Conversation Starter | Microsoft Dynamics 365
Dynamics 365 brings together the best of our CRM and ERP cloud offerings into one cloud service with specific, purpose-built applications for
key business processes—like Sales, Field Service, Operations and Customer Service, among others. A connected ERP and CRM system is a key differentiator.
This document will help you have the 100-level conversation with customers about how to create value with Dynamics 365.
Key Business Decision Makers
BDM priorities/key business challenges
Anyone who influences business applications including:
 CXO (including Chief Social Officer, Chief Digital Officer).
 VP of LOB (VP Sales, VP Marketing, VP Operations,
VP of Production/Supply Chain Management, etc.).
 VP Human Resources.
 VP Communications.
 Program Owners.
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Context | A changing business environment
Conversation strategy
Customer engagement is evolving
Framework
 Everyone is mobile and they want to access
more information, quicker.
 People trust opinions from their friends
and peers more than they trust brands.
 It’s easier than ever to switch to a competitor.
 57% of the purchase decision is complete before
a customer even calls a supplier. (CEB)
 67% of the buyer’s journey is now done digitally.
(SiriusDecisions)
 By 2020, customer experience will overtake price and
product as the key brand differentiator. (WalkerInfo)
Productivity is critical for businesses to scale
 Resources are limited; productivity is the way to scale.
 40% of a worker’s productive time is lost when
switching tasks. (APA.org)
 Productivity tools can be embedded directly into business
processes to save time and increase productivity.
 IHS predicts 80 billion connected IoT devices
in operation by 2025. (IHS)
A new speed of business
 New technology is not only enabling new business
models, it’s at a much faster rate than ever before.
 People and processes need to respond quickly
to changes in the market.
Gain a deeper understanding of our customers from every touchpoint.
Create a more compelling customer experience.
Increase productivity and make better use of employee time.
Empower employees to engage with customers throughout their entire customer journey.
Increase the speed of our business. Enable our people and processes to respond
quickly to changes.
 Stay competitive; differentiate ourselves from competitors.
Think of Dynamics 365 as a way to achieve digital transformation through deeper business insights,
empowered employees and improved customer experiences.
Start with the fundamentals
 Prepare by researching the industry and the customer’s business.
 Actively listen, and ask clarifying questions.
 What are the top priorities you are currently focusing on?
 What business challenges are you facing?
 How is your business being changed by digital technology?
 How do you perceive Microsoft in helping your business achieve Digital Transformation?
 What blockers are keeping your business from moving forward?
 How are you taking advantage of data to move your business forward?
 How are you using your data to make better business decisions?
 Understand their perspective and any concerns on the cloud, privacy and security.
 Focus on improving business processes and outcomes.
Take it to the next level
 Use the following pages to start conversations about Dynamics 365.
 Discuss what’s possible—how can we help the customer get there?
 Make it real with customer stories.
Impacts of Digital Transformation
 Companies that use data effectively. (Keystone Strategy)
 18% points higher gross profit margins.
 4% points higher operating margins.
 $34,000 more revenue generated per employee.
 By 2018, ½ of all apps developed will incorporate artificial intelligence (AI). (CIO.com)
Business challenges | Use the questions to start the conversation
Choosing Dynamics 365 results in meaningful customer benefits that enables organization to:
Engage Customers
Empower Employees
Optimize Operations
Transform Products
Build personalized experiences
across all customer touchpoints from
consideration to purchase to support
by using contextual data to get a
complete view of customers, and
draw actionable insights that can
deliver personalization at scale.
Empower people to achieve more
by giving them proven processes,
familiar tools and intelligent guidance
to take the next best action so they
can do their best work while keeping
organizations and information secure.
Accelerate the speed of doing business,
improve service levels, and reduce costs
with intelligent processes that anticipate
the future and coordinate people
and assets more efficiently across
manufacturing to finance to retail.
Use data as a strategic asset, shifting
from reactive to proactive, automating
processes, and innovating with new
business models, services, products,
and experiences—all to differentiate,
innovate and create opportunities.
Customer business challenges
Customer business challenges
Customer business challenges
Customer business challenges
 Provide personalized, deeply contextual
experiences for our customers.
 Engage with customers on their
channel of choice, whether it’s on the
web, social, email, phone or in store.
 Build long-term relationships
with customers.
 Do it all while balancing security
and user trust.
 Leverage the power of data,
surfacing insights in the context
of our employees jobs.
 Give employees the ability to
access business information on
any device, anywhere.
 Minimize time to proficiency
on new systems and processes.
 Collaborate effortlessly with others.
 Gain insight across the customer
life-cycle.
 Better analytics for greater
business insights.
 Incorporate those insights into business
processes on a continuous basis to
optimize operations.
 Use analytics to predict trends
and outcomes before they
become issues.
 Gain insight into the impact
of investments.
 Determine actionable business
insights through data.
 Flexibly adjust business processes
as needed.
 Automate workflows and connect
to multiple data sources to provide
a seamless experience.
 Get a complete view of our business
processes from the manufacturing
floor to sales and service.
Conversation starters
Conversation starters
Conversation starters
Conversation starters
 How do you engage with your
customers across the web, social
media, email, phone, and in person?
 How do you interact with your
customers at different times, for
example across sales, customer service,
marketing, field service, or finance?
 Are your customers getting consistent
experiences across all channels?
 Can your customers get all their needs
met with a single interaction?
 How do you create outcome-driven
experiences for your customers?
 What analytics do you use to
proactively understand what your
customers want?
 How do you measure employee
productivity?
 How many different tools do your
employees use daily?
 How do your employees access
business information across devices
and platforms?
 Do your employees have a single view
into your customers’ information?
 Are you able to use the insights
gathered from your existing
productivity tools to enrich your
customer relationships?
 How effective are your systems for
helping employees make informed
decisions?
 How are your agents safeguarding
customer information today?
 Are your employees empowered to
answer all your customers questions?
 How do you connect and understand
data between your financial,
procurement, manufacturing,
distribution and retail systems?
 How are your employees gathering
the information they need in order to
make informed decisions?
 How do you coordinate the various
functional areas within your company
when you need to respond to changing
conditions?
 Are your CRM systems connected to
your ERP systems?
 Are you able to execute your business
processes end–to-end?
 Are you using your data for demand
planning and forecasting?
 How quickly can you adapt business
processes to changing market
conditions?
 How are you using data to become
more competitive?
 How do you get an integrated view
of your business processes?
 Are your products able to provide
intelligent choices to your customers,
which are based on context?
 Do your products connect to external
data sources in order to provide
contextual intelligence?
 Does your data empower you to be
more proactive to drive solutions for
your customers?
 Is your data identifying new business
opportunities for you?
Dynamics 365 advantage
Purpose-built
Productive
Intelligent
Adaptable
Start with what you need and grow
at your own pace.
Familiar tools in the context
of your business processes.
Built-in intelligence to proactively
guide to optimal outcomes.
Grow, evolve and transform with
modern, extensible platform.
Talking points
Talking points
Talking points
Talking points
 Designed to give you the flexibility
to start with and pay for only what
you need.
 As your needs grow, optionally
enable additional apps.
 Apps seamlessly integrate with each
other and with your existing systems.
 Enable new business process
scenarios, for example, Prospect
to Cash—brings together sales and
operations—a sales quote connects
with tax rules, inventory,
manufacturing forecasts, and more.
 AppSource allows you to find apps
tailored to your industry.
 With finite resources, productivity is
 There’s an ever-increasing need to
 Introducing powerful new
the way to scale a growing business.
be able to derive insights from data
extensibility capabilities that enable
and turn it into intelligent action.
you to build composite applications
 Integrated deeply with Office 365:
that can work with data stored across

We
have
built-in
AI
capabilities
in
 The familiar, easy-to-use
all Dynamics 365 applications
Dynamics 365 solutions, including:
productivity tools that employees’
use every day.
 Built-in BI and Data Visualization to  Common Data Service surfaces the
data stored within Dynamics 365
give you deeper business insights.
 Information is surfaced in the
across a common set of entities.
context of the task and business
 AI capabilities that take advantage
 PowerApps and Microsoft Flow make
applications.
of machine learning and Cortana
it possible to build solutions that
intelligence
to
enable
predictive
 Easily integrate automated business
work both with the Common Data
analytics ranging from product
processes directly into productivity
Model, as well as data stored in your
recommendations, customer
tools, for example, you can generate
existing systems and data sources
sentiment analysis, to preemptive
a proposal or an invoice in Word
—all without having to be a
customer
service.
right within your business app.
professional developer.
 Applications work across PC, browser  All these capabilities to help you
make better decisions, be proactive
and mobile devices (Windows, iOS
and drive optimal business outcomes.
and Android).
 Process guidance empowers every
employee with best practices for
how to do the job most effectively.
Dynamics 365 applications
Additional resources
Project Service Automation
 Microsoft Dynamics 365:
https://partner.microsoft.com/en-us/solutions/microsoft-dynamics
Customer Service
Operations
 Digital Transformation:
https://partner.microsoft.com/en-us/marketing/digital-transformation
Marketing by Adobe
Customer Insights
Sales
Field Service
AppSource
200+ apps tailored to your industry
 Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales:
https://partner.microsoft.com/en-us/marketing/campaigns#/microsoftdynamics-365-for-sales?campaign=Microsoft%20Dynamics