I love how Copilot in Dynamics 365 Sales makes getting the data I need quick and easy. Done correctly, your CRM is a repository of valuable customer data such as lead and opportunity records, customer history, financial data, etc. Assuming you’ve captured that information, pulling it up in real-time and making sense of it can take some work. For example, leads reside in one area of CRM, opportunities live in another area, system data may need to be exported to Excel in order to create reports. In the old days, you had to hop around the system or perform a global search to find the data you needed. I’m happy to tell you Copilot (AI) in Dynamics 365 Sales now does that busy work for you, freeing CRM users to spend more time engaging with customers.
Here are three areas where Copilot in Dynamics 365 Sales assists CRM users, saving time and effort:
- Summarizing Critical Data
- Ad hoc reporting
- Alternative Pipeline and System Views
Summarizing Data
Request information in plain language using Copilot’s chat interface, such as a summary of a customer account. Copilot quickly delivers a summary of the customer’s background and history. Gone are the days of scrolling through endless customer records and piecing together information from multiple sources. Instead of spending five to ten minutes searching, Copilot instantly summarizes customer history and delivers it in a neat little box within your Dynamics 365 experience.
Ad-Hoc Reporting
Let’s say we need statistical data from our CRM. Perhaps I want to know the average number of days it takes to win a sale. In the past, we most likely needed to create a system view, export that system view to Excel and work on it there to get our answer. Copilot in Dynamics 365 Sales can do the math for you. Here’s our days-to-win example in Copilot.
In this case, Copilot delivers the answer. Not only that, but Copilot also offers its opinion regarding the length of our sales cycle. Not sure I asked for that but oh well.
Here’s another example of ad hoc reporting. Let’s say I’m falling behind on my sales activities. I want to catch up, so I asked Copilot for a list of overdue activities.
Pipeline and System Views
Copilot in Dynamics 365 Sales offers different ways to deliver system views, such as pipeline data, making it easy to prioritize time and effort. For instance, Copilot can display pipeline data with open opportunities, ordered by the estimated close date, so I know which deals I should prioritize.
Additionally, I can ask Copilot to show me my clients’ open customer service cases. Clicking on any of these links pulls up the specific case record with all the specifics.
The bottom line is that Copilot makes it easy to pull the CRM data needed to sell, service and supervise. As Microsoft continues to enhance Copilot’s capabilities, I expect more sophisticated features, more advanced language models and predictive analytics that further minimize “busy work” and free up more time for users to engage with customers.
If you want help with Copilot licensing, setup or training, contact Dyn365Pros today.
By Mark Abes, Vice President, Certified Dynamics 365 Sales Consultant, Dyn365Pros, Microsoft Partner, San Diego, Orange County, Los Angeles.
