How Microsoft Viva Sales will help build deeper customer relationships

One of the biggest elements of effective sales is building deep relationships with your client base. The only problem is that these take time to establish and nurture. That’s why data entry can be a real drag for salespeople. The time they spend on administrative tasks is time away from important customer interactions. But that data is vital to understanding how effective sales tactics are performing.

Microsoft has taken up the mantle of this admin challenge with Microsoft Viva Sales. Viva Sales is a “CRM helper” application, dedicated to populating insights and data from your CRM into your Microsoft business suite.

Part of the “Viva” line of applications (including Viva Insights for improved staff well-being and Viva Learning for staff development), Viva Sales will natively integrate with MS Teams and the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. The aim is simple, cutting back on admin time for sales staff, so they can concentrate on selling instead.

What is Microsoft Viva Sales?

It’s important to capture customer orders, quotes, needs, and more. Lead and sales reporting help sales managers know where to direct their attention. Analytics also help drive more efficient ways of closing the deal.

Viva Sales is an application that will provide sales leads and sales capture insights. These insights populate throughout Office 365 and Microsoft Teams. The focus of the app is to cut unnecessary manual entries to give sellers more time to sell.

How does Viva Sales Work? Is it a CRM?

Viva Sales is NOT going to replace your normal CRM platform. Instead, it connects to your CRM and other sales-related apps. It leverages the data from these connections. This makes it easier for salespeople to get the prospect data they need to enable their work.

There have been various studies over the years and they all indicate that like many other job functions, a sales team can be bogged down in admin tasks, meaning less time actually selling. Having a tool like Viva Sales could reduce admin time and increase productivity.

The advantages of Viva Sales

Some of the core advantages of Viva Sales are:

• Forms elimination - Data entry for sales professionals is greatly reduced using VS. This frees them up for more customer relationship building.

• Powerful data leveraging - Viva Sales connects to several platforms. This includes non-Microsoft programs and CRMs. The integration allows salespeople to cross-reference data points and gain valuable insights.

• AI-driven help - Salespeople will get prompts that are AI-driven. These suggestions and reminders help them along in the sales process with individual leads, helping to reduce missed opportunities.

• Greater connectivity - Microsoft Viva Sales provides sales-specific insights throughout the various M365 applications. Salespeople natively see important customer details, wherever they are. Including in their Outlook Calendar or when in their Microsoft or non-Microsoft CRM.

Image courtesy of Microsoft

Viva Sales Features

1. Tag to capture sales interactions

Tagging is also known as using someone’s “@name” to get their attention. Tagging is a popular software integration used throughout many cloud-based apps. It’s also used within Microsoft 365.

Salespeople can use that same tagging function to capture data from another M365 application for a prospect or customer. This includes adding someone to a list of customers by using a tag for their Viva Sales name. This is great for helping to automate or include peripheral sales staff, accounts or logistics staff through the post-sales process too.

2. Collaborate effortlessly

Viva Sales makes it easier than ever to collaborate with your team on a sales prospect or customer. You don’t have to chase down information to copy/paste into a message. Use that tagging function to populate lead information from Viva Sales in seconds.

Image courtesy of Microsoft

You can also easily edit or open a lead/customer record. No need to look for and open another app. The process gets you where you need to go in as few clicks as possible.

3. Call summaries and integrated data

One thing that customers and salespeople hate is a lack of understanding. For example, when a salesperson doesn't know about a recent customer interaction, or if delivery has taken place.

This can easily happen when company communication systems store data from different sources separately. Such as phone call messages being in one place and a customer’s website chat session being in another.

Viva Sales brings all that customer engagement data together into a single view. This allows the salesperson to see call summaries and capture action items. Enormously helpful in spotting opportunities and mitigating potential problems.

4. Download and customise your data

Salespeople that prefer an Excel view of their contact list can get this from Viva Sales. Download lead and customer lists and customise the application per your organisation’s needs.

Let us help you take advantage of Microsoft Viva Sales in your business

Microsoft built the Viva suite of digital experience apps for productivity. These apps help employees find information faster, feel more connected, and work more productively.

Now is the perfect time to explore how Microsoft Viva Sales can help your business grow sustainably.

Contact us today for a free consultation to improve your team’s digital experience.