Why did you start using Pipedrive?

Mike van der Valk
Mike van der Valk Pipedrive Team Posts: 3,065 PIPEDRIVE TEAM
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edited July 2022 in Business Talk #1

Hi PipeDrivers 🚀 

At one point in time, you were all looking for a new tool to help you and your team get organized in your processes. 

We are curious to learn which tools you were considering at that time and why you eventually decided to join Pipedrive?

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  • RP1
    RP1 Member Posts: 18 VERIFIED MEMBER
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    edited February 2022 #2

    We were using Salesforce Enterprise for everything.. but Salesforce (even though we still use it for quoting and tracking customer assets) is absolutely terrible at tracking opportunities that are stuck or have little activity associated with them... it's also horrible to stare at in comparison! Pipedrive really helped us cleanup our pipeline and see where we needed to take action.

  • Mike van der Valk
    Mike van der Valk Pipedrive Team Posts: 3,065 PIPEDRIVE TEAM
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    edited June 2020 #3
    Michael said:

    We were using Salesforce Enterprise for everything.. but Salesforce (even though we still use it for quoting and tracking customer assets) is absolutely terrible at tracking opportunities that are stuck or have little activity associated with them... it's also horrible to stare at in comparison! Pipedrive really helped us cleanup our pipeline and see where we needed to take action.

    Thanks for sharing @Michael so the visual overview and the way the tool is set up to prompt you to take the next action if I understand you well :) 

  • Legbo Menegbo
    Legbo Menegbo Member Posts: 2 VERIFIED MEMBER
    edited February 2022 #4

    Why? To be effective!

  • Mike van der Valk
    Mike van der Valk Pipedrive Team Posts: 3,065 PIPEDRIVE TEAM
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    edited June 2020 #5

    Why? To be effective!

    🙏 and that's our goal, happy you've found that! Where there other tools you considered and why Pipedrive over these tools? @Legbo Menegbo 

  • Paul McKenna
    Paul McKenna Member Posts: 57 VERIFIED MEMBER
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    edited June 2020 #6

    Multiple pipelines and customisation.

  • Marco Govoni
    Marco Govoni Member Posts: 150 VERIFIED MEMBER
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    edited February 2022 #7

    I've tried Sellf and Zoho. But Pipedrive is another world :-)

  • Mike van der Valk
    Mike van der Valk Pipedrive Team Posts: 3,065 PIPEDRIVE TEAM
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    edited June 2020 #8

    I've tried Sellf and Zoho. But Pipedrive is another world :-)

    Thanks for the comments @Marco Govoni when you have a moment, I'd love to learn what specifically in Pipedrive you enjoy using over those other tools you tried out.

  • Arthur Leliveld
    Arthur Leliveld Member Posts: 2 VERIFIED MEMBER
    edited February 2022 #9

    Hi Mike,

    We where looking at all the classics, including salesforce, and had tried pipedrive in the past already to be fair. So when we decided to grow our salesteam we had an easy choice. Waste money on tools that do not deliver true pipeline management with an outstanding UX or spent too much on a tool that would not deliver the same results. So pipedrive it is for us, any time of the year ;)

    Regards

  • Mike van der Valk
    Mike van der Valk Pipedrive Team Posts: 3,065 PIPEDRIVE TEAM
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    edited June 2020 #10

    Hi Mike,

    We where looking at all the classics, including salesforce, and had tried pipedrive in the past already to be fair. So when we decided to grow our salesteam we had an easy choice. Waste money on tools that do not deliver true pipeline management with an outstanding UX or spent too much on a tool that would not deliver the same results. So pipedrive it is for us, any time of the year ;)

    Regards

    Thank you for the kind comments @Arthur Leliveld 😁

  • Bethany Ann George
    Bethany Ann George Member Posts: 26 VERIFIED MEMBER
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    edited June 2020 #11
    Michael said:

    We were using Salesforce Enterprise for everything.. but Salesforce (even though we still use it for quoting and tracking customer assets) is absolutely terrible at tracking opportunities that are stuck or have little activity associated with them... it's also horrible to stare at in comparison! Pipedrive really helped us cleanup our pipeline and see where we needed to take action.

    I have often wondered what others think of Salesforce in comparison. I used Salesforce as an employee of a bigger company, of which they did not spend time teaching us how to use it well. So it was more a task than a tool. Now, as a business owner, I use Pipedrive as an essential tool. And the key component is the Activity focus. Because sales is as much about the long term relationship and that isn't always something tracked in a sales funnel. 

  • Bethany Ann George
    Bethany Ann George Member Posts: 26 VERIFIED MEMBER
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    edited February 2022 #12

    I wanted a CRM that worked with my Relationship focused business. Most of my contacts are not and will not be customers directly. I network actively and build long term relationships with other business owners, so we can share referrals and connections because of our trust in one another. I needed a tool to nurture those relationships as much as follow up with potential clients. And to stay in touch with past clients as well. 

  • Mike van der Valk
    Mike van der Valk Pipedrive Team Posts: 3,065 PIPEDRIVE TEAM
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    edited June 2020 #13
    Michael said:

    We were using Salesforce Enterprise for everything.. but Salesforce (even though we still use it for quoting and tracking customer assets) is absolutely terrible at tracking opportunities that are stuck or have little activity associated with them... it's also horrible to stare at in comparison! Pipedrive really helped us cleanup our pipeline and see where we needed to take action.

    That's a great comment @Bethany Ann George thanks for sharing. You mentioned the word "teaching". How did you go about learning how to use Pipedrive vs learning how to use Salesforce?

  • Mike van der Valk
    Mike van der Valk Pipedrive Team Posts: 3,065 PIPEDRIVE TEAM
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    edited June 2020 #14

    I wanted a CRM that worked with my Relationship focused business. Most of my contacts are not and will not be customers directly. I network actively and build long term relationships with other business owners, so we can share referrals and connections because of our trust in one another. I needed a tool to nurture those relationships as much as follow up with potential clients. And to stay in touch with past clients as well. 

    @Bethany Ann George great! Thanks for sharing. I read up here you enjoy the activity focus, what are some other features you daily use that help you save time and focus?

  • Andy Thomas
    Andy Thomas Member Posts: 2 VERIFIED MEMBER
    edited February 2022 #15

    When I set the company up 8 years ago we went for sales force as I was very impressed with the Dreamforce event I attended. I liked Salesforce, but it was complicated and expensive. We did a lot of research on other CRM tools and went with Pipedrive for its focus on driving sales, being easily customisable (without having to pay an external company), and good value for money. There is still a lot we could be using on Pipedrive, so I want to learn more about the features to be more efficient.

    I have been very impressed with the new features being released on Pipedrive such as mass emails, phone integration and reporting (although I need to use this better). 

    I am a big fan of Pipedrive.

  • Mike van der Valk
    Mike van der Valk Pipedrive Team Posts: 3,065 PIPEDRIVE TEAM
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    edited June 2020 #16

    When I set the company up 8 years ago we went for sales force as I was very impressed with the Dreamforce event I attended. I liked Salesforce, but it was complicated and expensive. We did a lot of research on other CRM tools and went with Pipedrive for its focus on driving sales, being easily customisable (without having to pay an external company), and good value for money. There is still a lot we could be using on Pipedrive, so I want to learn more about the features to be more efficient.

    I have been very impressed with the new features being released on Pipedrive such as mass emails, phone integration and reporting (although I need to use this better). 

    I am a big fan of Pipedrive.

    Hi @Andy Thomas glad to read your comments and have you on board in our community. I see you feel there's still things we can improve in the tool and you can with the use of it. I recommend sharing your questions and feedback right in this community and we'll all improve together 

  • Bethany Ann George
    Bethany Ann George Member Posts: 26 VERIFIED MEMBER
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    edited June 2020 #17

    I wanted a CRM that worked with my Relationship focused business. Most of my contacts are not and will not be customers directly. I network actively and build long term relationships with other business owners, so we can share referrals and connections because of our trust in one another. I needed a tool to nurture those relationships as much as follow up with potential clients. And to stay in touch with past clients as well. 

    I really like the automation and email sync. It helps keep everything organized. When I need to refresh myself on previous conversations with someone (via email) I love being able to just look under their contact info in Pipedrive and have all our emails there. 

    I DO wish there was a way to pull in information from conversations via facebook and linkedin messager.

  • Bethany Ann George
    Bethany Ann George Member Posts: 26 VERIFIED MEMBER
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    edited July 2020 #18
    Michael said:

    We were using Salesforce Enterprise for everything.. but Salesforce (even though we still use it for quoting and tracking customer assets) is absolutely terrible at tracking opportunities that are stuck or have little activity associated with them... it's also horrible to stare at in comparison! Pipedrive really helped us cleanup our pipeline and see where we needed to take action.

    With Salesforce, it was hard to find time to seek out resources to learn how to use the program effectively. I find this the case with ANY CRM though, even Pipedrive. The #1 reason most of my clients do not have a CRM is that they don't "have time" to learn how to use it. (yes, pipedrive has good resources, and I admit, even I struggle to find details instructions for very specific questions within those resources). That trial and error time suck usually leads many professionals to doing without. 

    That said, I am invested in knowing the ins and outs of Pipedrive. As the value of a quality CRM is essential to what I teach my clients. And I literally train them on the software. 

  • Mike van der Valk
    Mike van der Valk Pipedrive Team Posts: 3,065 PIPEDRIVE TEAM
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    edited June 2020 #19

    I wanted a CRM that worked with my Relationship focused business. Most of my contacts are not and will not be customers directly. I network actively and build long term relationships with other business owners, so we can share referrals and connections because of our trust in one another. I needed a tool to nurture those relationships as much as follow up with potential clients. And to stay in touch with past clients as well. 

    Hi @Bethany Ann George thanks for sharing. Feel free to put any suggestions in our "feedback and feature suggestions" section here. Potentially you cal already look into connecting via Zapier.

  • Bethany Ann George
    Bethany Ann George Member Posts: 26 VERIFIED MEMBER
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    edited June 2020 #20

    I wanted a CRM that worked with my Relationship focused business. Most of my contacts are not and will not be customers directly. I network actively and build long term relationships with other business owners, so we can share referrals and connections because of our trust in one another. I needed a tool to nurture those relationships as much as follow up with potential clients. And to stay in touch with past clients as well. 

    I think the trouble with Facebook messager is that it only allows a tool like Zapier on Pages, not personal profiles. And for many of my clients who I work with, they connect with people on the personal level first. Not interacting via their page. 

    And I will mention it in the feedback and suggestions. Thanks for that link!

  • Brad Tindall_3303
    Brad Tindall_3303 Member Posts: 7 VERIFIED MEMBER
    edited February 2022 #21

    I looked at Hubspot, but the CRM was very average, and found their email integrations to be weak with a few deal breakers as our company is very heavy on email for engineering projects. I'm sure their marketing side is good but not important if the sales side is weak. 

    Also considered Salesforce, but after 5 hours of Trailhead and not knowing how to enter a customer (I have over 5 years CRM experience) it really seemed like a pain regardless of company size. 

    Had a quicker look at Agile, Copper, but found deal breakers for our model quickly. 

    Pipedrive has helped us get organized and stay on task. Thanks!

  • Jeferson Umezaki
    Jeferson Umezaki Member Posts: 25 VERIFIED MEMBER
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    edited February 2022 #22

    I searched and found Pipedrive because I was losing control of so much information to be managed, and of course lots of contacts being forgotten and lost on emails sent, excel files, and paper files :(

    Fortunately, Pipedrive fit and I am glad to keep using it and also helping others to grow and learn every day.

    I remember trying Salesforce and Hubspot before deciding to choose PIpedrive.

    Sales forecast is possible with concrete data in the right fields, and that is what Pipedrive can bring besides many other features! Thank you always!

  • Mike van der Valk
    Mike van der Valk Pipedrive Team Posts: 3,065 PIPEDRIVE TEAM
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    edited July 2020 #23

    I looked at Hubspot, but the CRM was very average, and found their email integrations to be weak with a few deal breakers as our company is very heavy on email for engineering projects. I'm sure their marketing side is good but not important if the sales side is weak. 

    Also considered Salesforce, but after 5 hours of Trailhead and not knowing how to enter a customer (I have over 5 years CRM experience) it really seemed like a pain regardless of company size. 

    Had a quicker look at Agile, Copper, but found deal breakers for our model quickly. 

    Pipedrive has helped us get organized and stay on task. Thanks!

    @Brad Tindall thank you for your contribution! If you can, please do share what functionality you enjoy the most in Pipedrive or what convinced you to join? :) 

  • Mike van der Valk
    Mike van der Valk Pipedrive Team Posts: 3,065 PIPEDRIVE TEAM
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    edited July 2020 #24

    I searched and found Pipedrive because I was losing control of so much information to be managed, and of course lots of contacts being forgotten and lost on emails sent, excel files, and paper files :(

    Fortunately, Pipedrive fit and I am glad to keep using it and also helping others to grow and learn every day.

    I remember trying Salesforce and Hubspot before deciding to choose PIpedrive.

    Sales forecast is possible with concrete data in the right fields, and that is what Pipedrive can bring besides many other features! Thank you always!

    Love your comment, thanks for sharing @Jeferson Umezaki !

  • Bruno Martins
    Bruno Martins Member Posts: 1 VERIFIED MEMBER
    edited February 2022 #25

    The progress you guys had was amazing. I'm pipedrive user since 2013-14 and stopped using last year and just back few days ago. For my suprise, you vanish our great progress bar, changing for a incomplete insights what we can't set any goals for our sales team or get information how many and wich products we sell monthly. Missing old pipedrive days. =/

  • Mike van der Valk
    Mike van der Valk Pipedrive Team Posts: 3,065 PIPEDRIVE TEAM
    2500 Comments Fourth Anniversary 100 Likes 5 Answers
    edited July 2020 #26

    The progress you guys had was amazing. I'm pipedrive user since 2013-14 and stopped using last year and just back few days ago. For my suprise, you vanish our great progress bar, changing for a incomplete insights what we can't set any goals for our sales team or get information how many and wich products we sell monthly. Missing old pipedrive days. =/

    Hi @Bruno Martins  Goals should still be available as well as product reporting. 

    Just so you know. We will be depreciating the old reports and fully move to Insights for all customers but of course only when this includes also products reporting and goal setting.

    Could you please reach out to our support team via the in-app chat or support@pipedrive.com so they can check out your specific account and make sure these features will become available for you as they should be.

  • Alexander Olsen
    Alexander Olsen Member Posts: 1 VERIFIED MEMBER
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    edited February 2022 #27

    I'm the exact opposite of most in this thread I can see. I am strongly considering changing to another CRM as Pipedrive is not handling any of my processes satisfactory. It seems that if I want basic functions like mass merging, uploading more than one contact per organisation etc I will need to invest in a 3rd party product. 

    It seems to be a CRM only for businesses with a simplified lead generation and sales process.

  • Christopher Daly
    Christopher Daly Member Posts: 23 VERIFIED MEMBER
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    edited February 2022 #28

    I have been using PipeDrive for several years now - it fits well for my business and I recommend it to clients and friends all the time.  PipeDrive is a superior SalesCRM; fully customizable contacts, organizations, products and deals.  Unlimited pipelines and configurations - you would be surprised at some that I have seen and worked on and how people are connecting through Pipedrive.  My first CRM was of course SFDC - on 9/11 I was updating SFDC so I remember that I have been using it for a very long time.  But SFDC is an old cumbersome platform and other CRM's are just righteously expensive.  It's a great tool for productivity.  The forms are good but could use a style upgrade and a better captcha but the recent addition of Docs and Quotes and Proposals is a BIG deal because quotes are how my business works.  We deliver a "boiler plate template" agreement and then all of our work is done through quotes that are an addendum to the agreement.  It makes selling and cross-selling and up-selling and ABM so much more efficient.  

    I ama a PipeDrive customer for life!

  • Brad Tindall_3303
    Brad Tindall_3303 Member Posts: 7 VERIFIED MEMBER
    edited July 2020 #29

    I'm the exact opposite of most in this thread I can see. I am strongly considering changing to another CRM as Pipedrive is not handling any of my processes satisfactory. It seems that if I want basic functions like mass merging, uploading more than one contact per organisation etc I will need to invest in a 3rd party product. 

    It seems to be a CRM only for businesses with a simplified lead generation and sales process.

    Yes, mass contact management is definitely a limitation. I had an issue where I switched contacts from one way to two way and got thousands of duplicates back into my system. I was pretty angry. To my surprise, Dedupely solves the issue in literally 15 minutes.... I agree though that having advanced contact management inside Pipedrive would be much better.... I’ve seen regular upgrades to Pipedrive and I think they are the ones to stick with, but some limitations for sure. 

  • Christopher Daly
    Christopher Daly Member Posts: 23 VERIFIED MEMBER
    10 Comments
    edited July 2020 #30

    I'm the exact opposite of most in this thread I can see. I am strongly considering changing to another CRM as Pipedrive is not handling any of my processes satisfactory. It seems that if I want basic functions like mass merging, uploading more than one contact per organisation etc I will need to invest in a 3rd party product. 

    It seems to be a CRM only for businesses with a simplified lead generation and sales process.

    Most CRMs have the duplicate function allowed natively.  In matching there are different levels of restriction to matching loose matching means that if only a few characters in a string match then the records are deemed to be a match.  If the matching is tight, it means a larger number of characters have to match exactly in order to be deemed a dupe.  Tight matching allows more duplicates to flow in - most CRM follow that because people get more frustrated when contacts are left out rather than allowed in.  Dedupley is one of the better tools for rapidly cleaning your contacts and merging information together very nicely.  

    I have clients in HubSpot and you should see the massive volume of duplicates they get.  Organizations are duplicated because the client works with schools and the schools use a .k12 for their email domain and a .org for their web-domain.  The messy part is that once you clean it up, the logic is still in place to let it happen again.  You have to keep Dedupley for awhile.

  • Brad Tindall_3303
    Brad Tindall_3303 Member Posts: 7 VERIFIED MEMBER
    edited July 2020 #31

    I'm the exact opposite of most in this thread I can see. I am strongly considering changing to another CRM as Pipedrive is not handling any of my processes satisfactory. It seems that if I want basic functions like mass merging, uploading more than one contact per organisation etc I will need to invest in a 3rd party product. 

    It seems to be a CRM only for businesses with a simplified lead generation and sales process.

    I agree.... it should be native. I'm sure they are aware of this, but their stat reporting is also very weak at the moment, and they are trying to get that moving forward.... a lot to be happy with using Pipedrive, but endless room for improvement as well.

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