Lobbying Strategies

Lobbying Strategies

          Lobbying Strategies    The best approach for meeting and communicating with the selected legislator is a combination of face-to-face meetings and telephone calls. Face-to-face meetings are very effective because they enable the comprehensive discussion of the healthcare issue. Often, legislators rely on the information and opinions provided by the healthcare professionals to decide whether to support or oppose a bill. Face-to-face meetings provide a great opportunity to build rapport, clarify the complex policy issues and provide specific examples so that the legislator understands why supporting the policy is crucial (NVFC, 2009). Furthermore, face-to-face meetings allow the personalization of the healthcare issue. This personalization is crucial to helping the legislator realize that the issue affects real individuals, families and populations. Legislators are normal people with emotions, feelings and desires. The lobbyist has a chance to appeal to their feelings and emotions by telling them personal stories about the social and economic effects of the healthcare issue.

            Although telephones are not ideal for introducing oneself to a legislator, the method provides an effective way for the lobbyist to communicate with the legislator after the face-to-face meeting (Mason, Gardner, Outlaw, & OGrady, 2015). Holding regular meetings with legislators and or their staff is difficult given their busy schedule. Furthermore, planning a meeting where all the key policy issues can be discussed comprehensively is a challenge. Therefore, calling the legislator regularly is crucial when following up on the discussed issues, addressing the emerging challenges and checking the lobbying progress. Furthermore, the regular calls help to main the relationship established through the face-to-face meetings. 

            Combining face-to-face meetings with telephone calls will enable the lobbyist to optimize the individual benefits of each lobbying methods, and strengthen and streamline the political lobbying activities.