Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales is one of the most powerful and useful tools in in the entire Dynamics suite of applications. That’s because it helps the different departments of the business to gain an insight into what’s happening to the business in terms of sales. It’s a crucial tool for members of the sales teams and a critical tool to management since it provides them with an image of what’s going on in the company and allows them to make proper decisions to improve the company’s revenue values.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales has one of the most interesting features; Predictive Lead Scoring (PLS). Based on an administrator-configurable model, the system can help people working in sales to quantify their potential leads which in turn increase the rates of conversion. The predictive lead scoring feature helps the people in sales to identify the most lucrative opportunities to pursue. Based on Sales AI, the feature learns from the predictive machine learning model inside Dynamics Customer Insights to get accurate leads. Since every business is unique in its own right, the business administrator can recalibrate the system using the Retrain Model to deactivate signals that do not apply in that market to give users a more accurate reading.
How does it work?
In a highly competitive market, you need all the help to get the upper hand on the competition. That means, identifying and prioritizing leads to successfully convert them into viable opportunities. The predictive lead scoring feature comes in with a solution for this problem. This feature analyses all the incoming data via CDMs and then assigns them a score; that is between 0 and 100. The user can see which leads have greater opportunity of yielding fruit because the higher the score, the better the chances. From there, the sales representative can come up with an accurate pitch for the client which will highlight the items most important to him. As for the low scoring leads, the system helps the user determine the weak points to improve and raise the score.
Predictive lead scoring in views
When predictive lead scoring is activated in your company, you get My Open Leads Scored option. Here, you can get a list of leads available to your organization, plus all the information that comes along with it. We are talking about lead grade, lead score and lead score trend. When you analyze these parameters, you can get a clear indication of which leads should be given a priority and those that need some more work before they are ready to go.
From the above image, we see various columns that all represent a different aspect of a lead. They are;
Lead Score: this score represents the value of the likelihood of converting an opportunity given on a scale of 1-100. The higher the number, the more likely it may convert into an opportunity.
Lead Grade: here, leads are grouped into four groups labeled A to D and with some color coordination. Business administrators can fine tune the system by defining the lead score ranges for any particular grade in line with the company needs and requirements. Grade A which is green represents the highest possibility of conversion. There is also Grade B which is purple, then Grade C which is represented by yellow and finally Grade D which is marked by red.
Lead Score Trend: this signal shows the direction in which the lead is heading. It can either be improving (up arrow), steady (right arrow), declining (down arrow) or simply not enough information. This score is tabulated by simply analyzing the present score with the previous one.
Analyzing and improving the lead score
Using leads, you can see some of the top reasons that influence a lead to score the way it did. In forms, you get about 10 reasons as to why things worked out the way they did. From these results, you can effectively analyze the work and improve on it for the lead to score better in another round.
The numbered sections represent:
Basic information on the lead: This includes lead grade, lead score, score and how it’s trending.
Top reasons: these are the reasons that are affecting the score. If you want to improve on the score, the reasons will give you a pointer on how to do so.
Feedback: this is feedback obtained from a user to a lead. It can be treated as your own notes on a particular lead.
Summing up
Using the Predictive Lead Scoring tool properly can assure you of obtaining leads that convert into opportunities which will mean great profit margins for your company.
