Sales and Marketing

Synergy effect supported by technology

Good morning! I will tell you how Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central influenced the operation of my team.

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New quality of contact with the client

The Sales and Marketing Department is one of the most critical points in any company. Traditionally, we have to do everything ASAP and yesterday, and work is a constant race against time. Before ERP implementation, most of the day was spent gathering information – from e-mails, offers, web inquiries and phone calls. And when that wasn’t enough, a journey through the company began in search of someone who knew the answers to our questions. But I found out that creating an offer or a marketing campaign does not have to be such a cruel ordeal.

The implementation of the ERP system has changed the style of work

The integration of the ERP system with CRM and other systems in the company allowed to obtain one customer base with data from all available sources. From that moment on, many processes take place automatically, and our team has more time to build and maintain relationships with customers, and above all to look for new ones. The ERP system has also given our marketers access to up-to-date statistics and reports, thanks to which we implement marketing strategies based on hard data.

With the ERP system, we effectively plan our activities and know exactly what their effects are:

  • we shortened the bidding time by 50%;
  • we have been able to estimate the order fulfillment time, automatically invoice and send documents in electronic form;
  • we have received precise analytical tools to measure the effectiveness of activities, in particular ROI;
  • we can set prices and discounts, as well as personalized marketing messages based on complete customer data – information about previous purchases, sales value, dates of last transactions, etc.

In the sales department, the bidding process was dramatically accelerated. I can confidently say that as of today it has been shortened by about 90%. Invoicing and the creation of shipping documents have been automated thanks to the integration of the system with the services of DHL and GLS courier companies.

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The implementation of the ERP system improves communication throughout the company

One of the biggest problems for marketers and salespeople is the lack of communication and access to information. These problems translate not only into cooperation within the company, but also into the image among customers. Having data from production, warehouse or project management at your disposal, the time of order fulfillment and their valuation are much more efficient and faster. These data make it possible to shorten the time needed to present an offer by up to half. This translates into better contact with the customer, increased customer satisfaction with the services offered and often allows you to stay ahead of the competition. The ERP system also allows you to adjust the intensity of marketing activities to the needs and production capabilities, thanks to which there is no situation in which disappointed customers leave empty-handed.

Sales and marketing is the first front line on which there is a constant struggle between the interests of the company and the expectations of customers. Only efficient communication between all departments and access to reliable and up-to-date data give the synergy effect – sales and marketing activities do not take place in a vacuum, and work together with the rest of the company for its success.

Discover new possibilities with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central

Manage your sales team

Define sales teams 

By correctly defining a sales team, you can effectively manage sales processes, support employee activities, and monitor their effectiveness. 

Planning and controlling sales activities 

The system allows you to plan sales activities in detail and control their progress and effectiveness. Thanks to data from other areas of the company, it is also possible to monitor the actual effects of actions, reflected in the sales results. 

Create and control sales plans 

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (formerly Microsoft Dynamics NAV) allows you to create sales plans at many different levels: annual, monthly, and assigned to salesperson groups or specific employees. 

Settlement of margins and commissions 

Thanks to internal billing functions, it is possible to conduct automatic settlement of margins and commissions. 

Customer relationship management

Lead records 

With customer relationship management, you can collect lead data from a wide variety of sources (phone calls, correspondence, meetings), including automatically, by integrating with MS Office Outlook and MS Exchange. 

Records and categorization of contact persons 

You can fully manage your contact base and create categories, such as contractors, vendors, employees, customer groups (regular customers, leads), etc. 

Customer interaction records 

It is possible to keep records of all activities taken during the sales process, i.e  telephone contacts, meetings, emails, adding documents in all popular formats (Word, Excel, PDF, txt documents, graphic files, etc.), as well as automatic registration of all messages and documents sent to the customer. This records create a complete history of customer interactions. 

Lead and control opportunities 

The system has extensive functions of managing the sales process, including registering and controlling opportunities, changing its statuses, generating a quote, or processing an offer into an order. 

MS Dynamics CRM integration 

At the user’s request, it is possible to implement full integration with MS Dynamics CRM, which is an extensive customer relationship management platform. The integration of both systems ensures that the data is synchronized between them. 

Pricing and discount policy

Define customer price and discount groups 

With categorization, you can define complex pricing and discount policies, including loyalty programs, create groups based on selected criteria, such as sales value, or store operations history. 

Pricing and discount policy: 

  • determination of individual prices (for a buyer or a group of purchasers) 
  • setting individual discount terms (for a customer or group of customers) 
  • fixing discounts by product group 

Define price lists in different currencies 

You can define price list groups and discounts for different markets and currencies. 

Quotation and handling of sales orders

Maintain the sales process 

The available CRM system features allow you to track the progress of the sales process from the moment you create an opportunity in the system, by automatically generating the offer, agreeing it with the customer and finally creating the order, as well as monitoring the process of its execution. 

Turn an opportunity into a quote 

You can automatically generate a sales quote from the opportunity card that provides a detailed description of the terms of the transaction. 

Create an order from a quote 

A customer-accepted quote can be converted directly into a sales order or into a blanket sales order. 

Blanket sales orders 

If your order relates to recurring long-term deliveries agreed with the customer, you can generate a blanket sales order that defines the quantity or frequency of batches sent to the customer, delivery dates, quantity, and price. The final quantity in the blanket order does not affect the availability of inventory, but is taken into account in production planning. 

Recurring invoicing and standard sales codes 

You can use the system to define recurring sales invoices, as well as to set standard sales codes, which are predefined invoices with fixed content. You can also automatically generate and send invoices to customers and contractors electronically. 

Estimating possible delivery dates (order promises) 

The system gives you the opportunity to view all data processed in the enterprise, so that it is possible to verify inventory and current occupancy of production resources. You can also access scheduling and replenishment parameters to get the resources you need from vendors or to set deadlines for external orders. With this information, it is possible to estimate the delivery date for a specific order. 

Order fulfillment process 

The system allows you to view the status of the individual stages of order fulfillment, as well as perform all necessary operations. 

Order fulfillment process: 

  • full booking service 
  • analysis of the completeness of orders and the availability of stocks 
  • create releases for an order 
  • order invoicing 
  • automatic sending of documents in electronic form by e-mail 
  • handling returns 
  • issuing credit notes 

Sales and margin analysis 

The system collects and processes all sales data, which allows a detailed analysis of both the sales process itself and its effectiveness. 

Archive quotations and orders 

The system archives all elements of the sales process, so that it gives the possibility of historical data analysis. 

Marketing activities and campaigns

Customer segmentation and mailing groups 

With contact grouping tools, you can categorize your customers based on a wide range of criteria, such as location, age, revenue generated, or operation history (loyalty), to create mailing groups and marketing campaigns based on this. 

Create marketing campaigns 

Marketing campaigns include contact segments that are assigned specific marketing activities, as well as salespeople or teams that are responsible for those activities. 

Set sales terms for a campaign 

Each marketing campaign can have its own price lists and discounts, specially created for its needs. 

Scheduling tasks 

Each campaign should consist of a series of marketing tasks, together with the contact groups and employees responsible for their implementation, as well as the deadline for implementation. 

Campaign sales records 

All activities, i.e. registered opportunities, quotations and orders are recorded and assigned to the marketing campaign through which they were generated, which allows you to analyze their effectiveness. 

Review your campaign status 

Any campaign activity can be tracked to verify its status, so you can monitor the progress of your entire campaign. 

Sales and margin analysis for campaigns 

Thanks to the data collected during and after the campaign, it is possible to analyze the effectiveness of marketing activities, including the level of sales and the resulting margin. 

See a video of adding a new buyer

Thanks to the integration with the Accounting Information Bureau, you can use the “download data from BIR” function. After completing the NIP number, the buyer’s data will be downloaded. Select “Stocks” and the function “Update buyer record”. The card is ready to be used in sales documents. If you want to use this tab as a template when creating buyers in the future, you can use the “Save As Template” feature.

You can define bank accounts for the buyer to help automate the posting of bank transfers, or shipping addresses if one buyer has several. Directly from the buyer record, you can go to creating sales documents. After exiting the file, we see that the buyer has been added to the list of buyers.

Watch the video and learn more.

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