Nurturing sales from lead to order with Dynamics 365 Sales

In all business processes, staying organized is one of the most important keys to success. The same applies to the sales process. Dynamics 365 Sales provides a great interface to track sales from the initial lead creation all the way through the final ordering and invoicing. Keeping details of the interactions with the lead helps to better understand their needs and focused on the sales goal. The sales process from lead nurturing to completing the order flows seamlessly and intuitively between each step.

Creating and qualifying leads

Manually creating new leads is a pretty easy process. Simply click the New button on the Leads page bring up a new lead card. The process bar at the top of a lead card shows the steps to progress the lead to an opportunity. Fill out the contact and company details for the lead. If the new lead is for an account or a contact that already exists in the system, the Lead Account and Lead Contact fields can be used to automatically fill the information from the related cards.

The Timeline section can be used to keep track of the details of interactions or tasks related to the lead.

After completing the lead form and identifying the timeframe, budget, and other factors of the sale, the lead can be qualified. On the lead card, click the Qualify button on the command bar. This may give a prompt to confirm which records among Account, Contact, and Opportunity should be created. If no prompt appears, the records will automatically be created. If duplicate account or contact records are detected when qualifying a lead, a warming may appear to allow for duplicates to be merged and resolved.

Unless the business process flow has been set up different, qualifying a lead will progress it to the opportunity stage.

Working with opportunities

Opportunities are leads that have more directly expressed interest and are moving towards the point of actually closing a sale. Opportunities often come out of leads that have gone through the qualification process but can also be created on their own for existing contacts and accounts. When created from a qualified lead, that lead record can be accessed through the opportunity card. Opportunities created on their own can be linked to other lead records if needed or desired. After becoming an opportunity, leads cannot be converted back to just a lead.

The Opportunities page will hold all past and present opportunities. To manually create an opportunity, use the New button at the top, similar to creating a new lead. There are quite a few fields that will need to be filled out to ensure the opportunity can be most effectively worked on. The Opportunity Information section of the card stores details about what the opportunity is actually for. It shows what products or services are of interest to the customer. Below that is where the Account and Contact can be connected.

On the right side of the opportunity card are the Probability and Close Information sections. The Probability section will display projected revenue of the sale based on the products included. It also allows sales team members to provide a confidence level on how likely the opportunity will be won. The Close Information section allows the estimated close date to be input and also shows the estimated revenue based on products and any taxes, discount or other additional factors.

Creating quotes for opportunities

Creating and sending a quote to the opportunity allows for a more direct conversation about completing the sale to begin. By ensuring all products that the customer may want or benefit from are included on the sales quote, sales revenue can be maximized. Quotes can modified throughout the sale, so having a good starting point is ideal.

On the opportunity card, navigate to the Quotes tab and click Add New Quote. The important contact details should be prefilled on the quote based on what is included on the opportunity card. The Shipping Information section holds the payment and shipping information for the order. The Billing and shipping addresses are housed within the Addresses area.

Products are added to the quote by selecting the Get Products button on the command bar of the quote. Additional products can be added or removed from the Products area. After saving and verifying the quote’s accuracy, it can be sent to the customer by using the Activate Quote button in the command bar.

Ordering, invoicing, and closing opportunities

Now that a quote has been reviewed and confirmed by the customer, an order and invoice can be created and sent. Open up the quote either through the Quotes page, or through the opportunity card it is attached to. Select Activate Quote in the command bar, if it is not already active. Now there will be a Create Order button at the top.

The dialog box will default the Date Won to be the same day the order is created, but it can be changed as well. Add a description of the order for tracking purposes and to more easily distinguish the order. Products are added to an order similar to how they were added to the quote. Click the Get Products button in the command bar to load in the products from the quote. Verify the order is correct and click Save.

Now an invoice can be created for the order. If the order card is no longer open, it can be found again through the Orders page.  Once back on the order, simply click the Create Invoice button at the top. Carefully read through the invoice the ensure accuracy before sending it off to the customer.

With an order placed and an invoice sent out, the opportunity can now be closed as won. If the offer was declined by the customer, the opportunity will need to be closed out as lost. Either way, open the opportunity through the Opportunities page.

To close as won, select Close as Won from the command bar. The prompt will allow the actual revenue gained from the opportunity to be input as well as a description to give details of what helped to seal the deal.

To close as lost, select Close as Lost. The Competitor field is use to indicate to which competitor the opportunity was lost, if it is known. Similar to closing as won, there is a description field to provide details about why the opportunity was lost.

Getting started

Dynamics 365 Sales makes it simple for sales teams to keep up with their leads and opportunities and better close on their sales. To learn more about Dynamics 365 Sales and what it can offer your business, click the contact button below to get in touch with one of our consultants!