Align sales activities with business growth objectives with the define a sales strategy process area

Applies to: Dynamics 365 Sales, Dynamics 365 Customer Insights - Journeys, Dynamics 365 Customer Service

This article describes how to define an effective sales strategy by using Dynamics 365 products. A well-defined strategy aligns sales activities with business growth objectives.

Stakeholders

The list of typical key stakeholders for this process includes but isn't limited to the following roles:

  • Sales leadership – Examples include Chief Revenue Officer, Vice President (VP) of Sales, and Regional Sales Directors
  • Sales operations – Sales analysts, Operations managers, and Administrators
  • Finance – Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Controllers, and Accounting (for compensation budget)
  • Human Resources – Rewards and Talent acquisition (for sales recruiting)
  • Marketing and business development

Define a sales strategy process flow

The following diagram illustrates the define a sales strategy business process area.

Flow diagram for the business process area, which is explained in the paragraphs after the image.

Each solid gray rectangle on the diagram represents an end-to-end business process. The solid blue rectangle represents the business process area. The diagram shows the subprocesses for the business process area. The arrows on the diagram show the flow of the business process in an organization. If a subprocess can lead to more than one other subprocess, the parallel subprocesses are shown as branches.

The business process area flow diagram covers the following steps:

  1. Start

  2. Prospect to quote

  3. Define a sales strategy

    1. Define sales channels

      Parallel subprocesses:

      1. Define sales team
      2. Define and manage sales territories
    2. Define salesperson or sales taker for orders

    3. Determine sales targets

    4. Establish sales commission and incentive structures

  4. End

There are parallel branches to steps in this business process are from the following end-to-end scenarios:

  • Hire to retire

    • Plan and recruit workforce
  • Forecast to plan

    • Forecast supply and demand
  • Record to report

    • Manage budgets
    • Define ledger structure and currency policies

Define a sales strategy benefits

There are many benefits of implementing technology to support the define a sales strategy process area. This section outlines key benefits that an organization might monitor and measure to track the impact of their define a sales strategy process.

  • Strategic alignment between sales execution and business goals
  • Increased sales productivity through specialization
  • Motivated sales teams through rewards and recognition
  • Enhanced data-driven optimization of strategy

In summary, a carefully defined sales strategy sets the foundation for sales excellence by aligning teams, territories, and incentives to the business objectives.

Next steps

If you want to implement Dynamics 365 solutions to help with your define sales strategies business process, you can use the following resources and steps to learn more. (Links are added, when articles become available.)

  1. Define sales strategies (the article that you're currently reading)

  2. Run marketing campaigns

  3. Identify and qualify leads

  4. Pursue opportunities

  5. Estimate and quote sales

  6. Manage customer relationships

You can use the following resources to learn more about the define a sales strategy process in Dynamics 365.

Contributors

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