How Pipedrive helped Inkwell and The Pitch triple revenue and maintain 32% yearly growth

Why Inkwell chose Pipedrive over the competition

Inkwell is the brainchild of Chris Goodfellow, whose prior experience includes managing publications, online communities and events for small businesses in the UK. His background provided him with a deep appreciation of the needs and challenges of entrepreneurs, prompting the creation of Inkwell in 2017.

The company’s focus is helping larger organizations connect with and sell sponsorship to fledgling businesses. Today, Inkwell (alongside sister project The Pitch) has become an ever-growing content agency with big-name clients, including Dell and PwC.

When business really started to boom six years ago, the team, who were still using spreadsheets to track processes, struggled to keep up with the increased workload, paper trails and sheer quantity of leads and deals.

Goodfellow says they considered using Salesforce but found it too complex and unsuitable for small businesses.

The answer was to opt for Pipedrive, with its easy set-up, user-friendly interface, straightforward onboarding process, customization options and SME-first approach.

Customizing Pipedrive is easy and effective

Goodfellow explains that while the initial attraction of Pipedrive was that “it works straight out of the box,” he’s gone on to discover numerous other benefits – not least the ability to tailor the CRM to the specific business environment.

For instance, he didn’t immediately use Pipedrive for lead management but easily incorporated this later. The team has also set up their own naming conventions and found it simple to tweak their sales dashboard in the Insights section as necessary. Goodfellow cites KPIs as one example. For him, having these most visible in the dashboard – with the option to scroll down to see more detailed information – is crucial.

Using Pipedrive’s filters to separate the two sides of the business (i.e., selling event sponsorship from The Pitch and content marketing from Inkwell) has also been easy to achieve. In addition, as the company’s sales cycle requires the careful nurturing of relationships over a period of time – perhaps 12 months before a client is ready to spend – Pipedrive’s automated reminders guarantee an appropriate level of continuity. As Goodfellow puts it: “Just managing those reminders for me is gold.”

The impact of using Pipedrive for Inkwell and The Pitch

Ultimately Pipedrive has enabled Inkwell and The Pitch to maintain a structured and scalable sales process, leading to:

• Better pipeline visibility
• Stronger lead management
• Time saved on admin tasks

Goodfellow explains that in the past five years, the business has grown at an average rate of 32% year-on-year and revenue has tripled. Pipedrive has played a key role in this – not least by helping to develop a consistent number of leads and providing clear representation of each lead source.

This growth means Inkwell is well-placed to build on its success in 2025 and beyond. As well as scaling up the content marketing side of the business by offering clients more all-round packages – including content, social, video and design – The Pitch will continue to make available support and resources to burgeoning small businesses, with the competition grand final taking place in London as in previous years.

Final thoughts

Aside from the more humdrum aspects of sales, what also helps Pipedrive to stand out is its fun approach. They say a smile goes a long way, and for Chris Goodfellow, a friendly animation goes even further.

“Sales is tough. Pipedrive keeps us organized, helps us track everything efficiently and makes sales more enjoyable. And that little reward animation when you close a deal? It’s lovely!”