Orchestras want conductors who do this without spending a great amount of time talking about what he or she wants. Talk with the tip of the baton. What sounds like a good concert to an audience may not be proof of a conductor's rehearsal competence. The level of musical training in the United States is very high, and most orchestras, including the local one, can pull a performance together that has not been rehearsed well. All modern conductors have had to be good at fund raising.
Orchestral music is expensive to produce.
How the candidate has done at building community and corporate support in his or her previous jobs will carry weight with the search committee. That glamorous image of the conductor seems to resonate with the public. Conductors' agents and record companies have played on image to sell their wares. Many great conductors don't fit that image. Pierre Boulez looks like an accountant on his way to work, if in tails.