Manual contact creation is a relic — here’s the faster workflow
Manual contact creation feels harmless:
“I’ll add them to the CRM later.”
But “later” is exactly how contact lists become outdated and follow-up slows down.
The goal isn’t to become faster at admin work. The goal is to stop doing admin work as a separate task.
Here’s a practical workflow that keeps momentum without hype.
The problem with “full” contact profiles
Traditional CRM advice pushes you to capture everything:
- company details
- job title
- address
- tags
- pipeline fields
- custom properties
That sounds organized. In reality it creates friction — and friction kills consistency.
The faster workflow: capture the minimum, then enrich later
Think of contact creation as a two-step process:
1) Create the contact with the minimum needed to follow up 2) Enrich only when it helps the next action
This makes contact creation fit inside the real workday.
Step 1: The “minimum viable contact” (MVC)
When you create a new contact, capture only:
- Name (or at least “first name + company”)
- One way to reach them (phone or email)
- One next step (what and when)
If you have these three, you can follow up. Everything else can wait.
Step 2: Attach context immediately
Right after the call or message, attach one short note:
- Outcome: what happened
- Next step: what you’ll do next (and when)
This is the difference between “a contact exists” and “a contact is useful”.
Step 3: Use the inbox as context (not as a storage locker)
If your follow-up happens by email, don’t let the thread become the system of record.
Your goal is to open the contact and instantly see:
- the latest email conversation
- the last call note
- the next step
That’s what removes the invisible lag in follow-up.
Step 4: Enrich only when it changes what you’ll do next
Enriching is valuable when it directly improves execution, for example:
- add company name if you’ll search for them again
- add one tag if it changes prioritization
- add a key constraint (budget, timeline, decision maker) if it affects follow-up
Skip anything that’s just “nice to have”.
A simple rule
If creating a contact takes minutes, you will avoid it.
Design your process so contact creation takes seconds and follow-up becomes easier than procrastination.
If you want a CRM designed for this workflow, start a trial and run it through a week of real calls: