Tag Archives: Sales
Effective Guided Selling for Remote Sales Teams Using Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales
In the current economic climate, you may be evaluating your sales processes to uncover areas that could be streamlined for greater efficiency and better results. Now is the prime opportunity to dig into your sales metrics and technology stack to make improvements.
You may be asking yourself the following questions:
- Can every member of my sales team engage with prospects easily, discover their needs, and quickly produce accurate pricing and quotes to meet those needs?
- How can my sales team work more collaboratively while working remotely?
- How can I make sure all information gathered by sales reps syncs back to my CRM when configuring products and generating quotes?
To ensure that every member of your sales team, from new hires to seasoned pros, can efficiently generate quotes and sales proposals, you need a Guided Selling Playbook embedded within your Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Guided selling will standardize your sales process and make success repeatable.
“High-performing sales teams are 2.3 times more likely than underperforming teams to use guided selling.” ()
What is Guided Selling?
Guided selling uses an automated sales playbook to guide each salesperson through a series of qualification questions with conditional answers. For example:
- Are you selling in multiple geographies?
- What is the size of your company?
- For how many years would you like to subscribe?
Effective sales playbooks are based on the best practices of top sales reps who share what works best for them. Additionally, input from various departments such as Marketing, Product Development, and Finance, yields questions that sales reps may not have thought to ask their customers. These essential questions help salespeople qualify prospects and gather crucial information to build product configurations and generate quotes based on the buyers’ specific needs.
Related article:
How Guided Selling Helps Sales Teams Serve Buyers
Using with a sales playbook ensures a consistent and effective sales process is used by all salespeople on your team, whether they are working in the office or from a remote location. It helps salespeople understand their buyers’ requirements and recommend the right product configurations, while upselling and cross-selling in ways that benefit the buyer. As a result, reps produce quotes and proposals based on accurate pricing and discounts.
A sales playbook is an integrated part of the sales workflow. It aligns with touchpoints in the buyer’s journey, telling your sales team how to communicate and the relevant content to send at the right time to help guide the buyer toward a decision. And, while the sales playbook questions are pre-written, guided selling tools are dynamic and adapt to changes in sales conversations.
As Sr. Product Marketing Manager, Dynamics 365 Marketing, recently said, “In times on uncertainty, the more clearly you can convey your understanding and present the way forward, the more valuable your communications will be.”
Guided Selling in Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales
Your CRM is your single source of truth throughout the sales process – from opportunity to close. All information input during the guided selling process syncs back to your CRM, so all deal data is captured and informs the next stage in the sales process. This data is used to create accurate quotes and personalized proposals.
The sales playbook triggers automated approval requests and notifies authorized managers. Since all input syncs back to the CRM, there is clear visibility into all deal stages and approvals.
Want to learn more about how guided selling enables Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales users to close more deals? Read the full article at .
Article by: Gideon Thomas – VP Marketing & Growth, DealHub.io |
DealHub Configure-Price-Quote solution is rated the #1 CPQ software for ease of use, easiest setup, and best support. Sales teams configure quotes and proposals faster with fewer errors. DealHub’s highly intuitive CPQ minimizes administrative tasks, empowers sales teams to engage more effectively with buyers, and streamlines sales operations to reduce the sales cycle and increase revenue. It operates natively within Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales and includes: dynamic sales playbooks, interactive content sharing, document generation, contract management, and e-signature. to learn how DealHub will accelerate your sales process and help your team close deals faster.
How Dynamics 365 Sales Can Optimize the Sales of Professional Services Firms
While a customer relationship management solution is an important tool for any industry, it may be easier for companies that sell products to make a case for the use of a CRM than it is for professional services firms. As the latter sell time and expertise, they may not need to track which products clients use, but it’s just as important to properly manage client connections and business relationships, and to catalogue communications and proposals sent to clients.
Manage longer sales cycles and proposals
Typically, the higher the dollar value, the longer the sales cycle. Depending on the type of service you offer, your sales cycles are probably longer than most, and the necessity to track what has been done in the past becomes even more important. Dynamics 365 Sales lets professional services firms tailor the sales cycle to their specific reality, as it probably involves quite a few more steps than just a quote and a follow-up.
A CRM solution lets all the various stakeholders involved through the sales cycle have access to the information they need to facilitate the hours required for a particular mandate. It also provides an easy place to store all your mandates, as the integration between Dynamics 365 and Microsoft 365 (previously known as Office 365) lets you store your proposals in SharePoint, facilitating collaboration when putting proposals together in Microsoft Word or PowerPoint.
Strengthen your business relationships
After the initial sale, other critical elements for professional services firms is better visibility on future cross-sell possibilities, as well as retaining all contact information and the different influencers and connections within your firm. Having all this information centralized ensures you never miss an opportunity. Your professionals can manage and foster each client to build strong business relationships and ensure appropriate follow-up on all tasks, activities and opportunities.
Streamline and automate your business processes
An automated approval process within your sales cycle is another functionality that offers major gains to professional services firms, as it allows you to personalize your business approval process depending on size, industry or service. Automations can also be used to send reminders for follow-ups, meetings and other client tasks. Dynamics 365 also lets you incorporate other business processes into your solution, such as your employees’ various competencies and specialties to find the ideal staff members for a particular project.
All these features make Dynamics 365 much more than a traditional CRM system. One of the major benefits of a CRM solution for professional services firms is having a platform that will help structure your organization. At a certain point, you will need to systemize and automate certain processes to maintain the growth of your organization. To learn more about how a management information system can help you in your growth journey, check out our eBook
By JOVACO Solutions,
Sales Manager CRM Training
Over our 17-years of experience working with Sales leaders on CRM we find that many do not properly use the CRM system to manage the sales team. Inspect what you expect is very important related to sales management and CRM. If sales leaders do not use the CRM system it significantly inhibits user adoption.
We also find in many cases the CRM system is not properly configured for either sales users nor sales management.
This 1-hour video will show Sales leaders best practices for configuring CRM and using it to manage sales teams. Topics include:
- Problems management & users struggle with any CRM
- How to improve Lead/Prospect Qualification
- Assure timely and full follow up on new leads/prospects
- How to gain User Adoption
- What do you know about your sales metrics?
- Research findings from experts related to best practices in new business development, forecasting & account management
- Give your sales team an intelligent solution
- Dashboards that provide one pane of glass analysis
- How to improve your sales forecast significantly
We hope you enjoy this free video training!
About the Author: David Buggy is a veteran of the CRM industry with 18 years of experience helping businesses transform by leveraging Customer Relationship Management technology. He has over 16 years of experience with Microsoft Dynamics CRM/365 and has helped hundreds of businesses plan, implement and support CRM initiatives. To reach David or call 844.8.STRAVA (844.878.7282) To learn more about Strava Technology Group visit www.stravatechgroup.com
Improve Forecasting with Dynamics 365 For Sales 2020 Release Wave 1
If your business is sales, your number one asset is your customers. And customer satisfaction will determine your ultimate success or failure. There are many philosophies and many tools promoting sales efficiency, and in a competitive marketplace, it’s vital to choose the tools that add value and efficiency to your business.
(Customer Relationship Management) is the foundation for a suite of productivity applications for your business. This innovative solution breaks down the silos between CRM, ERP, and productivity to offer one comprehensive, integrated system. Dynamics 365’s purpose-built applications for , , , and , can empower all of your teams to do more, every day, in concert.
Dynamics 365 Sales enables sales reps to build strong relationships with their customers, take actions based on insights, and close sales faster. Use Dynamics 365 Sales to keep track of your accounts and contacts, nurture your sales from lead to order, and create sales collateral. It helps you understand customer behavior and preferences, create useful marketing lists and effective campaigns, and even follow service cases associated with specific accounts or opportunities.
Included in the updates included in the Dynamics 365 2020 release wave 1 are several enhancements designed to enhance your forecasting capabilities. Forecasting sales targets is not easy in times of uncertainty and a rapidly changing market. Yet, accurate forecasting is vital if you are to prepare for product demand and make strategic choices as you move ahead.
CEOs must predict the demand for their products so they can instigate strategic business transformations. COOs must understand the scope of future demands so they can allocate resources efficiently. CFOs need visibility into future cash flows so they can formulate financial plans for the organization’s growth. However, organizations often struggle to develop accurate sales forecasts that can genuinely inform their strategic decisions.
now offers a forecasting solution that is flexible enough to meet the needs of diverse businesses and presents it in an interface that is intuitive and user friendly. Intelligent forecasting is the goal of the features in the next Dynamics 365 2020 release wave.
Here are some of the features you can expect to see in the update:
Customize Forecast Models
Although most businesses adopt a common methodology of requiring sales teams to forecast the best case, likely, and worst-case revenue, they will have different approaches depending on industry, product, and geography. Dynamics 365 Sales’ forecast capabilities provide flexible configurations and filtering to support multiple types of forecasting, rollup categories, and measurements.
New features include:
- Flexible column modeling: You can create custom rollups and calculated columns.
- Alternative organizational structures: You can create forecasts based on territory, reporting hierarchy, or other specified criteria.
- Improved quota management: You can enable quotas in the forecast grid or upload quotas for entire forecast time periods using an Excel template.
- Advanced filtering: You can use filters to identify specific opportunities included in the forecast with the new query builder.
- Security modeling adapted to business needs: You can choose who will have access to defined forecast models and fields.
Improve forecast accuracy
Although bottom-up forecasting is based on existing opportunity data, sales managers know that in many instances, they are called on for subjective judgment. Sales reps may not have the expertise required to predict the value of a deal accurately. To ensure that they can provide leadership with trustworthy forecast numbers, sales managers have the flexibility to adjust any of the enabled forecast values.
What you can do with the new features
- Adjust forecasts seamlessly: Easily change any forecasted values that are propagated based on existing forecast or organizational hierarchy, including deleting adjustments or reverting to an older adjustment.
- Gain a deeper understanding with forecast adjustments: Identify the underlying records that contribute to changes and capture the reasons for the changes to analyze the history of modifications.
Forecasting with precision pipeline management
A forecast can contain a lot of information. Often, an organization’s forecasts and opportunities are disjointed. Sales reps and sales managers need to understand where forecast values are coming from in order to introduce necessary changes that can help to resolve these gaps. In the forecasting capabilities of , both the forecast and the underlying opportunity data are part of one fluid experience, allowing sellers to modify deal information in the flow and to see changes to the forecast instantly.
New features include:
- Responsive forecast grid with visual cues: You can enable a visual representation of the whole forecast hierarchy and quota attainment in each cell, directly from the grid.
- Editing of participating records inline: You can view and edit underlying opportunities for any calculated metric to modify the forecast instantly.
- Pipeline management and visualization: You can manage and update the full forecast with the drag-and-drop feature to move opportunities across different stages and instantly update forecast data.
- Get near real-time updates: You can automatically recalculate forecast values to ensure data is always as fresh as possible.
As a Microsoft Gold-certified partner, BroadPoint understands that when it comes to a new software release, ease of use and education are essential to high user adoption. We can provide training for your staff and through cloud management, help desk, and other customized options.
To learn more about Dynamics 365’s next release, our experts at BroadPoint
By BroadPoint, Inc,
April 2020 New Feature Deep Dive: Sales Forecasting Webinar
Stop playing the guessing game!
Being able to predict the revenue of your organization is vital. An accurate revenue forecast allows for planning, focusing on the right aspects of your business, making informed strategic decisions, budgeting, and allocating resources appropriately, just to name a few. This, in turn, saves you time and money. One of the best new features included in the Dynamics 365 2020 Release Wave 1 is Sales Forecasting. It enables you make accurate predictions, eliminating the guesswork.
Sales Forecasting Webinar
Brian Begley, the owner of enCloud9 and Dynamics365support.com, began our monthly webinar by giving some information on Sales Forecasting: talking briefly about what it is and the benefits of using sales forecasting. He discussed the differences between Goals in Dynamics 365 and Sales Forecasting. While Goals were a good idea in theory, they could be hard to manage. Sales Forecasting, on the other hand is much more flexible and easy to manage.
Brian then went right into his demo. He showed us how to create a sales forecast and demonstrated how easy it is to get around. Brian also showed us a sales forecast that he had already made, in order to demonstrate some points on interpreting the results of a forecast. Watch the recording and download the presentation below:
Want to Learn More?
In addition to our , you might want to check out to learn more. If you would like to learn more about Sales Forecasting, there are many useful Microsoft resources. One great resource is this video from Microsoft about how to Drive accountability with advanced forecasting in Dynamics 365 for Sales. In addition to this video, here are some other great resources from Microsoft: and , or . for more great resources.
Join our March webinar as we preview the Dynamics 365 and Power Apps during April 2020. We’ll be reviewing improvements to the timeline, rich text functions in the notes, using the Kanban board to manage sales opportunities and more. Don’t miss our Best of the April 2020 Power Apps and Dynamics 365 Update. Register for our March webinar below.
How Can We Help?
enCloud9 is a recognized expert in helping organizations like yours to get the most out of their Dynamics 365 system. If you have any questions on Dynamics 365 Sales or if we can help you with any of your Dynamics 365 needs, don’t hesitate to . We would be more than happy to discuss how Dynamics 365 can help you drive sales.
Visit for more informative webinars.
Eliminate the Guesswork with Sales Forecasting: Part 2
Stop playing the guessing game!
Being able to predict the revenue of your organization is vital. An accurate revenue forecast allows for planning, focusing on the right aspects of your business, making informed strategic decisions, budgeting, and allocating resources appropriately, just to name a few. This in turn saves you time and money. One of the best new features included in the Dynamics 365 2020 Release Wave 1 is Sales Forecasting. It enables you make accurate predictions, eliminating the guesswork. focused on the basics of sales forecasting, as well as configuring sales forecasts. In this second part, we will focus on viewing and analyzing sales forecasts.
Viewing a Sales Forecast
*Note when viewing a forecast, the first thing that needs to be done is to . In order to configure a sales forecast you must have either a system administrator or forecast manager role. The administrator sets who will have visibility to the forecast, but they are the only one who can make adjustments or changes. For more information on setting up viewing permissions view Microsoft’s document on To learn more about how to configure a sales forecast, visit or register for our . During our webinar, we will discuss, not only how to build monthly, quarterly, or annual sales forecasts for your sales team, but also how to use forecasts with your Dynamics 365 Goals, and how to create reports.
Using Sales Forecast enables your organization to predict the amount of revenue your sales team will generate within a given timeframe. Sales Forecasts can play a significant role in your company’s success. By using a forecast:
- Sellers are able to track their performance against targets and identify pipeline risks that might jeopardize their ability to hit the targets.
- Managers are able to track individual sales performance against quotas, to proactively provide coaching.
- Directors are able to use forecast trends to anticipate departmental sales and reallocate resources if necessary.
- Organization leaders are able to use projected estimates to change product strategy or convey updated projections to investors.
After signing into the Sales Hub:
- At the bottom of the site map, select Change area, and then select Sales.
2. Under Performance, select Forecasts.
3. On the grid page, do the following: The sales forecast will display all categories as designed by the administrator or forecast manager.
- From the drop-down list, choose a forecast. (Forecasts that you have permissions for will appear here).
- Select the forecast period you wish to view. Options in the drop-down list reflect the number of forecast periods defined in the forecast configuration. The current period is the default.
4. When setting up a forecast, the administrator can choose to customize the forecast or use out-of-the-box categories. The following is a list of out-of-the-box categories offered:
- Users: Shows the hierarchy of users as defined by the Manager field. To learn more, see .
- Quota: A target amount set for a specific owner over a given time frame. The progress bar is calculated against this value.
- Pipeline: Shows the aggregated (rolled-up) value of estimated revenue for all open opportunities that have the forecast category set as Pipeline (low confidence). This value can be adjusted during forecast.
- Best case: Shows the aggregated (rolled-up) value of estimated revenue of all open opportunities that have the forecast category set as Best Case (medium confidence). This value can be adjusted during forecast.
- Committed: Shows the aggregated (rolled-up) value of estimated revenue for all open opportunities that have the forecast category set as Committed (high confidence). This value can be adjusted during forecast.
- Omitted: Shows the aggregated (rolled-up) value of excluded revenue for all open opportunities that have the forecast category set as Omitted.
- Won: Shows the aggregated (rolled-up) value of revenue that’s generated for all won opportunities that have the forecast category set as Won.
- Lost: Shows the aggregated (rolled-up) value of revenue that’s lost for all lost opportunities that have the forecast category set as Lost.
To learn more about viewing a sales forecast, we have included this video from Microsoft:
In the forecast grid, you can perform the following important functions:
- – To understand which opportunities are affecting forecast values. Underlying opportunities can be viewed in the kanban view or in a table view.
- – provides sales managers or sellers the ability to estimate the final amount that they expect for a forecast’s opportunities to bring in at the close of the forecast period.
- – Forecast data is automatically recalculated. You may also choose to manually update the data and refresh.
A forecast is a reflection of a seller’s pipeline.
Pipeline management is a big part of forecasting. To get the most accurate forecast, it is vital to not only know what is in your pipeline but also how to accurately adjust it. Data can either be viewed in a grid view or a Kanban view. The Kanban view is a new capability that allows sellers to quickly and easily move deals between forecast stages while also seeing how these changes impact their forecast.
nevAnalyze revenue outcome by using predictive forecasting
In order to utilize predictive forecasting, a Dynamics 365 Sales Insights license must be purchased or a trial started. Predictive forecasting helps sellers and managers to improve their forecast accuracy based on data. These AI-driven models look at a combination of data and the open sales pipeline to . The screen below shows an example of a a screen with a prediction column.
To learn more, see .
Additional Resources
How can we help?
Contact enCloud9 to discuss how we can improve your sales forecasting and tracking capabilities with Microsoft Dynamics 365. To see how Sales Forecasts can play a significant role in your company’s success, join our April webinar as we take a deep dive into one of the upcoming updates coming to Dynamics 365: Sales Forecasting. We’ll be discussing
- How to build monthly quarterly or annual sales forecasts for your sales team
- How to use forecasts with Dynamics 365 Goals
- Creating reports
How to Customize Your Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales (CRM) Solution
We recently talked about the benefits of customizing Microsoft Dynamics 365: from fields to forms and various business processes and workflows, you can adapt almost anything to your specific needs and realitiesBy ensuring your customer relationship management solution works well with your organization’s business processes, you can increase productivity, efficiency and user adoption across your organization.
Standard customizations such as views, forms, dashboards and entities ensure you get the information you need, but it’s also possible to put more advanced customizations in place. Microsoft’s vision over the past couple of years has been to provide several tools within the Microsoft Power Platform to allow customers to elevate their Dynamics 365 solution with advanced features and customizations on top of the basic system.
Here are a few of the tools at your disposal:
- Microsoft Power Automate: Previously known as Microsoft Flow, Power Automate lets you create workflows, i.e. specific actions based on trigger events of your choice. These can be anything from simple notifications to multi-step workflows connecting several applications. Both robust and intuitive, Power Automate connects your various tools and applications to automate various processes.
- Microsoft Power Apps: The Power Platform lets you build no-code or low-code apps to streamline processes and better meet your objectives. Configured from a simple interface, Canvas apps can be built for web, mobile and tablet applications, connected to your choice of 200 data sources. Model-driven apps use the Common Data Service (the platform on which Dynamics 365 applications are built) as their data source and are suited to more complex operations.
- Microsoft Power BI: Power BI is a cloud-based business intelligence solution that fully integrates to Microsoft Dynamics products to increase your reporting possibilities and data analysis capabilities. Personalized dashboards and reports tailor the data according to users’ roles and needs for better visibility and insights, and this information can even be shared easily outside the Dynamics 365 user base.
All these tools extend the possibilities and capabilities for reporting and integration of your Dynamics 365 Sales solution. The trick is not to think of your CRM solution as only a tool for your sales team: its flexibility and customization options make it a powerful platform that can increase productivity and efficiency across your organization. Speak with your provider to know how to best leverage the customization tools at your disposal.
By JOVACO Solutions,
Upcoming Webinar: Sales Forecasting
Being able to predict the revenue of your organization is vital. An accurate revenue forecast allows for planning, focusing on the right aspects of your business, making informed strategic decisions, budgeting, and allocating resources appropriately, just to name a few. This, in turn, saves you time and money. One of the best new features included in the Dynamics 365 2020 Release Wave 1 is Sales Forecasting. Sales Forecasting enables you to make accurate predictions, eliminating the guesswork.
Curious about the changes coming to Power Apps and Dynamics 365?
Spend as he takes a deep dive into one of the upcoming updates coming to Dynamics 365: Sales Forecasting.
He’ll be discussing
• How to build monthly, quarterly, or annual sales forecasts for your sales team.
• How to use forecasts with Dynamics 365 Goals.
• Creating reports.
Three Ways to Turn SMS Marketing into Sales
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Posted by Austin Caldwell, Senior Product Marketing Manager
Over the past decade, ecommerce website traffic has rapidly shifted from desktop to mobile devices. In 2018, mobile overtook desktop as the predominant global online traffic source. Mobile usage skyrocketed during the 2019 holidays and for the first time ever, became the primary ecommerce revenue source from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday. In today’s mobile-first ecommerce environment, marketers should strive to invest in strategies that optimize user experience on smartphones.
One of the most effective mobile marketing strategies is implementing a Short Message Service (SMS) program. With 98% of text messages read within two minutes, 36% average click rates and 45% average conversion rates, SMS marketing has unparalleled engagement rates compared to other channels. These metrics aren’t surprising considering the text message inbox is one of the least saturated; especially compared to email inboxes and social media news feeds.
Get Started with SMS
SMS allows marketers to reach their customers in a more personal way, in the right place, at the right time, and on the device they can’t do without. In order to help get started with SMS marketing, here are some leading practices businesses can utilize to start acquiring mobile contacts, design engaging messages and automate personalized campaigns.
Mobile Contact Acquisition
Similar to email marketing acquisition strategies, marketers must promote their SMS marketing channel if they hope to grow subscribers. Luckily, SMS and email marketing are easy to promote together and leverage similar tactics to optimize sign-ups across web and digital marketing channels. Offering an incentive to sign-up like a coupon or special offer is the top tactic to help boost subscription conversion rates. Businesses need a contact’s mobile number and their opt-in consent to receive SMS text messages.
It’s becoming more ubiquitous to see print advertising and physical signage inside retail stores promoting SMS sign-ups. Simple directions enable users to opt-in with a text to join, followed by an automated SMS message asking to provide their mobile number to opt into the program. Subscribers then receive their initial welcome SMS campaigns. This efficient process makes it possible for shoppers to easily sign up while they’re in the store. Marketers should place text-to-join signage at the front entrance and throughout the store, so shoppers can sign up before heading through the check-out line; eliminating the need for staff to annoyingly collect shoppers’ phone numbers at the register.
Designing SMS Campaigns
SMS communication is more intimate than email and must be used thoughtfully. SMS subscribers expect SMS messages to be timely, personalized and deliver value. Since SMS unsubscribe rates are nearly three times higher than email marketing opt-out rates, designing exceptional SMS interactions are vital to keeping well-earned sign-ups.
In order to be timely, plan SMS campaign send times when shoppers are on their phones. Sends between 6-9 p.m. result in the highest engagement as people have time to shop. Don’t schedule campaigns during the early morning or rush hour commutes. SMS campaigns sent on Fridays have a 44% higher open rate compared to any other day of the week.
Keep SMS content short and sweet. With a 160-character limit that includes website URLs and mandatory unsubscribe language, it’s best to lead with an offer and reinforce a call to action without wasting words. Save fine print for the website landing page and shorten URLs to save character count. Personalized dynamic content such as first name, local store, loyalty program status, order details and one-time use coupons can be used to stand out from generic promotions. Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) content like video, images, animated gifs or scannable barcode offers can be utilized to help grab attention and drive engagement.
Automated Mobile Interactions
SMS requires exceptional marketing automation in order to scale. Using behavioral triggers rather than gut intuition takes the guesswork out of sending the right message at the right time. SMS adheres to established customer lifecycle automation strategies like welcome, website abandonment, transactional order status and post-purchase.
Shoppers expect an immediate response upon sign up. It’s unacceptable to not receive an initial welcome campaign until the next day when a back-end process decides to run. Text-to-join strategies will quickly fail if shoppers don’t receive their sign-up offers while in the store. Make a great first impression with a multi-touch welcome series that provides shoppers with a reason to keep receiving your SMS campaigns.
Marketers can recapture lost sales by monitoring website browsing activity and triggering abandonment messages when shoppers bounce. By being mindful of timing and frequency, shoppers will be open to receiving SMS reminders if they don’t become annoying. It’s useful to send an initial SMS cart abandonment campaign within the first few hours of their session and follow up the next day with an email campaign containing the full details of their shopping cart. Limiting SMS frequency prevents unsubscribes and allows the more non-pervasive email channel to handle reminders.
Even if shoppers aren’t interested in receiving promotional SMS campaigns, many are willing to opt in to receive order status alerts like order, shipping and delivery confirmations. With workflow triggers for when an order is added or marked to ship, you are able to send order and shipping confirmation messages with dynamic variables such as order number, order total, shipment tracking and projected delivery date. These transactional messages are intended to give shoppers peace of mind, reassuring them their order was successful and on the way.
Start Engaging Customers with SMS
With NetSuite’s Bronto Marketing Platform, marketers can take advantage of today’s mobile-first ecommerce environment. Bronto’s integrated SMS capabilities make it simple to start seamlessly engaging with shoppers through multiple channels including mobile, email, web and social to drive sales with consistent messaging throughout. Bronto has helped many businesses find omnichannel success using a single fully integrated, unified marketing platform.
Learn more about SMS marketing capabilities with the Bronto Marketing Platform and how marketers can use SMS to reach their VIP customers.
by NetSuite filed under
Eliminate the Guesswork with Sales Forecasting: Part 1
Stop playing the guessing game!
Being able to predict the revenue of your organization is vital. An accurate revenue forecast allows for planning, focusing on the right aspects of your business, making informed strategic decisions, budgeting, and allocating resources appropriately, just to name a few. This, in turn, saves you time and money. One of the best new features included in the Dynamics 365 2020 Release Wave 1 is . Sales Forecasting enables you to make accurate predictions, eliminating the guesswork. In this 2 part blog series, we will discuss this cool new feature. Part 1 will focus on the basics of sales forecasting, as well as configuring sales forecasts. Part 2 will focus on viewing and analyzing sales forecasts.
Why use Sales Forecasting?
You might be asking yourself why not just use opportunities in Dynamics. Users have always been able to get a list of opportunities that are projected to close with an estimated close date, statuses, or stages in the process flow. Why do we need Sales Forecasting? Sales Forecasting is a more accurate way to project what is going to close and what you’re going to be selling. It’s a big picture view that allows organizations to plan production activities to meet future sales. has existed for a long time as a poorly adopted feature. With Goals, it is only possible to create one goal at a time, but with Sales Forecasting, many goals can easily be created at the same time.
To learn how the new forecast abilities for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales can improve sales forecasting accuracy, view the video from Microsoft below:
Who benefits from sales forecasting?
Bottoms-up forecasting is a projection of what a salesperson, team, or organization will sell in a given predetermined period of time.
Salespeople can track their performance against targets, identify pipeline risks that might jeopardize their ability to hit the targets and prevent deals from slipping away by identifying factors before it is too late. In addition, salespeople can review information about specific forecasts according to the forecast period (ie. fiscal year, month, quarter).
Sales Managers can track individual sales performance against quotas, to proactively provide coaching. This enables them to make informed business decisions.
In addition, sales directors and organization leaders can also benefit from this new feature.
- Directors can use forecast trends to anticipate departmental sales and reallocate resources if necessary.
- Organization leaders can use projected estimates to change product strategy or convey updated projections to investors.