Years ago I ran a recording session for a celebrated classical pianist who wants nothing to do with technology. The microphones in this shot were staged for a different performance, but he was curious, so I caught him sitting in the middle of the forest of stands.
He was never going to evaluate the gear. He could not tell you why one microphone was in front of him instead of another, and he did not care. He chose the people he trusted and let them choose everything else. That is how most real buying decisions get made, and most of our industry refuses to believe it.
We sell as if the customer is going to study the spec sheet. We lead with channel counts, resolutions, protocols, and control system specs, and we assume the most complete technical proposal wins. Sometimes it does. More often the senior person signing the contract is doing exactly what the pianist did. They are deciding who they trust to stand behind a system they will never fully understand, on a project where their own reputation is on the line if it fails. The spec sheet is how they justify the decision. It is rarely how they make it.
That changes how you sell to people at the top. You are not winning a features comparison. You are proving you are the one who will still be there, calm and accountable, when something goes wrong at the worst possible moment. Buy for the application, not the spec sheet. The customer who understands that is buying you.