Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales named a leader in latest The Forrester Wave: Sales Force Automation Solutions, Q2 2017
As we head into the new fiscal year at Microsoft, we continue to see the transformation of buyer-seller dynamics. Buyers unequivocally have higher expectations and more influence. At the same time, sellers are under-equipped to juggle multiple stakeholders and overburdened with outdated tools. That’s why here at Microsoft, our number-one priority is to help sales organizations adapt to the new reality and thrive by building stronger and better relationships with buyers, while achieving higher productivity.
In a new report, The Forrester Wave™: Sales Force Automation Solutions, Q2 2017, Forrester details how empowered buyers have reshaped what modern selling looks like. Under this new lens, Forrester evaluated Sales Force Automation (SFA) vendors and identified Microsoft in the Leaders ripple.
Having the highest score in “current offering” category, combined with the highest score possible in the product vision criterion, Microsoft is positioned to assist organizations in transforming their sales teams to meet the empowered buyer. Download the Forrester report
Forrester notes in the report, “Microsoft is building out its intelligent offerings and unifying its SFA solution with its larger portfolio. The 2016 transition to Dynamics 365 brought a heightened focus on seller productivity, with deep integrations into Office 365 and Outlook. Microsoft also delivers very strong analytics capabilities, including its machine learning and AI offerings, as well as Power BI.”
Forrester advises its customers to evaluate sales technologies not on yesterday’s requirements of sales process management. These required much and offered relatively little to sellers. Instead, customers should evaluate solutions based on the current requirement of empowering sellers to deepen engagement with their prospects and customers.
Forrester writes, “With all the hype around artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, Microsoft shows considerable maturity in both its execution and vision for how advanced analytics will transform selling. Customers rate Microsoft’s pace and penchant for innovation very highly. The potential around analytics only improves with its acquisition of LinkedIn.”
Personally, I’m also very excited about the power of LinkedIn to help sales organizations deliver more authentic and personal engagement in the new era of relationship selling. On July 1, Microsoft announced the general availability of the Microsoft Relationship Sales solution, which brings together LinkedIn Sales Navigator and Microsoft Dynamics 365 to unify the sales experience around buyers. To learn more about this offer, view our webinar.
