Building Relationships with Ministerial Offices

Some practitioners commence their government relations strategy with the 'primary gatekeeper', requesting a meeting the Minister.  Others start with a gatekeeper lower down the batting order; perhaps a relevant portfolio adviser. These and other methods have merit depending on the circumstances, however more than a few practitioners do themselves a disservice by not taking a holistic approach to relationship building.

They do this by failing to engage with two of the most important gatekeepers in a Ministerial office; the diary secretary and receptionist.

No matter how much contact you've had with any given adviser in a professional or social setting, when it comes to the Minister's office, at some stage you'll have to engage with the diary secretary and the receptionist.

Diary secretaries are indispensable to a Minister and spend time with them on a daily basis. They, along with the Chief of Staff, regularly meet with the Minister to work out the Minister's schedule up to six months in advance. In most offices a diary secretary's opinion and background knowledge of who the Minister meets with is valued.

It's also not unusual for the receptionist and diary secretary to be long serving and both are often well regarded by the office; their opinion holds weight with other staff.

The opportunity here lies in the fact that it's rare that these gatekeepers are engaged individually - basically they rarely get invited to anything on their own!

Practitioners wanting to build a strong foundation with a Ministerial office as part of their government relations strategy should consider how to best build a rapport with the fraternity of receptionists and diary secretaries.

One approach may be to arrange a non-sitting week function for receptionists and diary staff who are based permanently in Ministerial offices; a lunch, a dinner, or an after work cocktail event.

There is no limit to the engagement strategies in this area, however it's important to remember to engage all your relevant gatekeepers and that relationship building starts at the Minister's front door.