Government Relations teams work the ‘corridors of power’ to advance and protect the agendas of their businesses. But what characteristics stand out among the best of the best? We talked to a dozen executives of Fortune 500 and German stock index DAX companies about what sets high-performing government relations teams apart. Here’s what these leaders had to say:
Understanding
Top teams have a firm grasp of their company’s strategy, products, and services. They’re adept at translating key business objectives into effective lobbying, and they know when and how to introduce company positions in the legislative process.
Customer-Centric
High-performance teams embrace a customer-centric approach. For best results, they ‘embed’ with their business units and work with the Executive Office, Business Development, Tax and Legal to identify threats and opportunities early on. On the public relations front, teams coordinate closely with communications and trade groups to maintain a consistent narrative.
Prioritizing
Top teams define and prioritize legislative, regulatory, and budget advocacy activities. They use metrics to measure their deliverables and those from trade groups and lobbying firms. Team members commit to annual target agreements which determine bonuses.
Tech-savvy
A-teams work to improve “early warning” capabilities of their companies to detect threats for the business. They are data-driven, tech-savvy analysts who work across the aisle and take pride in honing their coalition-building skills.
The Achilles Heel of Government Relations
All this said, if there is one recurring grievance among top management, it is the reluctance of GR teams and trade groups to embrace metrics in their line of work.
Says the Chief Operating Officer of a global technology company: “I keep hearing that government relations is a ‘people business’ for which there are no good metrics, and my response is that you need to find ways to measure what you’re doing. Our sales, tax and marketing departments use metrics to set goals and track progress, and we expect the same from our public affairs team.” Fortunately, the industry has made significant progress on measurement since the days of counting “meets and greets” on Capitol Hill and tallying how often company representatives write their members of Congress. While limitations remain on how to quantify the extent to which a company’s actions moves the needle on a certain issue, today’s metrics are more solid, especially when used in concert with technology.
Thanks to sophisticated tracking software, government affairs pros can analyze legislation to determine if it is good or bad for business and respond to emerging legislative threats in a timelier fashion. Cloud-based analytics provide key data points and insights on how to engage key constituencies in campaigns.
Teams can also measure company-internal processes to determine the value-add of various initiatives. Government Relations departments, for example, can show the contributions they make during site selection for a multi-billion-dollar manufacturing facility. Want to demonstrate how GR supports Tax in securing work-force training credits? There are metrics for that too.
Businesses Expect a Return on Investment
Businesses understand they “pay to play” the power game in Washington and elsewhere. It’s not cheap. Today, even a modest government relations presence in the Nation’s Capital with a handful of employees and a few thousand feet of class A office space can easily cost upwards of one million dollars a year. Include annual dues for trade groups, the monthly lobby firm retainer and budget for award dinners and it adds up to a hefty sum.
A-teams in the profession understand that quantifiable goals and deliverables provide a strong justification for these outlays.
There is good reason for Government Relations leaders to have metrics in their arsenal: Measuring your team’s accomplishments will get you the C-suite recognition you need and ultimately the budget and headcount to succeed.
-Christian Koenig