Traditional CRM doesn't work for consultants
If you spend too much time babysitting your system instead of connecting with clients, partners, and prospects, there’s a better way…
How Mimiran Works
When I was running a boutique consulting firm, I tried Salesforce and other CRM systems that “real” salespeople were supposed to use.
They made our team do a lot of work, without doing a lot for our team.
I figured there had to be a CRM for consultants who don’t want to spend all day “selling”. Something that would help us build our practice and get out of the way. But I couldn’t find one.
So I created the one I wish I’d had…
Reuben Swartz
Founder, Mimiran & Chief Nerd, Sales for Nerds
Let's compare what happens with a traditional CRM and Mimiran, step by step...
A visitor comes to your website…
If you think you can only get business from word-of-mouth, you are missing out on most of your market. (Unfortunately, I know about this all too well.)
Your website has one job: to get you leads.
It’s fine to have a “Subscribe to our Newsletter” or “Schedule a Consultation” button. But most visitor are not ready for that.
So don’t market– teach.
Offer a compelling “Lead Magnet” that helps your ideal client with an important problem you can help them solve.
There are lots of ways to do this technologically, but only one designed to help you handle a relatively low number of very high value leads, while you’re busy running your practice.
Traditional CRM
As a visitor, we’re likely to skip over the form on this page, making it unlikely that we will convert.
If the form doesn’t display well on mobile, you won’t get conversions there, and Google will penalize your overall results.
Mimiran Lead Capture
With Mimiran, you stick a big, friendly button on your page, offering the help that your prospects need.
It’s much more enticing than a form. The form pops up in place when you click the button.
(You can also pop up the form after the visitor spends a certain amount of time, scrolls a certain amount down the page, or goes to leave the page.)
And of course, it’s mobile-friendly.
Now You’ve Got a Lead…
But you really need to have a conversation. How do you get there?
Traditional CRM
- You know when the prospect requests the PDF, but you don’t know if they went back to look at it later.
- PDF download doesn’t display well on mobile.
- No opportunity to use interactive content to collaborate with prospect.
Mimiran Lead Magnet
- You know if and when your prospect comes back to read your content, so you get more chances to call at the right time.
- Web-based, responsive layouts look good on all devices.
- Interactive content like ROI calculators can provide more value to prospects, and help you (dis)qualify faster.
Have the Conversation
And remember it later…
Traditional CRM
- Conversation notes aren’t useful, so people don’t record them at all, or just put the minimum effort required.
Mimiran Conversation Notes
- Because you can Live Search your notes while writing a proposal, taking good notes becomes really, really valuable. No more guessing what to put in your proposal.
- You can also review notes from past meetings to make sure you’re prepared for the next meeting.
- Search across your notes to uncover common trends among your prospects and clients.
Create the Proposal
Create customized proposals that make your prospect feel like a VIP, without the time, stress, and hassle.
Traditional CRM / Office Tools
- Who had the latest version of the template again?
- Where was that blurb we use on this type of project?
- Did we remember to find and replace the client name when we pasted in that section from another proposal?
- Where’s the latest pricing spreadsheet?
- No control over what gets sent to prospects.
Mimiran Proposals
- Templates keep your content in one place where it’s easy to keep up-to-date.
- Snippets let you store and reuse small chunks of content.
- Use images and even embed video to connect with prospects and stand out from the competition.
- Merge fields auto-populate customer names, dates, pricing information, and more.
- Quotes make it easy to standardize pricing, while customizing each proposal for the client.
- Offer multiple quotes in one proposal to give cross-sell/up-sell opportunities.
- Easy approval mechanisms let you delegate more proposal writing to your team, while still maintaining control.
Close the Proposal
“Hi, I’m just calling to see if you had any questions on the proposal?”
Traditional CRM
"Just calling to see if you got my proposal or had any questions?"
I hated making those calls, wondering if the prospect had even read the proposal. Wondering if and when the deal would close.
And, even if it did, sometimes having to wait days (or worse) to collect signatures.
Then, you don’t know if the project will start “on time”, meaning you need to have room in your schedule, or if you need to keep people billing on other projects…
Mimiran Proposals
- Know if and when prospects read your proposal, so you can follow up at the right time.
- Make small tweaks to the proposal in real-time– no more endless back and forth.
- Embedding multiple options in a single proposal lets the prospect pick what’s best for them.
- E-Signature makes it easy to actually “close”.
Stay Connected
But you really need to have a conversation. How do you get there?
Traditional CRM
Who should I call next?
What’s the next call you should make?
When should you follow up with that contact?
Too much guesswork means too much thinking and not enough connecting.
Mimiran Makes It Easy
- With Mimiran, you can see who you need to talk to next, and use Call Mode to dial one after the other (especially helpful when you have a few minutes to “waste” on your phone).
- Tag contacts and have Mimiran automatically assign follow-up dates (you can override if appropriate).
Measure and Improve
But you really need to have a conversation. How do you get there?
Traditional CRM
Most CRMs have dashboards built for the VP of Sales, overseeing dozens or hundreds of sales reps.
But they can’t give you real win/loss analysis.
Or tell you how much business you got from referrals.
Or which web campaigns led to how much revenue…
Mimiran Tracks Web Campaigns and Referrals to Revenue
- See trends in web page views, leads, conversations, proposals, and more, at a glance.
- Analyze wins and losses.
- Track referral sources to revenue.
- Using Mimiran’s patent-pending technology, track Google and Facebook campaigns to revenue, not just to clicks, so you can optimize the right way.
Start getting more sales with less selling...