Pipedrive Review: Is it Worth Buying?

Let’s face it. In many companies, sales are still done in a very old-fashioned way. Many use Excel spreadsheets to keep track of their leads. This makes it hard to have an overview of your pipeline.

Pipedrive helps you to make your sales more effective and to organize them better in order to focus on the most important tasks. Among other things, this happens through the visualization of your pipeline. This way you always have a good overview of your sales activities.

In this review, I will tell you about my experience with Pipedrive. Let’s find out if Pipedrive can be a good solution for Indian businesses.

Pipedrive advantages

• User interface and training documents in Hindi and Other Languages – Pipedrive not only offers an easy-to-use user interface but also provides you with numerous training materials to familiarize yourself with the software.
• Cheap and easy pricing – Pipedrive offers a good and cheap CRM system. The pricing is transparent and easy to understand.
• 24/7 hours support – Pipedrive offers 24/7 chat support in German.

Pipedrive Disadvantages

• No free version – competitors like Zoho CRM and Freshworks CRM offer completely free versions. In return, you get a generous 14-day trial period with Pipedrive.
• Web forms – The web forms in the Essentials version are provided with a Pipedrive logo.

What is Pipedrive CRM?

Pipedrive is a CRM system aimed at small and medium-sized businesses. The special thing about Pipedrive is that it is very easy to use due to its visual representation of the pipeline.

Pipedrive was founded in 2010 in Talin, Estonia, where it is still based today. It was founded by 5 founders Timo Rein, Urmas Purde, Martin Henk, Ragnar Sass and Martin Tajur.

It is one of the few well-known CRM systems to come out of Europe. More than 95,000 companies now use Pipedrive to optimize their sales processes.

Pipedrive’s goal is to focus on the real needs in sales and always have all the important functions quickly at hand.

We will find out whether the Pipedrive has succeeded in this test report.

How does Pipedrive work? Is it easy to use?

Pipedrive is very visual software that you can quickly find your way around. The intuitive operation is not given with all CRM systems. Even with direct competitors, such as Zoho CRM, the operation is not as intuitive.

The most important element as a salesperson is to always keep an eye on your sales pipeline.

As soon as you log in to Pipedrive, you can see your sales pipelines. This way you have all your deals at a glance. By default, Pipedrive displays the sales pipeline in the form of a Kanban board.

Besides the grid view, you can also choose a normal list. With this list, you have all your current deals at a glance. You can also select the sales forecast view. This shows you your deals also according to a time sequence. With this calendar, you can see if you have enough deals in your pipeline.

You can create your sales pipelines individually with different phases. With the different deal phases you can see the status of the deals.

In the left column, you have the menu where you can access the different menu items such as leads, deals, activities, etc..

There is also a handy button in the middle with a plus. By clicking the button you have quick access to the creation of new deals, contact, lead, etc.

In the upper right menu, you will find your user settings, with which you can change your category settings, accounts, and status.

If you have a user account as an employee, you can create and access different sales pipelines. This allows you to create the stages of the sales pipeline individually, and as a salesperson, you always have an overview of the pipelines you have created.

If you have manager rights, you can view the various deal and sales pipelines of the other salespeople.

Workflows

The workflow function in Pipedrive helps you save time in recurring sales processes.

For example, these workflows can automatically create a new sales activity when a deal moves to the pipeline stage. You can also set an email to be sent when a deal is won.

Each workflow has a trigger that triggers a specific workflow. You can also set conditions that must be met before the workflow is triggered.

Pipedrive data import and export

Pipedrive offers a data import/export menu. With this menu, you can import and export data manually or automatically.

The manual import works via a CSV or Excel file. If you already use a CRM and want to switch to Pipedrive, you have the option to migrate data. Many different CRM systems are supported for data migration.

User management

Pipedrive allows its users to manage the visibility of individual data. If you work with a larger team, it is practical if different users can access customer data. For this purpose, Pipedrive allows you to give access to all data such as leads, contacts, organizations, deals, etc. to different users. You can select the following visibilities:

• Owners only
• Visibility groups of the owner
• Groups and subgroups of the owner
• Entire company

Language

To enable you to use Pipedrive with users from different countries, Pipedrive offers you the possibility to use the software in 16 different languages.

Mobile app

Pipedrive offers a mobile version of the CRM system for iOS and Android. This is convenient when you’re away from your computer. With the mobile app, you have access to a home page where you have all your sales activities. You can also access your deals and contacts. You can also make your calls directly from the mobile app if you use Pipedrive’s caller function.

Pipedrive CRM Lead Management and Pipeline Management

Keeping an eye on your leads and your pipeline at all times is one of the most important tasks in sales. That’s why Pipedrive offers a simple representation so that you don’t lose the overview.

Lead Generation

Pipedrive offers you a paid extension “Leadbooster” with which you can generate leads. The Leadbooster offers you various options on how you can get leads.

These extensions are:

• Web forms
• Prospector (lead database)
• Livechat
• Chatbot

These features can be interesting for you if you do not already use a marketing automation software. The Leadbooster costs an additional 39 euros per month.

Pipedrive also offers the possibility to identify your website visitors as leads. The Pipedrive Web Visitor Add-On gives you the ability to see which companies are visiting your website. You can also see which subpages they have visited to understand the interest.

The Web Visitor Add-On costs:

• 49 Euro per month for up to 200 identified companies
• 99 euros per month from 201 to 500 companies
• 299 Euro per month for 501 to 2000 companies

Lead Management

Pipedrive offers you a Lead Inbox. This inbox is the place where you can collect all your leads. This way you can always have an overview of all your leads.

When you manually add a new lead, you can enter information like:

• Contact
• Organization
• Title
• Label (Warm, Hot, Cold Lead)
• The owner (Who acquired the lead)

You can also sort your leads by lead sources like:

• live chat
• Chatbot
• Web forms
• Prospector
• Web visitors
• Workflow
• API

Programs that are connected to Pipedrive via an API can also store leads in the lead inbox.

However, I would have liked to be able to enter manual lead sources. This can be practical, for example, if you acquire leads at a trade fair.

Pipeline Management

The user with administrator rights has the possibility to create a new pipeline. This pipeline has several phases that you can create individually.

Each phase has a description with a phase name.

The administrator also has the ability to edit the phases and add new ones.

You can also add an individual win probability to each phase. This win probability is important so that you can create meaningful sales forecasts.

Each deal you create is assigned a phase in the sales pipeline. You can drag and drop the deals between the individual pipeline phases.

You can sort your sales pipeline either as a Kanban board according to sales phases, as a list according to priorities, or as a calendar according to time sequence.

Each user has the possibility to manage several pipelines. In addition, a user can access the pipelines of another user if he has been granted the rights.

Pipedrive Contact Management & Customer Management

Managing your leads, contacts and customers without losing track of them is one of the core elements of a CRM system. It helps you keep track of your sales activities and know what’s next in the sales process.

Pipedrive sales activities

Pipedrive offers you the possibility to connect your calendar and your email address with Pipedrive.

This allows you to not have to constantly switch back and forth between different programs. The two-way email sync feature is offered from the Advanced price package.

In the activities you can select the list view. Then you will see all your sales activities in the form of a to-do list. The other option is to choose a calendar view.

Pipedrive offers you the following sales activities to which you can plan:

• Call
• Meeting
• Lunch
• Task
• Deadline
• Email

You also have the ability to access lists from other users if they have given you access to their sales activity.

Email

Email is still one of the most important means of communication in sales. In the Essential package, Pipedrive allows you to forward a copy of your email to Pipedrive via Smart BCC. To save you time when creating emails, Pipedrive allows you to create email templates.

Email lists allow you to send bulk emails to your lists from the contact list, leads, organizations, etc. This feature is available in the Professional version.

To stay informed about how successful your emails are, you can use the email tracking feature. The email tracking feature allows you to see which emails have been opened and which links in an email have been clicked.

Phone

In addition to email, the telephone is an important function for the salesperson. Pipedrive offers you a telephone function from the professional version. This telephone function is called Caller. With Caller, you can add your landline and mobile phone number to Pipedrive. This way you can track all your phone activities directly in Pipedrive and assign them to leads, contacts, and organizations.

Product Catalog

The product catalog function is available in Pipedrive from the Advanced version. With this function, you can create a product catalog with all your products.

In addition, the product catalog helps you to record prices and taxes directly in the product catalog. You can also add products directly from your product catalog when creating a deal.

Customer Management

Besides your sales activities, customer contact is the most important thing for you as a salesperson. In the contacts menu, you can manage all your contacts and organizations. The contacts are your contacts in the company. The organizations are the companies in which your contacts work.

Multiple contacts can be assigned to an organization. You can also assign a deal to a contact and an organization.

Pipedrive offers you a list view where you can manage your contacts and organizations. All data is sorted alphabetically and can be found easily.

Deals

In the pipeline overview, you have the possibility to add new deals. To each deal, you can add a

• Contact
• Organization
• Title
• Pipeline
• Pipeline Phase

to each deal. You can also add a product from the product catalog to each deal. The product catalog function is only available in the Advanced version. Each deal can be assigned to a phase in the pipeline. If you set a deal to lost, you have the option to specify the reason for the loss.

Once you have successfully closed your deal, you have the option to create templates for offers using the Smart Docs feature. To do this, you need to use Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive, SharePoint, so that you can use the Smart Docs feature of Pipedrive. After that you have the possibility to create offers in Google Docs or Word and connect them to Pipedrive.

Smart Docs is available in the Advanced version and higher. If you need features like enterprise-wide document sharing or eSignatures, you need the Smart Docs Pro version. The Smart Docs Pro version is available from the Professional version.

Bills

For invoicing and accounting you need an external solution. Unfortunately, there is currently no German software in the Pipedrive app store that natively supports this process.

Pipedrive CRM reports and sales forecasts

Want to know how your sales are doing? Pipedrive’s reports and sales forecasts show you all the information you need to make better decisions in your sales process.

Reports

The Pipedrive CRM reports feature offers you the possibility to analyze your different sales activities. Pipedrive shows the 10 different report templates you can choose from.

You also have the possibility to create individual reports about a selected period. You can create reports on sales activities, deals, and sales forecasts.

In your sales activities, you can measure how many sales activities you have planned and completed.

In Deals, you can see your performance, and how many you started, won, and lost. You can also measure the conversion rate for deals and the duration of your sales cycle.

To give you an overview of the reports, Pipedrive offers a dashboard where you can see all your most important analyses at a glance.

All reports can be downloaded as:

• Bar chart
• Bar chart
• Pie chart
• Scorecard
• Table

Sales forecasts

You can use Pipedrive’s sales forecasts to analyze how well your sales activities are performing between planned and realized.

When you create a report for a sales forecast, it is composed of the open deals and the won deals. The sales forecast calculates the secured value of the open deals. This secured value depends on your settings, and the probability of winning in the individual phases.

Sales targets

If you are the manager of a sales team, you can define goals for your team or individuals. These goals can be defined for the same categories as the reports: Sales Activities, Deals and Revenue Forecasts

In the goals menu, you can view the goals and the already achieved goals of the sales employees.

Pipedrive CRM Prices – Is it worth the money?

Pipedrive offers 4 different price packages. In addition, there is a free 14-day trial period, with which you can familiarize yourself with the features.

• Essential 18 euros a month
• Advanced 33 Euro per month
• Professional 59 Euro per month
• Enterprise 99 Euro per month (minimum 10 users)

Prices for monthly payment

Which price plan is right for me?

Essential – The Essential package provides the basic functionality to manage leads, customers, and deals. Unfortunately, there are no product catalog integrations with the Essential package. However, you do get the full features of contact and organization management. For email communication, you have the option to forward the email to Pipedrive. The two-way synchronization is only available in the Advanced version.

Advanced – The Advanced features mainly differ from the Essential package in that there is a product catalog. You also have the possibility to receive and send emails in Pipedrive. If you need more automation in your sales process, Advanced is a good alternative.

Professional – The Professional version offers the Caller function as an important feature. With the Caller function, you can make and track calls directly from Pipedrive. So you always have an overview if and when you have called.

Enterprise – As the name suggests, the Enterprise version is aimed at larger companies that use Pipedrive with at least 10 people. You also have the option to manage unlimited permissions. This makes sharing information in different teams easier.

Pipedrive CRM Extensions and Marketplace

Pipedrive offers several cost-effective ways to extend the software.

The right plugins for this are available in the Pipedrive Marketplace. The Marketplace offers you e.g. :

• Phone
• Live chat
• Email Marketing Software
• lead scoring

In total, the Pipedrive Marketplace offers over 150 apps that can help you extend Pipedrive. If you can’t find the right plugin, you can also use the Pipedrive API. With the Pipedrive API, you can connect your existing business tools with Pipedrive.

Pipedrive CRM Data Security & GDPR Compliance

Data security and GDPR compliance is an important topics when it comes to CRM systems. You store sensitive data in your CRM system, and you need to make sure that it is stored securely and in compliance with data protection laws.

Pipedrive complies with the latest data security standards and supports two-factor authentication for login. Pipedrive also creates a daily backup of all data stored on the Pipedrive servers. So if you accidentally delete data, Pipedrive can restore it on request.

Pipedrive is a data processor of the data you store on their server. Therefore, you should conclude a data processing contract with Pipedrive. You can conclude this contract directly in Pipedrive’s settings. Pipedrive’s data is stored on European servers. Pipedrive is GDPR compliant according to the latest regulation.

What customer support does Pipedrive offer?

The customer support at Pipedrive offers you different possibilities how you can be helped.

Pipedrive offers a 24/7 German live chat. The live chat is available for all price packages.

There is also a Pipedrive Academy where you can take advantage of various free courses to familiarize yourself with Pipedrive.

The user community gives you the opportunity to ask questions to Pipedrive users and experts.

There is also a help page that you can use if you prefer to help yourself. The help page explains the most important functions of Pipedrive in an easy and understandable way.

What Pipedrive alternatives are there?

There are many different CRM systems on the market. Each of them is positioned slightly differently. The best alternatives to Pipedrive are:

• Zoho CRM – Zoho CRM is positioned similarly to Pipedrive in terms of price and functionality. However, the user interface of Zoho CRM is not as intuitive as that of Pipedrive. If you are looking for an affordable CRM system and software that offers various business processes, Zoho CRM would be a good choice for you.
  
  
• Freshworks CRM – Freshworks CRM is positioned a little more expensive, but it also offers a much wider range of functions as far as marketing automation is concerned. In addition, Freshworks CRM is similarly intuitive to Pipedrive. On the other hand, Freshworks offers you other software similar to Zoho, which maps other business processes.

FAQ – Frequently asked questions

Conclusion: Final Verdict

We recommend Pipedrive CRM for Indian Businesses. On the one hand, it is easy to use and yet offers a wide range of functions. In addition, it is one of the few CRM systems that come from Europe and store its data in Europe. However, Pipedrive is a software that specializes in CRM and does not offer any other business processes.

If you’re looking for software that maps various business processes, software like Zoho CRM or Freshworks CRM would fit the bill. If you want to know how Pipedrive stacks up against its competition, you can see it in my CRM software for small businesses. Otherwise, you can take advantage of Pipedrive’s 14-day free trial to see for yourself.