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.
Another Reason to Arrive 15 Minutes Early for Web Meetings
This sadly funny video shows why you may want to consider setting the time for your web meeting to start 15 minutes before the...
Annotating over Live Meeting Shared Applications
Can you recommend any third-party annotation tools - tools that can be used to annotate over a Live Meeting session, for example, since Live...
Buyer’s Perspective – “That was very helpful
A colleague who often assists customers in selecting software relates a true-life story regarding the impact of poorly-constructed and poorly-delivered demos: At the close of...
A Tool to Capture Discovery Information
A very nice tool is now available to capture and communicate prospect discovery/qualification information, internally within your organization. At a high level, the...
20,000 Words Per Day
The author, Joseph Sommerville, notes: "Effective communication skills are essential to successful business development. Yet they're often under-emphasized and sometimes completely ignored. Why? Because...
Remote Demos – and Screen Savers
I've now seen this happen several times… You are watching a vendor present a demo remotely and, after about 10 minutes, the "audience" computer switches...
“SE Whisperer”
Here is a great article/blog entry from a sales person's perspective about interactions with their presales counterparts: http://www.salesgrok.com/grok/2008/11/se-whisperer.html. For more tips and articles on...
The Buyer’s Perspective: “Questioning Software’s Usability”
An article by Harold Hambrose in Baseline Magazine entitled "Questioning Software's Usability" raises a number of buyer-perspective issues well worth noting: • "How do they...
What Makes a Demo Truly Remarkable?
What makes customers say, "Remember the time that vendor did that really amazing demo?" What is the difference between a good demo and...
The Recent CSO Insights Report Is
The authors report that those organizations that train their sales teams in presentation and demonstration skills enjoy marked increases in close rates. Here's...
Miller Heiman 2009 Sales Best Practices Study – Thoughts
Miller Heiman just released the results of their October 2008 study, which defines "World-class" sales organizations as being much more likely to achieve their...
Buyer’s Perspective Regarding SaaS Offerings
A recent article in eWeek gives us insights into our customers' perspective when they are contemplating purchasing SaaS offerings ("Taking Measure of SAAS Reliability",...
DemoWorks – Recording Tool
I note a (potentially new) demo recording tool is available: DemoWorks, by ComponentOne. It appears to offer a reasonable range of recording...
Great Demo! – For Development?
No, not necessarily for teaching developers how to demo to others in their organization and to customers (although that is a good idea…!), but...
Brief, Good Article on Demos Done by John Chambers
Here is an article by Carmine Gallo about John Chambers' demos, as prepared and supported by Jim Grubb (Cisco's Chief Demo Officer…): http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/feb2009/sb20090210_425196.htm?campaign_id=yhoo A...
Demos to Mixed Local and Remote Audiences – Tips to Handle Combination Situations
What is the strategy for handling situations where you are face-to-face with one group of customers and other participants are connecting remotely? Treat...
Crossing the Chasm Neatly Summarized
I recently saw a crisp explanation of Geoffrey Moore's "Crossing the Chasm" key groups, with each group's perspective summarized in a few words: Techies –...
Technology, Entertainment, Design – Terrific Talks and Presentations
The team at TED (www.ted.com) has been providing a platform to showcase some of the most stimulating, interesting and entertaining presentations for years. ...
International Cultural Differences and Guidelines – Website
I just ran across an excellent website (http://www.executiveplanet.com/index.php?title=Main_Page) that lists information on a range of countries and cultural norms for each, including (using Australia...
Debilitating Demo Diseases: Deadendedness
Deadendedness – Death by Cul-de-Sac Symptoms: Presenter pursues non-productive pathways, perusing pointless possibilities and dead-ends. Elongates a demo segment from what could have...