Copilot for Sales Run-through

As part of the inaugural Microsoft Community call on Dynamics 365, I decided to create a Fantastic Beasts themed Copilot for Sales demo. Between magic and CRM geekiness, I started envisioning what it would look like if Newt Scamander and Tina Goldstein decided to integrate in the human world with a day job in Contoso.

We all love Contoso don’t we? Between the Airpot coffee makers, A. Datum Corporation and the Adele Vance’s of the world, it is the quintessential world of CDX fun. But how would it look like if Newt Scamander and Tina Goldstein went mainstream with it to unleash their powers as muggle-like sellers in the world of Dynamics 365 and Copilot?

Is Copilot for Sales like a unicorn or a dragon?

Well, it depends how you want to interpret its features. There are a lot of ways to describe it, but two sentences resonate with me:

1. It helps us integrate our systems of productivity with our systems of CRM records in the flow of work (Both Dynamics 365 and Salesforce are compatible)

2. It’s making Microsoft 365 speak sales

Let’s unpack this, shall we?

Copilot for Sales is the perfect bridge to connect Microsoft 365 apps like Outlook, Teams, Word etc. with Dynamics 365 Sales’ CRM data. Think of it as a magical translator that knows your portfolio, your tasks, and your customers. It helps you in advance and during client interactions to make them more personalized and efficient.

Classic capabilities include:

1. Viewing in Outlook the opportunity summary and updating the record e.g. state or related Contacts

2. Analyzing sales conversations and required actions over Teams

3. Drafting proposals over Word or Teams

4. Analyzing data charts and speeding up the production of business intelligence

Copilot for Sales can also be extended to include different business data connectors or extra AI functionalities. For example, People.ai, Seismic, DocuSign or PROS. From extending business intelligence capabilities, to personalizing targeted content, contract management and intelligent pricing, this is just the start. You can build skills that matter to you, giving you productive time back with your clients. Not more admin work whilst playing endless catch up.

Our non-muggle personas

In the demo, but also in every CRM implementation, it is important to remember who we are building for. In other words, our end user personas. I did promise a Fantastic Beasts themed scenario, so let’s start delivering.

When it comes to Copilot for Sales, there are three key profiles:

1. Individual Sellers: They are constantly on the road, nurturing leads, or existing clients’ opportunities, taking on multichannel meetings and need to be mobile and admin-free. Copilot for Sales can support them in their client interactions before, during and after. From auto-capturing data for them, to refreshing their memory in real time in the SELLER’S TERMS, it is the ultimate companion.

2. Sales Manager: Whilst they also handle clients, they have team management and reporting responsibilities. It takes time to manage people efficiently, whilst also handling what is often a manual production of business intelligence. Copilot for Sales can provide that macro picture at an account portfolio level, latest contact interactions or even financial reporting e.g. in Excel or the dedicated on-canvas experience in Dynamics 365 among other ways.

3. Sales Operations: These types of teams play an important part in the customer sales lifecycle. Copilot for Sales can help them identify and automate routine admin tasks. Not only can this help with innovation in the core Dynamics 365 for Sales development, but also extensibility ideas through Copilot Studio. Furthermore, it can generate more personalization ideas for reporting, which will in turn support individual sellers and sales managers. Triple win!

What scenarios shall we explore in the mystical Contoso offices of New York?

As I was brainstorming the best demo scenarios, I took a step back to reflect on the demos I have seen. What did I learn which excited me and what was missing? Like magical creatures, these demos had their own special powers. What always stood out to me is how relatable they were (or weren’t). Was it a real life case I have faced as a consultant, as an end user or observed with other colleagues? Did the demo reflect that in an honest and easy to absorb walkthrough?

Scenario 1: New colleague onboarding

This is where the first scenario cropped up. As a consultant in a global company, it is quite common to have new colleagues who need support with their onboarding. And sometimes, language barriers come in the middle. The same applies when generally working in multinational teams and/ or multinational companies. Even if you do speak other languages, keyboards may not align etc. The first scenario explores the onboarding of Tina Goldstein as a new seller in Team Kronos, that Newt Scamander leads as a Sales Manager. Tina is more comfortable speaking Italian and was hired for the Italian opportunities with A. Datum Corporation and Fabrikam, Inc.

So, we explore how Newt uses Copilot for Sales in Outlook for a more immersive onboarding experience to:

• Language switch – manual VS automatic

• Feedback on response quality

• Email drafts – actions available, one-off VS repeat prompts, content safety and moderation, filtering for tone, length, language and meeting times, enrichment through existing CRM data and templates, citations and version history

• Global entity search

Scenario 2: New prospect opportunity comes in

A day in the life of a seller on the road is hectic. Especially if you are managing a big account and a big team. Client needs change quite often, and so does their organisation structure, procurement processes and so much more. There is a lot to unpack when you are a Sales Manager like Newt. Magic can only get you so far. Managing people, both internal and external, efficiently is a deeply human talent. So, what happens when a brand-new contact like Gellert Grindelwald from Trey Research comes in with a new urgent opportunity? In this scenario, we explore some of the richest functionality Copilot for Sales has to offer in Outlook. Highlights include:

• Email and opportunity summary – quick catch up on key points and actions

• Save email to Dynamics 365 inc. email and meeting categories, plus saving attachments as part of tracking emails

• Save contact to Dynamics 365 incl. suggested updates plus existing abilities to edit records and add private notes

• Draft email reply – differences in actions, saving summaries in Dynamics 365

• Creation of accounts, opportunities or any custom tables

• Deal rooms – existing VS news ones

Scenario 3: Internal catch ups

Now this is one of the most exciting scenarios as it does not just apply to sellers, sales managers or sales operations teams separately. The Teams productivity features are so good and can make a difference to CRM data hygiene, personal and team efficiency. Tina is new to the company and has a ton of onboarding questions for Newt to catch up on her portfolio. Newt also has to play catch up with his actions in a lot of the management and reporting meetings. Bottom line, it is easy to miss your send a meeting summary, catch up on your own tasks or follow up on your team’s ones. Or even the dreaded post call summary from whomever is voluntold. If you add to this the fact that Contoso operates on all continents and people can’t make certain reoccurring meetings, what can Copilot for Sales do to stay in this hybrid flow of work?

• Brand and competitor analysis mid call

• Record searches to share adaptive cards including a summary of the record e.g. an opportunity, with a deep link into Dynamics 365

• Sentiment analysis per participant leading to a reply as needed

• Call highlights with citations into the playback

• Follow up tasks with the ability to create them into Dynamics 365 directly

• Details of participants’ interactions such as speak to listen ratio

• Also show adaptive card style through record search and sharing

There is so much to explore from when it comes to Copilot for Sales. The list is ever expanding.

You do not to slay fantastic beasts to know that! If you want to keep up with its awesome features and understand screen by screen their use, you should keep up with Amira Beldjilali from the FastTrack team. Subscribe to her Tip Time content for the latest and greatest incl. the June release items.

Another great source is the Microsoft Mechanics account and all the great videos from Eric Boocock. One of the latest is how to extend Copilot for Sales, shown here.

Have a sales-tastic time, and see you soon!