Why we refuse about half the work offered

I am good to my great agents. With almost everybody else, I can be a complete bastard. I refuse about half the offers put in front of me because protecting those agents matters more than being liked.

I am not trying to sound like a saint

My loyalty is not spread evenly across everybody who walks through the door. It belongs first to the people who have done brilliant work here for thirteen years. They get flexibility, backing and every bit of help I can give them. People who waste their time do not get the same version of me.

Ireland is small and people move

People move between charities and market-research companies. Nearly all my referrals come from people who already saw this team deliver somewhere else. When they move, they bring the memory of the result with them and call us from the next organisation.

Some of the strongest referrals have come after I told the person’s old boss to fuck themselves. The person doing the real work understood why I did it. They remembered that I protected the result and the agents instead of smiling through nonsense.

I care whether I like the person offering the work and whether they deal with us properly. Arrogance ends the conversation. Dishonesty ends it faster. There is always other work.

I want the result whether they are ready for the answer or not

I do not put pressure on the person being called. They can say no and the call ends properly. The client does not get the same protection from an uncomfortable answer.

If the list is bad, the offer is weak, the price cannot carry the work or the wrong caller is on it, I say so. I will not pretend a campaign is working merely because the truth would upset the person who bought it. I want the result, and we change what needs changed to get it.

The relationship reaches the agents

A difficult buyer does not keep their behaviour inside a meeting. Bad planning and disrespect become pressure on the people making the calls. I will not hand that pressure to a great team merely to add another account.

Fit matters more than filling seats

Research should be interesting. Fundraising should support a cause worth representing. The right mixture keeps good agents engaged and gives us somewhere to move them when one kind of work becomes too much.