I am coaching a woman named Lisa, who doesn't add names to her contact list regularly and hasn't for years. She hasn't pulled all the names of her contacts together into her Outlook program from old client files, old employer directories, the shoebox of business cards she keeps and elsewhere.

This means she doesn't have phone numbers and email addresses of her contacts handy. Because she doesn't have them handy, she misses opportunities to contact the people she knows. She isn't developing a rainmaker's call discipline.

Lacking call discipline, she isn't rekindling old or developing new relationships. That results in insufficient lead flow, and, of course, without enough leads, she doesn't win as much business as she wants to.

If this goes on, she won't get promoted to partner and will eventually be asked to leave the firm. And all for the want of a contact list!

A good contact list is the fundamental tool for getting business. Without one, you will never be a rainmaker.