The past year has cultivated many personal and professional changes. No person or industry has been untouched. Even field service has embraced seismic changes as a result of the ongoing global pandemic. For many field service organizations, being dispatched to the customer’s location to diagnose and resolve an issue became more complex than ever before. In response, a shift began within field service to less hands-on, more remote, and more dynamic and proactive service operations.

Yes, change is inevitable, and this transformative tidal wave of change within the field service arena has been for the betterfor the service organization, its personnel, and the customers it supports. It is with great pride I share with you our position as a Leader within the IDC MarketScape for the Worldwide Manufacturing Field Service Management Applications Vendor Assessment 2021-2022.

We believe this placement recognizes Microsoft’s continuous investment and authority across our service solution and cloud functionality.

Noted capabilities

IDC MarketScape objectively noted the strengths, challenges, and considerations of each vendor. For Microsoft, the IDC MarketScape noted one of our strengths as “The ability to deliver specific capabilities to support the market is critical to rapid adoption and ROI. Customer references also noted that Microsoft’s integration with other enterprise applications and technical capabilities of the application helped speed deployment and achieve value quickly.”

IDC MarketScape also noted “Microsoft’s primary challenge with regard to field service management is with regard to industry-specific innovations. Microsoft has established a culture of innovation around many of its products and highlights service-specific offerings, which demonstrate the future of field service collaboration and execution. However, manufacturers and some service organizations lag behind those in other industries, and companies like Microsoft will need to provide both transformative offerings and incremental innovations that closely align with the risk aversion of the specific subvertical industry.” Fortunately, Microsoft caters to everyone from the intrepid to the risk-averse with both transformative offerings and incremental innovations that closely align with the customer’s palatable level of risk.

The study advised “Manufacturers and service organizations should consider Microsoft when they are looking for an integrated field service product offering that can seamlessly integrate IoT data, remote collaboration, AI, and AR/mixed reality capabilities to enable more predictive and proactive service outcomes. The ability to collaborate in real time and have on-demand insights is transforming the way field service and support can be conducted. Microsoft is helping manufacturers that are on this journey around servitization and the convergence of AI, IoT, and AR in the field.”

And the transformation is occurring in real-time. Take for example, Burckhardt Compression, a global leader in manufacturing and servicing, headquartered in Switzerland. The company builds and services massive compressors weighing up to 240 tons, creating pressure three times higher than at the deepest point in the ocean. This high pressure transforms gas to a liquid state so it has less volume and is transported easier. If the compressor fails, the liquid turns back to gas and the build-up of pressure can be critical for the ship and the crew.

Because maintenance is so critical, Burckhardt Compression had to send a service engineer to wherever the compressor was locatedwhich was time-consuming, resource-intensive, and simply not scalable. To provide support at any location, Burckhardt Compression adopted Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service for field service management and Dynamics 365 Remote Assist, a mixed reality application. Now remote service engineers have access to real-time service data and can support the ship’s technicians by engaging in on-demand video chat, providing instruction augmented with a schematic overlay, and creating markups onscreen over the actual compressor. And a case is automatically created in Dynamics 365 Field Service when a call is initiated by Dynamics 365 Remote Assist, and a recording of the repair work is saved.

Burckhardt Compression is serving customers faster by eliminating travel time and sharing expert knowledge across the globe in a matter of minutes increasing trust, safety, and business continuity. Now the company is looking to expand to add non-Burckhardt compressors to its service roster, thereby expanding its market presence and generating additional revenue. Burckhardt Compression is just one of many manufacturing and servicing organizations that have reaped value by deploying Dynamics 365 Field Service and harnessing its capabilities to build stronger, more collaborative, and proactive service delivery.

The bottom line

Many service organizations consist of dispatchers answering service calls, putting customers on hold, asking the same questions repeatedly, while searching for the next available technician to dispatch. This process is inefficient, costly, and unsatisfying to the customer.

The world of field service is changing. Today, service organizations are evolving into profit centers, redefining business models, and creating powerful and fulfilling customer experiencesall supported by leading edge solutions like Dynamics 365 Field Service.

We’re excited to be positioned as an IDC MarketScape Leader and are committed to bringing you the best and most featured field service application available. Depend on the multidimensional capabilities of Dynamics 365 Field Service to help you better personalize customer engagements, improve employee effectiveness, and optimize service operations now and tomorrow.

This is where innovation meets what’s possible.

Read the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Manufacturing Field Service Management Applications 2021-2022 Vendor Assessment excerpt.

Learn more about Dynamics 365 Field Service.

The post Microsoft is named a Leader for Field Service Management appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

In sales, planning is everything. Without a plan, a sales rep might give up too easily on a prospect or appear too aggressive. A potential customer might forget about a proposal or become annoyed by too-frequent contacts. Creating a step-by-step plan for how to follow up with prospects in each stage of the sales process is the basis for a sales cadence. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales tools help you create, manage, and scale customized sales cadences across your organization.

The top salespeople have a well-crafted plan to get their desired results, whether they are demonstrating a product or following up with leads. A successful plan, or sales cadence, involves knowing where your prospects are in the buyer’s journey and understanding how to reach them the right way, with the right message, at the right time to move them to the next step.

If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.

A modern proverb

In this post, you’ll learn:

• What a sales cadence is
• What to consider when designing a sales cadence
• What an effective sales cadence looks like
• How Dynamics 365 Sales can help you build a sales cadence

What is a sales cadence?

A sales cadence is a detailed plan to connect with prospects and close deals. A sales cadence includes a prescribed sequence of activities, like reaching out on LinkedIn, sending emails, making calls, sharing case studies, arranging meetings, and sending text messages, which happen at specified intervals.

An effective sales cadence improves the efficiency of sales reps. A sales cadence guides sellers on which prospects to connect with, what communication channel to use, and what information to share at each touchpoint. This structured approach reduces guesswork and aims to grow the sales pipeline and conversion rate.

Managers create a sales cadence to guide sales reps in handling different types of prospects and sales scenarios. For example, one cadence could be used for inbound inquiry leads, and another cadence could be used for upcoming renewals.

As organizations mature, they can evolve their cadences to adapt to specific geographies, industries, companies, languages, and other parameters.

A strong sales cadence library also helps you scale your sales organization. Automated sales cadences ease the onboarding process for sellers as you grow, building in best practices and sequencing their activities.

How to design a sales cadence

When you design your sales cadences, consider these five elements:

• Prospects: It all starts with knowing your potential customers. What challenges or obstacles do they have? Why are they looking for a solution? What platforms do they use? What constraints do they contend with? What are their skills? Who is the decision maker?
• Communication channel:Reach out to prospects using the right channel, such as email, a phone call, messaging apps, or LinkedIn.
• Wait time: Consider a strategic delay between subsequent steps. You don’t want to be too soon or too late in your follow-ups.
• Attempts: Understand the optimal number of touchpoints to establish contact and build a relationship.
• Messaging:Use the right messaging, content, tone, and personalization to engage with prospects.

It’s important to note that creating an effective plan is not a one-time process. It takes time and iteration to fine-tune your sales cadences.

Example: A sales cadence for inbound inquiries

Here’s an example of a sales cadence for responding to inbound inquiries.

• Target: Leads that have reached out through your website or other channels.
• Purpose: Focus on and respond to high-priority inquiries to improve your conversion rate.
• Description: By responding immediately and through multiple channels, you are more likely to achieve a higher conversion rate. Since responding within the first hour increases your chance to close the deal by seven times, start with an automated email response, then follow up with a phone call. Connect on a social platform like LinkedIn. Finally, send an email that provides relevant information about your product or services.

Create a sales cadence with sequence designer

The sales accelerator capability in Dynamics 365 Sales helps sellers spend less time searching for the best next customer to reach out to. Design and build your sales cadences in the sequence designer. Sales accelerator gathers information from multiple sources to build a strong and prioritized pipeline, offers context, and surfaces recommendations throughout each step in the sequence, speeding the sales process.

To create a sequence, you go to the Sales Insights settings area and open the Sequences page. For more details, check out the documentation: Create and activate a sequence.

You can use the sequence designer to configure sequences of activities for specific prospects, leads, opportunities, contacts, and so on, applying different strategies depending on priority. For example, leads of lower priority might have more automated email steps, whereas leads from your targeted accounts might have more personalized touchpoints.

As in the example sales cadence shown earlier, sequences can include multiple activities, with wait times between activities as needed. You can branch activities based on the response, such as if an email is opened or a reply is received. Using sales accelerator’s tight integration with LinkedIn, you can even send LinkedIn InMail or create a connect request as part of your sales cadence.

Next steps

A good sales cadence is a necessary to improve seller productivity, increase conversion rates, and close more deals. As we adjust to virtual ways of working, digitizing sales becomes a priority for most organizations. To get started, use sales accelerator in Dynamics 365 Sales to set up a sales cadence for the most common scenarios faced by the sales team.

To start building your own sequences in Dynamics 365 Sales, visit the documentation: Manage sequences. If you use a custom app, also refer to this section of the FAQ page for sales accelerator: How to add work list site map to your custom app.

Access to sales accelerator has now been made easier: new and existing customers using Dynamics 365 Sales (excluding Dynamics 365 Sales Professional) will now see sales accelerator and sequences available for quick setup. Read the documentation to learn more about setting up digital selling capabilities.

The post Improve seller productivity with a sales cadence appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.