With ever-evolving technology and more digitized customer experiences, both prospective and returning customers have raised their expectations when it comes to interacting with the companies they give their business to. Successful businesses are aware of and willing to embrace change, and you’ll want to make sure your sales and marketing systems are in tune with the latest customer trends. Dynamics 365 Sales and Marketing are the cloud-based solutions that can help you meet every type of customer right where they are, with exactly what they’re looking for.

The “just looking” customer - Awareness phase

Everyone has to start somewhere, and it’s entirely possible that a portion of your prospects are not in any kind of serious commitment to a new product or solution just yet and are instead gathering information. In this instance, it’s best to take a relaxed approach and ensure that you are providing them with the information they’re looking for, as opposed to taking an aggressive sales approach by bombarding them with offers they just aren’t ready for. Instead, your biggest assets will be your website content, social media presence, and commitment-free resources like blogs or videos. This is the content that will answer their questions and give them an idea of who you are, what you offer, and what sets you apart from your competition.

Dynamics 365 Marketing allows you to create enhanced brand awareness through a highly-customizable email designer, posting and managing social media content, generating trackable redirect URLs, and measuring metrics using in-app reporting tools.

Shopping around - Consideration phase

Other prospects will have certain needs to meet and are shopping around for the right product or service. These customers will be researching solutions and narrowing in on the right fit for what they have in mind. You still need to establish your brand image and credibility, but provide them with more targeted material that shows your ability to solve the problem they’re looking to fix. Offering whitepapers, infographics, eBooks, or webinars is a great start to dive deeper into the specifics of what they’re looking for. Web forms and landing pages are also great tools to gather prospect information while providing them with value that aids their search for a product or solution.

When someone reaches out or submits a form, a lead can be created and tracked in Dynamics 365 Sales, and customer journeys can be created to send each contact through a guided path to curate responses to a wide variety of customer actions. Custom triggers (based off events and interactions like opening a campaign email, interacting with a push notification, or subscribing to text messages), branching journey paths, and segmentation are helpful tools to ensure the right message meets your audience every single time.

The question-heavy customer - Preference phase

For the prospects that come to you with a lot of questions, a hands-on approach will provide an adequate amount of personal attention to ensure their questions are answered and they feel confident in your ability to assist them. Dynamics 365 Sales lets you create contacts and accounts, and tracks relevant information and context like previous exchanges, contact preferences (do they prefer phone calls over email? What about mailed materials?), suggested actions, and insights like email, web, and subscription list interactions. You have a comprehensive overview of their past interactions, contact information, and account context to easily schedule your next call or meeting with a prospect.

New to Dynamics 365 Marketing are real-time journeys – the next-level customer journey tool that uses fine-tuned customer insights to connect with prospects at nearly all points of marketing interactions and AI insights on the best way to reach your audience in ways that matter.

Ready to commit - Purchase-ready phase

If a prospect is close to making a decision, they’ll need a different kind of care and attention from someone who is still in the brand visibility stage at the top of the sales funnel. If you’ve interacted and communicated with this prospect enough, they’ll soon be ready to commit to you as a service provider, and you’ll need to tap into a different part of your sales and marketing toolbelt. For starters, you’ll want clear answers to questions like, “what sets my business apart from my competition, and what helped seal the deal with this prospect?” and “what can I do to ensure the longevity of this successful relationship?” Using this information will help guide you and set you up for continued sales success with the next prospect.

Then, qualified leads move into the later stages of a sales funnel where sellers ultimately close a deal and sign contracts to begin a relationship that’s mutually beneficial for the parties involved. Not only will the account context in Dynamics 365 Sales become crucial, but their account will be stored across your CRM database and able to use in Dynamics 365 Marketing for things like future customer journeys, email subscription lists, segmentation, and more.

Maintaining relationships - Loyalty phase

Contracts have been signed, orders have been placed, account leads have been assigned, and the business relationship has proven to be beneficial to both parties. So, what’s next? Consistent follow up and an open line of communication between you and your new client build on the existing foundation and strengthen their loyalty to your business over time. Your clients will discover new business pain points that need to be addressed, their existing solutions might need maintenance, or they may ask you how they can continue to improve upon the way they currently do business. Direct to consumer and commerce-based businesses can establish longstanding customer relationships using the same tactics, and understanding the ways that customer service plays a role in the longevity of customer relationships. Having answers to all these questions will guarantee the long-term success of your relationship and solidify your role as an active part in their continued growth as your client, and encourage them to become lifelong, brand loyal customers.

End-user friendly, fully featured, and cost-effective, the Dynamics 365 suite is designed for your team to have the best CRM technology in their toolbelt for high quality results every time. Integrating Dynamics 365 Sales and Marketing into your tech stack is a sound decision for businesses of any size, in any industry, and we’re here to help.

Fill out the form below to get in touch with our CRM consultants, and we’ll set up a free system demo so you can see how your sales and marketing teams can benefit.