Email*: How to get started with Dynamics 365 Sales – Quick Start Guide

Here’s the surefire pathway to get started with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales (or any D365 product);

1. Go to MS Learn: learn.microsoft.com —> Select ‘Browse all paths’ from the Products menu
2. In the ‘Find a product’ filter, expand ‘Dynamics 365’ and select ’Sales’
3. From the ‘Roles’ filter, select ‘Business User/Owner’

You should see the subset of MS Learn modules and learning paths relevant to you with their recommended durations (based on reading/video times). If you are already familiar with the system and want specific information on a module, you can go ahead and choose the module you want training on.

If you’re just starting out, however, I would recommend putting some time into the Learning Paths available for free that cover the core concepts and fundamentals, which as I explained should set you up for success (as a Business user or even a certified Functional Consultant, if that is something you aspire).

The 3 fundamental steps

1. Learn the fundamentals of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales – Sales Lifecycle and how it’s done in Dynamics

Sales Business Process Flow in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales

2. If you have a Sales Professional license – Work with Dynamics 365 Sales Professional. You can spin up a trial license.
3. Initialising the Sales Module, basics – Set up and configure Dynamics 365 Sales

If you decide to skip the Learning path, that is fine, but make sure you watch Use sales capabilities before the following ones;

Deep dive into Sales Lifecycle specific modules

so you can learn and manage the end-to-end process seamlessly;

1. Lead Manage leads with Dynamics 365 Sales
2. Opportunity Manage opportunities with Dynamics 365 Sales
3. Quote – I couldn’t find a module specific to this but I’m pretty sure the Opportunity module should cover conversion from an Opportunity to a Quote
4. Order – Process sales orders with Dynamics 365 Sales – start with an existing quote
5. Invoice – the basics should be covered in the Order module but probably needs some config before you can use it effectively, depends on your Invoicing model – if you’re Invoicing on a separate system, you can probably ignore this for now

Once you get to a BAU level, a good one to follow is Manage relationships with relationship selling in Dynamics 365 Sales -which goes into the intricacies of how to handle not-so-common scenarios.

Given you guys are in the Consulting Service Business, Microsoft, and most partners would recommend implementing the Project Operations module (which is a whole other beast but does work), for which you will find training links in the same section. I can’t remember if IFS was also going this way, but Microsoft, over the past 3-5 years has broken apart their applications so they can sell individual licenses for Sales, Finance, Procurement, Projects etc to maximise margins.

If you already have  your Project Accounting in order, a cheaper and simpler alternative would be to use unit groups for things like Consulting/Support hours and  Manage and organize your product catalog with Dynamics 365 Sales

Don’t hesitate to use the Search bar in the MS Docs/Learn website if you have specific questions or run into errors while trying things out – search works across the MS Docs Knowledgebase and Dynamics forums and there are some pretty knowledgable people who write answers on most questions that you will have – because other businesses have had them too.

If there is something specific you can’t find through those means, hit me up and I will try my best to find out.

To do all of this, make sure you have access to a Sandbox (usually free and comes with at least 1 environment for testing purposes) or spin one up by going to trials.dynamics.com.

• This is an excerpt from an email I wrote to a friend who asked me about how to get started with Dynamics 365 for Sales. I hope this helps you too if you’re new or on your journey to becoming a Consultant in the Microsoft Business Applications space.