Selling Back To Your CEO / CIO. What Do They Want To Hear?

It's also important to be prepared to answer questions on related issues as well as the effects and benefits to the wider business. Preparation will need to include any risks that might be relevant both by not following through with the proposed solution and by implementing it.

This also applies to any benefits. Don’t forget, C-level execs are very seldom autonomous, so it's likely they too will need to then present a ‘business’ solution to the rest of the board.

In the presentation, be technology agnostic and demonstrate the capabilities, benefits, risks, costs and what the solution means for any given proposal.  

Showing preference for one named product above another can create a feeling of bias, which can cause unease. For assistance in producing solutions, its often beneficial to use a technology independent service provider.

Finally, most technology strategy or solution proposals that are aligned to ITSM can normally be seen as self-funding based on the proposed efficiencies to save current operational costs moving forward.

This presents a very compelling case and has the additional benefit of creating a more formalised and mature environment, which will allow much tighter cost control and more aligned capacity planning. This is the kind of message that will get C-level execs sitting up and taking note.