Zendesk is closing down Zendesk Sell, signalling an exit from the sales CRM business.
The company announced in a support post on September 9 that Sell will be retired on August 31, 2027, meaning the company will “no longer provide a sales CRM solution”. Customers can continue with full access to Zendesk Sell as usual until that date.
To help customers transition to another solution, the company has partnered with sales CRM provider Pipedrive, which has a well-established Zendesk integration. Pipedrive has created migration tools to help deliver a “smooth, accurate” transition, Zendesk said.
“Pipedrive and Zendesk are committed to supporting customers throughout the transition process to help identify and implement the necessary configurations or customizations needed to maintain a comparable level of functionality on the Pipedrive platform,” Zendesk said in a statement.
Why Is Zendesk Closing Sell?
Zendesk said they “care deeply” about customer and employee service, and this commitment drives how they prioritize investments.
“As a part of this focus on service, we have made the decision to retire Zendesk Sell,” the company said in its announcement. “While this means we’ll no longer offer a sales CRM, we are committed to supporting our current Sell customers through a smooth transition.
“This change allows us to focus even more deeply on what we do best – helping businesses like yours deliver exceptional customer and employee service. By concentrating our efforts on service, we can move faster, innovate more boldly with AI, and build solutions that make a bigger impact for your teams and your customers.”
In their announcement post, Zenedsk said that with Pipedrive’s native Zendesk integration, sales and support workflows will “stay seamlessly connected”.
What Should Zendesk Customers Do?
Zendesk recommends customers explore Pipedrive “or other sales CRM options” and export their data from Sell.
Admins or users with export permission can initiate data export in Settings > Data > Export and download the CSV file using a secure link sent by email.
The company provides a guide to exporting data from Zendesk Sell here.
You can export data related to Leads, Contacts, Deals, Notes, Tasks, Smart lists, Full account data, and the Total Sales report, Zendesk says.
Data like activity history, appointments, emails, call logs, and documents cannot be exported. Some system fields (like Parent Company ID) are available only through smart list export.
Exported data is delivered as a downloadable CSV file through a secure email link. All exports remain accessible from the Export panel for 30 days after creation.
All Zendesk Sell data will be deleted either when the Sell subscription ends or starting on August 31, 2027, whichever comes first.
Once data deletion begins, it is permanent and cannot be reversed.
The ‘Death of CRM’?
Some in the Salesforce ecosystem have voiced their opinions on what exactly this means for CRM as a whole – whether it’s a worrying sign for the category, or simply a localized issue for Zendesk.
Founder & CEO of Signals, David Elkington, posted on LinkedIn: “Zendesk killing Sell isn’t just about one vendor. It’s about the death of the CRM category. For 30 years, CRM was the center of gravity. The single source of truth. Every GTM team, every rep, every manager…everyone hated it, but no one escaped it.
“Cloud Employees still need data. They still need a place to anchor identity, history, and context. But the center of gravity shifts… CRMs aren’t erased. They’re demoted. They move down the stack, like TCP/IP. Critical, but invisible. The spotlight shifts to the orchestration layer where Cloud Employees live.
“That’s the real takeaway from Zendesk dropping Sell. The market is telling us: systems of record won’t define the next decade. Systems of action will.”
Industry veteran Matt Pieper replied with a yawning emoji, writing: “Everyone is talking about the death of “CRM,” but no one is acknowledging that Zendesk has failed to keep up with the Joneses and hasn’t had any major innovation on its platform in years.
“Also, what? TCP/IP is absolutely critical to the entire internet; without it…
“So if CRM is demoted like TCP/IP, then it’s the most critical thing in the stack? The foundation that, without it, your entire operation literally halts?”
Final Thoughts
It remains to be seen whether Zendesk’s move out of the CRM arena is a death knell for the industry, or simply evidence that they could not simply “keep up with the Joneses” – or something in between.
