking, writing or buying ads, then there’s little point in trying to be proactive in those areas. You need to choose strategies that you’ll actually enjoy doing.”

Read OPEN Forum’s full interview with Michael Port, author of Book Yourself Solid, on how to to build a business that’s booked solid.

“Gaga’s business of show business may be very different from the “average” business, but her focus on growing through devoted customer loyalty is a universal business objective. Most business people know that it’s far cheaper to keep a customer than to get new one. Gaga gets the math. It’s her overarching philosophy to focus on her core advocates, the super-fans, the “Little Monsters.” These advocates will ultimately be evangelists who bring in new customers on their own. This customer philosophy is one that businesses would do well to learn from Gaga.”

- Jackie Huba, author of Monster Loyalty: How Lady Gaga Turns Followers into Fanatics

Read more on how to turn your customers into fanatic followers form the Lady Gaga playbook on OPEN Forum

10 Ways to Steal Customers From Your Competitors by OPEN Forum

1. Listen to gossip
2. Outsmart your competition
3. Let the leads come to you
4. FedEx them the bad stuff
5. LinkedIn poaching
6. Do small favors
7. Romance them
8. Flood the market with content
9. Show off your strengths
10. Ask the ultimate question

Read more on these tips here on OPEN Forum

(via 10 Ways to Steal Customers From Your Competitors - OPEN Forum :: American Express OPEN Forum)

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5 Ways To Thrive During Marketing’s Seismic Shift To Mobile 

During SXSW, major brands convened to discuss how to move forward with mobile. Urban Airship’s Scott Kveton outlines the key trends and strategies that emerged and provides examples of brands adding value via mobile.

What is increasingly clear is that mobile will confound the cookie-cutter campaign creator, bother the bulk emailer, and annoy broad-audience advertisers. Brands that rely on traditional, one-way mass media must completely re-engineer their approach for mobile, because when customers perceive marketing as an interruption, they take immediate action to tune you out.

1. Find your value in your customers’ lives.
2. Engage each customer in the key moments of their day.
3. Deliver value based on location.
4. Allow customers to personalize their experience to gain relevance.
5. Don’t sell to your customers: entertain, engage, and delight them.

Read more here.

7 Things Customers Want But Won’t Tell You by OPEN Forum

1. You (and your team’s) looks matter
2. Prove to me you want our business
3. You’re making things too complex
4. I want you there 24/7
5. I want to only deal with you
6. A token of appreciation would be nice
7. Impress me!

Read more on each of these customer truths on OPEN Forum

(via 7 Things Customers Want But Won’t Tell You - OPEN Forum :: American Express OPEN Forum)

Meeting the Six Human Needs of Customers

Does your small business achieve these six human needs for your customers?

1. Certainty
2. Variety
3. Significance
4. Connection
5. Growth
6. Contribution

Read more on the needs and how it related to customer service.

(via Meeting the Six Human Needs of Customers)

The 10 Things Innovative Companies Do To Stay On Top

1. Everybody is an innovator
2. Measure their idea-generation success
3. Change the idea a lot before it becomes a product
4. Test their ideas with customers
5. Have an internal “idea czar”
6. Talk to customers and other partners
7. Find ideas everywhere
8. Spend R&D money thoughtfully, not profligately
9. Generate ideas in three basic ways
10. Systematically create new ideas

(via How Innovative Companies Stay On Top - Business Insider)

Netflix CEO Faces Investigation Over Facebook Post (and more…)

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings may be in hot water over a post on his Facebook page back in June when he announced the news that customers of the streaming video provider have watched more than one billion hours of content on the service, a significant milestone. The problem, according federal authorities, has to do with whether Facebook was an appropriate channel over which to release information that should have been more formally shared with investors. Read More

(via Netflix CEO Faces Investigation Over Facebook Post | Small Business Trends - Image source)