What Is a Marketing Automation Platform? (And Do You Need One)
Marketing automation platforms are growing fast in search interest, but what do they actually do? Here's a plain-English breakdown, and how to know if your business is ready for one.
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When business owners hear "CRM migration," most immediately think about one cost: the new software subscription. But the subscription is usually the smallest line item.
The real costs - the ones that catch people off guard - are the hours your team loses, the deals that slip through the cracks, the training time you didn't budget for, and the price of fixing a botched data migration after the fact.
This post breaks down every cost you should plan for, and how to keep each one as low as possible.
Let's start with the obvious one.
At the time of publishing, Zendesk Sell pricing ranges from approximately US$19 to US$169 per user/month, depending on the plan and billing arrangement.
Pipedrive pricing currently ranges from approximately US$14 to US$79 per seat/month when billed annually, across its Lite, Growth, Premium and Ultimate plans.
For a team of 10, that puts Pipedrive at approximately:
Depending on the features your team needs and the Zendesk Sell plan you're moving from, Pipedrive may offer a lower ongoing software cost. For example, 10 seats on Pipedrive Premium are approximately US$590/month when billed annually, compared with approximately US$1,150/month for 10 users on Zendesk Sell Professional based on published list pricing.
Pricing is indicative and based on publicly available list prices at the time of publishing. Actual pricing may vary depending on billing frequency, currency, location, add-ons, discounts and individual agreements.
How to keep this cost low:
This is the cost most people underestimate (or skip entirely), which creates much larger costs down the road.
Zendesk Sell allows you to export core CRM data to CSV, including leads, contacts, deals, notes and tasks, which can then be manually imported into Pipedrive.
However, the native export does not include activity history, appointments, emails, call logs or documents, so a DIY migration may not bring across your complete sales history. These records may require separate handling through APIs, connected email or calendar providers, third-party migration tools or other methods.
While the software cost of a DIY migration may be minimal, you’ll need to account for the time involved in cleaning data, recreating fields, mapping records, importing and validating everything in Pipedrive.
See Zendesk’s Sell export documentation
Tools like Trujay or similar migration services automate the data transfer process. Pricing typically ranges from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars depending on data volume and complexity.
Working with a Pipedrive partner or CRM specialist who handles the entire migration for you. Cost varies based on scope, but this option significantly reduces internal time cost and the risk of errors.
This is the one nobody puts in their migration budget, but it's almost always the biggest number.
Consider what a migration actually requires from your team:
For a team of 10, the total internal hours across all these people can easily reach 50–100+ hours over the course of a migration.
Any system change creates a temporary productivity dip. Your team is learning new software while still being expected to hit their numbers. Deals slow down. Data entry gets inconsistent. Managers can't trust the reports. For a sales team of 10 even a 10% productivity dip over 4 weeks represents a significant revenue impact, depending on your average deal values.
How to keep this cost low:
Your team has developed habits around Zendesk Sell. They know where to find things, how to log a call, how to update a deal. All of that muscle memory needs to be rebuilt.
Training costs include:
The costs above are predictable. This one is the unpredictable one - and potentially the most damaging.
A bad migration can mean:
Once your team loses confidence in the CRM data, CRM adoption drops. And a CRM that no one trusts is worthless.
To give you a rough sense, here's how the numbers might look for a 10-person sales team:
What could a Zendesk Sell to Pipedrive migration cost?
The total cost will depend heavily on the size and complexity of your CRM, how much historical data you need to retain, and whether you manage the migration internally or bring in specialist support.
The range is wide because execution matters enormously. A well-planned, properly supported migration lands at the low end. A rushed, DIY-everything migration with poor adoption can reach the high end - and still have ongoing costs from low CRM usage.
Migrating from Zendesk Sell to Pipedrive doesn't have to be expensive. But it does require treating it as a project, not a task - with a plan, an owner, a timeline, and appropriate support.
The businesses that invest modestly in getting the migration right spend far less than the ones who "save money" by doing it fast and cheap, then spend months untangling the mess.
Want a clearer picture of what your specific migration would cost? Get in touch for a free migration assessment.
Who Is Motii?
Motii helps growing businesses get more value from their systems, processes and data.
We work with organisations to replace disconnected tools, improve visibility across their operations and implement CRM solutions that teams actually use. If you're moving on from Zendesk Sell, we can help you assess your options, plan your migration and set up a CRM that supports your next stage of growth.
Because replacing software is easy. Improving the way your business works is where the real value comes from.
Latest updates
Marketing automation platforms are growing fast in search interest, but what do they actually do? Here's a plain-English breakdown, and how to know if your business is ready for one.
Zendesk Sell is retiring in August 2027. Compare it honestly with Pipedrive, feature by feature, and find out if your migration could be an upgrade.
