Managing Contacts in the CRM: Add People, Track Stages, Keep Notes and Tasks
You don't need to keep your sales conversations in your head or in a spreadsheet. In FreshSignal's CRM you add your contacts, move each one through stages from "Lead" to "Customer", and attach notes and tasks along the way. When you type a company name while adding a contact, the system searches our database of 7.9 million companies; if it finds a match it links the company and can even fill in its known email for you. This guide walks the whole flow, from adding a contact to connecting it with proposals.
Before you start
- An active FreshSignal subscription — the CRM and proposal tool are included in every plan, starting with Starter.
- A Professional (Pro) or higher plan if you want to add contacts to sending lists (lists, bulk email and sequences unlock there).
- At least a name or a company name for the person you're adding — one of the two is enough.
- 1
Open the "Contacts & Pipeline" page
Go to the CRM section of the panel and click the "Contacts & Pipeline" card. You'll see a board with your contacts arranged in columns by stage, and a "Tasks" box at the top.
💡 The page sums itself up in one line: "Manage contacts by stage, add notes + tasks."
- 2
Open the form with "+ Add contact"
Click the "+ Add contact" button at the top right. The form has "Full name", "Company", "Title", "Email" and "Phone" fields plus a stage dropdown. At least "Full name" or "Company" must be filled — otherwise you'll see "Name or company required".
💡 Changed your mind? Close the form with "Cancel".
- 3
Match the company against the database
Start typing in the "Company" field (2+ characters) and company suggestions from our database appear. Pick one and you'll see "Matched to a company in our database." below the field; if the company has a known email address, the empty "Email" field is filled automatically. No match? No problem — just type the name manually and carry on.
💡 When the email is auto-filled you'll see "✓ Email filled from our database — edit if needed." — you can change the address freely.
- 4
Save with "Add" and track the stage on the board
Hit "Add" and the contact lands in the column of the stage you chose (default "Lead"). The stages are: "Lead", "Contacted", "Interested", "Customer", "Lost". Pick a new stage from the dropdown on the card and it moves to that column instantly.
💡 You can make the same change from the "Stage" dropdown at the top right of the contact's detail page.
- 5
Keep notes on the contact's detail page
Click the contact's name on a card to open their detail page. In the "Activity" section, type into "Add a note…" and press the "Note" button. Your notes appear on the same timeline as the events of emails you've sent that person ("Email sent", "Opened", "Clicked" and so on).
💡 In the "Details" box on the left, "Edit" lets you update the contact's info; to remove the contact entirely use "Delete" → "Yes, delete" at the top right.
- 6
Add and complete tasks
In the "Tasks" section of the detail page, type a title into "Task…", pick a type ("General", "Call", "Email", "LinkedIn"), optionally set a date, and press "Add". When you're done, click the circle next to the task — it gets struck through; overdue dates show in red.
💡 The "Tasks" panel at the top of the board page has a "Quick add task…" box for general tasks not tied to any contact.
- 7
Add the contact to a sending list (Professional and up)
To send bulk email or a cold sequence, your contact needs to be on a list. Open one of your lists and expand the "Add from my contacts" panel; your CRM contacts that have an email address are listed there. Tick the ones you want (there's a "select all" option) and press the "Add N selected" button.
💡 Contacts already on the list show a faded "in list" label — no duplicates are created.
- 8
Connect with proposals: the "Customers" page
Companies you send proposals to accumulate automatically on the "Customers" page — you don't add them yourself. The "New proposal" link on a row starts a new proposal for that same customer, while "+ New proposal" starts one from scratch. The company matching you do while adding a contact uses the same database records as the proposal tool — the two sides complement each other.
💡 Even if you remove a customer with "Delete", their proposals are kept.
FAQ
I couldn't find the company in the database — can I still add the contact?
Yes. Type the name manually into the "Company" field and save; the contact is created normally, it just won't have a database link. You may see "Not in our database — a new customer record is created under this name (added to the DB after review)." — that refers to manually entered companies on the proposal side being added to the main database after review.
The "Email" field filled in by itself — where did that address come from?
When you pick a company from the suggestions and the email field is empty, the company's known address from our database is filled in automatically, with the note "✓ Email filled from our database — edit if needed." If you had already typed something it is never overwritten, and you can change the address any time.
My contact doesn't show up in the "Add from my contacts" panel — why?
The panel only shows contacts that have an email address on record. Add an email via "Edit" on the contact's detail page and try again. Also note that lists are available on Professional and higher plans; on Starter you'll need to upgrade first.
What do the badges on the "Customers" page mean?
"Linked to DB": the company is matched to a record in our database. "Awaiting DB review" and "Being added to DB": a company you entered manually is going through review and will be added to the main database once approved. "your list only": the record currently exists only in your own customer list.
Ready? Start from the panel
Every step in this guide is waiting in the panel.