What do we do when a person is associated with multiple companies?

Board members, consultants, and people who change jobs are associated with multiple organizations over time. The standard model has one primary employer, and that is not always sufficient.

Do not create the person again

The simple solution is to create one contact per company. This results in duplicates, splits the history, and means that unsubscribing from marketing only applies to one of them.

Use relationships

Keep a single contact and link them to multiple business relationships, with a description of each relationship. This ensures that the conversation history follows the person, regardless of where they work.

Decide what is primary

Reports and marketing usually need a single answer as to where the person belongs. Set a primary affiliation even if there are several.

When changing jobs

Update the employer instead of creating a new contact. This preserves the full history, and that history is often precisely what helps you win the next deal.