y Brian - having worked for ...

y Brian - having worked for a water utility for 17 years before starting my own consulting firm, I can say from experience be patient and provide case studies. Agencies are very risk averse and want to know without a doubt (which is impossible) that your ideas, services, devices will work 100% of the time. And they do know their customers. If you feel strongly about pushing specific ideas, keep working on educating them and provide them with several successful case studies that they can visit or learn more on their own. But you may never convince them or you may be planting a seed for a later project. Flexibility needs to come from both sides. At the end of the day, they are the client and need to feel completely comfortable with their decision. Creating a well laid plan with enough details that will answer their questions and their customers questions is very beneficial and include references to similar projects.

Best of luck!