How (and Why) to Position Microsoft Dynamics to Technology Buyers

95% of our business is partner to partner and a lot of our partners are technology firms - IT Services, MSPs, Network Consulting firms, etc.

I was recently talking to an Account Executive at one of those partners and he raised a great point - most IT Professionals aren't having the CRM conversation.

He and his peers mostly sell to CIOs, IT Managers, technical people ... so what's the angle for CRM?

CRM decisions are starting from the sales or marketing department and staying with them. Isn't that a non-starter for IT buyers and sellers?

And if you are a sales rep at a technology firm, you might have similar questions.

How do you engage around CRM to best assist your buyer and their company?

How do you position CRM?

And ... why bother?

Let's tackle these in the reverse order.

WHY BOTHER SPENDING TIME WITH CRM?

I'll cut to the chase here.

You should care about CRM because your customers care about CRM.

Maybe the tech buyer you are dealing with doesn't directly care (they might though - don't rule it out). But the company they work for certainly does.

CRM is designed to help businesses provide high quality, consistent responses to prospects and customers.

When it's done right, CRM:

• Streamlines sales, services, marketing, and operational processes.
• Provides better insights and information for faster, better decision-making.
• Increases closes rates and sales velocity and customer retention.
• Plus a whole lot more.

A staggering number of organizations are still using spreadsheets and Outlook to manage sales and they are finding - very quickly - that those methods don't work anymore.

Modern buyers are more demanding than ever and have easy access to competitors. So your customers need to bring their A game, faster than ever before, and they need to do it each and every time.

Smart execs see this need and reach to CRM to solve the problem.

And you, and your IT buyer, will want to be there to advise and assist and make sure you are part of the conversation. You want to make sure the organization isn't making a poor technology choice because IT was cut out of the decision-making process.

If you aren't having the conversation, someone else will be.

A SIDE NOTE ON MICROSOFT DYNAMICS 365 CRM

If you already have a firm grasp on what Microsoft Dynamics 365 is, you can skip ahead to the next section.

If you don't, don't sweat it - you are not alone.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 is several different business applications. There is more than one "flavor" of Dynamics to match functional needs and different departments - accounting, sales, services, marketing, operations, etc.

Anyone who is a business user in one of those departments could benefit from one of the Microsoft Dynamics 365 products.

In this article, I'm specifically talking about one piece of the broader Microsoft Dynamics 365 puzzle: the CRM piece.

That's my team's specialty and I've personally been focused on CRM for over 20 years. We've helped nearly 500 small and medium-sized businesses implement it successfully.

At its simplest, CRM is a database - a central place to put key information - for sales, customer service, and marketing people to do their jobs more efficiently and effectively.

It does a whole bunch of things from managing sales pipelines, automating follow-ups, tracking daily activities, managing quotas and sales, managing service ticket queues and case loads, running marketing campaigns, pulling leads from your website, and more.

In the Microsoft Dynamics 365 world, there are a few separate products that do those things but for simplicity, we'll just refer to them as "CRM" for now.

HOW DO YOU POSITION DYNAMICS CRM?

There are two answers to this depending on if your customer is already looking and your IT buyer is aware of it (or not).

If your customer is already looking to purchase CRM

This one is relatively easy to address. The key benefits of Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM over the competition (including Salesforce - the 800 pound gorilla in most CRM discussions) are:

• Better Together. Tight integration with Microsoft Outlook, Teams, Sharepoint, Office, and other Microsoft products makes it easier to use and take advantage of Dynamics CRM. This is HUGE. I'm a sales rep - I live in my Outlook. Dynamics integrates tightly into Outlook. It's an amazing benefit for most sales reps.
• Amazing Flexibility. Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM is built upon the Microsoft Power Platform which gives customers limitless power to tweak and adjust the system to their needs. Often using "low code, no code" methods that are low cost and easy to roll-out.
• Constant Improvement. Microsoft is investing heavily in to constantly improving the core product and adding real value to the customers. They are focused on delivering business results and not just technology that looks cool. Customers love the energy and ongoing enhancements that make it even more powerful.

Those three bullet points make Dynamics the easy choice for most customers (plus it comes in at a price point that is hard to beat for the value it delivers).

If your customer is NOT looking for CRM (or at least you aren't aware of it)

Traditionally CRM initiatives come from the sales or marketing departments or the C-level management team. So it's possible your buyer in IT isn't aware of an ongoing investigation into CRM.

It's common that sales teams do end runs around IT for various reasons when it comes to purchasing CRM.

Or ... IT is brought in but it's late stage and they're asked to accept an already made decision.

Neither situation is ideal.

You, as a good technology salesperson, and your buyer, as a good IT professional, win by staying on top of results-oriented technology investments.

And so, it's always worthwhile to raise the CRM question with your buyer, so they can raise it to management and the sales leadership.

As I stated earlier, smart leadership is already considering CRM. Although it's possible the management and sales leadership aren't considering it yet.

Either way, raising the topic ensures IT is seen as engaged and aligned with business outcomes.

And it ensures sound technology choices are considered as part of the broader conversation and CRM purchasing decision.

[My team makes our living by "making it easy" for you to start these conversations. Feel free to loop me in - I'm happy to get involved early stage and make this easy for *you*.]

SPECIFIC WAYS TO RAISE THE CONVERSATION

You know your customers and buyers better than I do, so you know best how to steer a discussion.

Below are just a few suggestions that can start the CRM conversation. You can use these as starting points to build your own approach based on your style and buyer.

• Many technology sellers find it's as simple as saying "I know a lot of businesses are evaluating CRM these days, do you know if your sales team is using CRM already or if they are looking?"

• Another angle is to host a joint webinar with a CRM expert (hello!), discussing a desired business outcome (or a risk to avoid), and put it in front of your buyer. "A lot of our customers are expressing an interest in CRM. We're hosting a webinar directed towards sales leadership. Would you be willing to forward this along to the appropriate people? This will help make sure you and I can help with any conversations from a tech standpoint."
• One more tactic that works well is to simply state "CRM is hot right now. Do you know if your team is looking into it? We might want to bring it up because it can <state benefits from above> and will make sure you're part of the process. A lot of sales teams will do end runs around IT with CRM and it's best for the business if you are involved."

Don't be surprised if you and your buyer find the conversation has already started.

And you might find that they already have a CRM in place.

That is also an opportunity because 40 - 70% of CRM implementations are considered failures.

We do a lot of migrations from Salesforce (and other CRMs). :)

And ... we do a lot of recovery projects for struggling Dynamics implementations with a focus on user adoption and business results, backed by our 100% Money-Back Guarantee.

START THE CONVERSATION TODAY

CRM is exploding right now.

IT continues to hear about CRM late stage or after the decision is made.

Step in now and have your buyer reach out to sales and management.

Even if the answer is "we're not considering it at the moment", it queues it up for a future discussion and makes sure you both are part of the process.

Most of my days are spent helping sellers like you bring CRM to your customers and I'm happy to share what I've learned and discuss your specific situation.

Ping my DMs or ask a question below!