What's New in Copilot for Sales - June 2024

[Guest mssle]

Microsoft Copilot for Sales is reimagining sales. Integrated seamlessly into your daily tools across Microsoft 365 and Teams, Copilot for Sales harnesses the power of generative AI and customer data to keep sellers in their flow of work so they can spend more time with customers.

 

 

 

In June, we're adding features to multiple surfaces, including Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Teams, and to Microsoft Copilot Studio! We're pleased to announce new capabilities in the Outlook suggested actions card, new options for saving email and meetings, and the ability to view recent communications. In Teams, we've added a new action items service and improved discoverability for Sales in meeting recap. And now you can enable Power Connector plugins in Copilot Studio to extend Copilot for Sales (in preview). We wrap up the blog with resources for getting started, learning more, and staying connected.

 

 

 

Copilot for Sales capabilities highlighted in this post are released during the month of June 2024. It may take time for specific capabilities to reach every tenant in each market.

 

 

 

[HEADING=1]In Outlook[/HEADING]

 

 

 

[HEADING=2]New capabilities added to Suggested CRM actions card[/HEADING]

 

 

 

We’re excited to announce several new capabilities for the Suggested CRM actions card. Copilot for Sales scans email conversations and compares the data with data in the CRM when determining which updates to suggest - looking for changes in monetary value (such as budgets, revenue, or fees), timeline, and deal progression.

 

 

 

This month, we’re adding these new capabilities.

 

• We now support scanning emails in additional languages, including Italian.
  
• CRM record details are made available as soon as an email is connected to a record.
  
• Inline editing is fully available to all customers for users with permission and for fields marked editable by admin settings. When not available, and for calculated fields, we deep link to the connected CRM.
  

 

 

 

Learn more about suggested CRM updates.

 

 

 

Screenshot showing an example of new language support.

 

Screenshot showing an example of how inline updates are fully available.

 

 

 

[HEADING=2]New options when saving email and meetings to the CRM[/HEADING]

 

 

 

Copilot for Sales supports the capability to save email and meetings to the CRM. With this release, we’re enhancing the save capability with new actions on save, including the ability to save selected attachments and to add additional fields.

 

 

 

[HEADING=3]Include choice of email attachments on save[/HEADING]

 

 

 

Today, emails and meetings are saved to the CRM without associated attachments. This means sellers need to manually add desired attachments to the CRM, adding to their process and taking them outside the flow of work.

 

 

 

In this release, we’re pleased to announce sellers can now select one or more eligible Outlook email or meeting attachments to save to the CRM when the email or meeting is saved. Sellers stay in the flow of work by eliminating the manual process of saving attachments to their CRM.

 

 

 

Screenshot showing the user experience for saving selected attachments when saving an email to the CRM.

 

 

 

[HEADING=3]Categorize Outlook emails and events when saving to CRM[/HEADING]

 

 

 

Sellers often want to add additional details about a meeting (such as whether it was face-to-face, or a site visit) or about an email (such as whether it has personal information) when saving it to the CRM. Today, sellers must leave their flow of work and manually update the activities in CRM with this additional information.

 

 

 

With our June release, sellers can now provide additional data to be saved along with the email or meeting right when they save the activities to CRM from copilot, allowing them to stay in the flow of work in Outlook.

 

 

 

Screenshot showing the Add email categories option in Copilot for Sales.

 

 

 

This capability will be available once the Copilot for Sales administrator configures which fields will accept additional data when saving to the CRM by using the documentation to configure how Outlook email and events are saved to the CRM.

 

 

 

Screenshot showing where an administrator can add a field to the list of fields to be saved to the CRM.

 

 

 

[HEADING=2]View recent communications [/HEADING]

 

 

 

Relevant information about past interactions with a customer is scattered across multiple surfaces, including emails in Outlook and meetings in Teams. Consolidating this information is tedious, manual work.

 

 

 

By surfacing recent communications and insights in the flow of work, sellers can quickly catch up on the latest context and move deals forward with accurate, relevant responses.

 

 

 

In this release, available by the end of June, we’ve added a new “Recent communications” card that’s displayed in the context of an email or meeting opened in Outlook. By default, the card shows the most recent email thread and Teams meeting involving the first external contact* in the email or meeting.

 

 

 

Screenshot of the Recent communications card.

 

 

 

*Contact is the first external email address in the list (sender, to, and CC for emails; and organizer, required attendees, and optional attendees for meetings). If the email or meeting is in Compose mode, the list does not include the sender/organizer.

 

 

 

Sellers can get AI-based summaries of recent email conversations and open recent email threads and meeting invitations in Outlook.

 

 

 

Email summary, shown when selecting “Summarize.”

 

 

 

Sellers can see up to three of the most recent email threads and Teams meetings from the last 30 days with the first external contact in the email or meeting by choosing the See all link on the card.

 

 

 

Recent communications, with up to 3 most recent email threads and Teams meetings in the last 30 days shown when selecting “See all.”

 

 

 

 

 

[HEADING=1]In Teams[/HEADING]

 

 

 

[HEADING=2]New action items service[/HEADING]

 

 

 

To be more efficient, sellers need systems which can automatically and accurately record their commitments and action items during meetings for efficient tracking and follow-up.

 

 

 

With our June release of Copilot for Sales, we’ve improved how we handle action item recording during meetings. These enhanced capabilities, now generally available, include:

 

• An action item service based on LLM (GPT4)
  
• A consistent structure for action items with topic, description, and assignee.
  
• Improved quality with a higher “hit rate” for mentioned follow-ups.
  

 

Screenshot showing the structured action items now available.

 

 

 

[HEADING=2]Improved discoverability for Sales in Teams meeting recap[/HEADING]

 

 

 

Sellers need a system allowing easy access to sales meeting summaries in the Teams recap for quick reference and action, saving their valuable time.

 

 

 

We’re happy to announce that we’ve improved the discoverability of sales meeting summaries with our current release! Now in general availability, eligible users will receive a notification when their meeting summary is ready for review, along with a link to the Sales section in the Teams meeting recap for easy access. By selecting the link from the notification, the seller will be taken directly to the sales meeting summary.

 

 

 

Screenshot of Teams showing the meeting summary ready notification and the sales meeting summary opened by selecting the View summary in Sales button.

 

 

 

[HEADING=1]In Microsoft Copilot Studio[/HEADING]

 

 

 

[HEADING=2]Enable Power Connector plugins to extend Copilot for Sales (In Preview)[/HEADING]

 

 

 

Currently, customers need to reach out to Microsoft to enable plugins for users of Copilot for Sales. With our June release, customers can use the plugin management features in Microsoft Copilot Studio to deploy custom plugins for specific users connecting to specific CRM environments. This is a preview capability.

 

 

 

Simply have your Copilot for Sales administrator enable custom or certified plugins for copilot users in Copilot Studio. If a plugin is no longer required, the Copilot for Sales administrator can also disable them in Copilot Studio.

 

 

 

Three overlapping screenshots showing the process flow for a Copilot for Sales Administrator to enable plugins in Copilot Studio.

 

 

 

[HEADING=1]Get started[/HEADING]

 

 

 

Ready to join us and other top-performing sales organizations worldwide? Reach out to your Microsoft sales team or visit our product web page.

 

 

 

Ready to install Copilot for Sales? Have a look at our deployment guide for Dynamics 365 Sales users or our deployment guide for Salesforce users.

 

 

 

[HEADING=1]Learn more[/HEADING]

 

 

 

Ready for all the details? Check out the Copilot for Sales product documentation.

 

 

 

Ready for the latest tips...and more? Copilot for Sales Tip Time can serve as a foundation for your training of Copilot for Sales users, customers, or partners! This content includes use cases and demonstrates how each feature will benefit sellers, administrators, and sales managers.

 

 

 

Looking for the latest adoption resources? Visit the Copilot for Sales Adoption Center and find the latest information about how to go from inspiration to adoption.

 

 

 

[HEADING=1]Stay connected[/HEADING]

 

 

 

Want to stay connected? Learn about the latest improvements before everyone else at Microsoft Copilot for Sales Blog. Join our community in the community discussion forum and we always welcome your feedback and ideas in our product feedback portal.

 

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