Taking the tedium out of sales tasks<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Copilot for Sales<\/a> maximizes productivity with an AI assistant specifically designed for sellers. Like our other AI-powered tools, it increases productivity and efficiency by providing intelligent digital assistance within Microsoft Teams and Outlook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The added value of Copilot for Sales is working with Dynamics 365 or Salesforce to access, use, and input customer relationship management (CRM) data. As a result, it eliminates distracting tasks that eat away at their time and get in the way of what they do best\u2014building relationships and solving problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Everything we’ve done in terms of our Dynamics 365 sales platform aims to give time back to sellers so they can invest it into customers,” says Alexandra Jones, senior business program and change manager in Microsoft Digital, the company\u2019s IT organization. “With AI and copilots, our technology is doing even more to help us reach that goal.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The sweet spot exists at the intersection of AI-enabled intelligence and CRM integration into the spaces where salespeople operate every day. Within Microsoft Teams, Copilot for Sales delivers real-time call insights, AI-generated meeting summaries, post-call analyses and action items, and more. In Microsoft Outlook, its abilities include crafting contextual email responses, summarizing lengthy threads, and creating Teams Collaboration Spaces associated with accounts and opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Across both workspaces, Copilot for Sales makes it easier to create, update, or view CRM contacts, opportunities, and other data associated with sales accounts. That mitigates the need for sellers to migrate to a different tool as they conduct the essential business of using or updating their CRM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “For sellers trying to do their jobs, it’s all about that flow of information within the flow of action,” says Kerry Barrass, director of business programs within Microsoft Customer and Partner Solutions. “While the conversation is fresh, the tool distills information down into consumable chunks and actionable items.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Those features come in handy because sales are complex and require strong coordination across large teams. One of our typical sales accounts involves anywhere from 20 to 50 individual employees, each with a vital role to play. As a result, it’s extremely difficult to get everyone on a call or piece together the narrative underlying email threads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “When I get copied into an email thread, I used to need a knowledge transfer meeting to get up to speed,” says Emilio Reyes Le Blanc, a technology specialist in Microsoft Sales. “This technology means I can just open an email thread, have Copilot generate a summary, and contextualize my existing relationships from the integrated pane within Outlook.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Taken together, these features deliver greater contextual understanding, more efficient workflows, and higher data fidelity within our CRM systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our deployment experience<\/a> and of Copilot for Sales have provided some helpful insights. These seven tips should help with your adoption and everyday work with this AI-powered tool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 01<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Ride the wave of excitement<\/p>\n\n\n\n 02<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Align enablement with your employees\u2019 needs<\/p>\n\n\n\n 03<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Leverage leadership at every level<\/p>\n\n\n\n 04<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Ensure our underlying data policies are secure<\/p>\n\n\n\n 05<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Start simple and work up from there<\/p>\n\n\n\n 06<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Prioritize CRM data resilience<\/p>\n\n\n\n 07<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Practice effective prompting<\/p>\n\n\n\n Deploying and using Microsoft 365 Copilot for Sales internally at Microsoft has taught us important lessons that we hope will help you deploy it at your company.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Ride the wave of excitement<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n Sellers have an eye for value, and when they saw what Copilot for Sales could do, it generated a lot of excitement. The tool’s intuitive features mean that, from a user perspective, it isn’t a complicated solution. As a result, we’ve experienced a substantial organic boost to adoption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “One day, a magic button popped up in my Outlook and I got a prompt to try Sales Copilot, so I taught myself to use it,” Reyes Le Blanc says. “One of the beautiful things about this tool is that its time to value is extraordinary.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n When you’re deploying Copilot for Sales to your own sellers, focus on visibility first. When the excitement takes hold, it will boost adoption among your self-motivated salespeople. Encourage that uptake to score some early champions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Align enablement with your employees’ needs<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n Not everyone is a self-driven early adopter\u2014and that’s perfectly alright! Effective change management starts with understanding your audience and the complexities of your sales environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We recommend building hero scenarios for each user persona by taking a granular look at their challenges, sales processes, and day-to-day work. Dig into their role descriptions and documentation and ask what they\u2019re trying to accomplish. From there, you can piece together your enablement materials based on what provides value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Using video <\/strong>For video enablement content, we’ve discovered that the ideal length is 30 seconds to one minute.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n Consider different learning formats and modalities as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “You want to make readiness consumable and provide options,” Jones says. “Some people want to show up to a demo session, and some people want to watch a video on their own time, so it’s important to offer a variety of pathways to adoption.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Multimodality that includes courses, demos, written documentation, and more will help your readiness efforts reach the most people with the most impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Engage leadership at every level<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n It’s always important to engage your leaders. That includes both organizational leadership and product champions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Advocates and champions are always important, not just for leading from the front,” Barrass says. “You also get more candid feedback by empowering these people to be part of pilot groups.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Naturally, enthusiastic executive sponsorship is essential, especially with new technology. Not only do leaders provide direction and encouragement for their organizations, but they can also choose to give people space to allocate time and prioritize learning. Cultivate those sponsorships early and actively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The same goes for employee champions. By running internal pilots targeting key user scenarios, you’ll ensure you receive early feedback to guide product development and a core of users who can help lead adoption across your organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ensure your underlying data policies are secure<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n Your organization might be cautious about how AI tools interact with their data repositories, so deploying Copilot for Sales is a good opportunity to review your data-loss prevention setup. By ensuring your policies are up to date, you can prevent accidental data loss or exposure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Copilot for Sales sits on top of our existing data repositories, so it engages with that data in the same way as any other connected tool,” Jones says. “It\u2019s less about the solution and more about having a robust infrastructure of administrative policies and technologies safeguarding your organization.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n It will be essential to initiate reviews within several key disciplines. Those include HR, legal, security, and the IT team responsible for maintaining and protecting your data estate. Within your sales teams themselves, administrators may have concerns about access. If that\u2019s the case, encourage them to conduct a thorough security and role review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Guide those conversations using Copilot for Sales\u2019 extensive product documentation<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Start simple and work up from there<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n For sellers themselves, building trust in a new technology takes time. People might need to work up the confidence to try more intensive or involved features, especially if they\u2019re reticent about AI technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cJust start with two or three features that are really going to appeal to people,\u201d Jones says. \u201cEncourage sellers to ask what works best for their role.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n We suggest salespeople start small with meeting and email summarization capabilities. They might not be ready to trust email drafting tools just yet, but when they see how the intelligence works through summarization, they\u2019ll understand how Copilot for Sales engages with information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After sellers have built up their understanding and confidence around how this tool engages with data, they can experiment with different features that apply to their work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Prioritize CRM data resilience<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n Anyone in sales operations will tell you that high data fidelity in your CRM is crucial. Leadership needs to know their institutional data is resilient. Accuracy and completeness ensure up-to-date contact data along with a comprehensive view of relationships across internal and external teams. <\/p>\n\n\n\n All this information helps sales managers make effective decisions, generate accurate forecasts, and properly understand attrition. In other words, the business value of CRM data management is enormous. It\u2019s also prone to disarray because it formerly required salespeople to switch over to the CRM and input information. Copilot for Sales changes all that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHistorically, the way for this to work is you would write the email, then go to a different window, find the account record, go to the contacts list, create a new one, put in all of the contact\u2019s information, and save it,\u201d Reyes Le Blanc says. \u201cBut here, I can do all that in one fell swoop.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019re a seller, get used to creating and updating CRM contacts from within Microsoft Teams and Outlook using Copilot for Sales. This feature eliminates the need to re-enter information directly into the CRM and builds healthy habits around data fidelity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That flow of information works the other way as well. Be sure to use the contact card feature to view summaries of customer information from within Microsoft Outlook and Teams. That ensures you\u2019re working with the most up-to-date data directly from your CRM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Practice effective prompting<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n Prompt creation will become increasingly important as AI tools mature, so it\u2019s worth honing those skills using Copilot for Sales\u2019 email drafting feature. A simple rule to remember is that the more you put in, the more you get out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf you have specifics off the bat, like you know you want to schedule a meeting or there are a few key points to express, include those in your prompt,\u201d Jones says. \u201cBe succinct and save your own time, because that\u2019s what the technology is for.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Prompting is just like any other practice. The more you work at it, the easier it becomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Microsoft salespeople have already seen amazing success, and we\u2019re just getting started. Within our sales organization, 12.5K out of 35K sales roles are Copilot for Sales monthly active users\u2014more than a third of the workforce. For a technology in its first year, that\u2019s remarkable progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reyes Le Blanc estimates that he\u2019s saving two hours each month creating contacts in Dynamics 365 and five hours a month reviewing emails. With over 6 million seller emails sent in our first quarter of this fiscal year, the potential for email time savings alone is enormous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He also finds his meeting notes much more accurate now that Copilot for Sales has his back, especially when it comes to long lists of technologies or technical requirements. It\u2019s the ideal tool for gathering details via the meeting review feature and performing keyword or conversational analyses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is a way to do more with less,\u201d Reyes Le Blanc says. \u201cAs a seller, I can\u2019t imagine working without artificial intelligence.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Considering our average salesperson participates in 17 meetings per week, those efficiencies really add up. As new features and integrations come into play, Copilot for Sales\u2019 horizons will only widen.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Start using AI to streamline your selling experience with Microsoft 365 Copilot for Sales.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n We’ve entered the age of AI, and our salespeople are reaping the benefits here at Microsoft. Thanks to Microsoft 365 Copilot for Sales, their days are more efficient, their communication is more streamlined, and their interactions with essential sales tools don\u2019t require them to interrupt their flow of work. Since we launched the tool internally […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":13244,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"_hide_featured_on_single":false,"_show_featured_caption_on_single":true,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[330,89,127,263],"coauthors":[138],"class_list":["post-13241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-azure-ai-and-machine-learning","tag-digital-transformation","tag-dynamics-365","tag-microsoft-365","program-microsoft-digital-technical-stories","m-blog-post"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n
Our top seven tips for adopting and using Copilot for Sales<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Seven tips for deploying and using Microsoft 365 Copilot for Sales<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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The expanding possibilities of AI assistance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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