Lessons learned from building influence across Spain, the EU and the UK

Where the real decision sits varies greatly across political contexts, and understanding the policymaking system is always the first step. The process that turns an idea into law looks very different in Madrid, Brussels and Westminster, and you cannot be effective in any of them without first learning how each one actually works.

But after more than two years working across Spain and the EU, and six months getting to grips with the UK, what stands out to me are the recurring patterns that build influence regardless of the system. This is my personal take on what works, whether the goal is shaping legislation or building awareness around an issue.

Understand the institution's own incentives, offer something in return, and make it specific to them

Everyone you deal with is working to an objective and constraint of their own. Officials have targets to hit, ministers have political cover to protect, and MPs have agendas they are trying to advance. The most useful thing you can do is to understand what those pressures are and work collaboratively to ensure your ask is also supporting their goals. The simplest way to do that is to position yourself as a genuinely helpful expert, to ask what they actually need and where you can provide useful industry insights. More often than not, it is a clear picture of the market, or ground-level data on how a policy is landing in practice, the kind of information they cannot easily get from inside the institution. By doing this, you become genuinely useful rather than just another organisation making a request.

Tailoring your ask to each stakeholder is what makes it land. That means tracking a parliamentarian’s questions or interventions and an official’s stated concerns, and arriving with something built for their agenda rather than a one-size-fits-all position. If you know what an MP has raised in committee, or the objective the Secretary of State or the Minister has set which the official is working towards, you can give them exactly the evidence they need to make their own case.

Coalitions build credibility

A single company asking for something reads as self-interest, while a trade body or cross-industry alliance making a recommendation reads as a market signal. That difference matters in every system I have worked in, but is something I have come to appreciate much more since joining Clarity, where a lot of our work is done through trade bodies. Speaking for a sector, rather than a single voice, changes how an ask is received. A coordinated position suggests a shared problem worth solving, rather than an organisation looking for an advantage.

Timing matters, and so does knowing who to talk to

When you make your case and who you make it to is almost as important as the argument itself. The key decisions are usually made earlier than the headlines suggest, and the window sits in a different place in each system. That means engaging sometimes even before the consultation stage, rather than once the text is finalised or reaching key MPs or Lords before the Second Reading of a Bill to raise specific points. Finding the relevant windows is the first thing to do in any context.

The people who actually shape the text are rarely the names in the press release. They are the officials and advisers doing the drafting and committee members making recommendations to the government. In the UK, for example, the questions a select committee asks and the report it produces are shaped as much by clerks and specialist advisers as by members. The same applies to the opposition: briefing a shadow minister ahead of a key debate gives them the lines to land your argument, and builds the relationship sometimes even before any policy window opens.

Combine data with real life examples

Numbers earn credibility and concrete examples make them stick. Decision-makers are ultimately interested in the real-life impact of the policies they are shaping, so the most persuasive case combines the two. For example, when making the case for a health AI tool, it is the account of a clinician saving time on notes, or a patient whose diagnosis came faster, that a policymaker actually remembers. The same is true in telecoms: data on compliance costs lands far harder when it sits alongside the real impact of over-regulation on a provider trying to roll out infrastructure. The data shows the scale of a problem, and the example shows what it actually means on the ground.

Keep and invest in relationships

Influence is built over time and making your case is not a single meeting affair. A relationship that goes both ways, built on groundwork laid in advance, is far more effective than turning up to make a one-off pitch. That means inviting stakeholders to events, keeping them informed of things that are genuinely useful to them, and staying in regular engagement, not just when you need to put something at the top of their agenda.