Add a contact manually
Create a single contact record from the Contacts page without running Discovery.
Discovery is the fastest way to build your CRM. For a single contact you met at an event, someone who reached out directly, or a colleague of an existing company, use manual creation.
When to add manually
- You met someone at an event and want to track them immediately.
- A prospect reached out and is not yet in Blake.
- You are adding a known key contact to a company before running Discovery.
Add a contact
- Open Contacts in the sidebar.
- Click New Contact in the top right of the page, or press the C shortcut from anywhere in the workspace.
- The New Contact dialog opens. Fill in the fields.
Fields in the New Contact dialog
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Name | Required. First and last name. |
| Company | Link the contact to an existing company in your workspace. Blake auto-suggests as you type. If you do not yet know the company, or the company is not yet in your CRM, you can leave it linked to the Unassigned Company (see below) and move it later. |
| Role | Job title on the linked company. Blake references this in drafts and briefings. |
| Optional. Used for enrichment and to match replies to the contact. | |
| Phone | Optional. |
| Optional. Paste the profile URL. | |
| Comment | Free-text note that shows up on the contact's detail page. |
Unassigned Company
Every workspace includes an Unassigned Company. Use it when you do not yet know which company a contact belongs to, or when that company has not yet been added to your CRM. You can later move the contact to the correct company directly from the Companies grid using inline editing.
Duplicate detection
If Blake finds an existing contact with the same email address on the same company, it shows a duplicate warning before saving. Open the existing record instead, or continue if the match is a false positive.
After saving
Blake enriches the linked company in the background: industry, size, and public technology signals. Open the contact's detail page to see enrichment progress and any new signals.
To add many contacts at once from an event export or a spreadsheet, contact your Admin. Bulk CSV import is not yet available in v1 (see Manage Companies and Contacts for the current bulk options).
If New Contact is missing or disabled
- You lack the required permissions: creating contacts may not be available on your role. Contact an Admin or Owner to change your role.
- The Company field cannot find a company: leave the contact linked to the Unassigned Company and create or link the correct company later from the Companies grid using inline editing.