A wise person once said “Whatever’s going on in your organization is happening because you created it, allow it, or somehow encourage it to continue.”

How much energy do you and your staff spend complaining about your clients/donors? Is it just a few minutes at lunch the day you meet with Mr. Jones or do you find yourself complaining about more each week?

At some point we owe it to ourselves, family, and coworkers to ask ourselves if we’re complaining to complain or if we genuinely want to find a solution to the problem.

Time to admit it: You’re attracting the type of client/donors you’re complaining about. If you have a client/donor who gives your staff such a hard time that the atmosphere is poison when he’s around, but you won’t address his behavior, you’re allowing the situation you’re complaining about to continue. If you laugh at his inappropriate jokes, you’re encouraging him.

If you really want to stop complaining and begin to attract a client/donor who recognizes and understands the value you offer, then below are the steps to take (if you ever wanted to be a detective, you’ll find this fun):

Create a composite of the worst client.
List all the personality quirks you can think of as well as all the other identifying behavior (for example, doesn’t return phone calls, constantly changes orders, wants his/her name on everthing, etc.).

Get a handle on the size of the problem.
Just how many clients/donors do you have who are truly “problem children”? Are there really just a couple who are out of touch, or do you actually have many more problem clients/donors than you have good ones?

Track the problem to its source.
Where did these problem clients/donors come from? Did they all respond to a specific campaign? Are they all trade show leads? How are they alike and how did they come to you?

Draw a composite of the best client.
What behaviors do they have? What common thoughts do they think? Are they all in a specific industry? Do they have the same degrees?

Where do these best people come from?
Is there one account specialist who seems to bring in the best clients/donors? Is there one great client/donor who has referred more great people? If they came in response to marketing materials, are the materials different than those that attracted the challenging clients/donors?

What needs to be changed?
If you continue doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep attracting these challenging clients/donors. If you genuinely want to stop this cycle then you’ve got to be brave and take the steps necessary to address the situation.

Your next step: Take the steps mentioned. We’d love to discuss how we can help.

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