Using Microsoft Copilot for Sales

Sales is fundamentally about the connection between buyer and seller. Building trust requires knowing when to persuade and when to pivot, how to listen and tell a compelling story, and deeply understanding the customer’s problems—even those they may not realize they have.

In essence, sales is a human skill. However, sellers are often overwhelmed by digital tasks like writing follow-up messages or manually entering CRM data. Like many knowledge workers, they struggle with digital overload, contending with a nonstop flow of data, emails, meetings, and notifications.

AI, data, and analytics can alleviate these burdens by handling low-value tasks. Importantly, AI can help prioritize sales leads and guide customer engagement. Here’s how AI can make you more responsive, innovative, and helpful to customers.

Prioritizing Leads

That sinking feeling at 9 a.m.—facing a long list of emails to sort through and answer. According to research commissioned by Microsoft, salespeople spend less than a third of their time actually selling, with over 66% of their day managing email.

“Top of mind for me is giving sellers time back, making sure they’re spending more time with customers and less time on internal processes, procedures, and administrative work.” — Lindsay Myers, General Manager, Modern Work Go-to-Market, Microsoft

After a marketing campaign, you might be inundated with emails and inquiries, leading to weeks or months of work: researching prospects, reaching out, managing their status, and replying to messages.

The challenge is knowing which emails to prioritize. AI and data analytics tools can help prioritize leads based on past buying history or recent industry event attendance. Predictive lead scores can rank customers in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales, helping you determine who gets your first email. Microsoft Sales Copilot can also extract relevant points from long message chains.

“My team was thrilled when I used the new email thread summary feature in a meeting,” says David Swenson, Chief Information Officer at Netlogic. “We get tons of email threads every day. Now we can look at these six bullet points and understand what to do.”

Engaging the Buyer

You’ve identified a top lead and are preparing for a promising call. You’re thinking about which product features to highlight and how to maximize the conversation, all while trying to take notes for follow-up.

The challenge is managing all these tasks without enough prep time. According to Microsoft’s 2023 Work Trend Index, about half of sellers lack sufficient focus time, and over 60% say repetitive tasks take them away from meaningful work.

In an ideal world, you’d have a copilot reminding you of important points and suggesting topics during meetings. Today, conversation intelligence tools can provide real-time notes and insights based on customer mood and KPIs. Microsoft Sales Copilot captures action items and surfaces relevant business insights. As one user put it, “It’s like having a personal assistant but better.”

After the call, you get an immediate meeting summary with an overview of the conversation, action items, and customer sentiments, which are automatically saved in the CRM. This frees you from note-taking and saves time for the next step: composing a thank-you email.

Crafting the Follow-up

With the automated call summary, including a timeline, full transcript, action items, and relevant keywords, you’re ready to craft the follow-up email.

The challenge is the volume and repetitive nature of follow-up emails. “You’re thanking the customer, recapping what was discussed, going over next steps,” says Angela Byers, Senior Director for Product Marketing, Customer Experience at Microsoft.

AI can draft emails tailored to your specific buyer, using the call summary and relevant account data. You review it, make a few changes, and hit send. What used to take over an hour now takes just a few minutes.

Sending a Proposal

You’ve sent the follow-up, and your buyer requests a proposal. You want to send it that afternoon but need to ensure accuracy. Does the buyer qualify for a lower rate? Is there a special offer or volume discount?

“In sales, so much of your time is doing the rote re-creation of documents and proposals. You always wish you had more time to be strategic.” — Kevin Sherman, Marketing Leader of Microsoft 365 Copilot

Proposals depend on data, and finding that data often takes time. AI tools can generate proposals tailored to specific customers, considering factors like product information and buyer history. AI can craft a well-written email, saving you time and effort.

“AI takes the load off before, during, and after the sales meeting.” — Angela Byers, Microsoft

You and your team want to spend less time on low-value work and more time helping customers. “AI gives the gift of time: freeing people to focus on the highest value work, the work only they can do,” says Jared Spataro, Corporate Vice President of Modern Work and Business Applications at Microsoft.

Sales teams that embrace AI now will have an early edge and a distinct advantage in how—and how well—they can help customers.