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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Zendesk Sell is being retired. If you're still on the platform, you need a plan - and you need one now.
This checklist covers everything you need to do to migrate successfully to Pipedrive. Work through it in order, assign owners to each section, and you'll cross the finish line with your data intact and your sales team running smoothly in their new home.
Print it. Share it. Stick it on the wall if you have to.
Stage 1: Immediate Actions (Do These Today)
Export all available core CRM data, including contacts, companies, leads, deals, notes, tasks and smart lists. Store the export files in a secure, shared location as your migration safety net.
Be aware that the native Zendesk Sell export does not include activity history, appointments, synced emails, call logs or documents. If you need to retain these, they should be assessed separately before migration, as some data may require API access, your connected email or calendar provider, third-party migration tooling, or another export process.
Find out exactly when your access will end. Build your migration timeline backwards from this date, leaving at least 2 weeks of buffer.
One person needs to be accountable for the migration end to end. This should be your operations lead, sales manager, or a dedicated project owner - not a committee.
Everyone involved should know what's coming and what their role is.
🚀 If you liked this blog, you should also check out: Is Pipedrive the Right CRM After Zendesk Sell? 5 Questions to Ask Before You Migrate
Document what each stage means and the criteria for a deal to move from one stage to the next.
List every custom field in Zendesk Sell - for contacts, companies, and deals - and note what each one is used for.
List any email sequences, automated tasks, or workflow rules currently running in Zendesk Sell. These will need to be recreated in Pipedrive.
List every tool connected to Zendesk Sell (email, calendar, Slack, Zendesk Support, accounting software, etc.). Each will need to be reconnected to Pipedrive.
List the key reports and dashboards your team uses. You'll need to recreate these in Pipedrive's reporting module.
Duplicate records in Zendesk Sell become duplicate records in Pipedrive. Clean them up before you migrate.
Deals that have been dead for 6+ months with no activity should be marked as lost or archived. Don't import noise into your new CRM.
Ask your sales team to do a pipeline review and make sure every active deal is in the correct stage.
Check for inconsistent formatting in critical fields - phone numbers, company names, deal stages. Standardise them before export.
Make sure active deals and contacts are assigned to the correct reps, especially if anyone has left the company since the records were created.
Sign up for the appropriate plan.
Create your sales pipeline in Pipedrive to match (or deliberately improve on) your Zendesk Sell stages.
Build equivalent custom fields in Pipedrive for every custom field you documented in Stage 2. These must exist before you import, so data lands in the right place.
Create accounts for all team members and configure visibility and permission settings.
Link Pipedrive to your email provider (Gmail or Outlook). This is essential for email tracking and contact history.
Sync your calendar to Pipedrive for meeting tracking and activity logging.
Work through your integrations list from Stage 2 and reconnect each tool to Pipedrive.
Build your most important workflow automations in Pipedrive's workflow builder before go-live.
Decide between manual CSV import, a third-party migration tool, or a managed migration service. Factor in your data complexity and internal bandwidth.
Export a small subset of data (50 contacts, 20 deals) and import it into Pipedrive. Validate that everything looks correct before running the full migration.
Adjust your field mapping based on what you found in the test. Don't proceed to the full migration until the test looks right.
Import all contacts, companies, and deals into Pipedrive.
Manually check every active deal: correct stage, correct value, correct contact, notes visible, next action recorded.
Spot-check historical data to confirm it migrated cleanly.
Hold a hands-on walkthrough of Pipedrive before the go-live date. Focus on daily tasks: viewing the pipeline, updating a deal, logging activity, creating a task.
Identify 1–2 people on the team who will go deeper on Pipedrive and become the first point of contact for team questions.
Point the team to Pipedrive's help centre, training videos, and the Pipedrive Academy. Encourage self-directed learning.
Make sure everyone knows: as of go-live, Pipedrive is the system of record. No new data goes into Zendesk Sell.
On go-live day, send a clear team communication confirming that Pipedrive is now live and Zendesk Sell is read-only.
Preserve access so team members can refer back to historical data during the transition period.
Check that reps are logging activity in Pipedrive, deals are being updated, and follow-up tasks are being created.
Rebuild the reports and dashboards your team relies on. Run them alongside any interim manual tracking until you trust the data.
Ask your team what's working, what's confusing, and what's missing. Address legitimate friction quickly.
Do a final validation after 30 days in Pipedrive before closing the old account.
Take one last full export as a permanent record before closing the account.
Once you're confident everything is in Pipedrive, formally close the account.
A migration like this is manageable - but it takes time, attention, and the right expertise at key moments. If your team doesn't have the internal bandwidth to do this properly, or if you want to reduce the risk of something going wrong, we can help. Book a 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.
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.
