Reuben Swartz: Unlocking CRM Magic: The Art of Effective Sales Conversations

About Reuben Swartz: Reuben Swartz is the founder of Mimiran, the “anti-CRM” for independent consultants who love serving clients but hate “selling.” Mimiran helps companies sell faster and more profitably by streamlining the sales process, converting more visitors into leads, more leads into conversations, and more conversations into e-signed proposals. He’s also the host and chief nerd on the Sales for Nerds podcast. He went from a computer science and software engineering background to sales and marketing consulting for the Fortune 500. His mission is to help other independent consultants make a bigger dent in the universe and get more clients by using their talents to teach instead of the market, connect instead of the network, and help instead of sell. Check out the latest episode of our Conversational Selling podcast to learn more about Reuben. <br /><br />In this episode, Nancy and Reuben discuss the following:The importance of having the right CRM.The key to identifying your ideal prospect. How to have a fun and productive conversation when you are not a salesperson and think sales are icky.Why do people find sales awkward?Being an introvert in the sales world. Tips on following up effectively.<br />Key Takeaways: <br /><br /> And one of the reasons why I ended up building an anti-CRM is because all the CRMs I've tried (and I've tried dozens of them) were sort of like necessary evils for me. Defining your ideal client is the foundation for everything. You don't have to waste a bunch of time trying to convince someone to have shoulder surgery who doesn't need it.The main thing is when you have strong positioning, it acts like a magnet and it starts attracting your tribe to you, and just as importantly, it pushes the people who are not going to be a good fit for you away.Referral networks are relationships that are built on conversations.There's a place for email marketing and automation, but when you're in a sales cycle, you're in a conversation-based context, and you need to talk to people.<br />" Try to think like a doctor rather than a sales rep trying to make quota. And me being a sales and marketing consultant for years and sitting in some of these sales meetings where people were kind of giving those always-be closing speeches was not a good influence on me. And I knew it wasn't me, but I was like “Well, I guess this is what I must do”. I got to force myself to do it. And no, you don't have to do that. And so, if you go back to that foundation of let's make sure that we're targeting the right people and attracting the right people to us, think about like the doctor who does shoulder surgeries. You don't go to the ear, nose, or throat doctor for your shoulder surgery. You don't go to the knee doctor for your shoulder surgery, etc. If you walked into the hospital and every doctor there was kind of trying to stab you with a business card saying “I'm a doctor and you know, by the way, you're walking funny, let me fix your knee, etc”. That would be an absurd experience." – REUBEN " You probably went to a restaurant recently and had a great experience with a waiter or waitress. That's a salesperson. You go to the doctor. That's a salesperson. A lot of these things that we don't think about that's really what we ought to be doing. We don't want to be selling to anybody. We don't want to be convincing them to do something that we want them to do. We want to be helping them to do the thing that they want to do." – REUBEN "Most introverts I know don't want to be in a room full of tons of people, but they love having deep, interesting conversations, and they're good listeners. They've got everything they need, except the mindset and the process, and the organization