Supercharging Sales Departments with Copilot for Microsoft 365

Using a departmental approach to adopting Copilot means customisation to address specific pain points for each team, in the world of sales, efficiency and productivity are paramount. With the advent of AI technology, sales departments can now accelerate their operations. Copilot for Microsoft 365 is a powerful AI assistant that can streamline various sales tasks, leading to increased productivity and improved sales outcomes.

Benefits for Sales Departments Using Copilot for Microsoft 365

Copilot for Microsoft 365 offers a multitude of benefits for sales departments. It can automate routine tasks, freeing up time for sales reps to focus on building relationships and closing deals. It can also provide insights and analytics, helping sales teams make data-driven decisions. Moreover, it can assist in crafting personalised communications, enhancing customer engagement and satisfaction.

7 Top Use Cases for Sales Departments

Draft Outreach Communications

Crafting the perfect sales pitch or follow-up email can be time-consuming. Research has shown that sellers spend upwards of 60 percent of their time managing their inbox. Copilot helps lighten some of this burden through AI-generated email summaries and responses. AI can suggest persuasive language and relevant information to include, you can also choose the tone and length and regenerate the response to your liking, improving the chances of a positive response.

Example prompt: Let the team know we decided to use clay shingles and to go ahead so we meet the deadline.

Capture Meeting Actions

Remembering and documenting all the important points from a sales meeting can be challenging. Copilot in Teams can assist in capturing meeting actions, ensuring no critical information is missed. This can lead to better follow-ups and more successful sales outcomes.

If transcription is enabled, you can use Copilot to view summaries or generate action points. Its inputs are messages from the transcription it is invoked from, and its outputs are a high-level summary and key takeaways. The user can enter a query (suggested or free text) and Copilot will generate answers based on the meeting transcript. Common use cases are summarising the meeting and getting answers to questions such as the decisions that were made or open items.

Example prompt: Record the actions from the meeting for each attendee.

Keep CRMs Up to Date

Microsoft Copilot can assist in keeping Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems up to date in several ways:

Automated Updates: Copilot for Sales utilises AI to detect and recommend updates to opportunity records, including stage, close date, and estimated revenue, directly from emails or meetings. This ensures that the CRM data remains accurate and up-to-date.
Task Automation: Copilot can simplify and automate tasks. For example, it can process prompts from the user, retrieve business content and data, generate responses, and send commands back to the apps. This automation can increase efficiency and productivity across the organisation.
Meeting Recaps: If a salesperson misses an important meeting, Copilot in Teams can provide a meeting recap, including shared content, detailed notes, and action items. The salesperson can ask Copilot questions to gather more context.
Issue Resolution: Copilot provides real-time assistance to resolve issues faster, handle cases more efficiently, and automate time-consuming tasks.

By automating routine tasks and providing insights, Copilot can free up your workforce’s valuable time and optimise resources that can be redirected to more strategic activities. This can lead to increased efficiency and productivity across the organisation. Maintaining up-to-date records in a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is crucial for effective sales management. Copilot can help keep CRMs updated by automating data entry tasks, reducing errors and ensuring that all customer interactions are accurately recorded. A study by Microsoft found that a 52% decrease in the number of clicks to identify and add a new CRM contact.

Example prompt: Using the meeting transcript, create a summary to be uploaded into Dynamics 365.

Draft Tender Proposals

Writing a compelling tender proposal requires a deep understanding of the customer’s needs and how your product or service can meet them. Copilot can assist in drafting tender proposals, suggesting relevant content and persuasive language that can increase the chances of winning the bid.

Example prompt: Using /[filename] draft a tender proposal for a [service] for [company name].

Craft Personalised Sales Presentations

Personalisation is key in sales presentations. Copilot can help craft personalised sales presentations by suggesting content tailored to the customer’s needs and preferences. Let Copilot in PowerPoint help you build a presentation by generating slides or images with your organisation’s branding.

This can enhance customer engagement and increase the likelihood of a successful sale.

Example prompt: Create a presentation addressing the challenges in /[filename].

Analyse Sales Data

Sales data analysis is crucial for identifying trends, forecasting sales, and making strategic decisions. Copilot in Excel can assist in analysing sales data, providing insights that can help sales teams optimise their strategies and achieve their sales targets.

Example prompt: What are the trends in [product name] sales in [region] over the past 3 months?

Quickly Compare Products

When selling a product, it’s important to understand how it compares to competitors. Copilot can assist in quickly comparing products, providing a clear overview of the product’s strengths and weaknesses. This can help sales reps position their product effectively and overcome objections.

Copilot for Microsoft 365 can have massive impact on your productivity by integrating with Outlook and Teams to augment seller actions and decisions, with AI-powered insights to drive efficiencies and best in class customer engagement. It saves time, cuts down on redundant work, and lets your team work to their fullest.

Example prompt: Compare the strengths and weaknesses of [product 1] and [product 2] focusing on the [benefits] for [industry]