How Outlook Integration CRM can Transform Sales and Operations

Salespeople spend hours each day in Outlook. When I meet someone new, I put that contact into Outlook right away. And when I interact with any lead, opportunity, contact, account, client or customer, it’s often through Outlook. Seamless enough, right? Wrong.   Our email boxes are poor places to keep track of client interactions. An accidental slip of the finger can delete a critical conversation. And our Outlook isn’t limitless; most of us need to routinely get rid of email to make space for new messages. Even with plenty of storage space, searching for messages doesn’t offer a cohesive record of how you’ve interacted.   The solution: Outlook integration. When I send a contact an email in Outlook, I simply hit the “Track” button. One click, plenty of benefits. Your communications are now all tracked in CRM 2015. That contact’s CRM file now includes a cohesive record of all our email conversations.   Outlook integration can help your sales team grow revenue by increasing the odds of staying in touch with prospects.Say you make a sales call to Jim in March. He’s not interested now, but mentions that next quarter might work. So you set a task to reconnect again in three months. Both Outlook and Dynamics CRM will remind you to reconnect.   Within those three months, you’ve emailed Jim three more times, or perhaps he has emailed you. Without CRM, we’re searching in June for messages we sent or received, spending valuable time digging through that inbox for emails. And if your email system is like mine, you may have deleted it. It’s embarrassing to call Jim and ask him to re-send that email.   But with Outlook integration in Dynamics CRM, every email interaction is tracked in Jim’s record. If I wrote the email in outlook, I have it in Jim’s record. Jim and I can pick right up where we left off. Knowledge is power in sales, and Outlook 2015 integration gives your sales staff the right information, right away — giving your salespeople a leg up on your competition. No more lost sales because of lost information.   And Outlook integration helps your operations team as well. If a team member leaves your company, all team members can see records for all prospects. So there’s no chance for your competition to swoop in and snag the sale. Just assign another salesperson to the account, and with all the communications background tracked through Outlook integration in Microsoft Dynamics CRM, that person can pick up right where Jill left off.   Furthermore, your operations will become more strategic: with Outlook integration, it’s easy to make sure everyone is collaborating where needed and pulling their weight. Internal email forwarding, as well as lengthy CC lists, will drastically decrease too. Communications from multiple team members are all visible, so if my colleague needs access to my conversations with a client, it’s all easy to find in your company’s CRM.   Outlook integration is one of my favorite CRM features — and I think you’ll love it too. Ready to learn more about Tricension and see how this plugin can help your company? Contact us today.