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.
Of all the questions business owners are asking about the Zendesk Sell retirement, this one comes up most often - and with the most anxiety behind it.
"What happens to my data?"
Years of contacts. Thousands of deal records. Call logs, email threads, notes your team has been adding since day one. The history of your entire sales operation, sitting inside a platform that's about to shut down.
Here's what you actually need to know - no jargon, no panic.
When Zendesk says Zendesk Sell is being “retired,” it means the product is being discontinued, with access ending on 31 August 2027. This does not mean your data will be deleted immediately. You’ll have time to plan your migration and export the data you need before the retirement date. Once your subscription ends or the retirement takes effect, your data will be handled and deleted in line with Zendesk’s data deletion policy.
But that window is not infinite. Once the platform closes, accessing your data will become difficult or impossible.
The key takeaway: Act before the deadline, not after.
Before you can protect your data, you need to know what you actually have. Zendesk Sell typically stores:
1. Contact & Company Records
Names, emails, phone numbers, addresses, company details, custom fields, and contact ownership.
2. Deal Records
Pipeline stage, deal value, close date, associated contacts and companies, deal source, and custom deal fields.
3. Core CRM data
Calls logged, emails sent and received (if synced), tasks completed, meetings held, and notes written by your team.
4. Documents & Attachments
Files attached to deals or contacts - proposals, contracts, signed documents.
5.Custom Fields
Any fields your team added beyond the standard defaults - industry-specific data, internal codes, relationship tags.
6. Reports & Dashboards
Your saved reports and dashboard configurations (note: these are settings, not raw data - they'll need to be recreated in your new CRM).
You may also like this blog: Is Pipedrive the Right CRM After Zendesk Sell? 5 Questions to Ask Before You Migrate
If you migrate to Pipedrive (the platform Zendesk recommends), most of your core data can be migrated successfully. Here's the realistic picture:
What typically migrates cleanly:
Zendesk Sell’s native CSV export covers your core CRM data, but not everything in your broader sales history. Some information may require separate handling, depending on how your Zendesk Sell account is set up.
This can include:
Some of this data may be retrievable through the Zendesk Sell API, your connected email or calendar provider, a manual process, or third-party migration tools. What can be migrated, and how, should be assessed before the migration begins.
Custom fields also require planning. The corresponding fields need to be created in Pipedrive and correctly mapped before your core CRM data is imported.
What won't migrate automatically:
Don't wait. Log in to Zendesk Sell and export your data now, regardless of your migration timeline. This gives you a safety net - a snapshot of your data at a known point in time - that protects you if anything goes wrong. Zendesk Sell allows CSV export of contacts, leads, and deals. Do this today.
Make a list of every custom field in Zendesk Sell and what it's used for. This list becomes your mapping guide when setting up Pipedrive. Without it, custom field data gets lost or ends up in the wrong place.
A migration is the best data hygiene exercise you'll ever do. Before moving anything over:
Clean data in = clean data out. Dirty data in = dirty data out - except now you've spread the mess to a new platform.
A good migration isn't just hitting "import." It's mapping your Zendesk Sell fields to the correct Pipedrive fields, running a test import with a small data sample, checking that the output looks right, and then running the full migration.
Once you've migrated to Pipedrive, do a spot-check comparison before you let your Zendesk Sell account go. Pick 20 deals at random - do they look right in Pipedrive? Are the associated contacts there? Are the notes attached?
Don't close the Zendesk Sell account until you're confident the migration is complete.
If you're reading this close to the retirement deadline, don't panic - but do move quickly. Your first priority is a data export. Even if your migration to Pipedrive isn't finished, having a CSV backup puts you in control of your data regardless of what happens to the platform.
Your Zendesk Sell data is not automatically going to disappear overnight, but it will become inaccessible once the platform retires on 30 August 2027. The businesses that come through this transition smoothly are the ones that plan ahead: export early, clean their data, and migrate with care.
The ones that struggle are the ones that assume someone else is handling it - and discover too late that critical information didn't make it across.
We help businesses migrate without losing sight of the data that matters - Let's talk about your migration: Book a free scoping call.
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.
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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.
