What Is an Anti-CRM? Reuben Swartz of Mimiran Joins Startup Savants

The Startup Savants business podcast tells the stories behind up-and-coming startups by talking to the founders of those enterprises. This episode features Reuben Swartz discussing his anti-CRM, Mimiran. Specially designed for solo consultants and service businesses, Mimiran provides a way for consultants to market their services without being “sales-y.” Mimiran has been developed by drawing on Reuben’s early experiences as a consultant. It incorporates the same tools that Reuben relied on for winning clients and staying organized. 

The podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. 

A Sales Product for People Who Hate Selling 

Mimiran was developed to make selling fun. Designed to assist the solo consultant in helping his or her clients, its focus is on solving the client’s problem rather than getting a sale. “You’re in the position of a doctor treating a patient,” says Reuben. “If that patient really has the problem you’ve diagnosed, she’ll be happy to hear the solution you’re proposing. There will be no need to sell.”

Mimiran makes it easy for the right people to buy, first by identifying the “right” people and then by tailoring your marketing communications to suit them. Its Mad Libs tool creates “ideal clients” or marketing personas.

“To be effective, one has to have some idea of who should be targeted, what their problems are, and how best to help them.”

 Based on the personas, Mimiran will generate content for your LinkedIn page, lead magnet, elevator pitch, web pages, etc., essentially any client-facing document or webpage. This is the way to attract the “right” people, the people with the problem you have the solution for.

 “It doesn’t mean that they’re going to buy, right? If you’re selling complex B2B services, they’re not going to buy off your website, but you can turn the visitor to a lead and a lead to a conversation. That’s what your website should be doing. And of course, Mimiran has a lead magnet component and a lead capture component that plugs into your site…”

Developing a CRM Solution

The basic idea behind CRM is to keep your customer data organized in one place. Doing so makes it easily accessible and make overview possible. You can see both the trees and the forest. But that’s a sales executive view, fine for someone whose job is to monitor sales and sales force. 

But the sales rep sees it differently. Getting that data into the system is simply an additional task for them. Besides, they’re aware it’s a way of monitoring their performance. No wonder, as Reuben discovered, the sales reps in big companies that employ such CRMs hate them.

Moreover, most regular CRMs are designed for companies that sell products. This makes them less than effective where a service is being sold. So Reuben set out to build a system for people who “really don’t like sales and marketing to begin with.”

“We need something that one, does as much work for you as possible, and two, makes it as fun and easy as possible to do the stuff that you really need to do. And that’s what I mean by an anti-CRM — because it’s not there to punish you or corral you. It’s there to enable you and guide you and actually get some stuff done for you because if you’re doing it right, this took me forever to realize. If you’re doing it right, sales and marketing should feel fun.”

If you’re excited about what you do, then it’s easy to talk about it.

“I can’t wait to share some of my expertise with the people who need it. I can’t wait to connect with these people at this thing that’s going to be exciting for everybody. And oh, I have a call coming up with a prospect. Can’t wait to help them solve a problem, et cetera. It’s just a totally different way of thinking about it.”

Startup Savants Podcast 

The Startup Savants podcast showcases entrepreneurs as they relate their experiences in founding and operating a variety of business ventures. If you want to know more about the challenges that founders typically face and the ways to circumvent or mitigate the adverse effects they cause, this series of podcasts is for you. Getting a business up and running from scratch is a testing experience. See how other entrepreneurs have tackled the challenge. Why reinvent the wheel?

Final Thoughts

In this episode of the Startup Savant podcast business series, Reuben Swartz discussed his “anti-CRM” CRM, Mimiran. Designed initially for solo consultants, Mimiran includes features that help the user provide more effective support. Mimiran shifts the CRM paradigm from a focus on sales to one based on problem-solving, educating, and support. Unlike regular CRMs meant for the sales manager, Mimiran is intended to function as a sales rep’s assistant. Its guiding principle is “stop selling and start helping.” 

You can find the Startup Savants podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.