Link two records, and say what the link is

Linking two records is ordinary. Most tools do it.

What is less ordinary: saying what that link is. Arthur is not just “associated with” Mistral, he is its CEO, since March, and that term has an end date.

A relation, not a piece of text

Typing “Mistral” into a text field creates a string of characters. The day the company changes its name, your record lies. Nothing ties the two together, nobody can navigate, and your agents read a word without knowing what it points to.

A relation points at the record itself. It follows renames, it opens in one click, and it can be walked: from a contact you reach their company, then the other contacts of that company.

Qualifying the link

This is the part that changes everything. A relation can carry fields of its own, which belong to the link and not to the two records it joins.

Back to Arthur and Mistral. The role “CEO” is not a property of Arthur: he is CEO of Mistral, and he could be a director somewhere else. It is not a property of Mistral either, which has other executives. The role belongs to the link.

What links carry most often:

• A role. CEO, officer, beneficial owner, signatory.
• A status. In progress, closed, awaiting approval.
• A period. Since when, until when.

Why your agents care

An agent reading “Arthur, Mistral” has to guess. An agent reading “Arthur has been CEO of Mistral since March 2024” knows.

That is the difference between a workspace you can question and a workspace you have to go and read yourself. Every link you qualify removes one guess.