Two Approaches to Sales Pipeline Execution
Sales leaders evaluating mid-market CRMs often find themselves comparing two well-known names: Base CRM (now known as Zendesk Sell) and Pipedrive. Both platforms gained popularity by rejecting the clunky, database-heavy design of legacy tools like Salesforce in favor of clean, rep-friendly workflows.
However, both products have evolved significantly in recent years:
- Pipedrive: Remained dedicated to activity-based selling and visual Kanban pipelines. Its strength is simplicity, though critical communication channels like telephony and WhatsApp are relegated to third-party add-ons.
- Base CRM (Zendesk Sell): Built strong native calling and email tracking before being acquired by Zendesk. Today, its roadmap is heavily oriented toward enterprise Zendesk support suites, making it less nimble for small, independent sales organizations.

