In the sales world it is imperative that the ‘engine’ keeps running; all too often your commercial employees are too focussed on the sales funnel which results in them no longer having their eye on the ball.

Closing a deal is then at the expense of developing and maintaining new relationships. In other words, sales productivity therefore becomes a worrying issue for companies that have to ensure that their earnings are insured for the short, medium and long term.

More often than not, the problem lies in time management, the balance between ‘administration’ and sales discussions and a focus on activities in the short term instead of in the long term, without reward in sight.

Intelligent social selling for increasing sales productivity
The arena for sales has changed, along with changing buying behaviour. Sales teams can now grow their network (and therefore their pipeline) and communicate with prospects and customers on the social networks.

According to Forbes, a study showed that 78% of salesmen who used social media did better than colleagues who did not use it.

The functionality with regard to social involvement with Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales is not only available for customer service and marketing teams. Account managers and employees who generate leads can also take responsibility and build relationships in places where their audiences are.

Mobile first for sales
It is a constant battle for on-site employees to keep a direct view on their sales activities and not lose productivity. The biggest challenges for a seller on site are seamless multi-tasking, ensuring that their relationships are nourished and keep their business up-to-date with regard to their pipeline and performance.

When a company equips its sales professionals with easy-to-use software capable of addressing these challenges, there is an increase in productivity regardless of where the employees are located.

Easy deployment is essential for maintaining productivity and the consistent user experience across all your devices for Dynamics 365 and Office 365 allows your team to stay in touch with customers and the business.

Easily get insight to stay up-to-date with your customers and competitors
Interactive charts are available in Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales so that your sales team can analyse their data to quickly gain insight and get the most relevant information to the ‘surface’ – no matter where the sellers are.

Azure machine learning through Cortana in Dynamics 365 helps the sales professional with their account management and feeding the leads; by getting recommendations about possible leads, tracking people and sharing content within their network. By enriching business information (contextual and historical data) Cortana goes beyond just personal productivity, so the sales employee can switch seamlessly between business and personal life.

This deeper integration with Outlook also gives the sales team a more comprehensive idea of their most important client files through fast navigation. By bringing together data and actions from multiple sources, the user is also focused on performing relevant tasks.

Reduced administration time with intelligent document management
In a work environment where time pressure prevails and where these things slip away easily, it is much easier to view, store and share files online. This is due to the possible integration with Office 365 and with the aid of One Drive for Business for private documents or via SharePoint for team documents. It is all about opportunities or working on customer files.

All these functions are the answer to the issues faced by sales teams and managers when balancing the different needs that play in multiple places in the sales funnel. Contact Prodware for more information on how Microsoft Dynamics 365 serves professionals in improving sales productivity, delivering good customer experiences and excellent motivation.