Microsoft 365 has changed how businesses operate, offering a comprehensive suite of tools for communication, collaboration, and productivity. However, realizing its full potential within a sales team can be a challenge. With a [30% market share], Microsoft 365—across Outlook, Teams, and other products—is a dominant force, and you’re likely working within its ecosystem whether you chose it or not. For sales leaders, optimizing these tools for your team is crucial, as revenue organizations using Microsoft 365 regularly face vast, disparate data. Fortunately, artificial intelligence (AI) can support the shift from operational to strategic initiatives by uncovering valuable market and customer trends, making it a powerful ally in reaching your 2024 revenue goals.
Tailoring AI Solutions for Sales Leaders and Reps in Your Company
AI-powered CRM activities can [increase sales productivity by 29%] revealing a huge potential to transform how sales teams operate. But what does that potential look like in the field? AI excels at surfacing critical insights and analyzing patterns and trends from data. For sales leaders, it can identify high-value opportunities, surface how your team is performing in a unified view, and suggest next actions to keep both your critical deals and team’s performance on track. For sales professionals, [AI can provide personalized guidance] to help them ask timely, personalized questions to prospects and clients helping to position them as a trusted expert in their domain.
Canadian sales leaders looking to integrate AI can also take advantage of the [Canada Digital Adoption Program (CDAP) Grow Your Business Online grant] This grant offers up to $2,400 to SMEs to adot digital technologies, including AI and CRM, to improve business capabilities, customer engagement, and sales.
Augmenting Sales with AI for a Human-Centric Touch
Integrating AI functionalities into daily workflows is essential, with the caveat that you can’t put customer relationships on autopilot. Relationship building is a human capability that cannot be substituted, taking years to build and an automated AI-generated outreach to lose. [According to McKinsey] sales professionals spend about 1.4 days of each workweek managing emails. To get more selling time back to your team, here are four integrated actions your reps should be able to perform within their Microsoft 365 environment:
1. Full account view without leaving Outlook
Integrate AI tools with Outlook to view detailed customer profiles, past interactions, and purchase history without switching platforms. This ensures informed and personalized communication, with full context of account history.
2. Automated administrative management of Outlook
Your reps should be able to automate routine tasks such as setting reminders and providing summaries of long email chains, leaving more time for relationship-building, personalized outreach.
3. Ability to create deal-specific chats in Microsoft Teams
Chat integration allows sales reps to quickly mobilize with colleagues, share updates, and coordinate strategies to move specific deals forward in one workspace.
4. Suggested actions within Microsoft 365
AI-powered tools analyze email content, highlight key information and provide real-time follow-up suggestions, transforming routine interactions into strategic touchpoints for your reps.
Leading Your Team to Better Selling Using Microsoft 365
Sales leaders can significantly enhance their team’s Microsoft 365 efficiency with the integration of AI. The Canada Digital Adoption Program (CDAP) is just one way to lead that change, in conjunction with tools like [Maximizer], who serves thousands of companies using Microsoft for their CRM needs.
Mike Curliss is the VP of Sales at Maximizer. An enterprising executive with a proven track record of rapid revenue growth, he drives change, fosters a culture of respect and accountability, and champions continuous employee development. Mike is committed to innovation in sales and empowers sales professionals to achieve extraordinary results.
