Your starting point matters.
This article provides initial guidance. The right steps depend on your goals, systems and available resources.
Clean up data
Before importing, check duplicate contacts, outdated details and missing responsibilities. Agree on which data is genuinely needed.
Agree on stages
A contact status should mean the same thing to everyone. Describe next steps and their owners before adding automation.
Involve the team
Test the process with the people who use it daily. A short, suitable structure is often easier to maintain than many fields with no clear purpose.
A practical next step
Write down the most important open question for your business and who can address it internally. Use this to define a specific task to discuss with the people involved.
