The Sales Collaboration Panel is the next feature of Dynamics CRM 2015 I’ll discuss in my series.

Imagine a world where your marketing team was able to tailor every engagement with a lead or client by gaining input from the sales team.

A world where your sales team could conduct a quick search to identify how a lead was first engaged. Imagine if your sellers could go into their first meeting with a lead or even an existing client knowing exactly which whitepaper they downloaded, which marketing campaigns they’ve been exposed to or what events they’ve attended. How much more effective could your sales and marketing teams be with this information readily available?

Today’s markets are all about speed. Most customers are more than 57% through the decision making process before they engage your team. Businesses now more than ever must be paying attention to their customers and observing their behavior. They must be ready to provide the information the prospect is looking for, quickly. The Sales Collaboration Panel, built into Dynamics CRM 2015, allows you to do just that. With improved visibility into marketing activities sellers can be far more effective in their interactions.

To take advantage of this feature your CRM instance must;

• Be connected to a Microsoft Dynamics Marketing instance,
• Have the seller Portal solution installed and configured,
• And the Seller Portal feature must be enabled in Microsoft Dynamics Marketing.

How to Use the Sales Collaboration Panel

Marketing Communications Timeline

Through the sales collaboration panel sellers are able to view exactly what campaigns, events, and activities marketing has planned or has executed in the past.

Sellers can search for a specific contact in the Marketing Contact list, open the sales collaboration panel and view exactly what marketing campaigns this contact is included in.

Sellers can easily drill down to view the communications and activities involved in that campaign.

Block or Unblock Marketing Communications

Bombarding a client with information that is not relevant to them can be detrimental to your relationship, and can be a waste of marketing’s time and resources. Using the Sales Collaboration Panel sellers can now control what marketing communications their contact is receiving.

By simply selecting the check mark next to a specific activity in the Contacts Seller Portal, sellers can block their contact from being included. Ultimately this feature allows marketing to get insight from their sales team and allows them to better target their campaigns so they see real results and customers are better served.

If, in the future, the client would like to receive communications the seller can simply unblock them using the same steps.

Full Visibility into Past Interactions

Probably one of the most powerful features of the Sales Collaboration Panel is the seller’s ability to view all their clients’ engagements with marketing materials.

To view the Marketing Engagement panel select your contacts name in the Contacts Seller Portal.

Sellers can look at past interactions and behavioral responses to all marketing communications. They can view which emails, website pages and landing pages the customer interacted with or visited. You can now identify exactly which product pages your customer is interested in all through CRM. Studying the behavior can provide insight into future purchase decisions and provides opportunity for improved service.

Alerts for Interactions

Not only is it important to be sure you are engaging the right customer with the right pitch, but timing is critical. Sellers can now proactively respond when their customer is showing buying signals or interacting with marketing communications.

If you notice your client visited a specific product page you can now set up an alert to notify you when that client visits that page again. You can reach out to the customer to answer questions or provide additional information in-real time.

From the Marketing Engagement panel select a product page or landing page and select Alert Settings. When you create a new alert you can enter the website page you would like to track and the alert frequency.

Still contemplating the upgrade? The sales collaboration panel is a powerful tool that bridges the gap between sales and marketing teams by improving visibility and information access. For more information on how Dynamics CRM 2015 can increase sales revenue in your organization contact sales@navantis.com today or check back next week to find out about the next sales driving feature, the Guided Sales Process!

For those of you who are new to Dynamics CRM, check out my CRM guidebook, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Customization Essentials!

This post was written by Nicolae Tarla
Nicolae Tarla, Microsoft Dynamics CRM MVP and Senior Consultant at Navantis is the author of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Customization Essentials. In his role at Navantis, Nicolae uses his technical expertise to address all client concerns and provide optimal solution designs. Nicolae’s extensive experience developed over his many years working with Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and his willingness to share his hands-on experience both inside and outside the office has made him an invaluable member of the Dynamics CRM community.