Bob,
I keep seeing notices about Power Apps and really not grasping what value they might add to our use of Dynamics. Might you explain and provide some examples?
Judy
  
Dear Judy,

Microsoft has provided a suite of apps, services, connectors and data platform that all make up the bundle called PowerApps. These apps are part of the Microsoft Power Platform, that includes PowerApps, Power BI and Power Automate. 

Dear Jackie, 

We maintain a video library on our website - check out the Dynamics 365 CRM Coming Soon tab. 

Dear Phil,
​
For getting started, the simple answer is that any CRM will do. A CRM system is like a young child. At first, the focus is just getting the child to talk and walk.  Long term, however, you want them to mature, learning and do more. As your client moves to do more, mature with their CRM system, that is where a basic tool and more advance tool quickly separate. 

Dear Bob,
 
We are an IT Services company. I have a client who uses Dynamics 365 CRM - but they're really frustrated with the tool. I would like to help them but the whole CRM business model is not a good fit for us. I also don’t want to lose my relationship with the client by just passing them off to anyone. However, I know that if I don’t take action soon the client will go out on their own looking for help, which might cut me out altogether.
 
What options do I have? 

-- John

Dear Jane,

There are two primary reasons that lead follow up doesn’t happen. First, the leads are not what I would call Marketing Qualified. Second, there is not enough vision by the CEO, CSO and CMO into what is happening with leads, or better yet what is not happening.

Marketing Qualified Leads

​Account managers will focus on efforts that put dollars in their pocket. As marketers we must recognize that is a truism. As such, marketing must make any leaded passed on an account manager as qualified. Marketing Qualified means that a lead meets the qualification you have for industry type, size, product and whatever sales has provided you as the top three items that a good lead must contain. And that you have included this information with the lead as well verifying the company name, website, and phone number. 

Dear Mike,

Don’t be afraid to partner. Don’t be afraid to tell your client that CRM is not your specialty, however, you have the capability to bring in someone who is an expert.  And together, we can work with you to provide the best possible solution.

​Change is inevitable – but how do you keep evolving?

Dear Beth,

I have picked out 3 features in the latest release that should get your attention.
​
Duplicate Detection – Enhanced Email Experience – Added PDF Capabilities

The feature overview video below, highlights new capabilities included in the latest update to Dynamics 365 Sales. 

Dear Barb - 
​
One of the challenges that we often see from a CEO is really trying to drive account managers to do prospecting and to reach out and follow up on leads.

​A CRM system provides vision into what is happening, or not happening with leads provided to the account manager as well as vision of the sales VP and CEO.  

You’ve heard that old saying “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink”.  I often hear managers complain that their CRM doesn’t work because they don’t have enough user acceptance. Well “leading a horse to water” is the same type of dilemma. 
​
Two basic principles must be in place to achieve user acceptance of a CRM system.

1. What is in it for them?
2. What business processes are reinforced to drive the desired behavior?

​Dear Bob,
 
What is the best way my customers can use CRM to be better Marketers? 
 
- Jane
​

Dear Jane,
 
It’s not hard to see why CRM data, made up of customers, prospects and influencers is the most important marketing asset. After all, how can a marketer be successful without the right data? And how can a marketer discover or fine tune a message without insight into behaviors and their service needs? But, keeping this data organized, current, and easily accessible for every relevant team member, throughout an organization, can still be a massive challenge.
 
A versatile, robust CRM system is still the best way to store, manage, and use critical customer data for sales AND marketing. However, many marketers who invest in a CRM system fail to fully capitalize on its marketing value.

​Most CRM systems fail because upper management, IT, marketing, sales, customer service, and others who use the software do not establish clear, well-defined, measurable goals. Consequently, it can be difficult or impossible to determine the effectiveness of a CRM system.
​ 
This happens because CRM is often thought of as a technology solution for a company's business; however, CRM is a really a business solution.
 
Even if when your company deployed CRM you did not have defined measurable goals or had ill-defined goals, you can “mend" a failed Dynamics 365 ​CRM, in four simple steps.

Dear James, 
 
Sellers do have limited time, and in deciding how to focus many rely on guesswork or intuition. That leads to sub-par decisions and incomplete actions when interacting with customers or following a sales process. Here are 4 steps you can start taking today to help them improve their outcomes. 
 
1. Cut anything that is not sales related.
When organizations assign or let account managers perform customer service tasks or get involved with marketing, they are providing a manager with the number one excuse for not selling.  

Dear Concerned Marketer  -
​I expect the frustration your CEO is experiencing with not achieving the expected value out of the Dynamics 365 CRM is around all ROI. The evidence I usually see includes: missed or no alignment between sales and marketing, an ineffective sales pipeline, data silos dependent on Excel files for marketing-sales-service, no one-view of the customer engagement, just to name a few.   

You, with our help, can resolve this frustration for your CEO with a four-step exercise I have developed.  

Dear Bill,
We have all encountered service bots that are not as smart as we would like. Well Microsoft's newest member of the Power Platform, Power Virtual Agents, looks like to be heading in right the direction for smarter Chatbots.

​These bots feed off Dynamics CRM and the Common Data Platform, which opens up a whole lot more connections to other data sources.  In addition, with the power of Microsoft’s AI behind the bots, these chatbots can learn how to improve. 

Some examples of smarter bots that might apply to your business:

• An interface to a knowledge library of product sales and/or specification sheets that has an option to schedule a call with an account rep or service technician.
• Managing the whole RAM process
• Submitting a support ticket request, where based on the product a selection of specific product, questions are presented or knowledge articles linked
• Checking on shipping status
• Making and confirming an appointment time
• Finding product parts, spec sheets and placing the order
• Let your imagination direct you

Bob,
 
I have a client who is a CFO and she is concerned that her sales team is rapidly becoming Zoom-Zombies on time-consuming internal web meetings. Isn’t there a way could help them see that they could be using our Dynamics 365CRM to help their team work better from home?
 
Jack
 
Dear Jack,
Meetings aren’t all bad – and can be a great way to stay socially connected. However, we know that in general internal meetings are:

• Expensive (Employees aren’t selling or billing) AND
• Inefficient (Good weather today? Can you hear me? Sorry, bad connection

What is so special about Marketing Automation vs. continuing to drop bulk emails?
-- Amy
 
Dear Amy,
​
If you are concerned about the low click-rates of your bulk emails, or being seen as a spammer, or your messages always only “selling” this week’s special offer, then you might want to look beyond bulk emails and at marketing automation.  

Generating leads and acquiring new customers is the lifeblood of every organization. Many organizations believe that satisfied customers and referrals are their best sources of leads. That’s certainly a sound principle and something to strive for but unless you’re measuring and tracking where your leads are coming from, this belief is anecdotal and little more than company lore.

​Dear Amy,
I am sure you have heard the saying – You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink. 

Your efforts need to be focused on the “What’s in it for them” approach.  Package your training and communications on what the benefits are and productivity savings they get out of using Dynamics 365 CRM.  

​Today's CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is better than yesterday's because: (a) CRM systems such as Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM can now deliver greater productivity returns and (b) vendors' software usability is much improved. These advancements (and others) mean less time and lower costs to implement a CRM system. And the more people in a given company who use a CRM system translates to more benefits and a higher ROI on a CRM investment. Research notes that for every dollar a company invests in a CRM system, it earns $5.60.
 
But not everyone who has a CRM system is experiencing the expected return and, thus, some are even Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM haters. It may depend on how you choose and implement your CRM system. To help you get the most from your CRM, here are some common mistakes and ways to avoid them.

​Want more and better leads? Of course you do!

The key to getting rock-solid sales leads is understanding your best lead sources – and how you can find more prospects just like your best customers. Customer relationship management software like Dynamics 365 for Sales / Dynamics CRM can help you:

• Identify your best lead sources
• See the big picture
• Accelerate the sales and marketing process

 
If you’re in a sales management or executive position within your company, see if you can easily answer these three questions: 

If your account reps could sell more, marketing could target better, and customer service was more responsive to key accounts, life would be great, wouldn't it?  It may not be as hard as you think using CLV with Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM.

​You’ve probably heard that it costs less to keep and grow an existing customer than to acquire a new one.  And it’s true. But, for many organizations this truism seems to have fallen on deaf ears, as companies still spend a large amount of their time and resources on chasing after new, potential clients.  Even then, their efforts can be fragmented and the results less than desirable.  This is hard to understand because keeping and growing current customers, and finding new ones like them does not have to be hard.

What an interesting week we had. It just underscored how important it is to approach working Dynamics 365/CRM from a process and change management vantage point rather than as a technology. We saw the following:
​

• Manufacturer with 30 account reps > They knew that they were missing something for getting the value out of their CRM and Marketing Automation system.  InfoGrow stepped in with an assessment and found that their system had been configured wrong.  Not only was it costing them money with web form hosting and significant additional database space charges, it was costing them productivity time due to poor performance and account rep confusion.  We made the necessary corrections and are building them a roadmap for the next 12 months to guide their maturity with Dynamics and ClickDimensions.