How to keep a contact history worth reading
Half the timeline fills itself. The half that does not is the half that matters when someone else picks the account up.
The test for a contact record is simple: a colleague opens it cold, five minutes before a call, and either walks in informed or walks in blind. Almost everything about activity logging follows from that one sentence.
What is captured for you
A useful amount, and knowing what it covers stops you duplicating it by hand:
- Emails sent from sequences and one-off sends, with opens and clicks.
- Replies, detected and threaded onto the contact.
- Calls placed through the dialer, with duration and outcome.
- Form submissions and the answers given.
None of that needs a note saying it happened. Writing "sent follow-up email" underneath the follow-up email is work that makes the timeline harder to read, not easier.
What only you can add
Everything that happened in a human being's head. That is the entire value of a note, and it is why a record with a hundred automatic events and no notes is still useless.
- What they actually want, in their words. Not the product they asked about, the outcome they described.
- What is in the way. Budget cycle, an incumbent contract, a person who has not been convinced yet.
- Who else is involved. The name that came up in passing is the name that blocks the deal in March.
- What you promised, and when. Nothing damages a deal faster than forgetting something you said you would send.
- The next step, specifically. "Follow up" is not a next step. "Send the pricing comparison before Thursday, she is presenting Friday" is.
Write it for the person who is not you
Notes get written in private shorthand and read by someone else, often months later, often when you are on holiday and the buyer has just replied.
| Unhelpful note | Why | Useful version |
|---|---|---|
| Good call | Records that a thing happened, which the call log already did | Wants to cut manual list-building. Two reps, both spend Mondays on it. |
| Following up | Describes your intention, not their situation | Asked for pricing for 5 seats. Renewal with current tool is in March. |
| Not interested | Closes the door without saying which door | Happy with their current setup. Worth revisiting near their March renewal. |
| Sent info | Which information, and did they ask for it? | Sent the deliverability one-pager she asked for after the spam question. |
Company or contact?
Put it on the contact when it is about that person: what they said, what they want, what they promised. Put it on the company when it would still be true if that person left: the renewal date, the procurement process, the fact that they only buy in Q4.
Getting this right is what makes a record survive a job change, which in B2B happens more often than deals close.
Do
- Log notes within two minutes of the conversation.
- Write what they want and what is in the way, in their words.
- Record every promise you made, with its date.
- Put durable facts on the company, personal ones on the contact.
- End each note with a specific next step.
Don't
- Do not log activity the system already captured.
- Do not write "good call". It is the same as writing nothing, but longer.
- Do not save it for later. Later is a worse note or no note.
- Do not record anything you would not want the contact to read. Assume one day they might.
Do I need to log emails I send from Gmail?
No, provided the mailbox is connected. Those are captured onto the contact automatically, along with opens and replies.
How much detail is too much?
If the note is longer than the call was interesting, it will not be read. Three or four lines carrying the want, the obstacle and the next step beats a transcript.
What happens to notes when a contact changes company?
They follow the person, which is correct: the relationship is with them. Anything that belonged to the old employer should have been on the company record.