Day 1: The hunt begins
They called me a machine. A relentless force. A badge-scanning, card-grabbing predator lurking in the shadows of every trade show booth, waiting for my next victim. I wasn’t here to make friends. I was here to collect. And collect, I did. Five hundred names. Five hundred fresh, unsuspecting leads. I felt invincible. Unstoppable.
Day 2: The high fades
The thrill of the hunt was over. I stared at my collection—a bloated, unfiltered spreadsheet dripping with the remnants of yesterday’s conquest. Who were these people? Did they care about our product? Did I even talk to half of them? The realization slithered in like cold steel: I had no idea.
Day 3: The bodies pile up
Sales: “Which ones are hot?”
Me: “…All of them.”
Sales: “That’s not how this works.”
Me: silence
I had done the unthinkable—I had amassed leads without purpose. My spree had no precision, no strategy. Just chaos. I had turned an event into a bloodbath of meaningless data.
Day 5: The reckoning
They started disappearing. Leads I was so sure were ‘interested’ were ghosting us. Phones rang with no answers. My inbox sat cold and empty. I had collected names, not opportunities. And now? The consequences were hunting me.
The redemption arc: Precision over carnage
Never again. The next event? Every lead will have intent. Every capture will have meaning. No more blind badge scans. No more wasted energy. Only targeted engagement, real-time scoring, and ruthless efficiency.
Now, my conversions are surgical. My sales team is thriving. My past self is a cautionary tale whispered among marketers.
The Lesson
It’s not about how many you capture. It’s about who you keep.
My name is [redacted], and I am a recovering Serial Lead Collector.
But the urge… never really goes away.
