Sales teams often have no shortage of opportunities. The challenge is consistently staying on top of them once they enter the pipeline. When sellers are juggling multiple open deals, routine follow-ups can be delayed, opportunities can stall, and it can become difficult to determine which deals need immediate attention. Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement offers an AI-powered approach to addressing this challenge.

Dynamics 365 Sales offers a new way to address this challenge with the Sales Close Agent, an autonomous AI agent designed to manage routine engagement for high-velocity, lower-complexity sales motions. The agent can handle outreach and follow-ups, answer common questions, recommend products, and hand opportunities back to sellers when human involvement is needed. In this month’s tip, we’ll explore how the Sales Close Agent works and how to configure it to support a more consistent sales process.

Tip summary: Automate routine sales engagement with the Sales Close Agent

The Sales Close Agent works in the background to help move eligible opportunities through a repeatable sales process with less manual seller involvement. Organizations define the agent’s target customers, products, knowledge sources, email delivery, and messaging, giving the agent clear parameters for how it should engage.

Once configured, the agent can send personalized outreach and follow-up emails, answer common questions using approved knowledge sources, recommend products based on Dynamics 365 product information, and hand records back to sellers when appropriate.

The Sales Close Agent is best suited for high-velocity, lower-complexity sales motions where the path to purchase is relatively repeatable. Complex opportunities involving extensive negotiations, multiple stakeholders, or highly customized solutions will generally still require greater seller involvement.

Tip steps: How to configure the Sales Close Agent

Before configuring the agent, administrators should complete Microsoft’s common prerequisites for Dynamics 365 Sales agents. Additional requirements include appropriate Dynamics 365 Sales and Copilot Studio licensing, administrator permissions, the modern Sales Hub experience, a configured application identity, a shared mailbox with server-side synchronization, required data policies, and in-app notifications.

1. Complete the common Sales Agent prerequisites

In the Sales Hub, navigate to:

Change area > App Settings > General Settings > Dynamics 365 AI Hub

Under Agent manager, select Create and manage agents and review the prerequisite checklist.

Complete each required item before proceeding with the Sales Close Agent configuration.

2. Configure the application identity

The Sales Close Agent needs an application identity to securely interact with Dataverse.

Follow the prerequisite setup to:

• Create the required application registration in Microsoft Entra ID
• Create the corresponding app user in Dataverse
• Assign the appropriate AISalesPerson security role

Organizations using custom security roles should also verify that users receiving agent handoffs have the necessary permissions.

3. Configure the shared mailbox

The agent uses a shared mailbox to send outreach and follow-up emails rather than sending messages from an individual seller’s mailbox.

Create the shared mailbox in Exchange Online and configure server-side synchronization with Dynamics 365. Without server-side synchronization, the agent cannot generate outreach emails or engage customers.

4. Create and configure the Sales Close Agent

Return to the Dynamics 365 AI Hub and select Create and manage agents > Create. Choose the Sales Close Agent and the appropriate engagement scenario.

Microsoft provides two approaches for configuring the agent:

• AI-assisted setup: Provides a guided experience to help administrators work through configuration.
• Manual setup: Allows administrators to configure individual areas such as the agent profile, products, target customers, email delivery, email content, and knowledge sources.

When using manual setup, complete each configuration section before starting the agent. A green check mark indicates that a section has been properly configured.

5. Define the agent profile and messaging

Configure how the agent presents itself and communicates with customers. Depending on your setup, this can include:

• Agent profile and company information
• Email signature
• Outreach messaging and goals
• Preferred calls to action
• Email content and communication guidelines

Take time to align these settings with your organization’s sales process and communication standards. Clear instructions help create more consistent customer interactions.

6. Configure products and target customers

Next, determine what the agent can sell and which customers it should engage.

Select the appropriate products available in Dynamics 365 and configure the target customer criteria that determine which records the agent processes.

Defining these parameters carefully helps ensure the agent focuses on the types of repeatable sales opportunities it is designed to support.

7. Add knowledge sources

Configure the knowledge sources the agent can use to enrich its customer interactions. Depending on your configuration and data policies, sources can include:

• Public websites
• SharePoint or OneDrive content
• Internal documents

Consider providing product FAQs, product documentation, data sheets, and other approved resources that sellers commonly reference when answering customer questions.

8. Test and start the agent

Before deploying the agent, use Microsoft’s testing functionality to simulate interactions between the Sales Close Agent and a customer without affecting live CRM data.

Review how the agent handles messaging, questions, and product recommendations. Once you’re satisfied with the configuration, start the agent so it can begin processing eligible records.

For additional control, consider configuring and testing the agent in a sandbox environment before moving it into production.

Why this tip matters

Sellers only have so many hours in the day, and routine outreach can consume time that could otherwise be spent on complex or high-value opportunities. The Sales Close Agent provides a way to automate repeatable engagement while maintaining defined messaging, product information, and handoff processes. For the right sales motion, this can help organizations create more consistent follow-up while giving sellers greater capacity to focus where their expertise matters most.

Successfully deploying autonomous agents requires more than turning on a feature. Organizations need the right processes, data, security, messaging, and governance behind them. Rand Group’s Microsoft experts can help you evaluate, configure, test, and optimize Dynamics 365 Sales and its AI capabilities for your organization. Contact our team to learn how we can help you get more from Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement. And be sure to return next month for another CE Tip of the Month.