Unleashing Automation & AI in Dynamics 365 Sales

Introduction

In the ever-evolving landscape of sales, staying ahead of the competition requires a comprehensive and intelligent approach. That’s where Dynamics 365 Sales comes in. With its latest Wave 1 Release, Dynamics 365 Sales has introduced a suite of powerful features designed to supercharge your sales efforts and propel your business to new heights.

In this blog post, we’ll dive into the exciting capabilities introduced as part of the 2023 Wave 1 Release for Dynamics 365 Sales. Specifically, we’ll explore how these features enable sellers and account managers to create a robust customer organization, strengthen relationships, and gain valuable insights into customer behavior.

Imagine being able to swiftly create a customer org chart that reveals the key stakeholders for each account, providing a holistic view of your customers. With this newfound clarity, you can strategically engage and nurture relationships with the right decision-makers, opening doors to unprecedented opportunities.

Furthermore, the Wave 1 Release equips you with a powerful relationship map, allowing you to expand your network of customer contacts and cultivate fruitful connections. By leveraging this tool, you can foster stronger relationships, enhance collaboration, and drive business growth.

But it doesn’t stop there. Dynamics 365 Sales also introduces an activity view that grants you a comprehensive understanding of customer interactions. With this insight, you can tailor your approach, anticipate needs, and deliver personalized experiences that resonate with your customers.

Join me as I explore these groundbreaking features and unlock the true potential of your sales efforts. With the Wave 1 Release 2023 for Dynamics 365 Sales, you’ll gain the tools needed to accelerate growth, exceed targets, and revolutionize the way you engage with your customers.

Wave 1 Release 2023 for Dynamics 365 Sales has been broken down in three blog posts:

Features for Sales Execution and Sales Force Automation

The sales execution and sales force automation functionalities in Dynamics 365 Sales enable salespeople to streamline their primary responsibility – selling. These tools assist sellers in launching campaigns, generating and assigning leads, converting leads to opportunities, overseeing accounts and contacts, and managing all associated activities until a deal is finalized.

To bolster sales execution and sales force automation, the following enhancements are planned for the upcoming release wave:

Block duplicate leads from entering the system, whether manually created or imported in bulk.
Automatically generate follow-up tasks based on information from various Office apps, such as emails, Teams messages, and Teams call transcripts, coupled with friendly reminders to assist in completing those tasks. With the new version of input forms, create opportunities effortlessly that simplify information via an improved visual layout.
Leverage an AI-driven solution to obtain account-based recommendations for targeted selling and precise workflows to exploit.
Establish a customer organization chart so that sellers understand the roles of contacts in the organization and can access the relationship map.

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Suggestions for Seller Effectiveness

Empower sellers by equipping them with valuable insights and streamlined processes, enabling them to dedicate their time to meaningful and strategic interactions with accounts while minimizing the need for information retrieval. By utilizing these recommendations, sellers can prioritize the most essential tasks for each account, resulting in increased productivity levels.

Introducing a user-friendly, AI-driven suggestions platform designed to provide the following:

A carefully curated selection of account-specific recommendations tailored to target the prioritized account list.
Sellers can effortlessly implement the suggested workflows to enhance their sales effectiveness.
Seamless collaboration among sellers and their team members, fostering collective efforts to implement the suggestions.

Release Information:

Enabled for: Users by Admins, Makers, or Analysts

Public Preview: June 2023

Early Access: TBD

General Availability: TBD

Cross-Sell & Upsell Opportunities With AI

Selling to new customers requires more time, resources, and investment compared to selling to existing customers. Therefore, it is crucial for sellers to allocate equal attention to cross-selling to current customers alongside acquiring new ones. The effectiveness of cross-selling and upselling strategies relies heavily on the relevance of product recommendations. By employing AI-powered product recommendations, sellers can leverage historical data to receive real-time suggestions on the most suitable products while working on a sales opportunity.

Account executives and sellers handle multiple customers and a variety of products. To achieve successful deals, it is vital to propose the appropriate products to the right customers at the opportune moment. Sellers require additional support to effectively upsell and cross-sell products, thereby increasing the overall deal size and delivering relevant product suggestions to customers. Leveraging the available transactional data within the application enables sellers to make informed recommendations that align with their customers’ needs.

Introducing an AI-powered functionality that leverages past successful deals to suggest products with upsell and cross-sell potential, opening doors to new opportunities and expanding deal sizes.

As an administrator, you have the ability to activate and configure the product recommendation feature.
As a seller, you can access product recommendations when adding products to an opportunity, empowering you with valuable insights to make informed decisions.

Release Information:
Enabled for: Users by Admins, Makers, or Analysts
Public Preview: August 2023
Early Access: TBD
General Availability: TBD

New Opportunity Form

In Dynamics 365 Sales, sellers invest considerable time accessing and managing data across various entities, including leads, opportunities, contacts, and accounts. Building and nurturing client relationships requires sellers to have accurate and timely information readily available. An intuitive and user-friendly environment is essential to enhance seller productivity and foster a positive working experience with the system. With this update, we introduce an improved version of input forms that declutters information and offers an enhanced visual layout, ensuring a more streamlined and enjoyable user experience.

This update introduces the following enhancements:

Adjusted the layout of the default opportunity form to allocate a broader central column, facilitating better visibility of actionable insights.
Reorganized the command bar to prioritize frequently used buttons, ensuring easy access to essential functions.
Displayed the associated account information prominently in the header of the opportunity form.
Introduced widget headers such as “Key Details” and “More Info” to enhance the clarity of information.
Ensured consistency by converting all header and field values to sentence case, maintaining uniformity across the opportunity form.

Release Information:

Enabled for: Users, automatically

Public Preview: TBD

Early Access: February 6^th, 2023

General Availability: April 24^th, 2023

Improve Assignment Rule Effectiveness With Statistics

Sales managers invest a significant amount of time in assigning leads and opportunities to the appropriate sellers, ensuring timely closure of deals. Delays in seller assignment can result in lost business or prolonged deal closures. To help sales managers achieve their targets efficiently, an automated seller assignment system has been implemented. This system utilizes continuously refined rules to streamline the assignment process, maximizing the chances of hitting sales targets and minimizing unnecessary delays.

When accessing the assignment rules setup screen, sales managers and system administrators will be presented with the following information and options:

Display of the percentage of records created within a specified timeframe that were automatically routed using assignment rules.
Evaluation of the effectiveness of each assignment rule by analyzing the ratio of assigned to unassigned records. Additionally, guidance will be provided to explain the reasons behind any unassignments.

Release Information:

Enabled for: Admins, Makers, Marketers, or Analysts, automatically

Public Preview: TBD

Early Access: TBD

General Availability: September 2023

Organization Chart for Stakeholder Visibility Statistics

To develop an effective engagement plan, it is crucial to identify and engage with the appropriate stakeholders within a customer organization. Account team members often require assistance in identifying these stakeholders for their deals. Sellers tend to interact with only a portion of the buying committee, potentially missing out on upsell and cross-sell opportunities. It is important to easily capture the roles of the buyers while also gaining insight into their level of engagement with your organization. The introduction of the new organizational management feature enables you to construct and visualize the structure of your customer organization, facilitating the maintenance of a robust and fruitful business relationship.

The newly introduced feature offers the following capabilities:

Sellers and account managers can easily generate a customer organization chart, providing a clear overview of the different stakeholders associated with an account.
Maintain a relationship map to identify, engage, and expand your network of customer contacts, fostering stronger connections.
Gain valuable insights into customer interactions through an activity view of contacts and stakeholders, enabling a deeper understanding of your customers’ preferences and needs.

Release Information:

Enabled for: Admins, Makers, or Analysts

Public Preview: May 2023

Early Access: TBD

General Availability: TBD

Conclusion

The 2023 Wave 1 Release for Dynamics 365 Sales has ushered in a new era of sales enablement, empowering sellers and account managers with a set of game-changing features. Throughout this blog post, we’ve explored the immense value offered by these capabilities in driving sales growth and fostering stronger customer relationships.

With the ability to create a customer org chart, you can now navigate the complex web of stakeholders within each account with ease. By identifying the right decision-makers, you can forge meaningful connections, align your sales strategies, and unlock untapped potential.

The relationship map functionality opens doors to expanded networks and collaborative opportunities. By nurturing and growing your connections, you can cultivate lasting partnerships that drive mutual success. Together, you can achieve extraordinary results and exceed your sales targets.

Additionally, the activity view feature provides invaluable insights into customer behavior. Armed with this knowledge, you can personalize your engagements, anticipate needs, and deliver exceptional experiences that resonate with your customers. Understanding their preferences and history allows you to tailor your approach, boosting customer satisfaction and loyalty.

As the sales landscape continues to evolve, embracing the 2023 Wave 1 Release for Dynamics 365 Sales is a catalyst for success. By leveraging these powerful tools, you can amplify your sales efforts, surpass your competition, and revolutionize your customer interactions.