The Hiring and Firing of Consultants:
It's the Candidate, Stupid
Since
the 1996 elections, we have interviewed or con
1. Talking with a consultant’s past clients – both winners and losers
– matters. Candidates trust another candidate’s word about the
consultant’s availability, work style and personality.
2. Personal politics
matters. Some of the candidates interviewed said they only hired consultants
with similar beliefs – these tended to be more ideological candidates.
One said, “You’re not going to agree on the strategy if you can’t
agree on politics.”
3. Personality matters.
Most candidates rehired a consultant because they liked their
personality. Consultants can
maximize their chance of being hired – getting referrals and retaining the
candidate’s trust – by realizing that personality does matter and there are
some candidates who would be better served by someone with a different
personality.
4. Candidates running for
the first time for a “higher” office tend to seek out consultants with
experience at that level. A
candidate moving to a higher office wants a consultant with experience at that
“next” level. Many of the
candidates interviewed were initially moved from state legislative or large
county commission seats to Congress and sought assistance from a consultant with
a national perspective. Candidates
moving up the electoral chain often sought someone who knew what was going on in
other races and who knew the type of issues likely to be important on a national
scale.
–Dave
Beattie is president of Hamilton Beattie & Staff.
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