A Manufacturer Rebuilds Its CRM and Connects Sales and Marketing in Dynamics 365
A wire and cable manufacturer had invested in Dynamics 365 Sales, but its salespeople weren't using it consistently. Managers struggled to see which leads needed follow-up, what sales activity had taken place, and which opportunities were moving forward.
Marketing had a separate problem. Campaigns ran in Act-On, while customer records lived in Dynamics 365. A four-person marketing team had just one person managing its marketing automation platform. Keeping campaign lists current required repeated preparation and uploads, and salespeople couldn't easily see how their contacts engaged with marketing emails.
The manufacturer worked with Alliason to improve its existing CRM and replace Act-On with Dynamics 365 Customer Insights. The sales team began using the CRM more consistently, marketing activity became visible to sellers, and the effort needed to maintain campaign lists fell substantially.
Executive summary
Challenge: An underused CRM limited leadership's view of sales activity and opportunities. Marketing maintained customer lists in a separate application, while campaign interactions were difficult for salespeople to see.
Approach: Alliason reviewed how the manufacturer managed leads, opportunities, and marketing audiences. It reimplemented Dynamics 365 Sales around the sales process and replaced Act-On with Dynamics 365 Customer Insights, rebuilding the company's campaign assets in the new application.
Outcome: CRM adoption and pipeline visibility improved. Salespeople could review marketing engagement on customer records, and marketing spent far less time preparing campaign lists. The migration was completed within the agreed schedule.
The CRM wasn't giving sales leaders the answers they needed
The original Dynamics 365 Sales setup didn't fit how the manufacturer managed leads and opportunities. Because the team wasn't keeping records current, leaders couldn't rely on the CRM for a dependable picture of the pipeline.
That created a practical management problem. If a lead had gone without follow-up, a manager needed to know. If an opportunity had stopped progressing, the team needed to decide what to do next. Without reliable activity and opportunity information, those decisions depended on asking salespeople for updates rather than reviewing the CRM.
Marketing also had to manage information outside the system salespeople used. Customer lists were prepared from Dynamics 365 and uploaded into Act-On for email campaigns. Campaign responses stayed largely out of the salesperson's normal view. Someone contacting a prospect couldn't readily check whether that person had recently engaged with the company's marketing emails.
For leadership, the goal was a more dependable sales pipeline. For marketing, it was less repeated administration and a better connection to the customer relationships managed by sales.
Deciding what to improve and what to replace
Alliason reviewed the sales process supported by Dynamics 365 and the way marketing audiences and campaign information were managed in Act-On.
The manufacturer already had a CRM capable of managing its leads and opportunities. The problem was how it had been set up and used. Keeping Dynamics 365 Sales and rebuilding the relevant processes would preserve the existing investment while giving the sales team a more practical application.
Marketing faced a different decision. Continuing with Act-On would preserve the separate list-maintenance routine and keep email engagement apart from the records salespeople used. Moving to Dynamics 365 Customer Insights would allow the marketing team to create audiences from CRM leads and contacts and make campaign activity available in the same customer records.
The chosen approach was to reimplement Sales around the manufacturer's needs and move its email marketing into Customer Insights.
Making Dynamics 365 Sales more useful to the team
Alliason reimplemented Dynamics 365 Sales around how the manufacturer handled leads, recorded customer activity, and managed opportunities.
The focus was on the information sellers needed to maintain as relationships progressed and the information managers needed to review. As the sales team used the CRM more consistently, leadership gained a clearer view of lead activity and opportunity progress.
The manufacturer could improve the application it had already purchased while establishing common lead and contact records for sales and marketing.
Moving marketing without overwhelming a small team
Replacing Act-On meant moving the manufacturer's marketing activity into a different application. With only one person responsible for marketing automation, the project was a substantial commitment for the four-person marketing team.
That Marketing team member described the experience:
“[Alliason] was essential to making this migration successful. Our marketing team consists of four people, and I'm the only one who manages our marketing automation platform, so taking on a migration of this size by myself would have been a nightmare!”
Alliason implemented customer journeys, audience segments, marketing forms, and email templates in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights. The implementation also included marketing consent configuration and testing of the campaign experience, from forms and emails to how interactions appeared on customer records.
The marketing stakeholder reported that the migration stayed organized and met its deadlines.
Giving sales and marketing a shared view of customer activity
In Customer Insights, marketers could build campaign audiences directly from Dynamics 365 lead and contact data. This removed much of the recurring preparation and uploading required to keep lists current in Act-On.
Salespeople gained something useful too. They could see marketing email interactions on lead and contact timelines. Before reaching out, a seller could review the emails a prospect had received or interacted with alongside other CRM activity.
The manufacturer could now manage sales relationships and marketing communications using connected customer information, rather than maintaining separate views of the same people.
An existing investment became more useful
The marketing team reduced the time spent maintaining campaign lists by approximately 78%. That measure applies to list maintenance, not to total marketing time or costs.
The sales team also began using Dynamics 365 Sales more consistently, giving leadership better visibility into leads and opportunities. Salespeople gained access to marketing interactions that previously were difficult to see from the CRM.
The manufacturer's Applications Manager reflected on both engagements:
“From leading our CRM reimplementation to expanding into Customer Insights, they've consistently delivered high-quality results with professionalism, transparency, and a deep understanding of our business.”
The company kept its Dynamics 365 Sales investment and replaced a separate marketing platform. Sales leadership had more dependable information, marketing had less manual administration, and both teams could see more of the customer relationship in Dynamics 365.
If your CRM is underused or sales and marketing are maintaining separate customer information, speak with Alliason's team of advisors about what should change and whether your existing Dynamics 365 investment can support it.
