While there are a number of CRM packages in the market today, it can be difficult to choose the best one for your business. Anyone with a certain amount of charm can get a response out of a potential buyer, but when it comes to getting a prospect to pull the trigger, no other CRM software can provide the insight and contextual advantage that Microsoft delivers with Dynamics 365 Sales.
Coupled with the built-in advantages of LinkedIn and the deep integration of Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft makes a convincing case for their relationship solution. With deep data analytics capabilities at its disposal right out of the box, D365 Sales is able to suggest up-to-the-moment actions based on information about your customers, prospects, and leads.
The data captured by D365 Sales allows you to make intelligent decisions based on recent communications through Microsoft Outlook, phone calls, and LinkedIn, making the sales process smooth and predictable from start to finish.
Familiarity with Microsoft Look and Feel
There are three key reasons why you, as a decision-maker, should consider Dynamics 365 for Sales for your organization. Perhaps the most immediately obvious is the familiarity with the Microsoft platform that most employees will have walking into the job.
Mellon Financial Corporation recently released a study that found lost productivity resulting from the new hire learning curve to be between 1% and 2.5% of total revenues. While not everyone knows CRM software, most people have a basic knowledge of Outlook, Excel, and Word – with D365 Sales, these well-known tools are deeply integrated into the platform, cutting down on time spent training new team members.
It’s hard to overstate the value of this familiar context. Every new employee you hire who has had exposure to Microsoft software will have an immediate head-start because of D365 Sales – the platform and architecture of the software have a look-and-feel that users can easily pick up, due to its similarity with other Microsoft products.
Microsoft Outlook plays a particularly prominent part – with D365 Sales, the built-in Artificial Intelligence capabilities can search your Outlook Inbox for key phrases from prospects and known contacts, using these to make suggestions and deliver actionable insights. While other CRM packages do have tie-ins with Outlook and other Office products, Microsoft has the advantage of building their entire system from the ground up within the same ecosphere. This makes for a tight integration at every point – the software just plays well together. All of this takes place without your users having to lift a finger – once the setup is complete, you and your team are off and running.
LinkedIn’s Treasure Trove at your Fingertips
When Microsoft announced plans to acquire LinkedIn in 2016, the ramifications were so great that Salesforce, the direct competitor to D365 Sales, lodged a formal complaint with the European Union in a bid to stop the sale. The reasons are clear – with the power of LinkedIn, Microsoft can leverage a whole new set of professional data, bringing immense value to its CRM offerings that no one else can match.
LinkedIn is a gold mine of business data, giving you unparalleled visibility into the background and professional life of the decision-makers at the prospect. With the acquisition having been made official just this past December, they are working hard to take advantage of this new tool, and we are already seeing the results of their work.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator has now been paired with Dynamics CRM, allowing you to make sales based on relationships in a way that no other CRM software can begin to approach. With this pairing, D365 Sales can do the data-mining for you to suggest the best path to connect with the key people at a prospect, according to your existing relationships with connections related to the prospect.
Gone are the days of cold-calling people you’ve never met – with D365 Sales, the LinkedIn integration offers as warm a lead as you can get in today’s sales world by suggesting common data points between you and your prospect. In addition, you can view important data to help tailor your specific approach to the client, such as Company, Industry, City, and Number of Employees. With valuable information like this right at your fingertips from within D365, you’re able to quickly educate yourself about the client and tailor your approach and your solution to best fit their existing needs.
Tying it all Together – Unparalleled Contextuality
If you currently use CRM software, you may already be tracking important data such as calls made, emails sent, or client service requests. A primary focus at Microsoft since CEO Satya Nadella took the reins has been artificial intelligence. When paired with the inherent AI built into D365, the raw power of LinkedIn data coupled with a deep integration to Microsoft Office truly begins to shine.
Microsoft is able to offer a contextual look at your customer data that allows you to take advantage of the fact that all of your productivity apps are now working together. Imagine being able to identify the key stakeholders at a prospective client, and then have Dynamics 365 Sales suggest commonalities to break the ice, based on what’s happened lately on LinkedIn.
In addition, the system can suggest the best persons to initiate an introduction based on current connections, and then allow you to message the right people via Outlook at the click of a button. In addition to all this, D365 helps you keep up-to-date on the latest happenings with your current customers, allowing you to offer new solutions based on current pain points and further cement the existing relationship.
The idea here is that a common data set tied together throughout the Microsoft ecosystem allows your salesforce to have a deep, insightful view into the customer’s business, and the AI portion will do the work for you by offering actionable suggestions to deepen the connection and further the sales process.
Research by the respected consulting firm Bain & Company indicates that a 5% increase in customer retention can drive a 50% increase in lifetime customer profits. Using a good CRM solution is key to making and then keeping those relationships with your customers. With the Dynamics 365 Sales and LinkedIn Sales Navigator integration, all of this becomes possible from within a single interface.
This relationship-based sales strategy allows you to build long-term partnerships with your customers which will keep them coming back for more, confident in the fact that you have their best interests at heart. If you’d like to know more about the Dynamics 365 Sales solutions available, or would like to set up a free trial, please contact me at jnorberg@ktlsolutions.com – I look forward to hearing from you!
Sources:
http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/getting-new-hires-up-to-speed-quickly/
https://www.engadget.com/2016/09/30/salesforce-urges-eu-block-microsoft-buy-linkedin/
http://www.bain.com/publications/articles/the-story-behind-successful-crm.aspx
