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.
How Can Setting Expectations Impact Sales?
A very good sales methodology trainer shared this wonderful story. She said: “There were two vendors competing for a prospect’s business, a very large opportunity.…
Flip the Script on Your Internal Demo Training?
“It’s easier to learn than unlearn…!” Imagine you’ve just hired a new group of presales folks, or you are running an internal presales academy… Traditionally,…
Demo Do: Let Your Champion Drive!
“Stand away from the mouse and nobody will get hurt!” – Salesperson at a tradeshow when a prospect tried running the software themselves “Our objective…
How Bad Is the Pain? Is It Critical?
Sales teams are taught to uncover “pain,” but the presence of pain may be insufficient to drive a sales opportunity forward. This is why...
The Advantages of the Incumbent Vendor
The Advantages of the Incumbent Vendor Leveraging Its Impact on Managing Competition, Renewals and Expansion Sales (A Never Stop Learning! Article) “Get their data, and…
Fabulous Fuel for Sales, Presales and Customer Success: The Incredible Utility of Informal Success Stories
(A Never Stop Learning! Article) What’s in this article for you? A small investment in time yields surprisingly valuable sales-ready information. An example! The enormous…
Death by Corporate Overview – A Never Stop Learning Article
What’s in this article for you? Why corporate overview presentations are a bad, costly habit. Two terrific solutions. One adequate solution, if you can’t let…
Automated Demo Content – Getting It Right
A Never Stop Learning Article! What’s in this article for you? An exploration of your own and your prospect’s objectives for automated demos and associated…
Too Complicated – A Demo Horror Story
Note - this story is a sample from the freshly released Third Edition of Great Demo!Too Complicated – A Demo Horror StoryOrSnatching Defeat from the…
Let’s Talk About Value – Uncovering the Delta
To paraphrase Mark Twain’s comment about the weather, everyone talks about value, but very few people actually do something about it. Clearly value is important:…
Uncovering Critical Business Issues – What, Why, and How
What’s in this article for you? Understanding Critical Business Issues (CBIs) can make the difference between successfully closing business vs wasting your time with No...
Seven Validated Habits for Stunningly Successful Demos
Here are seven validated demo success factors that lead to closed business. These approaches map delightfully to Great Demo! and Doing Discovery principles while…
Overcoming Sales Objections – Why Many Sales Objections Shouldn’t NEED to Be Overcome
“Help me understand how to handle customer sales objections…” “My team needs to learn how to handle objections…” “We get lots of sales objections in…
Great Demo! Virtual Demos Best Practices
Want a Horror Story? I’ll give you a teaser: The punchline is, “Nope, I’m good…” I watch dozens of recorded virtual demos from my prospects…
A Terrible Tabs Demo Death March
I was watching a demo recently where the presenter executed one of the longest Terrible Tabs Demo Death Marches I’ve seen (and SADest examples, where…
Stunningly Awful Discovery and Demos Viewed as an Appalling Dining Experience
As you read this story, contemplate how it maps to traditional ineffective and inadequate discovery and demos. [There will be a self-quiz at the end,…
A Demo Horror Story – Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory
A few years ago, while teaching a Great Demo! Workshop I presented a slide that listed outcomes of showing too many features in a…
Discovery on the Fly? Some Plane Thinking
[A slightly edited excerpt from the new book Doing Discovery] “On the fly” is generally defined as doing something rapidly, without preparation, and on the…
What is Lead Churn?
Have you ever reached out to a vendor to learn about an offering – and been refused? Have you ever clicked the “Book a Demo”…
The Content-Free Buzzword-Compliant Vocabulary List
“Our powerful software is flexible, intuitive, easy-to-use and integrates seamlessly with your other tools. Robust and scalable, your organization can enjoy the benefits of our…