Pipedrive CRM at a Glance
Best For: Organizations seeking simplicity over advanced customization
Key Use: Lead-tracking
Price: Starting at $14/user/month to $99/user/month
Free trial: 14-day free trial
How Pipedrive CRM Works
If your marketing and sales teams like simplicity and integration, then Pipedrive is likely to be a great match. It offers features such as sales reporting and forecasting, has an enormous library of third-party app and connector integrations, and features capable mobile apps for Android and iOS that make it easy to capture lead data while out and about.
Tools For Sales Teams
Pipedrive organizes leads according to columns that are organized by lead stage. Like most CRMs, it gives users the ability to send and log emails directly within the CRM interface. Templates can be shared among teams and manually edited before being sent to the lead or contact.
A “Smart Data Search” widget appears to the left of the opportunity view and gives users the ability to quickly recall information about the user associated with the email address that they are sending to, including their estimated address, current employer, and LinkedIn profile.
Updating deal status is easy. Users can simply drag a lead into either the “lost” or “won” buttons in order to update the CRM—and their team members—about the deal status.
Pipedrive has some reputable workflow automation tools. Users can trigger emails to send when certain deal stages are reached. Additionally, internal actions such as account hand-offs, opportunity to contact conversions, and follow-up call prompts can all be added to internal workflows.
Tools For Customer Support
Pipedrive does not have any native helpdesk creator or ticket-based support system tool. However, support teams can use the web form creator to create forms that might capture information instrumental in resolving common user difficulties.
Additionally, there are many support tools in the Pipedrive Marketplace, including SupportBee, Slaask (support for Slack users), and Nectar Desk. These bring some of these support platforms’ tools into the CRM. For instance, with the Nectar Desk extension installed, Pipedrive users can make calls via Pipedrive using the CRM and append call recordings to the associated CRM record.
Tools For Marketing Teams
Pipedrive includes a native email composer and editor which includes the following features:
- Users can send email directly from within the CRM.
- Users can auto populate messages with the appropriate template based on preconfigured automation criteria and make manual adjustments before sending.
- Smart email BCC allows users to send email from outside Pipedrive and have it automatically captured and added to the system. Pipedrive will even automatically match the conversation to a record if one is found to exist for the recipient.
- Real-time notifications about email opens and link clicking give sales teams the competitive advantage to know when the lead is maturing and might benefit from further communication.
- Pipedrive allows users to fully customize activity types. If a marketing team frequently conducts on-site workshops, for instance, this could be created as a CRM property and logged accordingly.
Customizations And Integrations
- Pipedrive is customizable at all levels. Properties, views, sales stages, and deal types can all be adjusted to reflect the unique needs of the organization using it.
- Pipedrive also provides a powerful API which can be used by ambitious users that want to go beyond the integrations that the company already offers through both its marketplace and dedicated third-party marketing automation integration platforms such as Zapier.
- Most impressive, however, is the Pipedrive Marketplace which features an exhaustive selection of apps and integrations that can be added to Pipedrive to widen its functionality. These include VoIP tools, such as the Ring.io Power Dialer, and accounting and bookkeeping systems, such as Xero.
Reporting And Dashboards
The sales reporting module makes it easy for sales managers to retrieve and call up high-level sales data.
A powerful filter bar on the left hand side of the screen makes it easy to recall statistics according to certain timeframes and pipeline stages. Managers can view metrics such as the average number of deals closed by period per user as well as the total and average value of deals won.
The sales forecasting module allows the sales team to generate forecasts as to their expected achievement by the next reporting period.
The forecasting tool provides a comprehensive breakdown for sales managers of both the current value of the pipeline that hasn’t been closed yet, as well as a predicted value based on the team’s history to date at creating top funnel opportunities. The combined value provides a realistic dollar value that can be used to guide top level business calculations.
Ease Of Implementation And Use
Pipedrive is among the easiest of the major CRMs to set up and use. It’s entirely cloud-hosted and the setup process involves simply having the organization’s systems administrator sign up for a free trial. After its conclusion, the organization simply has to begin paying for the subscription in order to enjoy continued access to the selected product tier.
Pipedrive has put together some comprehensive documentation to assist users with common setup activities, including importing user data from a previous CRM, configuring custom fields, and even extracting information directly from spreadsheets. In fact, the CRM even works with a third-party app called Import2 to streamline the import and setup process.
Users typically find the CRM extraordinarily easy to use. For sales teams, it’s side-by-side board-style visualization of deals makes it easy to monitor the pipeline, moving deals between stages and marking them as won or closed.
Mobile App
Pipedrive has apps for Android and iOS. The official mobile clients provide:
- Full access to all CRM information that can be retrieved from the web UI.
- Offline syncing and data recall—perfect for when sales teams in the field lose connectivity.
- Automated prompts to guide field agents to complete end-of-day administrative tasks and paperwork, such as remitting reports and entering agreed-upon phone calls and other engagements into the system.
Pipedrive Customer Support
While only the top service tier enjoys access to live phone support, all Pipedrive customers can be assured of a basic level of help from the team that should be enough to resolve any difficulties they might encounter.
There is an extensive multimedia help desk which provides tutorials on both common user issues as well as more advanced topics such as resolving syncing difficulties with the mobile apps or configuring a 2-way sync service between Pipedrive and a third-party email service. The majority of one-to-one support is provided through an email/ticket-based system which operates around the clock.
Pipedrive CRM Pricing
Pipedrive is available at 5 tiers: Essential, Advanced, Professional, Power and Enterprise, which can be subscribed to on a monthly or annual basis (which currently results in a 17% saving).
All 5 tiers include comprehensive calendar entry, data scheduling, revenue forecasting, and many other system components.
The differences between the tiers are as follows:
- The Essential plan lacks a product catalogue and web to mobile calls, as well as many communications, automation and growth, privacy and security, and reporting features.
- Essential and Advanced allow 1 dashboard, while Professional and Enterprise allow unlimited dashboards.
- All plans have access to customer service support. Essential, Advanced, Professional, and Power plans get chat support and Enterprise has access to support via phone.
The only differences between the Professional plan and the Enterprise plan are:
- 100 workflow automation actions for Enterprise plan and 60 for the Professional plan
- Unlimited sets of advanced permissions for the Enterprise plan and 3 sets for the Professional plan
Bottom Line
Pipedrive is a great choice of CRM for teams that need an easy to use solution that will make staying in touch with leads and contacts as easy as possible. It also has a user Marketplace which can allow power users to significantly expand upon the basic functionalities that the CRM offers. However, for a power-user that really wants to get under the hood, they might prefer to consider other options.
