Microsoft Standard Sales Accreditation - CRM

I have finally passed the Microsoft Standard Sales Accreditation - Customer Relationship Management exam!

The exam tests these key business disciplines:

• ability to manage sales cycle profitability
• ability to employ solution selling techniques & apply business processes in the sales cycle
• identify and sell the value of Microsoft Dynamics CRM
• ability to articulate competitive value of Microsoft Dynamics CRM & licensing

I highly recommend the Microsoft preparation material and be sure to brush up on your Microsoft Solution Selling Process (MSSP) and Sure Step skills.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 5 Password Change

I recently changed the Administrator password on my Microsoft Dynamics CRM 5 CTP virtual machine.

When I tried to open CRM I received an "HTTP Error 503 - Service unavailable" error.

The following steps fixed the problem:

1) Update password on relevant Windows Service Accounts

You need to sort by the "Log On As" column to ensure that all relevant credentials are changed. In my case I needed to update all the Microsoft Dynamics CRM and SQL Server 2008 services with the new password details.

2) Open IIS and update password on CRMAppPool

3) Restart Microsoft Dynamics CRM Asynchronous Processing Service

If you get the following error, you need to restart this service:

Install Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook

Hosted CRM Tips

I've been using hosted Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 (our CRM system is hosted from Dallas) for the last year. I've recently discovered two key settings that drastically improve the usability, stability and performance of hosted CRM.


Internet Explorer Browsing History
This has a huge impact on the stability of the system. If the "Delete browsing history on exit" option is selected, it can cause sign-in windows to pop-up when you're trying to perform basic CRM tasks.

Records Per Page

If you spend time 'tracking' emails and using the 'Set Regarding' button in Microsoft Office Outlook, reduce this option to the minimum setting of "25" records per page:

This improves performance by reducing the 'delay' experienced when the "Look Up Records" dialog box opens:

All I have to do now is persuade the US to let us use British Pounds as a currency...