As Microsoft emphasizes, changes in Dynamics 365 Sales are motivated by the changing role of the Salesperson, but with a focus on the perspective of Customers. The evolution of roles in the sales process necessitates several changes: prioritizing work for salespeople, engaging intelligent tools for communication, and more time spent building trust between the salesperson and the customer. Salespeople cannot be overwhelmed by the need to understand too much data and information; rather, they need that data to be able to use it in their interactions with the customer.
In the 2022 Wave 2 version, we can observe the optimization of the salesperson’s environment using existing data and AI. This is intended to help salespeople prioritize their work and make better use of available business tools, so that they can more strongly engage in contact with customers and build relationships.
Conversation Intelligence
In the first quarter of 2023, we can expect the launch of the Conversation Intelligence tool in Microsoft Teams, which will cover both outgoing and incoming calls using an enhanced interface to provide business insight into any type of call.
By analyzing conversation styles and correlating them with business outcomes, salespeople and managers will be able to see what works and what doesn’t and adjust their conversation styles to increase their chances of closing a sale. Key words, customer moods, and conversation styles will be analyzed, and then the tool will allow for the evaluation of the impact of these factors on business outcomes. Trend reports on conversations will also be available to analyze sales behaviors over time, enabling progress and effectiveness to be tracked.
Another interesting feature is the tips and suggestions displayed during conversations with customers. To make remote sales more effective than direct sales, AI will automatically display suggestions and tips in real-time as the salesperson conducts a phone call or chat in the Teams application. The suggestions will include information and discussion points about product and service details, as well as advantages that give us a competitive edge, or current prices. This feature can be very useful not only when the conversation becomes difficult, but also when a detail simply slips one’s mind.
Sales Hub
In 2023, artificial intelligence analysis will help managers responsible for their team’s sales results and training.
Leaders will be able to use aggregated views of customer interactions and sales practices or teams to understand how their sales strategies are working in the field. This will enable them to more effectively train their sales teams.
It will also be easier to find relevant conversations by filtering out irrelevant calls, such as voicemail or conversations without significant content.
The forecasting function in Dynamics 365 Sales provides sales teams with the ability to forecast revenue, track performance against goals, and identify risks that may threaten goal achievement. With the update as part of 2022 Wave 2, Sales Managers and salespeople will have access to predictive tools with the ability to add descriptions, tips, and translations to column headers. This customization aims to better understand data and help make more informed decisions.
In the coming days, Sales Hub users will undergo changes, which will allow them to analyze CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations performed by specific users in detail through reports, all of which will be available later this month. Analysis of CRUD operations can be conducted on all COLA objects (contact, opportunity, lead, and account), considering data based on parameters such as time range, territory, and user. These reports will also include a ranking of the most effective users of CRUD operations.
A new functionality in the accelerator will enable sending SMS messages and referring to previous SMS interactions without leaving the application or losing customer data view. Importantly, it will be possible to choose a service provider for sending and receiving messages. An option will also be available to add automatic SMS messages (or SMS messages with any content) as a separate step in the sequence.
As part of the greater personalization of sales and individual approach to the customer, companies can already configure task list cards according to their own requirements. Depending on the industry in which our customer operates or their preferences, different types of data may be deemed essential. Starting from October, such a function will be available for everyone as part of Wave 2 2022.
Email addresses are both the most common form of contact and a factor that can cause a contact to be lost or never received. Every database contains email addresses that are incorrect, inactive, temporary, test, etc. A new feature that is expected to be available from March next year will help validate addresses, resulting in lower rejection rates, better engagement rates, and a return on invested time. Administrators will be able to perform partial or full updates of potential customer email addresses.
Meanwhile, in the coming days, the ability to create and customize sequences in the sales accelerator should be generally available without the need to involve managers. Currently, the “Next” widget is only available in the workspace area, forcing salespeople to switch between grids and the workspace when a record does not have a connected sequence. After the changes, salespeople will gain additional permissions to create and customize sequences as default.
After the changes, salespeople will gain additional permissions to create and customize sequences as default.
A/B testing for sequences in the Sales Accelerator
And speaking of sequences, in the first quarter of 2023, a feature is expected to appear that will allow them to be optimized using A/B tests. It will be possible to measure different content, communication channels, as well as combinations of steps and select the version with the best performance, thanks to simple and clear comparison.