What’s New in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales: April 2021 Release

Microsoft is rolling out some amazing new features in Dynamics 365 Sales and in this series of blogs we’ve got the low down on all the things you need to know about the updates. Check out the blog breaking down the updates in Customer Service too! In this release, intelligence and collaboration converge and four themes rise to the top: 

  1. Simplification 
  2. Enhancing Productivity 
  3. Transforming Forecasting 
  4. Accelerating Sales 


Microsoft has implemented a powerful combination of Microsoft Teams, LinkedIn Sales Insights and Dynamics 365 workflows to generate insights directly inside Dynamics’ mobile and desktop apps. 

Sellers can use automation to do menial repetitive actions easily. Tasks like managing client follow-ups when there is a change in status can be easily automated– from creating a new email, editing it with relevant information, sending it to customers and checking for responses. By automating these tasks, the team’s time can be spent making new connections and creating opportunities.  

Pipeline Manager

Pipeline Manager aims to provide an understanding of pipeline health with out-of-the-box charts and metrics within an optimized seller workspace.  

The telemetry includes using Sales Manager KPI, like call and meeting volume targets, that are highly visual within the workspace. Sellers can see the results of their efforts and be able to tailor their craft accordingly.  

Conversation Intelligence 

Microsoft is adding a little spice to your sales call with Conversation Intelligence. This tool is incredible in that it automatically extracts actionable business insights directly from your sales calls. It can process and analyze conversations across not only Teams but multiple channels as well including inbound, outbound audio and video calls from any of your devices. 

With Conversation Intelligence calls can be analyzed for things like:  

  • Talk/listen ratios 
  • Branded key words or targeted/tagged words 
  • Conversation sentiment 

Dig deeper into your calls and gather more information with little effort. With tools like selecting an action item or key word to see where it was mentioned on the timeline to then listen from that point. 

Dynamics 365 and LinkedIn Sales Insights 

Using LinkedIn Sales Insights means having reliable account and contact data inside CRM.  

This improved accuracy of contact data makes sales plans and strategic efforts easier to plan, leading sellers to transform forecasting.   

As well automatic alerts flag when a contact changes or moves from an organization, allowing sales contact records to remain current and useful. 

A native sales app provides sellers with relationship and logistics data sourced from LinkedIn, Outlook and D365 Sales into a single meeting card.  

  • Users can view key meeting details, attendee responses paired with up-to-date LinkedIn information and related dynamics data.  
  • AI-generated reminders can be sent along as push notifications, and other smart deep linking between the app and Outlook calendars, emails, files, notes.  
  • Add to that the one-click launch of Teams meetings also included this launch allowing your sellers to tee up and drive home results. 

Accelerate Sales with Customer Voice Surveys and Customized Scoring 

Lastly, with Custom Voice Surveys sellers can gather and track the customer metrics that matter to their business. Surveys can include logos, thematic branding, formatted text and custom images to making them more engaging and personalized. Most amazing yet, these are automatically available for D365 Sales, Customer Service, Customer Insights and D365 Marketing application users. 

We’re plenty excited to start using these new features, and even more excited to get you using them too. Talk to a CRM expert at CRM Dynamics an HSO Company today, to find out how you and your team can leverage these tools. 

References: Overview of Dynamics 365 Sales 2021 release wave 1 - Dynamics 365 Release Plan | Microsoft Docs