You are a dog food manufacturer and you are very proud of your product. But it is not selling. You have called together your entire sales force in one room. You make a speech and ask for sincere feedback. “Our dog food has the finest ingredients, it is packaged in the most colorful attractive cans and bags, we have paid grocery stores and pet food stores to give us the prime display space, we have made sure that Google pops our promotion up first when people search for dog food, and we are still not doing as well as I think we should. (Wait for it.) And of course, someone shouts from the back of the room “Dogs don’t like it.”

So while we are denying any charges that we think legislators are dogs, they have the same reaction to pretty, multi media presentations of organized constituent delegations trying to talk them into sponsoring or supporting their legislation. They want to know why they should give a damn about your proposal. Does it fix a problem they know already is hurting people they care about in the district? Is there a way for them to look like heroes by championing you solution? Is your solution reasonable and affordable?

Below is a section of Chapter 2 of Lobbying on a Shoestring that gives you some guidelines for build a value based message for your proposal. Good luck!

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