2024 Wave 2: Dynamics 365 Sales

Well, folks, Microsoft is at it again! They’ve just dropped some serious coolness with the 2024 wave 2 release notes, hot off the press just 30 minutes ago! I’m stoked to bring you a new series of articles covering all the juicy details for Dynamics 365 Sales, Customer Service, Field Service, and more! In this kick-off article, we’re going to explore all the exciting stuff coming up for Dynamics 365 Sales. Some of you might spot some features that have been in public preview already or were part of 2024 wave 1. Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered. We’ll walk through all of it together. So, grab your favorite snack, get comfy, and let’s dive in!

Stay efficient with the Copilot immersive homepage

We were introduced to the Copilot Homepage as part of 2024 release wave 1, but it looks like the Copilot Homepage will get a ton of updates in this wave! When I looked at the (very blurry) image that Microsoft provided for this feature, it looks a bit like a sales dashboard. I think Copilot is really changing the way that sellers view data in CRM. The ‘Dashboard’ shows suggested actions, information about sales targets vs actuals, which opportunities to focus on and the latest updates of the accounts the seller is managing. I don’t know if these tiles are configurable in any way, but this is pretty good information for a seller to start their day with. On top of that, the seller can still ask Copilot questions about the data like they were used to before.

Elevate your sales pitch using Copilot email assistance

Copilot email assistance is one of the features that went into public preview during 2024 release wave 1. This feature allows sellers to use Copilot to help them write emails to prospects and customers. Besides creating draft emails, sellers can also ask Copilot to adjust the tone and/or change the length of the message. Another feature that went into preview a few months later: the ability for Copilot in Dynamics 365 Sales to summarize long emails that exceed 1,000 characters. Both of these features will become generally available in October of this year as part of 2024 release wave 1.

Get 360-degree view with account AI-generated summary

When I looked at the release notes for 2024 wave 1, I realized that this feature was part of it, so it looks like Microsoft decided to postpone it and push it out to release wave 2. I feel that this is a very nice one, because it shows sellers an AI generated summary for the account record in the Copilot side-pane in Dynamics 365. Information like buying behavior, associated opportunities and leads, and the latest news will all be part of this feature. The thing that has me really excited about this is the fact that administrators can configure the tables and the columns that are used to generate the summary. When I looked in my environment I noticed that this (preview) feature is available today for us to play with! If you look at the screenshots Microsoft provided in the release notes, it does look like there is a lot more information visible than in my screenshot below, but it does show what this potentially could look like.

Work efficiently using AI-powered action suggestions

According to the release notes Copilot in Dynamics 365 Sales will generate actionable insights for sellers, such as email follow-ups, action recommendations from meetings, suggestions to update CRM rows with key changes and guidance to start engagement for new opportunities. I think some of these things are already available, for example getting a recommendation from Copilot for Sales to update the estimated closed date in CRM when a prospect mentions something about a decision date in an email. The difference might just be that this is not Copilot for Sales (which requires an additional license) making the recommendation, but Copilot that lives inside of Dynamics 365 Sales. My guess is that these AI Powered recommendations will be showing up in the up-next widget of a row, allowing sellers to take immediate action.

Streamline sales process with sales document summary

I really like this feature as well, but I do have a few questions about the documents that will be included in the sales document summary. First let me explain what this is. According to the release notes, sellers will be able to get a summary of documents that are associated with a contact, opportunity, lead and/or account. I am not sure what ‘associated’ means here, but logic dictates that the documents that are associated with rows are rows (records) that have SharePoint folders associated to them. This is my assumption, but I am not sure this is actually the case. The summary that will be created allows sellers to get a better understanding of the BANT (budget, authority, need and timeline), and will recommend the next best action based on the last activity.

Customize lead qualification for a seamless experience

This is yet another feature that was originally part of 2024 release wave 1. This feature allows administrators to configure a lead qualification process to make sure that leads are thoroughly evaluated. Admins can configure if the account, contact and/or opportunity is automatically created or by a seller. Admins can select up to 7 columns to be included in opportunities that are created from qualified leads. Copilot can be enabled to generate a lead qualification summary with key details after a lead has been qualified. Lastly, admins can configure if multiple opportunities or just one opportunity can be created from a single lead.

Analyze opportunities with grouping and aggregating

This is another feature that was originally part of 2024 release wave 1 that has been added to this release. According to the docs, this feature builds on the opportunity pipeline view and will allow sellers to group the opportunities in this view by account, owner, close date/close month or any other relevant field. The estimated values and actual revenue amounts will be aggregated. According to the docs this feature will be part of early access in July. Can’t wait to try this! I hope you enjoyed this article! Be sure to check in again next week where I will be discussing the 2024 Wave 2 features for Copilot for Sales or subscribe here to never miss another post!