Microsoft is leveraging the power of AI to revolutionize its sales processes with Microsoft 365 Copilot for Sales. This innovative tool is enhancing efficiency, streamlining communication, and simplifying interactions with essential sales platforms. Since its internal launch, Microsoft has gathered valuable insights into the effective deployment and utilization of Copilot for Sales. This post shares those learnings, offering guidance for organizations looking to implement the tool.
Copilot for Sales acts as an AI assistant specifically designed for salespeople, boosting productivity by integrating seamlessly within Microsoft Teams and Outlook. The tool’s unique value lies in its compatibility with Dynamics 365 and Salesforce, allowing for the access, use, and input of customer relationship management (CRM) data. Alexandra Jones, senior business program and change manager in Microsoft Digital, highlights the tool’s impact: “Everything we’ve done in terms of our Dynamics 365 sales platform aims to give time back to sellers so they can invest it into customers. With AI and copilots, our technology is doing even more to help us reach that goal.”
The program thrives at the intersection of AI-driven intelligence and CRM integration, operating within the environments salespeople use daily. Within Microsoft Teams, Copilot for Sales provides real-time call insights, AI-generated meeting summaries, post-call analyses, and action items. In Microsoft Outlook, it assists with crafting contextual email responses, summarizing conversations, and establishing Teams Collaboration Spaces linked to accounts and opportunities. Across both applications, Copilot for Sales simplifies the creation, updating, and viewing of CRM data like contacts and opportunities, reducing the need for salespeople to switch between tools. Kerry Barrass, director of business programs within Microsoft Customer and Partner Solutions, notes, “For sellers trying to do their jobs, it’s all about that flow of information within the flow of action. While the conversation is fresh, the tool distills information down into consumable chunks and actionable items.” These features are vital for sales teams, where collaboration across numerous employees is common and complex. Emilio Reyes Le Blanc, a technology specialist in Microsoft Sales, shares his experience: “When I get copied into an email thread, I used to need a knowledge transfer meeting to get up to speed. This technology means I can just open an email thread, have Copilot generate a summary, and contextualize my existing relationships from the integrated pane within Outlook.”
Microsoft offers seven key tips for adopting and maximizing the benefits of Copilot for Sales:
Seven Tips for Deploying and Using Microsoft 365 Copilot for Sales
- Ride the wave of excitement: Capitalize on early enthusiasm by highlighting the tool’s value and ease of use.
- Align enablement with your employees’ needs: Create a tailored approach to change management, recognizing the diversity of sales environments and user preferences.
- Leverage leadership at every level: Secure support from both organizational leaders and product champions to drive adoption and gather useful feedback.
- Ensure our underlying data policies are secure: Review and update data-loss prevention measures to protect sensitive information.
- Start simple and work up from there: Encourage users to begin with basic features like meeting and email summarization to build confidence.
- Prioritize CRM data resilience: Emphasize the importance of high-fidelity CRM data and how Copilot for Sales improves data entry habits.
- Practice effective prompting: Develop the ability to create clear and detailed prompts to enhance the AI’s output, specifically when using the email drafting feature.
The adoption of Copilot for Sales at Microsoft has produced remarkable results. Currently, over a third of Microsoft’s sales staff, including 12.5K out of 35K sales roles, are monthly active users of Copilot for Sales. Reyes Le Blanc estimates that he now saves many hours each month on Dynamics 365 contact creation and reviewing emails. Given that Microsoft salespeople conduct an average of 17 meetings per week, these efficiencies result in substantial time savings. He also finds his meeting notes are more accurate now that Copilot for Sales compiles the data. “As a seller, I can’t imagine working without artificial intelligence,” says Reyes Le Blanc.
As new improvements and integrations are added, the advantages of Copilot for Sales are likely to grow further. The tool offers the potential for significant gains in productivity and efficiency for sales organizations.
