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Peter Cohan

Peter Cohan
Have you ever seen a bad software demonstration? Peter Cohan is the founder and principal of Great Demo!, focused on helping software organizations improve the success rates of their demos. He authored Great Demo! - how to prepare and deliver surprisingly compelling software demonstrations. Peter has experience as an individual contributor, manager and senior management in marketing, sales, and business development. He has also been, and continues to be, a customer.

Some Insights into Challenger…

A number of people have commented that “we don’t need to do Discovery” when using the Challenger sales methodology…  They are wrong! The Challenger and...

Stunningly Awful Demos – Lost in the Weeds

(The Elegant Art of Managing Questions and Time) You are in the midst of delivering a demo and things are going well…  Somebody asks a...

When Was the Last Time YOU Were a Customer?

Great Demo! is all about the customer’s perspective – what is it the customer is looking for in the demo, what do they want...

Stunningly Awful Demos – The Relative Irrelevance of Set-Up Mode

It’s Monday morning and you’ve just arrived in your office – what is the first thing you do?  Build a brand new dashboard or report…

Vision Generation Demos – The Crisp Cure for Stunningly Awful Harbor Tours

What is a Vision Generation demo?  It is just enough demo to generate a vision in the customer’s mind that a solution to a...

Unconsciously Incompetent Managers – The Impact of the 4 Stages on Coaching

How many newly-minted managers are promoted into their managerial roles from individual contributor positions?  And how many of these new managers are provided with...

How Does Your CUSTOMER Know When You’ve Done Enough Discovery?

Discovery is done not just for your sake as the vendor, but (even more importantly) for your customer to feel comfortable about your proposed...

Getting Pre-Demo Info from Sales People

Unfortunately, one of the biggest challenges faced by presales folks is the lack of information provided by sales before a demo.  “Just give them...

Asking More Questions – Why?

Surprisingly, I often hear the following observation from Great Demo! Workshop alumni:  “Some of our sales people are concerned when we start asking questions...

Frightening Statistics on Doing Discovery

I’ve done some informal interviews with heads of sales and presales recently and uncovered the following, rather consistent statements: - Heads of sales and presales...

Stunningly Awful Car Sales Demo

This is a great (sad) story, contributed by Mike Horsfall, a Great Demo! Workshop alumnus: Recently we had a hail storm and there was so...

Checklists and Demos

Airplane pilots use checklists to make sure they do the right things as much of the time as possible (like always).  Checklists dramatically reduce...

Stunningly Awful Demo Phrases

Here are a handful of phrases that we often hear from software vendors in demo meetings, followed by what the customer thinks in response… Vendor...

Observations, Progress and Habits – Accelerating Learning For Demo Skills

Interestingly, it turns out that nearly every culture around the world uses onions as one of foundation ingredients in cooking.  Why?  the compounds that...

Stunningly Awful On-Boarding Demos – The Trouble Begins

“Learn the demo…” the group of newly hired presales folks are told, “and when you think you’re ready, we’ll have you present the demo...

How Much Demo Do You Need? (“Just the right amount, please…”)

Imagine yourself as a customer in the following situation:  You’ve decided you need to improve your sales forecast and pipeline management system – you...

Land and Expand: The Importance of the Delta

No CFO will approve a major expansion of software without a clear understanding of the value equation.  The challenge, often, is that the people...

The REAL Buyer Stages…

Traditionally, vendors identify a set of Buyer Stages – the steps and thinking that a customer goes through en route to purchasing a product....

Early Adopters vs. Majority Prospects: Features vs. Solutions – and Doing Discovery

Early Adopters and Technology Adopters are inadvertently training us to deliver feature/function “Harbor Tour” demos…  But it’s not their fault; it’s ours…! Early Adopters and...

Problem Solvers vs. Problem Finders

The world today respects problem solvers – without question.  Intriguingly, however, many senior managers are now assigning even higher value to problem finders or...

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