Why every sales team should use Dynamics 365

This Boston-based small-scale shoe manufacturer caters to customers across America. Sharing the market with global brands, life wasn’t easy for the 6-year old firm. The foundation of its business were 2 principles – high quality and smart work.

The first was being wholeheartedly adhered to and its shoes could easily match the build quality and durability of the ones from popular brands. The 2nd, smart work, comprised several aspects and applies to all departments – production, operation, marketing, sales, and service. The problem with sales was the price-battle that led to dwindling revenue. This young David couldn’t follow the footsteps of the Goliaths and take the price cut beyond a certain minimum as that would be suicidal. But the need to address the problem, up the sales, and dominate the market was urgent.

The shrewd and hard-working sales head decided to take the plunge and turn things around for the organization. She analyzed all touch points and assigned resources to streamline the workflow and raise the overall efficiency. Her problem evaluation directed her to what would turn out to be the ultimate solution to all the problems – Microsoft Dynamics 365 for sales. She discovered that the product targets all the issues that she had listed and beyond. She wasn’t surprised to learn that it was the same CRM that most large competitors and market leaders were using.

As it’s a Microsoft product and the most widely used CRM software, she delved deep and once fully convinced of its capabilities, decided to make Dynamics 365 the anchor around which the entire sales workflow would revolve. It was integrated with the system after a detailed analysis of the workflow and tailored customizations to accommodate the company requirements. Encouraging results started surfacing in the first quarter itself. In the second, sales began to improve and by the 3rd, after a long period of gloom, the team started to achieve its ambitious targets.

The success wasn’t an accident but was brought about by meticulous planning and well-informed decisions. Dynamics 365 for sales enabled the team to embrace smart work and scale the stiff mountain.

Information consolidation:

The previously used CRM, a one-size-fits-all solution, didn’t have any interactive and informative experience where all the relevant and updated information could be viewed and acted upon. Dynamics 365 dashboards provided a consolidated view of the entire client journey, showing every stage which could be expanded to pinpoint the current progress of a deal. For cases that need follow-ups, the concerned individuals are notified. They also get the reports on sales performance of individuals and partners that could be filtered down to sale by every dealer and channel partner.

Benefits – Saves time; Boosts productivity

Actionable insights:

Before this move, the team depended heavily on its field executives to compile the market trends for actions like price-adjustments, promotional activities, and new launches. As the involvement of humans invariably draws errors, the results weren’t fruitful. Dynamics 365 for sales provided the team with Artificial Intelligence-driven market insights that acted as the foundation on which sensitive and successful decisions were made. The insights are based on the contacts, emails, and various other critical data of the organization and the behavior of the prospects and their historical data. These are highly accurate and result-oriented and target prospects with the highest likelihood of conversion. Another benefit of AI-insights is that they help in accurate risk estimation and hence reduce mistakes.

Benefits – Better decisions; Accurate market forecasts

Upselling:

One of the better ways to boost revenue is up-selling. However, the team was constantly failing to push its premium line of leather boots due to wrong pitching. But now, the smart insights help executives in suggesting products to buyers based on their preferences, increasing the chances of sales. Whenever a retailer or partner wants to place an order for a model that’s out of stock, the team can easily persuade it to go for a more premium product based on the current and past data of the partner.

Benefits – Higher revenue; Attractive deals

Team motivation:

It’s quite common for the sales teams, considering the immense pressure to meet targets, to get demotivated and withdraw into a shell. Nothing can be more disheartening for a sales head than seeing her brave comrades retreat from the competition without putting up a fight. To tackle this, Dynamics 365 has the revolutionary feature of gamification that ensures that work is not dull but livened by refreshing and morale-boosting activities. The individual and team-based competitions drive employee collaboration and motivate them to achieve seemingly difficult tasks.

Benefits – Team motivation, Better collaboration

Faster deal closing:

For most deals, the time from lead generation to closing is insanely long. As a result, there are high costs and along with the risk of losing the client on the way. For this, Dynamics 365 presents users with everything that’s needed to expedite deals. Integration with tools like PowerPoint, LinkedIn, and Office 365 makes it impressively easy to prepare presentations or set up meetings on the go. The relationship assistant feature, through action cards, makes intelligent suggestions to close deals. The leveraging of mutual connections helps build credibility with prospects.

Benefits – More business, higher productivity

The effect:

With all its capabilities, intelligence, convenience, advanced features, Dynamics 365 for sales has leveled the playing field for the little David. As previously stated, the manufacturer always had the quality but lagged in revenue generation. At present, it’s growing impressively and is taking the Goliaths head-on. It is setting surprisingly high targets but the high team morale has added to the conviction and the results are being reflected in the sharply rising profit graph. Deals are being closed in record time and the team is preparing to explore new horizons to conquer.