Pipedrive

Pipedrive

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8.5/10 (Expert Score)
Product is rated as #2 in category CRM
PROS:
  • '- Easy to Use
  • - Great Customer Support
  • - Ready-to-Use Templates for Automation
CONS:
  • '- Limited Customization
  • - Interface is Browser Dependent

Pipedrive Review

I always like to keep my hears on the ground, see how the job market develops around me; lately, I couldn’t help but notice that sales ads ask more and more often to candidates to be familiar with CRM software. I then decided to give a look at the one most mentioned in my area, which happened to be Pipedrive.

Pipedrive is a sales management tool designed to help small sales teams manage intricate or lengthy sales processes.

Founded in 2010, Pipedrive is now used by over 90,000 companies around the world. But what is a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software about? Who should be concerned with using one? If you don’t know the answers to these questions yet, I promise you’ll have a clear idea of what CRM is about by the end of this review.

A Software that Boosts Revenues: CRM or Magic?

The question that all budget-oriented business owners are asking themselves now is: do CRM software concretely improve the relation with customer and the revenues?

Yes, they do. Don’t take my word for it. This is an academic article from the University of Malaysia that demonstrates step by step how the use of CRM software has improved the value of customers for businesses in the last two decades. If your company is customer/sales-oriented, you should consider empowering your team with these tools, as most probably, your competitors will do the same. A basic CRM can help you organize information, tasks, identify leads, and evaluate investment opportunities/results.

Companies that do intensive use of marketing to keep their business floating should know the weight that these evaluations bring in terms of successfulness and proper budget planning. If your company doesn’t occur in this category, you might want to opt for a more flexible and casual solution than CRM software. However, you should be aware that some of these casual apps (like Asana) can be easily integrated with Pipedrive; thus, if undecided, I suggest checking out this platform.

Pipedrive, a Shooting Star in its Line of Business

In this thriving and fast-growing sector, Pipedrive positions itself among the leaders. Although young and based in a small country (Estonia), it grew its market share at a competitive pace in the last decade.

The application can be accessed either from your browser or their mobile app. It does not come yet in a desktop app. A small lack, in my opinion, that is, however, made graver by the fact that on its FAQ page, Pipedrive suggests Chrome for an optimal experience.

Those who work in big companies know that, sometimes, the browser is not a choice up to the employee (or the sales department), not to mention companies that negate the internet access to the employee’s working station. Pipedrive shouldn’t rely exclusively on the browser to make its product work on a Desktop. It is also true that their mission is not o guarantee to every machine on the planet access to CRM tools, but to make the sale process visual, enjoyable and efficient. Did they succeed?

How Can Pipedrive Help You with Your Business?

After logging in the pipedrive.com webpage. We can immediately see the Deals tab of our CRM.

Frontpage of Pipedrive

A minimalistic and neat interface that makes feeling lost impossible, even to the most unaccustomed.

This is a quick impression of all the essential features that can be immediately accessed:

  • The Deals board constitutes the actual pipeline of your sale process. Here you can create and organize tickets with the information of your open deals following them in 6 different stages, from lead to negotiation. I found handy the fact that just by opening this webpage, I know a little more about how a sale process should be organized, and it made me feel like I could get the job done.
  • The mail tab allows you to link quickly and easily mail accounts from any domain. Again, a handy feature that I tested just to see how quick and convenient it would have been to connect the mail. It was faster than I expected and comfortable by design as I had no more need to switch across browser tabs or applications to read e-mails.
  • The “Activities” tab can help your employees plan and manage their activities outside the pure “selling process.” Not indispensable, in my opinion, but it helped the application feel more personal and user-oriented rather than job-oriented.
  • Follows the Contacts tab, which is divided into three sub-tabs that organize contacts by a person, organization, or in a timeline.
  • The Products tab, which can be used to organize and display products. The most exciting thing about this feature is that, when inserting a product, the interface automatically gives you an explanation of details such as “Cost per unit” vs. “Direct Cost.” Again, a feature that makes almost immediate the familiarization with the CRM software as well as the CRM process.
  • Last, the progress tab, which displays various analytics on all the activities and the information that a user would deal with through the tools mentioned above.

The dashboard of the progress tab

This is part of my progress dashboard. In my opinion, this screen proves that even the messiest page in Pipedrive is well organized and can efficiently display relevant information.

I encountered a few defects and minor bugs while navigating across this page, the worst of which is probably the fact that there is no auto-save concept implemented. On multiple occasions (especially when I was in the learning process), I found myself switching tabs, more or less inadvertently, and losing the unsaved progress. You could say that if I am filling a form and I turn a tab in between, it is my fault if I lose some data.

However, many times, I switched tab because I thought that some settings would open in a tent menu instead of bringing me on a different page. In general, risking to lose all the information inserted in a ticket just because I didn’t manage to hit the save button in time felt unfair and kept me on constant alert.

The possibility of customizing tabs and menus, however, should help those among you that have particular needs in not incurring in my same situation (switching tabs inadvertently while searching for a tick box or a field not included in a form by default).

I also managed to get in contact quickly and efficiently with customer support, which helped me find a lot of useful material to learn the basics and some of the more advanced features. I managed to learn most of what I would have probably need to be completely autonomous in less than 10 minutes.

Among these advanced features, the most interesting is for sure, the integration tab and workflow automation. The integration tab allows integrating Pipedrive function with compatible apps and websites quickly. A feature that makes Pipedrive very versatile, scalable, and transition-cost efficient. As for workflow automation, the feature is pretty much self-explanatory, but you’ll be interested in knowing that there are workflow templates available. An exciting addition that helped me (and can probably help you) understand which workflows are most common in companies that make use of CRM software.

What Others Say About Pipedrive?

Pipedrive reputation is excellent. On Trustpilot, the website has a 4.5 score, and I couldn’t find a “best CRM” list that didn’t include it among the first choices. The software is well known, and even if it comes from a new company, it has gained international recognition, most probably thanks to its ease of use.

Comparing with Competition – How is Pipedrive Different?

To understand Pipedrive limits, we must look at what its competitor offer. Among others, the ones that give Pipedrive a good run for its money are probably.

Pipedrive vs. Salesforce

Salesforce, which not only implements its desktop app, but it also offers a plethora of additional features and tools (analytics, eCommerce, finance, etc.) that transform the CRM app into a CRM hub.

When dealing with big, international teams that have different tasks and specializations in the sale process, Salesforce has the hedge over Pipedrive due to its completeness of offer and the fact that it is made to fit any corporate need.

Pipedrive vs. Zoho

Zoho, which offers more customization and has a free version for up to 10 users. If you manage a small team of specialized people and prefer to work on automated tasks this product might be a better choice

Pipedrive vs. Hubspot

Hubspot, which offers a similar service to Pipedrive but entirely for free. If your budget doesn’t allow you to invest in CRM or you lack the knowhow to make the best out of professional software, Hubspot is probably a better starting point than Pipedrive.

Is Pipedrive Right for You?

In conclusion, to understand if Pipedrive is the software you want out of all the others in the CRM niche, you have to consider the size and diversity of the needs/skills of your team.

If you have a medium-large size team that is concentrated (ideally in the same office) and you don’t want to invest too many resources on training or specialization of your employees, then Pipedrive can suit your needs better than others.

As for the budget, completely free products like Hubspot or Zoho (up to 10 users) can help you save a lot, but I always recommend carefulness before sacrificing flexibility for the money.

All the premium versions of these products have price tags similar to Pipedrive. If the only advantage that a product gives you over another is that it is cheaper, you might want to carefully consider what are you trading for that extra money in your pocket.

Of all the three mentioned, Salesforce probably handles the best customer support/community. Thus you shouldn’t be surprised by the fact that Salesforce's most expensive packet with the best customer support plan costs three-time Pipedrive’s top offer.

All considered, Pipedrive positions itself between these products, achieving a very balanced price-value level against its competitors.

The Verdict: Perfect Product for Small-Mid Sized Businesses

Pipedrive accomplishes its mission more than adequately by making sales an intuitive and modern process. This application won’t only boost your business on the client-side but might also help you save a lot of money and time in terms of implementation and training. Due to its simple interface and the well-structured documentation, this app is the ideal choice for small/mid-size businesses and startups that want to be immediately competitive and quickly set up an efficient CRM process.

Specification: Pipedrive

Customer Type SMEs, Freelancers
Free Trial Yes
Pricing Model Monthly Subscription, Annual Subscription

Photos: Pipedrive

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