Approach
We put your stakeholders at the center of every engagement, ensuring decisions flow from a deep understanding of those you need to reach. With a thorough understanding of your audience – their perceptions, opinions, beliefs and attitudes – and our years of expertise, we chart your best path forward.
We collaborate with you to consider the full context – your objectives, the information environment, stakeholders’ available choices and alternatives, and competing messages – to create a 360-degree foundation for strategy and action.
We draw from a broad toolkit of research and analytical methods, believing that insights can come from anywhere – opinion research, social media audits, expert reviews and panels, first- and third-party data analysis, observation, predictive analytics and AI-aided solutions. Our methods are flexible; our standard is insight.
This collaboration results in clear, evidence-based insights and recommendations that guide your decisions and next steps; we provide clarity so you can act with conviction to engage stakeholders effectively.
Bill Dalbec
Founder and CEO
Bill advises organizations on navigating their most important challenges. Drawing on deep expertise in the rational and emotional drivers of decision-making, he shapes strategies that strengthen communication, deepen stakeholder engagement and motivate meaningful action.
Bill honed his expertise from the ground up, starting in political campaigns and pioneering polling firms where he led research for more than 100 campaigns per cycle, and later as a consultant guiding research and strategic assignments across the United States and in more than three dozen countries. His clients have included leading trade associations (ASAE, Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, International Franchise Association, National Retail Federation), advocacy efforts (Better Medicare Alliance, Nuclear Matters, Project ChildSafe, Shot@Life,), nonprofits (American Heart Association, American Red Cross, No Kid Hungry, Points of Light Foundation) and companies (Blue Cross NC, Capital Group, Honda, Surescripts, VantageScore).
Prior to founding Baseline Strategic Partners, Bill led APCO Insight, the research, strategy and measurement consultancy within advocacy and advisory firm APCO, where he transformed the group from a traditional opinion research unit into an integrated intelligence and strategy practice.
Bill was the chief architect of APCO’s TradeMarks Study, the first comprehensive examination of how Washington, D.C., policy influencers define effective public policy advocates. The survey drew on his three decades of experience studying policy influencers and advising trade associations, professional societies and corporations navigating the D.C. landscape. TradeMarks became a trusted barometer of advocacy effectiveness, assisting trade associations to measure their impact and set priorities for the year ahead.
Bill was named to the inaugural 2018 class of Data Dynamos by PR News, and his work has been recognized with top industry awards, including PRWeek’s “Best in Data Insight” and “Best Use of Measurement or Research,” and a Silver SABRE for “Branding and Identity” from The Holmes Report (now PRovoke Media). He is a frequent commentator on opinion research, issue management, communication and advertising, and has been published or quoted in leading outlets, including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.