Advocates must do background research to understand what decision makers care about and what could influence them. Ask yourself the following questions:

What motivates your key decision makers?

Who among your allies has a relationship with those key decision makers?

What do you know about your opposition?

What is your opposition’s influence on key decision makers?

What is the political climate in which you are working?

It is important to know how much information, knowledge, or awareness the relevant decision makers have about the issue and how they feel about your policy goal. Your number one job is to make it easy for decision makers to give you what you want.