2021 Release Wave 2: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales Updates

November 8, 2021

Microsoft's twice a year deployment plan for their business applications is well underway. The 2021 release wave 2 is now rolling out between October 2021 and March 2022 with a ton of improvements and new features.

This blog is the second of a three-part series covering the changes in Dynamics 365 CRM family of products that will affect the clients we work with. This is based off Microsoft’s documented plans so some features may not be available yet or may not be released at all. For a comprehensive list look at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=2167122.

What’s New with Dynamics 365 Sales…

Focus Sellers on the Right Actions with a Worklist Ownership Enhancement

In any sales organization where multiple people are involved in the sales cycle, it is inevitable that task will need to be delegated to another team member. When this happens that team member who was assigned the task needs to know that they have been assigned the task and the originator needs to be able to track progress. In the past, we have customized the system to add a field to mark who is working on a task now. With the wave 2 release, worklists will be populated based on the ownership of a task rather than account or opportunity ownership so you will just need to assign task owners to keep sellers up to date on their assigned tasks.

This will reduce the need for system customization, keep everyone up to date on task progress, and make it easier for the task owner and the account or opportunity owner to see just the tasks that they are responsible to complete.

Focus on the Highest Impact Activities with Advanced Filtering and Sorting

Busy sales people sometimes will work on clearing their list of tasks without taking the time to properly prioritize the tasks to maximize their impact on the business or selling cycle. The new filtering capabilities will enable a sales engagement manager (SEM) to define filters on standard or custom fields relevant to their business scenarios. With these filters in place, a salesperson can filter their list of tasks to make sure they are concentrating on the most important and impactful tasks.

With the focus on efficiency, an individual salesperson can increase their close rate and decrease the amount of time they spend on activities and opportunities that are not likely to be successful.

Quickly Implement Sequences Using Ready-to-Use and Preconfigured Templates

By analyzing, the sales cycle trends can emerge in the sequence of activities to take in making a successful sale. These sequences get formalized into playbooks and other guidance. With Wave 2, the SEM can create their own sequence templates to formalize a selling process. The product will also include preconfigured templates that incorporate the best practices from many organizations. This can give a company a leg up on adopting standard selling practices and accelerating the sales process.

Improve Seller Productivity with Better Quality Leads with Data Hygiene

By applying the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to leads, the system can greatly reduce the amount of time a seller spends engaging with the wrong leads or with leads that are unlikely to purchase your product or service. The data hygiene feature will search for duplicate, invalid, or false leads. When any of these leads are found, they can be classified, closed, or deleted immediately or a seller or administrator can be notified so they can examine the lead and take an appropriate action.

By focusing sellers on correct leads, you can reduce the time and frustration of contacting duplicate or uninterested leads.

Accelerate Deal Velocity by Identifying Additional Stakeholders with Account-Based Contact Discovery

As sales organizations grow and solutions become more complex there are additional stakeholders that will be affected by any proposed solution. Any one of the stakeholders may have objections that will stall or doom any deal. By identifying all of the stakeholders a sales team can engage with them to make sure that any requirements are met and that any objections are addressed before they become a roadblock to success. With account-based contact discovery, a sales organization’s Exchange data is leveraged to find other people at that account that you are aware of and communicating with. This will work with both leads and accounts to help you find others in your sales organization that can facilitate an introduction to these additional stakeholders.

If you missed the first blog in this series, check it out here. For guidance in all the latest on Microsoft Dynamics 365, contact the experts here at JourneyTEAM by filling out the form below.

.