Today
we publish the fourth in a series of five articles aimed at budding candidates from Heather White, the
professional relationship expert and networker extraordinaire who
founded Smarter Networking
(whose website also includes more free networking advice).
> Last week: Getting to know a constituency
This is the fourth instalment in my series regarding successful networking for new approved candidates, and considers how you can gain an upper hand on rival candidates in selections and elections alike.
Before thinking about your possible competitors, think first about you. Ask yourself these questions and be brutally honest with yourself. What do you stand for? Think not just about party policies but your actual values and opinions. It’s all very well being able to recite the party line on crime or defence issues but you need to be able to display real conviction in your opinions. It is a hard act to keep up all day every day so pick the issues you want to campaign on carefully as you will need to be able to hold your position in the face of the fiercest opposition, particularly a rival candidate.
How effective is your brand? Are you positioning yourself as a family person, a caring person, an outspoken critic, a ruthless leader or a mixed bag of personalities that means something to everyone? It is crucial you think about what you want to be known for and that you project it whenever you meet people. People don’t necessarily vote for politicians they identify with, sometimes it is more about who they respect and who they believe will stand up for them rather than someone who has had a similar background to themselves.
Think about all the faults or skeletons you may have and prepare how you would respond if questioned on them. It could be a failed company, a divorce or a change of political views. You need to be realistic that anything from the past could emerge and if handled well, it may be that your rival’s trump card turns out to be nothing more than a damp squib.
What is your expertise? What are you particularly good at? Are you a strong orator or more of a listener? How can you structure your campaign to bring out your best qualities and what training could help to tackle the weaknesses? Ask those closest to you to identify things you maybe don’t want to tell yourself. If there are weaker areas that are harder to tackle then who can work with you to create the whole person and have a campaign team that reflects all that your audience will want to see?
What issues are you campaigning for? What difference have you made, or will be making? What is your approach to this, or your style if you like? Do you believe in the power of the voluntary sector to help affect change or do you believe in bringing in the private sector to create solutions? What connections do you need to demonstrate the effectiveness of those routes? Do you know any charity leaders or businesses with experience? If not, better start finding people to talk to and to be able to quote.
Now look at your competitors – not to beat them but to appraise if they are doing things ‘better’ than you, and what else might you need to consider in your own approach?
What is their brand and how does it differ from you? Are they projecting something that highlights your weaker areas? What can you do to counter it? Is it a training issue or an experience problem or is it simply that you will need to highlight their weaknesses in your own behaviour as a way to counter? If they are better at platform speeches, are you better at photo-ops? Build your campaign on those positives rather than the trying to match your opponent speech for speech.
Does it matter that you are single and your rival is married with a family, for example? If you believe it does then focus on other family activities. Show you are good with children by taking nieces and nephews along to community events or visiting with your parents or siblings. Take friends along to show you are part of an extended family. Whether you have an immediate family or not is not necessarily what people care about, but they often judge you by who you spend time with and how you interact with them.
Think about the contacts you need to make to reach the influential people in the area before your rival snaps them up. Who will they be wanting to invite to events or have as donors to their campaign? Are these people that just need to be schmoozed right to join your team or are they lost causes because of ideological differences? Are they worth at least talking to in the hope that perhaps they could be persuaded? Don’t be fooled into writing off people too soon just because of previous support or behaviour. Issues and the solutions to tackle them are constantly changing so they could change too. Perhaps they just didn’t like your predecessor and would welcome a chance to see what you are all about. Don’t give your rivals an open door by not trying.
Ultimately you cannot change who you are up against, but you can ensure you present the best possible alternative for your audience – whether at a selection or election. This doesn’t mean resorting to dirty tactics to highlight weaknesses – electorates hate it and it generally reflects badly on everyone. Ensure your strategy enables your positives to highlight their negatives and being prepared for your rival’s criticisms – it can only help make you stronger.
Next week: A Party Conference Survival Guide