Howard
CRM Steward · Mid
$599/mo + $1,500 hire
Hire Howard
Keeps your CRM clean. Howard logs interactions from email and meetings, deduplicates contacts, enriches records, and produces the pipeline reports that actually get read.
Howard owns the data hygiene work that everyone agrees is important and nobody has time to do. He is the reason your CRM has accurate contact information, logged interactions, and pipeline stages that reflect reality rather than the last time anyone had an hour to update everything.
The work he takes off your plate: the contact deduplication that creates a minor emergency every time you prepare a client mailing. The six-month-old company affiliation still on a contact's record because nobody updated it after they changed jobs. The pipeline report that nobody reads because the data is six weeks stale. Howard handles all of it without being asked.
He also notices things. When a contact's LinkedIn profile updates to a new company, Howard enriches the record. When a client goes dark for 90 days after active billing, Howard flags it. He does not make relationship decisions. He makes sure you have accurate data to make them.
Three real examples. CRM field mapping, logging rules, and re-engagement thresholds are calibrated during onboarding.
| Stage | Count | Avg age in stage | Last activity |
|---|---|---|---|
| New inquiry | 3 | 4 days | Within 7 days |
| Discovery scheduled | 2 | 8 days | Within 7 days |
| Proposal sent | 2 | 18 days | 8 to 30 days |
| Engaged (no next step) | 1 | 34 days | Over 30 days |
Sarah,
Hoping things are going well at Parkview. We have been through a few CRE cycles together and I always think of you when the North Loop market moves. It has been moving.
If anything is coming up on the acquisition or leasing side where a quick conversation would be useful, I am happy to find time. No agenda, just staying in touch.
| Issue type | Count | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contacts missing email address | 4 | High | Howard flagging for enrichment or deletion |
| Contacts with duplicate email addresses | 2 | High | Merges queued for this week |
| Matters without assigned partner | 1 | High | Flagged for manual assignment |
| Pipeline stages stale for 30+ days | 3 | Medium | Flagged for partner review |
| Contacts with outdated company affiliation | 6 | Medium | Enrichment pass in progress |
| Contacts added with no activity logged | 9 | Low | Logged to outreach source, no action needed |
Howard connects to your CRM and maps your field structure. You walk through your pipeline stages, logging conventions, and which interactions matter. An initial duplicate scan runs immediately.
Howard runs the first full data quality audit and resolves the most critical issues (duplicates, missing fields, stale stages). Most firms see a noticeable improvement in record quality within this window.
Howard begins logging meetings and interactions in real time. You review the daily log for a few days and confirm his matching accuracy before going fully unsupervised.
Howard manages the CRM independently. The weekly pipeline report and monthly data quality audit keep you informed without requiring active oversight. The 30-day check-in is on the calendar.
Howard works with HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Clio, and several other CRM platforms via API connection. He also works with custom CRM setups or even well-structured spreadsheet CRMs if that is what the firm uses. If your CRM has an export function, Howard can generally work with it. Non-standard platforms get a custom integration day during onboarding.
Howard logs the meeting metadata: who was there, when it happened, the calendar event title, and any follow-up actions listed in the event notes or the post-meeting email. He does not read the substance of the conversation or access confidential discussion content. The log entry says "meeting with Marcus Tanaka, CRE matter, Nov 12, 2026, follow-up: title report" based on what appears in the calendar and email thread subject lines, not the meeting content itself.
Howard identifies likely duplicates using email address matching, name matching, and company matching. When he finds a pair with overlapping history, he queues the merge for partner review rather than automatically merging them, because activity history decisions (which record to keep as primary) require a human call. He presents both records, shows what would be merged, and lets you approve. Once you establish a preference for how merge decisions work, he applies that logic going forward.
Howard can flag when a new contact's company name or key personnel match existing contacts in the CRM on the opposing side of current matters. This is a pattern match against your existing data, not a comprehensive conflicts check system. It catches the obvious cases (a new inquiry from a company you currently have in an adverse matter). For a defensible conflicts system, that remains a matter of professional judgment and your existing processes. Howard adds a useful early-warning layer, not a replacement.
Most firms see the biggest improvement in the first two weeks, when Howard runs the initial deduplication pass and baseline enrichment. The database will not be perfect immediately because enrichment depends on available public sources and some records simply lack enough information to fill in. But a typical firm with 200 to 500 contacts in their CRM reaches 90%+ completeness within 30 days and sees duplicate rates drop to under 1% within the first week.
Two weeks of guided setup and baseline cleanup. Managing the CRM independently by day 14. Performance guaranteed for the first 90 days. If he does not meet standard, we replace him or refund the hiring fee.