Introduction

Ever since Microsoft made the M365 Copilot Platform available, there have been many variations of it that have been introduced in order to meet the needs of all kinds and sizes of businesses.  In this article, we examine a key addition, and we’ll discuss why it is so important for your sales team.

Microsoft Copilot for Sales

Whenever you do a sales campaign, most of the time you are targeting a specific group of prospects.  You can extract these names and the associated contact information from just about any source available online.  From here, the next step would be to import the data into a CRM, such as Microsoft Dynamics.  The Copilot for Sales is designed to be an add-on for whichever CRM you might be using, such as SalesForce, ServiceNow, ZenDesk, etc.

But the problem is that you could also have other repositories of information and data that you can use to help kickstart this sales campaign and the prospects that you want to reach out to.  It can be very time consuming and laborious to try to piece all of these bits together.  In fact, according to a quote from Gartner:

“43 percent of (customer service) reps reported they were overwhelmed by the number of systems and tools needed to complete work.”

(SOURCE:  1).

This is where Copilot for Sales comes into use.  It can take all of these disparate sources of information and merge them all together in one holistic view.  This is a huge benefit to your sales team, as they can now build a complete profile of a prospect in just a matter of minutes.  Better yet, given the fact that this version of Copilot is also powered by Generative AI, this platform can even create different conversations that your sales team can use in a role play before making the actual call to the prospect.

Other advantages that Copilot for Sales brings to the table are:

  • It can even reach out to external sources of information and data about the prospect. For example, it can “scrape” the social media profiles that are associated with that person in order to build up the overall profile as much as possible.
  • With its integration with M365, your sales team will also be able to create Email messages that are targeted, and to the point. This leaves a strong impression for the prospect.
  • As the work more with the prospect, you can also update the associated CRM records, and schedule subsequent meetings through one central portal.
  • You can ask Copilot for Sales for what action items should be created in the future, given the conversation history with the prospect.
  • It can also be used as a Call Center Platform, in case you have existing customers calling in with queries or other issues that need to be resolved.

An illustration of Copilot for Sales is below:

(SOURCE:  1).

Microsoft Copilot for Sales

While the version reviewed in the last section is primarily designed to initiate the sales process, Copilot For Sales has been specifically designed to help your sales team close the deal.  In today’s world, sales teams are completely inundated with a barrage of digital media, but what is most needed is the help of Generative AI to ease that burden, a fact that is supported by this quote from Gartner:

“ . . . sellers must relinquish some control over customer interactions and give AI-powered technology—generative AI, emotion AI and digital humans—more responsibility to execute core selling activities . . .”

(SOURCE:  1).

Here are some of more major functionalities that come with this platform:

  • After a meeting with a prospect, you can use it to automatically create a summary brief of the sales call, which can be called up quickly at a subsequent point in time for reference purposes.
  • You can create a “BANT” analysis of your prospect. This is acronym that stands for “Budget, Authority, Need, and Timing.”
  • Automatically create follow up Emails to prospects.
  • You can also create a “Deal Room” in case you need to bring in other coworkers to help close the deal – for example, this would typically involve the Presales Engineer.
  • Directly from Outlook, you can automatically update your CRM with notes about the latest conversation and/or engagement that you had with the prospect.

It is also important to note that the latest version of Copilot for Sales also integrates with M365.  This means that your sales team will be able to create stunning and compelling PowerPoint presentations literally on the fly, if needed.

An illustration of the Copilot for Sales/Outlook integration is below:

(SOURCE:  1).

Conclusions

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