How to Hire a Lobbying Firm

A lobbying firm can make all of the difference for special-interest groups. Lobbyists have close contact with legislators and know how to speak with them. You should know how to hire a lobbying firm in order to best influence the lawmaker's decisions.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Learn to Hire a Lobbying Firm

1. Ask the Secretary of the Senate's office for the previous year's lobbying reports. These reports are public record and available to anyone who asks. By sorting through the records, you should be able to find several different lobbying firms who deal with issues and industries similar to your own.

2. Contact several different lobbying firms and tell them you're looking to hire a lobbyist. Set up either in person interviews with a representative or schedule a time to do a phone interview. If the firm is based in Washington, D.C. you may not be able to meet in person, depending on your own location.

3. Make a list of questions for each firm. You want to know about the lobbying firms' success with different campaigns, their costs and how long they have been lobbying. You should also prepare to give a short presentation the issues you want lobbied and your expectations from the firm.

4. Meet with all of the different firms before making a final decision. Remember to consider who is on each firm's staff. Many former lawmakers become lobbyists after their terms end. These ex-officials usually have good contacts and relationships with other lawmakers that they developed while in office.

5. Fulfill your responsibility to report your lobbying expenses. Talk to the Secretary of the Senate to find out what information is required from the lobbyists' clients. Failure to disclose certain information can lead to heavy fines.

Tips & Warnings

• Once you have one or two potential firms that you'd like to work with, ask the Secretary of the Senate for all of their records. Conduct your own research of each firm to find out how well they are able to lobby for their clients.
• Be sure you are explicit with your desires when speaking to lobbyists. If you want a certain section of a bill reworded, don't be afraid to give the lobbyists an example of how you want it written.
• Remember that lobbying can be expensive and never guarantees results.
• Watch out for lobbyists with bad reputations. These lobbyists may be good at what they do but they have a bad reputation due to the industries and issues they represent. This reputation can spread to clients, including you.

[lobbyists]

on 8/1/2009 You can also go to http://www.lobbyist4hire.com
http://www.publicpolicyadvocates.org
or http://www.randycannon.org

[mthomaslws]

on 1/17/2009 A good overview, but I suggest a few changes:

Instructions:
1. There are several databases online that provide this info. You can search these databases by industry, issue, year, client name, etc., making it much easier to find potential firms.
3. It's hard to know what questions to ask unless you have some idea of what lobbyists do. Take some time to read up on what lobbyists do, and call some lobbyists to ask them what lobbyists do and why you would want to hire one - before you start asking questions of the firms that seem like they might be a good match for you.
4. Make sure to meet the firms face-to-face before you hire them.
5. Your lobbyist should complete all the reports for you. If your lobbyist isn't submitting these reports, you need to find another lobbyist.

Tips & Warnings:
A. Again, the records can be searched on the web. However, the more important informati