One’s “Contacts” are not the sole indicator of Government Relations Success

What counts more for you in developing effective government relations: the level of contacts one has or the basis of understanding one has for the political process? Over the years of working with associations in advancing their cause before government, one of the common threads that comes up is in the following question: “What contacts do you have in…?”

Clients can tend to be impressed by the contacts you have but at the same time, I get rather nervous when the focus is on that and in fact, I believe the point of their question misses the mark.