Seven Ways to Sell Your Policy to Officials and Politicians

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I’ve just read Daniel Pink’s ‘To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others”

I’d recommend it to anyone in the business of persuasion. And, if you are a lobbyist or campaigner, your real job is getting people (officials and politicians) to do something – back your preferred policy outcome.  Your work is about selling a policy outcome, persuading and influencing. I realise a lot of stuff may get in the way of that, mainly internal deliberations and meetings; persuading a given set of people is what you do.

These basic rules of political influence work in and outside Brussels. I’ve used them in European national capitals and Brussels.

  1. Don’t presume people are as interested in the issue as you (your client/interest) are.  I’ve worked on some very obscure issues for both industry and NGOs. And, for all these issues, you are working with a small group of people who are passionate about the issue. In the cold light of dawn, in the political world, it is unlikely you will be dealing with officials or politicians who have this single-minded interest/interest in the issue.  After all, most officials and politicians are generalists.  This is all too common in a city where there is an interest representative for seemingly every issue, who spends their life, often 24/7, on on issue that otherwise can only be found in the hidden recesses of the dark web. Some meetings remind me of post-doc workshop panels with 4 people in the room – all of whom are panellists.
  2. Presume that most people have vague or no knowledge about your issue.  Make sure you can explain your issue to a smart 16-year-old. Ditch the jargon. Try some analogies and metaphors that resonate with the people you are trying to persuade.
  3. Plan for the off chance that the person you are speaking with did their postdoc at MIT on just this issue. Be prepared for the every-so-often meeting with someone who knows the details and is more than happy to deep dive into the weeds. Just don’t start in the weeds.
  4. A good way to persuade them is to see the world through their eyes.  Before meeting them, take their perspective and understand their worldview. Understand what drives them and their values.  Pink points out that the more powerful someone is, the less they can do this.  Chris Rose in ‘What Makes People Tick‘ develops this.  I rate this the most effective tool for persuasion. I’ve used the works of Hayek in a meeting with classical liberal MEPs and the works of his Holiness Pope John Paul II for a meeting with Catholic MEPs,  to win both groups’ support on the same issue.  The central message was the same, just the words and sources to support the case were different.  Whilst it is the most effective tool, it is rarely used. I think that many people have a mental block on seeing the world through other people’s eyes.
  5. Bring a workable solution to the table.   People want workable solutions.  Workable in a political, legal and economic sense. Here are some of the off-the-reservation solutions I’ve encountered whilst working for MEPs, in the Commission, or for NGOs and industry. There is no point bringing a ‘false solution’ to the table that would work well but just requires the EU Treaty to be changed. Suggesting the immediate closure of modern industrial activity is going to get polite raised eyebrows and a quick end to the meeting.  Asking a Commissioner to ignore the clear and unanimous calls for action from the EU Council is going to be met with, at best quiet resignation. You need to walk in with a workable solution that lands well with the officials and politicians. If you do, there is a good chance that’ll they co-opt it.
  6. Make your issue interesting for them. I’ve found giving the pretence of public interest through the press or a side conversation with someone they listen to is a good way to make something interesting to them. I secured the unexpected support of a conservative MEP on an issue, after an influential conservative party member in his region raised the issue. When a colleague’s dad raised a conservation issue with his friend, the French PM, it was not long for France’s fisheries policy to change.
  7. Turn up on time. You can’t persuade someone when they have already decided or when the issue is not even on the horizon. The windows of opportunity are clearly, if not publically, marked.

If you do these seven things, you’ll get a lot more success in getting the public policy you want. To get the most, you need to apply all seven.