How to Use Pipedrive CRM: A Practical Overview

What’s more frustrating than losing a deal? Probably not knowing how it slipped through your fingers. Often, it’s something simple. An email your team forgot to reply to, or a follow up that came too late. But without the right systems in place, you’re left in the dark. That’s where Pipedrive CRM comes in. 

Designed specially for sales automation, the Pipedrive CRM system is robust, reliable, and surprisingly straightforward to use. It’s there to simplify and clarify your pipeline, so you close more deals, without the chaos and confusion.  

It might be as advanced as something like Salesforce, but if you’re looking for an easy way to upgrade your B2B e-commerce strategy and boost revenue, Pipe CRM could be the answer – particularly if you implement it with a little help from an expert, like Routine Automation.  

What is Pipedrive CRM? 

Pipedrive CRM is a cloud-based sales tool that doesn’t get in your way. It’s built for reps. Not marketers. Not ops. Just people trying to move deals from “maybe” to “closed.” 

You open the platform, and there’s your pipeline, laid out like a board. Columns for stages. Cards for deals. You move a deal forward by dragging it into the next stage. That’s it. Everything you need is attached to that card: emails, notes, reminders, files. It’s all there. 

The whole thing is built to be customized. Want your own stages? Easy. Need extra fields? Done. Managing two different pipelines? No problem. 

Pipedrive CRM software isn’t just user-friendly, though. It’s helpful. You get automation without needing to write code. You get follow-up reminders that actually make sense. Even the mobile app is fast, and feature-rich.  

It works for startups, agencies, service firms, real-estate teams, coaches, and freelancers – anyone who needs to sell fast, and scale. A lot of companies using Pipedrive started small and stuck around. 

Pipedrive sales CRM also integrates with the tools you use – more than 400 apps, ranging from Slack and Zoom, to QuickBooks and Gmail.  

How Does Pipedrive Work?  

Each card has the full story: contacts, past emails, call notes, next steps. You don’t go digging. It’s already there. Set a reminder. Log a call. Send a quick email. You can even track opens and clicks, which helps way more than you’d think. It even syncs with Gmail and Outlook. Once it’s hooked up, your calendar, emails, and meetings just slide in naturally. 

Automation is baked in. You can build simple rules, send a follow-up when a deal hits a stage, assign a task if no activity for five days, stuff like that. It’s not trying to run your business, just clean up the repetitive stuff so you don’t miss anything.  

Reporting is solid. You get deal velocity, close rates, rep performance, all the basics. Some users hit limits with custom reporting in the lower plans, but higher tiers open up more options.  

That’s the trick with Pipedrive CRM system. It helps you stay on top of your deals without slowing you down. It feels like a checklist, not a chore. 

Key Pipedrive Features 

Everything in Pipedrive is built around momentum. It’s not just a place to park your leads. It’s made to help you actually move things forward, one call, email, or next step at a time. 

Here’s how it does that. 

Sales Automation Tools 

Most sales tools offer automation. Pipedrive CRM actually makes it usable. You don’t need to sit through a two-hour webinar just to set up a basic rule. There are 36 customizable workflow templates already bult in, and depending on your plan, you can create up to 180 of your own.  

Options range from welcome campaigns, to follow-ups, reminder strategies, and team notifications. There’s also a visual workflow builder. It lets you stack your logic, “If this, then that”, without getting into code. You’re not automating for fun. You’re buying back time so your reps can actually sell. 

Pipedrive also has tools for capturing prospect data from the web, CPQs, and AI tools for writing emails, or following up with leads automatically.  

Email Marketing Functionality

Campaigns is one of the most impressive Pipedrive features, allowing sales teams to manage entire email strategies without a separate app. You can write, send, and track emails straight from Pipedrive. You’ll know when someone opens your message, clicks a link, or never even looked at it. 

Templates are there too, so your team doesn’t reinvent the wheel every time they reach out. You can personalize them quickly and get back to the good part: the conversation. If you’re using Gmail or Outlook, syncing is smooth. Everything shows up in one place, without double-entry or weird formatting. Notably though, you do have to pay for every 1000 contacts above the initial limit.  

Project Management Add-ons  

If you want to go beyond closing a deal and actually track what happens next, deliverables, milestones, client handoffs, the Projects add-on covers that. 

It’s similar to Trello, but aligned with the other Pipedrive small business features. You can create task boards, assign owners, set deadlines, and organize work around your closed deals. Honestly, it probably won’t replace a full project management suite. 

But if you’re looking for something simple for sales-based work, it’s a good tool. You can also choose to integrate straight with Asana or Trello instead.  

Lead Generation Tools 

With Pipedrive CRM software, lead capture is built in. Web forms, a live chat tool, and a sales chatbot (called LeadBooster) can all feed leads right into your pipeline. 

You can qualify leads on the spot, route them to the right rep, and start your process without delay. 

The Prospector tool even lets you search through a B2B database for leads that match your criteria. It’s like outbound done with a little less guesswork. 

Website Visitor Tracking  

Curious who’s lurking on your pricing page? The Website Visitors feature shows you which companies are browsing your site, what pages they’re looking at. Sometimes, you can even see how often they’ve been back. That means your reps can prioritize leads based on interest, without waiting for someone to fill out a form. 

You’ll also be able to use the customer segmentation tools to keep track of everyone, wherever they are in the sales funnel. You can even create custom sub-groups based on pre-programmed filters.  

Document Templates & E-signatures 

You can store proposal templates, contracts, and pricing decks inside Pipedrive. Once you’re ready to send something out, just fill in the blanks and hit send. With Smart Docs (another add-on), you can even track opens and get e-signatures without switching tools. 

It’s not DocuSign-level deep, but for most teams, it’s plenty. Plus, the Smart Docs feature syncs your data with all of your cloud storage platforms automatically too.  

CRM Integrations 

You know how it feels when everything works together and you’re not constantly switching tabs or copy-pasting between tools? 

That’s what you get with the Pipedrive CRM system. It connects with over 400 apps: Slack, Zoom, Trello, QuickBooks, Zapier, Mailchimp, Calendly, and a bunch more. You can also use its open API if you’ve got devs on hand. There’s also a bunch of apps to help with sales strategies.  

For instance, Engage AI helps you track the people you follow on social media and respond quickly to comments. LeadsBridge connects your account to social and paid search platforms. Plenty of tools are particularly good for aligning key metrics and KPIs for B2B e-commerce.  

Companies Using Pipedrive 

Pipedrive is built for teams that need visibility and speed. If your work depends on following up at the right time, juggling multiple deals, or keeping a sales team on track, this tool will feel like a relief. It’s used by more than 100,000 companies in 179 countries.  

It’s not just for software companies or startups either . You’ll find companies using Pipedrive in real estate, manufacturing, logistics, insurance, consulting, law, healthcare services, education, and agencies of all kinds. 

Pipedrive small business customers like that it feels tailored to them. It’s not bloated with enterprise extras. You get exactly what you need, and none of what you don’t. 

The platform supports over 20 languages and offers user-based permissions, so it’s also a solid pick for global or distributed teams who want to stay tightly synced. 

How to Use Pipedrive  

Honestly, the great thing about Pipedrive Sales CRM, is its designed to be simple. There’s no super-long onboarding process, and not much of a learning curve. You could be up and running within an hour. Here’s what that first setup usually looks like: 

1. Set Up Your Pipeline 

Start with what you already know—your basic sales process. “New lead → Contacted → Proposal sent → Negotiation → Closed.” That’s your first pipeline. You can add more stages or pipelines later if you need them. 

2. Import Your Contacts

Pull in leads from a spreadsheet, Gmail, Outlook, wherever they live. The system sorts and maps them into the right fields. If anything’s messy or duplicated, it helps you clean that up fast. 

3. Add Deals

Each deal gets its own card. Assign an owner, link it to a contact, plug in a value and an estimated close date. Now you’ve got something real to work with. 

4. Log Your Activities

You can log calls, emails, meetings, anything related to a deal. Over time, you’ll see a clear timeline for each one. So even if someone new steps in, they won’t be lost. 

5. Use Reminders & Automation

Let’s say a deal is sitting in “Proposal Sent” for too long. Pipedrive can automatically create a follow-up task. Or you can build a simple rule to send out a check-in email. Nothing complicated, just enough to keep things moving.  

Want to go a bit further? There’s a knowledge base packed with short how-tos, plus webinars if you want extra guidance.  

Common Pipedrive Issues  

If you’ve been looking into Pipedrive pros and cons, you already know there are issues. No platform is perfect, and Pipedrive issues do come up, especially depending on how complex your workflow is. 

Here are a few things to watch out for: 

1. Limited Advanced Reporting 

The default dashboards work well for most teams. You get views on deals, activities, close rates, and sales cycle lengths. But if you need layered, cross-object reporting (like tracking lead source ROI across regions), you might outgrow the built-in options unless you upgrade or use a reporting integration. 

2. Add-On Overload 

Some of the features you’d expect to be included—like e-signatures, document tracking, or lead gen tools require paid add-ons. That can make pricing feel less transparent, especially if you’re scaling up. 

3. No Built-In Lead Scoring 

There’s no native way to rank leads automatically based on engagement or behavior. You can create custom fields and workarounds, but you’ll need another tool (or a smart Zapier setup) to get full scoring logic in place. 

4. Limited Fit Complex Sales Orgs 

If your team needs multi-tiered approval flows, multi-currency quoting, deep forecasting, or custom app logic, the Pipedrive CRM system probably isn’t your forever solution. It’s not built to compete with Salesforce or Dynamics on enterprise-level needs. 

That said, for sales teams that want speed, structure, and visibility without bloat? It’s a solid choice. 

Pipedrive Best Practices 

Even the best tool can turn into a mess if it’s not used right. Pipedrive CRM keeps things simple, but that doesn’t mean “set it and forget it.” 

Here’s how to get the most out of it. 

Keep Your Pipelines Clean 

One pipeline is usually enough when you start. If you start making ten different pipelines for every product, region, or campaign, things get fuzzy fast. Keep it simple until you absolutely need complexity. 

Reps should review their pipeline every day, or at least a few times a week. No point in dragging around stale deals that haven’t moved in three months. 

Customize Your Fields 

Pipe drive CRM gives you control over what data you collect. Use custom fields that match your sales process. If you’re always asking about budget or onboarding timelines, make those part of every deal card. 

Custom fields keep your team focused on the stuff that matters—and cut down on “miscellaneous notes” that no one reads. 

Automate the Boring Stuff 

Set up workflows to send follow-up emails, assign tasks, or move deals based on activity. This is going to save you a lot of time and energy. You don’t want reps spending brainpower on reminders. 

Start small. One or two rules that help your team get time back. Once that’s running, expand from there. Keep experimenting.  

Use Visibility Settings 

As your team grows, permissions matter. You don’t want every intern seeing every deal, or a new hire accidentally editing someone else’s pipeline. 

Set up visibility groups, assign deal owners, and create teams so everything stays neat and secure. 

Review and Clean Data Regularly

Nothing kills trust in a CRM faster than bad data. Build a habit, weekly, biweekly, whatever works, to go in, archive cold deals, and fix missing info. Your reports will be better, and your team will stop second-guessing what they see. 

Key Benefits of Pipedrive  

It’s not perfect, but there’s a reason so many teams stick with Pipedrive CRM even after testing flashier platforms. 

Here’s what keeps people around: 

Pipedrive Pricing Overview 

One of the good things about Pipedrive? It keeps pricing simple. You won’t have to hunt for a hidden quote or sit through a sales demo just to get a number. 

There are five plans: 

You get a discount if you pay annually. Most teams start with Advanced or Professional since that’s where automation and email tracking come in. The Essential plan is solid if you’re just getting organized: visual pipeline, contact management, and deal tracking are all there. But if you’re planning to scale or automate anything, you’ll likely want to start one tier up. 

A few features, like Smart Docs, LeadBooster, and Web Visitors, come as paid add-ons. This is where some users mention Pipedrive issues, you might expect certain things to be included and find out they’re separate. Still, compared to competitors, it’s affordable and transparent. No mandatory onboarding fees, no surprise “pro-only” buttons once you get inside. 

Pipedrive vs Other CRMs: Honest Comparison  

Pipedrive doesn’t try to be the most comprehensive CRM. It’s focused on simplicity and sales. If your team needs more advanced features, deep forecasting and cutting-edge AI, something like Salesforce probably makes more sense. But it still stacks up well against most competitors:  

This isn’t about finding “the best CRM.” It’s about choosing one that matches how your team works now, and can grow with you later. 

Find the Right CRM for Your Business

Not every CRM is built the same. We help companies evaluate platforms like Pipedrive, HubSpot, and Salesforce, and design workflows that actually work.

Compare HubSpot vs Salesforce

Final Thoughts on Pipedrive  

If your team’s juggling spreadsheets, forgetting follow-ups, or quietly avoiding your current CRM… you’re probably overdue for a change. Pipedrive CRM won’t solve everything overnight, but it can make a surprising difference. 

The UI is clean. The setup is fast. The mobile app is better than you’d expect. You get automation, smart reminders, and integrations that actually make life easier. When something feels missing, you usually find it in the add-ons or Marketplace. 

Pipedrive CRM is especially useful for small to mid-sized sales teams that want clarity and speed. If you’re more focused on closing deals than configuring dashboards, this is probably the kind of tool you’ve been hoping for. 

Need help figuring out if it’s the right fit for your business, or whether another CRM might work better? That’s exactly what we do at Routine Automation.