On my desk sat a blue box filled with contact cards. Every time I identified a potential lead, I would take out a new card, hand write the name of the company, the key contact, their phone number, email address and other qualifying notes and file it in the box in order of ‘hot’, ‘warm’ or ‘cold’ – highest priority leads nearest the front. Whenever I spoke to any of these leads, I would hand-write the details of each conversation and the date on the back of the appropriate card.