Dynamics 365 Sales
A " CRM " that your salespeople fill out is not a " CRM." It's the opposite.The pipeline must draw on what already exists—an email sent, a meeting held, an offer opened four times with no response—and provide the sales rep with a decision, not a form. That’s what we’re setting up, and that’s what makes the difference between a CRM that’s actually used and a CRM that’s abandoned.
Three Things Every Sales Manager Has Experienced
They have nothing to do with the existing software. They stem from the fact that sales activities generate information everywhere, and nothing is capturing it.
The pipeline lives in two heads and a spreadsheet
The file is up to date the day before the committee meeting, but never for the rest of the month. In the meantime, the only reliable version is in the minds of two people.
On any given day when one of the two is down, the company is left in the dark.
A forecast is an opinion
We're asking for the quarterly forecast. Everyone adjusts their percentages in their own way, and no one can say why a deal is at 70% rather than 40%.
We make guesses, and we discover the discrepancy on the last day.
It takes a week to resume work on a case
A sales rep leaves. His correspondence is in his inbox, his negotiated terms are in a local file, and there’s no record of what he promised.
The customer, for his part, remembers it perfectly.
CRM, Dynamics CRM, Sales: the same topic
Three names are being mentioned in connection with a single thing, and the first instinct is to assume they refer to three different products. Here’s how to figure it out in thirty seconds.
The name of the profession—not a software program—is managing relationships with clients and ongoing projects. All the products listed below fall into this category.
The former name of the product line, which Microsoft discontinued in 2016. Many people still use it, and that’s fine: we’re talking about the same product family.
The current name of the sales app. This is the one discussed on this page.
Customer service, the contact center, and marketing are separate applications built on the same platform. You can choose just one of them.
What This Means for a Sales Representative
Six things, written from the seller's perspective. Not a single one begins with "grasp."
The pipeline feeds itself
Emails exchanged, meetings held, quotes sent, documents opened: whatever already exists is included in the case file. The sales representative confirms this information; he or she does not retype it.
Who should I call back this morning?
Cases are sorted by activity: a proposal that’s been reviewed four times takes precedence over a case that’s been inactive for three weeks. The daily list compiles itself.
The entire client on one screen
Orders placed, open invoices, pending claims, and exchanges from the last six months. No need to open theERP and the shared folder before each visit.
The estimate starts from the same place
Catalog, prices, approved discounts, and managerial approval within the application. The quote becomes a tracked item, not a document lost in a shared folder.
A number that two people find
Each step has a written definition: we know what needs to be accomplished in order to move on to the next one. Planning is no longer an internal negotiation.
A customer no longer leaves just because someone leaves
The history, terms, and commitments are all part of the case. The successor can review in one hour what used to take a week to piece together.
Where does the content that fills the pipeline come from?
On the left, what’s already happening every day without anyone noticing. On the right, what the salesperson gets in return: an action, along with the reason behind it.
The numbers represent an order of magnitude, not a promise of a conversion rate. What the diagram shows is the direction of the flow: information flows upward on its own, and the decision flows back down.
What we do, and in what order
It takes a day to install the app. The outcome depends on the five points below—and the fourth one carries more weight than the first three combined.
Your sales process, as it stands
Not the one in the quality manual—but the one your salespeople actually use. We follow two or three real-world cases from start to finish, and we identify the steps involved, specifying for each one what needs to be accomplished to move on to the next.
It is this written definition that makes the forecast reproducible.
Data: accounts, contacts, products, prices
We’ll take over your existing system, including cleanup, catalogs, pricing tables, and rules for discounts and approval. We’ll let you know what can’t be properly imported rather than just importing it without saying anything.
Connecting to theERP and email
That's what keeps the pipeline filled without manual data entry: email and the calendar on one side, and theERP on the other for orders, invoices, and outstanding balances.
In both directions when possible: an order placed on CRM should appear onERP without having to be re-entered.
Adoption—the only thing that really matters
A technically flawless web CRM that no one opens is a complete failure. We reduce the number of screens to the bare minimum, remove fields that no one will ever read, and provide role-based training.
Then we stay: it’s the second and third weeks that matter, not the day of commissioning.
Maintenance
Product lines evolve, territories change, and an acquisition doubles the number of accounts. Without a review, screens become cluttered and the fill rate drops.
How long, honestly?
These are rough estimates, based on a clearly stated assumption. They will be adjusted as soon as we know yours.
The scenario: a team of ten to twenty salespeople, a single sales process, data imported from an existing web CRM , or a spreadsheet, an accessible ERP , and a sales manager available half a day per week. Each variation shifts the ranges, and we’ll tell you in which direction.
Framing
The actual process, the steps, the roles, and the agreed-upon scope.
Configuration and Recovery
Screens, catalog, rights, data collected and verified.
Connections
Email, calendar, ERP. Tested with real-world scenarios.
Transition and Adoption
Training, commissioning, on-site support, usage tracking.
Nine to thirteen weeks between the first meeting and a pipeline being established in the system. A time-consuming review of past records or multiple separate sales processes extend the second phase; the others rarely do.
The fill rate is not a tool-related issue. It is a design issue.
A form with twenty fields ends up with zero
Every field added “just in case” adds a few seconds to each data entry, and those seconds determine, after three weeks, whether the tool is used or bypassed.
A sales representative doesn't understand the management's perspective
He takes it if it benefits him that very day. So the question isn’t “what do we want to know?” but “what do we give him in return?”
That's where our work lies
Installing the app takes a day. Deciding what not to ask for—and standing firm against those who want to add a field—takes the rest of the time.
What You Need to Know Before Signing
Five points that determine both the budget and the schedule.
Professional or Enterprise: It’s a question that comes up early on
The entry-level version covers standard sales functions: accounts, contacts, deals, and quotes. The premium version adds, among other features, guided sales processes, complex hierarchies, and advanced support features.
Getting it wrong is costly either way: if we set the budget too low, the project grinds to a halt halfway through; if we set it too high, we end up paying for twelve months of unused features. We make this decision during the scoping phase, not when the project is commissioned.
What Your ERP Should Be Able to Provide
Integration requires that theERP be able to display its orders, invoices, and outstanding balances. Some do this natively; others require custom development.
This becomes apparent before the bid is submitted: this is the line item that most often causes a budget to go over.
Restoring historical data costs more than you might think
Importing accounts and contacts is simple. Importing ten years’ worth of closed deals, emails, and attached documents is a project in and of itself—and the benefit is often minimal.
We almost always suggest preserving the living content and archiving the rest, while keeping it accessible.
AI functions do not replace rules
The integrated assistant summarizes, suggests, and drafts. It does not decide whether a matter is serious: that depends on your steps and how they are defined. A poorly designed CRM assisted by AI remains a poorly designed CRM .
The first area should be small
One team, one process, three metrics. The “ CRM ,” which launched with five countries, three product lines, and a partner portal, took nine months to complete and was never adopted.
What plugs into it
A standalone CRM s quickly reaches its limit. Here are the three neighbors that contribute the most to it.
Customer Insights
Where do business opportunities come from, and who are we really talking to? A single customer profile prevents the sales representative from calling someone who has an open complaint.
The Customer Insights Page DownstreamCustomer Service
What happens after the contract is signed. A dissatisfied customer won't give you another chance, and the sales rep needs to know that before their next appointment.
The Customer Service Page Next toPower Apps
For the price calculation that’s unique to your company, the three-party exemption request, or the app that the field worker opens on his phone.
The page Power AppsTell us how you sell
The number of sales representatives, the steps you follow, theERP in place, and what you’re currently unable to measure. We’ll come back with a scope, a workload, a timeline, and specific deliverables.
Preparing the proposal is free of charge. Design studies and audits are included in the scope of work. Three agencies: Renens, Sion , and Châtel-Saint-Denis ; a Microsoft partner for sixteen consecutive years.
Replacing it isn't always the answer
A neglected CRM is rarely a problem from a technical standpoint. In half the cases we see, restoring it costs less than replacing it —and yields results faster, because the data is already there.
We'll tell you, even if it means our share gets smaller.
Describe the current situation to us