How is Mimiran Different from Traditional CRMs?
There are hundreds of CRM systems, and when Mimiran was a toolkit designed to plug in to traditional CRMs my customers told me, “I like how simple Mimiran is, can you make it do the CRM stuff, too, so I can get rid of my CRM? I hate my CRM.”
Naturally, I said, “no, the world doesn’t need another CRM, and, if for some reason it did, I’d be the last person who should build it– I hate CRMs.”
So how did we get here?
CRM is supposed to stand for Customer Relationship Management, but does it really?
Traditional CRMs have nothing to do with Customer Relationships.
Traditional CRMs are for the VP of Sales to track the sales team’s efforts to close transactions before the end of the quarter. (This is why sales reps tend not to like these systems, and often have their own systems on the side to actually help them sell.)
Leads, messaging, and methodology come from outside the system. Reports may provide insight into compliance with methodology, but internal pipeline review meetings are the main way to enforce accountability.
This is Why Solopreneurs Hate Traditional CRMs
At some point, solopreneurs get busy enough that the whiteboard/notebook/spreasheet/cerebral cortex just can’t keep, and you say, “I need a CRM!” And, if you’re like me, you pick the one you’ve heard about most often (then, when that proves too complicated, you pick the next one, and so one, several dozen times– please don’t repeat this painful process).
It’s like trying to carry your groceries home from the store and realizing that you need a vehicle, and your friendly vehicle consultant assures you that this will solve all your problems.
This is how people end up going back to carrying their groceries home. 😉
Mimiran is designed for a solo consultant, not the VP of Sales. It’s designed to create and nuture relationships, not close transactions (although paradoxically, that makes it a much more effective sales tool).
Comparison of Mimiran and traditional CRM tools
| Traditional CRM | Mimiran | |
| Primary Audience | VP of Sales/Sales Leader | Solopreneur |
| Tracks | Sales Team | Relationships |
| Focus | Closing Deals | Deepening Connections via Conversations |
| “ABC” Stands for… | Always Be Closing | Always Be Connecting or Always Be Conversing |
| Users | Sales leader(s) Sales reps selling full time | Solo consultant or coach, doing business development in “spare” time |
| Setup | May require professional setup and customization | Get started in minutes. Connect your Google or Microsoft calendar to automatically pull in contacts you’re already meeting (you can also import a CSV file with contact info, or paste in contact data for AI to import) |
| Default Follow-up | Manual (Follow-up disappears if you don’t do something. This is “ok”, because internal sales meetings enforce accountability.) | Keep talking on a regular cadence you define unless you decide otherwise. Never lose touch because you forgot to follow-up. |
| Reducing Decision Fatigure | Lots of power– on you to execute sales process | Call Mode and Task Mode make it easy to focus on one contact or task at a time |
| Referral Tracking | Requires customization, if available | Native, including tracking how much business comes from which referral partners |
| Referral Facilitation | N/A | Track Ideal Client and Ideal Partner profiles for every contact. Let contacts update referral profile information. Referral profile information is searchable. Referral task templates make it easy to make connections (and follow-up). |
| Positioning | Considered outside the scope of the CRM | Mission & Positioning Wizard helps you nail your message for your elevator pitch, home page, LinkedIn profile, lead magnet, and more. |
| Proposals | Simple quotes or use add-on tools | Integrated proposals with templates, multiple quotes per proposal, video, view notifications, and e-signature |
| Lead Capture | Complex forms | Simple CTA (Call-to-Action) buttons with additional behavioral triggers (scroll, time on page, exit intent) |
| Lead Magnets | PDFs that look great on a big screen but terrible on a phone, with no view notifications | Mobile-friendly online content that can include forms and video content (a great way to repurpose existing Zoom recordings into evergreen lead magnets), includes view notifications so you can follow up effectively |
| Appointment Scheduling | Included or add-on, depending on system | Part of Mimiran, including report on leads who started to book but did not complete booking |
| Reporting | Sophisticated report builders to customize for the VP of Sales’ selling process | Simple, out-of-the-box reports |
| Gamification | Competition with other members of the sales team | You don’t have other members of a sales team! But you can connect with other users to create a conversation leaderboard. |
Note that if someone asks, “what’s better– Mimiran or a traditional CRM?”, the answer is, “that depends on your needs.” If you have a sales team, you’ll want a traditional CRM. If you are the rainmaker and the delivery person for your practice, and you want a way to stay organized with follow-up, without feeling like a you’re chasing buyers across a used car lot, Mimiran will be a better fit. (And if your customers can buy from you without ever talking to you, a marketing automation system will be a better solution.)
After all, sometimes you need a space shuttle or a 747. Anything else just won’t do it.
And sometimes a space shuttle or a 747 is too much, but you still need a plane.
And sometimes you just need a car.
If you’re tired of metaphorically carrying your groceries home on foot and would like something simple to help with your business development without making you feel like a sales rep, start a free trial and/or check out a demo of Mimiran.