Pipedrive Vs. Pipeline CRM 2023: Final Verdict for Small Businesses

Great pipeline management can be the secret weapon for empowering your sales team to succeed (while scaling your sales process).

With Pipedrive, you get a complete picture of your sales pipeline to help you achieve the following:

• Keep track of every stage of your deals, from leads to closed sales
• Automate repetitive administrative tasks that eat up your precious time
• Have a clear and organized overview of your team’s sales performance
• Effortlessly schedule appointments and follow-ups with clients (directly from the sales pipeline)

It’s easy to use, affordable and offers a strong set of features that can help any SMB manage their pipeline deals like it’s nothing. 

We tested this feature (over six months) by adding in some of our affiliate marketing deals. 

Here’s how a “new deal” card looks (to give you a better idea). 

Within each card, we could easily add and edit the following info:

• Name
• Organization
• Value
• Pipeline stage
• Probability
• Expected close date 
• Associated contacts

Once we had all of our deals input, we could easily drag and drop them to the appropriate stages on our sales pipeline (shown below).

Plus, we could easily schedule an activity for each deal by clicking directly on the pipeline. 

Here’s a sneak peek at the activity scheduling process during our testing.

The bottom line: Pipedrive’s pipeline management is user-friendly and offers all the essential features you need to stay organized and on top of your sales process. 

In fact, based on all the CRMs we’ve tested, it’s got some of the best pipeline management in the game!

As your company grows, managing your projects can become a huge headache. 

That’s where Pipedrive comes in. For an additional $8/month, you get many tools to help your team tackle projects like a boss.

With Pipedrive Projects, you get the following:

• Customizable templates for different types of projects
• Task assignments and deadlines
• Progress tracking
• File storage and sharing for project-related documents

During our testing, this feature was incredibly helpful for getting our team on the same page and ensuring projects were completed on time.

We especially loved Pipedrive’s helpful project templates, which essentially made it so we didn’t have to create the same project from scratch every time. 

Here’s an example of the template creation process (to give you a better idea). 

Throughout our sixth-month testing period, we created and managed several projects with Pipedrive. 

Check out one that we created to roll out our newsletter. 

We were able to customize the following project fields:

• Associated template
• Title
• Start & end date
• Project board
• Project phase
• Owner
• Associated deals
• Associated contacts 

As you can see, there was a ton of information at our fingertips with each project. 

This gave us a top-down view of our project progress, as well as the ability to quickly see which team members were assigned to specific tasks. 

The nuts and bolts: This feature can help you save time and streamline your team’s project management process—a plus for any growing SMB.

With Pipedrive, workflow automation is a game-changer. 

It eliminates manual tasks, allowing you and your team to focus on what truly matters—closing deals and building customer relationships. 

Let’s break down what Pipedrive’s workflow automation brings to the table:

• Progress bar: This dynamic tool shows you the status of your deal in real time, so you always know where things stand. It adjusts automatically as tasks get done, giving you a clear picture of each deal’s progress. No more guessing or wasting time scrolling through spreadsheets. With the progress bar, you’re always in the loop.
• Notifications: Pipedrive’s workflow automation sends you instant notifications for progress updates or any necessary changes in tasks or deals. Whether it’s a deal moving to the next stage or a task approaching its deadline, Pipedrive keeps you informed so you can act quickly and stay on top of things.
• Custom workflows: Every business is unique, and so are its sales processes. Pipedrive understands this and offers custom workflows tailored to your specific needs. You can build workflows that match your sales process, automate tasks, and ensure consistency. This level of customization makes Pipedrive flexible and valuable for small and medium-sized businesses.

The bottom line: By offering these capabilities, Pipedrive’s workflow automation feature boosts efficiency, enhances deal tracking, and, ultimately, helps SMBs like yours close more deals with less effort.

Pipedrive offers the ability to create powerful email campaigns (for an additional $16/month). 

This feature is well worth the price of admission (in our opinion).

With Pipedrive’s campaigns, you gain access to the following:

• Gorgeous email templates
• Email tracking and analytics
• Personalization options
• Automated email sequences
• A drag-and-drop editor 

We tested this feature by creating tons of email campaigns over six months. 

Let’s walk you through our experience. 

To get started, we selected from one of Pipedrive’s helpful email templates (pictured below). 

From there, we were taken to the email editor, which featured a helpful drag-and-drop interface. 

We found the editor (shown below) easy to use and navigate, even for those with no prior experience in email marketing. 

We were able to easily add the following to each email:

• Text
• Images
• Buttons
• Social links
• Icons
• Custom code
• Video

Once our email was customized to our liking, we could save it as a new template for future use (or schedule and send it off immediately). 

The email tracking and analytics feature gave us valuable insights into how our campaigns were performing.

This helped us make informed decisions about our email marketing strategy moving forward.

Additionally, the personalization options and automated email sequences allowed us to target specific contacts and send out personalized emails at predetermined times. 

Overall, we found Pipedrive’s campaign feature is a great addition for any SMB looking to up their email marketing game. 

Managing customer data effectively is a crucial aspect of any good CRM, and Pipedrive doesn’t disappoint. 

To really test this feature, we added in some of our B2B affiliate marketing contacts. 

We found that Pipedrive offers a clean, user-friendly CRM interface for managing your contacts. 

It provides easy access to valuable data points at just a glance. Don’t just take our word for it, though!

Here’s a quick look at a “new contact” card for context.

During our six-month testing period, there were several aspects of Pipedrive’s contact management that we thought were awesome. 

This includes the following:

• Intuitive design: The contact card layout is easy to understand at a glance, making it simple to navigate and find the information needed. This allowed for quick and efficient access to customer data.
• Custom fields: The ability to add our own fields to the contact card enabled us to tailor the information to our specific needs, enhancing the overall utility and flexibility of the platform.
• Data import/export: We found the data import and export functions to be smooth and error-free, making it easy to integrate with other tools and platforms we were using.
• Activity tracking: The platform allowed us to track all interactions with each contact, providing a comprehensive overview of the customer journey.
• Deal association: We could associate deals with specific contacts, offering a clear view of potential and ongoing deals for each contact.

The wrap-up: Pipedrive’s customer data management feature offers a robust and flexible solution for maintaining up-to-date, accessible, and organized customer information. 

Pipedrive’s activity tracker is efficient (especially as your company grows and tasks get more complex). 

It’s a comprehensive tool that gives you a clear view of all your scheduled activities daily.

And the best part? You can easily add or modify activities right from the dashboard.

During our six-month testing phase, we used this feature extensively and found it offered the following benefits:

• Streamlined tasks: The activity tracker ensured we didn’t miss a single important task, as all our activities were clearly laid out in one place.
• Task priority management: We could set different priority levels for each task and easily drag and drop them according to their urgency.
• Comprehensive activity cards: The activity cards provided a detailed overview of each task, including due dates, associated contacts or deals, and any relevant notes.
• Effective notification system: With Pipedrive’s activity tracker, we never missed a deadline or important update thanks to the instant notifications it sent us for any changes in tasks or deals.

Let’s look at a specific example—we scheduled a meeting to negotiate an affiliate partnership (shown below).

We really liked the ability to see our calendar view from within each card, eliminating potential double bookings while scheduling an activity. 

Our final thoughts: If you want to improve productivity and organization within your SMB, Pipedrive’s activity tracker is a must-have feature. 

Pipedrive offers fantastic lead prospecting, nurturing, and management capabilities with its LeadBooster add-on. 

This feature is available for a whopping $39/month (and it’s absolutely worth the price tag). 

With LeadBooster, you instantly gain access to the following:

• Chatbot:  Engage with website visitors and capture their information, even when you’re not online. It’s a powerful tool for lead generation and customer service.
• Web forms: Create custom forms to capture leads from your website, social media, and other channels. These forms can be synced with Pipedrive for easy management.
• Prospector: Efficiently search and manage potential leads using advanced filters and lead-scoring capabilities.
• Live chat: Engage with leads in real-time, qualify them, and easily transfer them to the appropriate salesperson for further follow-up.

These features encompass an all-in-one kit for enhanced lead generation and conversion. 

For sales teams aiming to strengthen their sales endeavors drastically, these features are a revelation. 

Overall, Pipedrive’s LeadBooster is a worthy investment for SMBs seeking to level up their game.