Sales processes are at the core of every business. Without them, companies would struggle to sell their products or services and grow their revenue. In today’s competitive market, it’s crucial for businesses to have scalable sales processes that can be repeated and improved upon over time.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM is a powerful tool that can help businesses manage their sales processes efficiently. By using playbooks in Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM, businesses can create a more streamlined sales process that is tailored to their specific needs.
Sales playbooks are one of the essential tools for creating scalable and consistent sales processes in Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM. A sales playbook is a collection of best practices, sales strategies, and procedures that are designed to guide sales teams toward achieving their targets.
Sales playbooks offer a step-by-step guide on how to engage with customers, qualify leads, and close deals. With a well-designed playbook, sales reps can easily follow the same process, irrespective of their skill levels and experience. This helps to create a consistent and repeatable sales process that can be scaled up as the business grows.
As per a recent update, Microsoft will be deprecating the playbooks feature in Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM starting July 7, 2023. Users will now have to Move their playbook templates to sequences to create workflows. Sequences allow sales managers to enforce best practices in day-to-day tasks by giving salespeople a set of consecutive activities to follow within Dynamics 365 CRM while carrying out their sales processes.
But if you are looking for a solution to create repeatable sales playbooks in Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM, then no worries!
Business Process Checklist is a task manager (Microsoft AppSource preferred) app by Inogic that allows organizations to create business-specific playbooks in Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM. To ensure consistency in sales processes and let salespeople know what steps to follow in certain situations, enabling sales reps to rely on the playbooks created by their managers for guided selling. Playbooks can also be based on tried and tested practices that have worked in previous situations.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM Playbooks and Business Process Checklist/Playbooks are both valuable tools for streamlining and automating business processes. However, there are some key differences between the two that are worth noting.
Creating and Managing Playbooks
Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM Playbooks: Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM Playbooks are specifically designed for use within the Dynamics 365 CRM for sales.
Business Process Checklist: Playbooks created using Business Process Checklists can be used in a variety of different business scenarios. It can be used within Dynamics 365 Sales, Customer Service, and Field Service.
Viewing and Following Playbooks
Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM Playbooks: If users want to follow the steps within the playbook then they will need to click on the Launch Playbook button and select the desired playbook for execution.
Business Process Checklist: Playbooks created using Business Process Checklist get auto-displayed on the record form based on set criteria for users to follow.
Viewing and Tracking Progress
Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM Playbooks: After completing all the activities in a playbook user can mark the playbook as completed by going to the record you launched the playbook from.
Business Process Checklist: Users can complete and mark steps and tasks within them as completed directly from the record, and once they have marked all the steps as completed, the progress bar on the playbook/checklist will show the percentage of the activities completed as 100%.
To learn in detail on what Business Process Checklist brings to the table, continue reading below!
- Create Playbooks: With Business Process Checklist, sales managers can create Plans/Playbooks in the form of checklists consisting of all the best practices to follow at each stage of the sales process within Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM.
Sales managers can create scalable playbooks for various sales activities like lead nurturing, requirement gathering, sales calls, negotiations, demos, and follow-ups. This will prove helpful in bringing consistency to processes and business results by providing all sales team members with a standard operating procedure for sales activities.
- Set Up Playbooks on Business Process Flows: With this feature, sales managers can set up playbooks for each stage of the Business Process Flow I.e. Qualify, Develop, Propose, and Close, within Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM.
Let’s Assume, sales managers can create a playbook for the “Qualify” stage of the “Lead to Opportunity Sales Process” that will auto-attach whenever a lead reaches the “Qualify” stage in the Business Process Flow based on set criteria.
This proves helpful in defining the best practices for each stage of the Business Process Flow.
- Create Playbooks for Custom Groups: If an organization is not using Business Process Flows, they can create industry-specific Business Process Flows with Plan/Playbooks using the custom group’s feature of Business Process Checklist.
Let’s assume, if you are a sales manager in a finance company and want to create a standardized process for loan verification, you can create an industry-specific business process flow using the custom groups feature of the Business Process Checklist app. And set up a playbook consisting of best practices to follow for various stages of the loan verification process, such as home verification and income verification.
- View and Follow Playbooks: Playbooks created by sales managers are automatically displayed on Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM records like leads, opportunities, cases, etc. Based on set criteria. This proves helpful in preventing the omission of any crucial steps in the process.
- Track the Progress of sales processes: With visual elements like progress bars that show the percentage of tasks done and step counters that display the number of steps completed, Business Process Checklist can enable sales managers and salespeople to track and measure the progress of sales processes,
Additionally, it also provides a comprehensive view of upcoming, ongoing, and completed sales processes to keep sales teams on top of their processes and ensure process compliance.
So, these were some of the useful features of the Business Process Checklist app that can help you automate advising sales reps on each stage of the sales process.
Benefits of Business Process Checklist:
Boost lead conversion: Using sales playbooks in Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM can help personalize customer experience. With a clear understanding of what steps to take next in the lead stage they are in, they can do more sales than contemplating the next steps, asking higher ups for advice, and more resulting in shorter sales cycles and higher conversion rates.
Train New Hires: Sales playbooks can also be used to train new sales reps quickly. By providing a step-by-step guide on how to sell, new reps can learn the ropes faster and start selling more effectively. This helps reduce the time and resources required to train new hires, which can be especially valuable for businesses that are growing quickly.
Bring Scalability to Sales Processes: Sales playbooks can be easily scaled to accommodate a growing sales team or new products and services. They provide a flexible framework that can be adapted to meet changing business needs.
In conclusion, sales playbooks are a powerful tool for creating scalable sales processes in Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM. By providing a step-by-step guide on how to sell, sales playbooks can help businesses improve lead quality, reduce training time, and improve collaboration between teams.
To learn more about Business Process Checklist app’s nifty features, please go to our docs site.
Curious to try the app first-hand, you can get it for a 15-day free trial from our website or Microsoft AppSource.
To get a personalized demo of the app or ask us questions on creating scalable sales processes in Dynamics 365 CRM by using playbooks, feel free to contact us at crm@inogic.com.
PS: If you are looking for a solution to boost CRM use compliance in your organization, then User Adoption Monitor, a Microsoft AppSource preferred app, can help you improve CRM adoption and ensure compliance by providing real-time insights into how your team is using Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM.