Microsoft is putting a lot of effort into their Dynamics 365 apps to gain a greater market share and cover more business areas. The sales app is one of the oldest, most vital components of Dynamics 365 (previously a module in Dynamics CRM). Because it was “old,” it’s been updated many times with new features and functionalities that make life much easier for the sales team.
Here are 12 features you should be using in Dynamics 365 for Sales:
Relationship Assistant
We’re living in a world of artificial intelligence and machine learning; all the big players are investing billions in research and development to make products smarter and provide seamless experiences. When you go to a customer’s profile in the sales app, you get access to actionable insights about the contacts, accounts and opportunities based on your previous interactions with the client.
Customer Insights
Talking about machine learning, Customer Insights is an Azure-based SaaS service directly integrated into Dynamics 365 that takes a load of data and transforms it into actions and insights shown to the right person at the right time. These insights include Customer 360 view (see all of the customer’s data and interactions in one place), Predictive Match (uses AI to match activities and profiles with customers), Predictive Scoring (helps salespeople predict business outcomes based on historical data) and Segmentation (allows sales representatives to identify the right audience).
Dynamics 365 Mobile
20 years ago, today’s world would be a far-fetched science fiction movie. Everyone has a smartphone now, and we’re all connected all the time. While they haven’t managed to replace laptops, smartphones have come a long way since they first entered the market. No longer just a device to make calls, it’s a device for entertainment, research, and of course business. Dynamics 365 has mobile apps across all major platforms to help users access their organization’s data on the go.
Word and Excel templates
Microsoft has a vast portfolio of products and is not afraid to use them. Many Microsoft products integrate seamlessly together to form a great ecosystem. It’s no different with Word and Excel templates. You can prepare professional looking Word templates with placeholders for CRM data and generate documents with one click from any CRM record.
Business Process Flows
Process Flows in Dynamics 365 help drive the sales process from lead capturing to invoice generation. With the newest updates, you can now call Workflows on different process flow steps and add timers to streamline sales progression.
Dashboards
Create custom dashboards or customize system dashboards to show desired information as soon as you log in to the Sales App. Dynamics 365 dashboards can include charts, list views, IFRAMES, web resources, and Relationship Assistant.
LinkedIn integration
When Microsoft acquired LinkedIn, it was clear an integration would arrive for business solutions. We were not disappointed. With LinkedIn Sales Navigator, you can:
- Use LinkedIn’s main features like sending connection requests, InMail, and messages directly from your Dynamics 365 interface
- Get Lead recommendations from LinkedIn by highlighting profiles that look similar to your existing customers.
Outlook integration
Outlook might be one of the oldest integrations out there, and arguably the most beneficial. Note that Dynamics 365 App for Outlook and Dynamics 365 for Outlook are two different products. The former is the newer of the two, and is the one Microsoft is pushing as it uses server-side synchronization to keep data in sync. There are multiple benefits of this integration:
- This functionality is only available in Dynamics 365 for Outlook, but is still widely used by many salespeople (especially those who do not always have access to the Internet)
- Dynamics 365 data and entities are synced right into Outlook
- Email tracking from Outlook in Dynamics 365
- Ability to create, update and delete Dynamics 365 records directly from Outlook
Activities
Activities in Dynamics 365 contain all interactions with customers like emails, appointments, and phone calls. You can also create custom activities and link them to any Dynamics 365 record.
Workflows
Automate your business processes without writing one line of code. Dynamics 365 workflows use logical clauses to create or update records, run children workflows and send email notifications. You can also extend your workflows by building Custom Workflow Activities (you will need coding skills) and get any job done automatically.
Relevance/categorized search
Dynamics 365 offers many ways to search data. Relevance and categorized search use dedicated search services powered by Azure. Relevance search returns results in one list sorted by, you guessed it, relevance. Relevance is calculated based on multiple factors like the frequency of the matched word in the record and their proximity to each other. Categorized search returns different lists based on the category (entity type). This helps if you’re looking for something specific.
Advanced find
Yet another type of search in Dynamics 365. The name is self-explanatory. It’s an advanced way to find records. You can build complex queries in a super user-friendly interface. Again, no need for technical skills, just a bit of logic will do. You can specify several search criteria like “Customers where City = New York and Last Modified in the Last 7 days” and you would get the results you’re expecting.
Become a Dynamics expert
Dynamics 365 for Sales is one of the best CRM systems out there. It comes loaded with features designed to make your life easier and accelerate your business process. The product has been through many iterations, and at this point, it’s difficult to find an essential feature that is not included.
With the rise of AI and machine learning, we expect to see many more intelligence-driven features in future updates to help better predict sales outcomes and push business further. Having an experienced cloud partner by your side can help you stay on top of your product knowledge and grow your Dynamics 365 business! Explore Sherweb’s Partner Guide for more information.
