Mail Merge in CRM 2011 (Printing a Quote)

Printing a quote for a customer in CRM uses the mail merge functionality in Microsoft Word. It is a process that does much of the work behind the scenes to get all of your necessary information from the ‘quote’ and ‘quote product’ forms onto a one-page document. Once you’ve created your quote & you are ready to send it to a customer, perform these steps.

1. Click on the ‘Print Quote for Customer’ button.

2. Select the type of mail merge template document and click the lookup icon. (I suggest using one ‘Organizational mail merge template’ to insure uniformity in the documents you send out to your customers.)

3. Select the template you want and click ‘OK’ or simply double-click it.

4. It will show your selection. Click ‘OK’.

5. Next, click ‘Open’.

6. Microsoft Word will open.
a. If you are using Word 2010 it is very likely you will see the following across the top of the screen. Click ‘Enable Editing’.

b. Next, you may get prompted by another similar message. Click ‘Enable Content’.

7. The document tells you, “To start the mail merge, click CRM.” However, you actually need to click on the ‘Add-Ins’ menu item and click ‘CRM’. Note: Depending on the version of Word you have, you may have to click ‘Mailings’ to get to the ‘CRM’ button.

8. Next, the following screen will pop up. Click ‘OK’.

9. Click on ‘Next: Preview Your Directory’ in the lower right corner of the Word window.

10. Then, click on ‘Next: Complete the merge’ in the lower right corner of the Word window.

11. Next, click on ‘To New Document’ in the top right corner of the Word window.

12. Click ‘OK’ to the pop up window.

13. Your quote will then appear in Word. If you need to make changes or add anything , this is when you will do it.

From here, you can choose to save the file in one of the various formats offered by Microsoft Word. Depending on your business process, you can attach the file in an email to send to a customer or print it and mail it to them.
If you choose to email the quote, as a best practice you should lock the file so that the customer cannot edit it.
So now you’re probably saying to yourself, “This is all well and good, but I need to insert my company’s logo and move some fields around and I don’t want to do it every time I create a quote.” Be on the lookout for my next blog, titled ‘Modifying Quote Templates in CRM 2011’, where I explain how to modify your quote templates!

Posted in: CRM 2011 Mail Merge