Sequences - The Sales Journey in D365

Ciao Friends,

Today, I would like to write about the Sequences feature. Although it's not new, a scenario from my teammate prompts me to explore its adaptation within D365 Sales.

Case study

The client operates in the financial and banking industry, offering home loan packages that make it easier for customers to achieve their dream of owning a home.

The client is using Dynamics 365 Sales across both the Sales and Collections departments. The Sales department is responsible for acquiring new customers and guiding them through the home loan process, while the Collections department manages ongoing customer engagement by reminding and supporting clients with timely loan repayments.

Now, let's walk through the sales journey first.

Approach: Using Sequences tool.

I know that you will have a few solutions for my case study. We can create a Power Automate for that, or we can develop some plugins to do that. Now, I choose the Sequences feature as my approach.

Let's explore this feature together.

How to use it?

Prerequisites

Please ensure your license matches as shown below before using the Sequences.

Sequences is a feature of Dynamics 365 Sales Insights Premium.

Further, if you set up the sales accelerator with the Dynamics 365 Sales Enterprise license, you get 1,500 sequence-connected records per month.

Process Steps

Based on the sample sales journey, I will create a Sequences - "Home Loan Package suggestion"

1

Initial setup

Configuring the Sales accelerator first. By default, I think this feature was enabled, and we need to do some essential configurations.

In the Sales Hub app, navigate to the Sales Insight setting option. In here, we can check that the sales accelerator was enabled and get started with Workspace configuration quickly.

In the Workspace page, check that the Sales accelerator was enabled and then click to Configure the Workspace:

• Manage access: by Security roles

• Record type: Lead, Opportunity, Account, Contact - This record type was included by default. You can add another record type also.

• Form used for each record type: selected in the Default form column.

Click Publish to confirm and complete the setup.

2

Create a Sequence based on the sample sales journey

Now, move on to the Sequences creation.

At the Sales Insight setting, under Sales accelerator, navigate to Sequences menu and click <+New Sequence> button to create.

Then, I will create my sequence "Home Loan Package suggestion" based on the sale journey outlined above.

After you finish the sequences, please click the "Activate" button to activate them, allowing them to be used.

Addition 🤝

After Sales man has created and sent the Home Loan Package to a potential customer, the system should automatically update the "Initial Communication" field in the Lead record to "Contacted." This indicates that the lead has received the Home Loan Package offer.

📎: Demonstrate the capabilities of what the sequence can do, also.

3

Connect Sequences to records/segment

As my scenario, the Sales man will send a marketing email "Home Loan Package" to the list of potential customers collected by themselves. So, I suggest they import this list to the Lead entity, then they create a Segment "Potential Home Loan Customer" from the Lead entity.

My view on the Lead - "Home Loan - Leads" || Segment "Potential Home Loan Customers"

The list of potential Home Loan customers was collected by the Salesperson. Then, they can create an Excel template and import it to D365 Sales easily.

After that, they will connect Sequences to the list "Potential Home Loan Customers". And we have 2 ways to connect.

Connect by Lead view

Connect by Segment

On the Lead entity, select the "Home Loan - Leads" view, then bulk select all Leads of this view. After that, click the Sequences button on the Command Bar.

The List of Sequence will be shown, and select a specific sequence for connecting. My Sequences is "Home Loan Package suggestion"

After selecting a Sequence, click the "Connect" button.

Once connected, we can check the list of connected Leads from the Sequence

At the Sales Insight setting, under Sales accelerator, navigate to Sequences menu and select a specific Sequences.

Click to the tab "Connected leads", at the sub-grid "Connected segments", please click the button <+Connect segments> and select a specific segement for connecting.

Please create the segment first, then connect it to the sequences.

📎 Apologies, my instance doesn't support Segment capability, so I'm unable to demonstrate this connection. I'll update in the near future.

Checking the results

For the checking results, I will move on to the Sales Accelerator workspace. The list of Sequence's activities will be shown, and the first Marketing Email "Home Loan Package" will be sent to the client.

For the tracking, we can use Sequences analytics.

Conclusion

Sequences in Dynamics 365 Sales are powerful tools that help streamline sales processes, improve productivity, and ensure that sales teams adhere to best practices. By automating routine activities (sending email, making calls, scheduling tasks) and providing a structured approach, Sequences enable sales representatives to focus on what they do best—selling.

My Overall Process for Case Study

As a recap, it's my case study journey and system process steps.

Hoping well, and thank you for your walkthrough. 🤝 🚀 [NTD]yns.Asia