Bob is a 28-year-old residential real-estate agent living in Los Angeles, California. Bob is not a fan of cold-calling, door knocking, or any other lead generation tactic that causes a hint of anxiety. So, he signed up for a local “Young Professionals Group” and bought a $15 ticket to a networking event that same night. It is essential to know that Bob decided to wear his “go-to” flannel that can be seen in 30% of his profile pictures on Facebook. Needing a little liquid courage, Bob walked to a Mexican restaurant across from his apartment for a drink.

On the way over, Bob reached his hand into his left pocket to grab his cell phone and ended up slicing his thumb on the corner of one of his business cards. “At least I remembered them,” Bob sarcastically muttered to himself. After a Modelo and three tequila sodas, Bob got in an Uber and asked the driver if she had any gum or “perhaps some mints.” She did not. When Bob arrived at the networking event, he immediately got a drink and scanned the room for potential clients. He awkwardly made his way to a group of three people: two males and one female.
The threesome made an opening to allow Bob to enter the conversation. “What’s going on?” Bob gracefully opened. “We are talking about how the election results will affect the housing market.” Bob jumped at the opportunity and exclaimed: “I’m a realtor!” They all smiled at each other and said, “so are we!” Bob suffered through eight more minutes of conversation before he told the group he had to go to the restroom. He emerged with a mint, a toothpick, and a heightened sense of motivation.

Bob next approached two gentlemen that looked to be his age. They both worked at CBRE in commercial real estate. Beginning to get discouraged, Bob slammed a vodka soda and started talking a bubbly, attractive female named Corrine. Bob made fun of the fact that she was drinking water instead of alcohol. She told him that she was a recovering alcoholic and worked for a Title company in Beverly Hills. She would not stop talking about the last episode of the Westworld.

Bob told her earlier in the conversation that he loves the show and cannot wait for Sunday. It was a complete lie. He finally got out of the discussion and ended up bumping into someone from his previous brokerage whom he hated. After a couple more conversations with other people that turned out to be realtors, Bob quickly realized that the entire event was just a bunch of realtors talking to more realtors.

There was only one person there that was not in real estate. His name was Bradley. He was at the event to get people to use his data-mining company. Adam got stuck in a fifteen-minute conversation with him and ended up giving away his last business card. Bradley still follows up with Bob to this day.

The networking event appeared to be a failure from a lead generation perspective. However, Bob remains optimistic and continues to look for other lead generation tactics that involve alcohol.