Accelerate Your Journey to AI-First Selling

Summary lede: This article explores Microsoft’s AI Accelerator for Sales, a groundbreaking initiative designed to revolutionize sales processes through AI-driven tools and intelligent agents. As a sales manager or business executive, you’ll discover how this program can enhance productivity, streamline operations, and drive profitability. Learn from the success stories of industry leaders like Lenovo and Lexmark and find out how your organization can benefit from adopting these cutting-edge AI solutions.

Introduction

In the ever-evolving landscape of modern business, harnessing the power of artificial intelligence to optimize sales processes has become essential. Microsoft introduced the AI Accelerator for Sales, a comprehensive program meticulously crafted to revolutionize sales organizations by embedding AI-driven tools and intelligent agents into their workflows. This initiative aims to empower sales teams, streamline operations, and drive significant productivity and profitability improvements.

Key Announcement: AI Accelerator for Sales

Microsoft’s new program aims to help businesses transition to AI-first selling.

Key components include:

• Microsoft 365 Copilot: An AI assistant to empower sales teams.
• Prebuilt Agents: Tools like the Sales Research Agent to streamline common sales tasks.
• Custom Agents: Created using Microsoft Copilot Studio to automate unique sales processes.
• Model Fine-Tuning: Tailored AI models and agents to meet business needs.
• Dynamics 365 Sales: A comprehensive tool to manage customer accounts and drive sales from lead to close.
• White-Glove Engagement: Personalized support from Microsoft’s AI experts.

sales research agent - source Microsoft

New Sales Agents for Enhanced Sales Capabilities

Two new agents, Sales Agent and Sales Chat, are introduced to enhance the ability to nurture and close deals efficiently.

Sales Agent

is designed to transform contacts into highly qualified leads, enabling your sales representatives to focus on closing the most significant deals while ensuring that no potential lead is overlooked. This intelligent agent operates autonomously around the clock, continuously working to expand your sales pipeline by researching leads, scheduling meetings, and proactively reaching out to customers. For low-impact leads, the Sales Agent can even complete the sale independently. The agent can personalize every interaction by leveraging data from your CRM, company resources such as price sheets, and information available on the web, along with Microsoft 365 data, including emails and meetings. This comprehensive approach ensures that each response is tailored to the specific needs and context of the customer, ultimately driving more effective and efficient sales processes.

Sales Agent - source Microsoft

Sales Chat

is designed to significantly accelerate the sales cycle by providing sales representatives with the critical information they need to succeed. This intelligent agent helps sales reps quickly get up to speed on new accounts and thoroughly prepares them for customer meetings. By leveraging data from CRM systems, pitch decks, meetings, emails, and the web, Sales Chat delivers actionable insights that enable sales reps to spend less time searching for information and more time engaging with customers and closing deals.

With Sales Chat, sales reps can use simple, natural language prompts to access the necessary information. For example, they can ask, “Give me a list of deals at risk of falling through,” and receive a comprehensive list of at-risk deals, allowing them to take proactive measures to salvage those opportunities. They can also inquire, “What should I know going into tomorrow’s meeting with this customer?” and receive a detailed briefing on the customer, including recent interactions, key pain points, and potential opportunities. Additionally, Sales Chat can assist in strategic planning by responding to prompts like “help me create a plan to close this deal,” providing a step-by-step action plan tailored to the specific deal and customer context.

By integrating seamlessly with existing sales tools and data sources, Sales Chat ensures that sales reps have all the information they need at their fingertips, enabling them to make informed decisions and drive sales success. This powerful tool not only enhances productivity but also improves the overall effectiveness of the sales team, leading to better customer relationships and increased revenue.

Sales Chat - source Microsoft

Customer Success Stories

Adopting Microsoft’s AI solutions has already improved the sales cycles and customer service of companies like Lenovo and Lexmark.

Examples

Lenovo

Customers are already recognizing the transformative impact of Microsoft’s platform on their sales organizations. Lenovo, a global leader in technology solutions, has experienced a significant transformation in its sales processes. By adopting Microsoft’s AI solutions, Lenovo has streamlined and shortened its sales cycles, enhancing customer service and responsiveness. This transformation has not only boosted productivity but also increased profitability. Integrating AI-driven tools has enabled Lenovo to better understand customer needs, personalize interactions, and close deals more efficiently. As a result, Lenovo has strengthened its market position and continues to deliver exceptional value to its customers.

Lexmark

Lexmark, a global leader in innovative, cloud-enabled printing, imaging, and Internet of Things (IoT) products, software, solutions, and services, embarked on a comprehensive transformation to replace its legacy Salesforce system. This strategic migration to Microsoft’s platform has empowered Lexmark with a unified, omnichannel system that significantly enhances the customer experience. The new system standardizes service delivery across various channels, providing user-friendly interfaces that streamline sales and account management processes. Additionally, it offers improved reporting capabilities, enabling more insightful data analysis and decision-making. The transformation has also increased operational efficiency, allowing Lexmark to serve its customers better and maintain its competitive edge in the market. By leveraging Microsoft’s advanced AI and cloud technologies, Lexmark has successfully modernized its sales and service operations, setting a new standard for excellence in customer engagement and business performance.

Availability

The AI Accelerator for Sales program will be available to eligible customers starting April 1, 2025.

More agents to come

In addition, Customer Intent, Customer Knowledge Management, Case Management,

Customer Intent, Customer Knowledge Managment, Case Management - source Microsoft

Scheduling Operations,

Scheduling Operations Agent for Fieldservice - source Microsoft

and Sales Order agents

Sales Order Agent - source Microsoft

for Microsoft Dynamics 365 will be available now in March 2025.

Please note that using these agents during public preview will require Copilot Studio capacity packs.

Conclusion

By leveraging the AI Accelerator for Sales, companies can expect to see transformative changes in their sales processes, much like Lenovo and Lexmark. Lenovo has experienced a streamlined sales cycle and enhanced customer service, increasing productivity and profitability. Similarly, Lexmark’s migration to Microsoft’s platform has resulted in a unified system that improves customer experience, standardizes service delivery, and boosts efficiency. These success stories highlight the potential benefits of adopting Microsoft’s AI solutions. As the program becomes available on April 1, 2025, businesses are encouraged to reach out to their Microsoft representatives to explore how they can accelerate their journey to AI-first selling and achieve similar success.