This afternoon’s SES NYC panel titled, “Selling your integrated plan to the C-Suite” was equally populated by Agency-types and Marketers. Both constituencies came searching for the same thing -insight into putting together an internal pitch to gain the executive support and resources necessary to test and develop your marketing campaign.

The panel participants included Susan Prater from Owens Corning, Irene Rigos of Wyndham Hotel Group, Jessica Bowman, a freelance SEO Strategist, and Barbara Coll, the CEO of WebMama.com.

In keeping with the theme of SES, the insight given was highly focused on providing tactics and strategies for any given situation. To help distill the varied presentations into a single post, I’ve synthesized their thoughts into 3 main elements:

1. Know Thy Customer: Even though this is an internal sale, it’s still a sale. And knowing the hot buttons, triggers and motivation of who you’re presenting to will make sure your message will resonate. Although metrics and forecasts will be necessary to win the case, always be mindful of the egos and politics involved. Emotions count, so be sure to get shared vision from all the influencers and support people involved. Also, the panelists provide some common-sense advice when they reminded us not to insult the current effort. After all, you might be presenting to the very person who designed or approved it!

2. Know Thy Competition: There’s a lot of value in competitive intelligence, and senior executives prize knowing what the market is doing. If you’re going to bring an idea for a new test to your executive team, you should also know if this has been tried before, and what the results might have been. Or, if you’re trying something new to the market, explain how you’re ahead of the curve and how you can get a leg up on your competition. Benchmark your competition, and make sure you do so over a significant period of time in order to factor in seasonality of specific events.

3. Know Thyself: All the panelists agreed that confidence in your solution will help your internal sell more than anything else. You have to show that you’re willing to accept the risk and responsibility for your effort – after all, you’ll definitely be the first one to accept the rewards when it succeeds! Ask for more than you need, so you’ll get what you want in the end. And lastly, don’t be afraid to find new ways to test, even if it means going around those in the way. You’ll never have to make excuses if you help the company achieve its goals.