A lot of lobbyists only want to meet politicians, officials, and interests who already agree with them.
I don’t understand this.
If you want to live in a world where people only say sweet nothings to you, you need to join a cult of fellow believers. They’ll tell you everything you want to hear, and often for a reasonable price. Brussels is full of meeting places for meetings of every type of belief.
The only problem is this approach is bound to lead to political defat.
I think the best thing to do is to focus on people who don’t necessarily agree with you, and sometime are against you. All it requires you to do is to listen to why they don’t agree with. Maybe you have a really bad reputation .Sometimes you can clear it up. A good job, a misunderstanding from the past cleared up.
Maybe you deserve the bad reputation. Suck it up and hear it. If you don’t hear it you won’t understand that opinion is probably widely held.
Too many just want to speak with friendly faces, fellow believers. What they forget is that most politicians, officials, and key influencers are agnostics, non-believers, or followers of a different faith.
So, if you want to hibernate in a comfy echo chamber of friendly white noise, jut don’t get surprised when political defeat knocks on your door.