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.
The Fallacy of “So What”
A number of sales methodologies have done a good job at helping sales and presales people move from talking about features to discussing the...
Stunningly Awful Web “Overview” Demos – The Gruesome Anatomy of a 1-Hour Web Overview
1-Hour Web "Overview" Demo Timeline There's a rough but strangely consistent timeline for a web-delivered "1 hour overview demo" that seems to go like this...
The Menu Approach – A Truly Terrific Demo Self-Rescue Technique
Have you ever been in a situation where: a. You find yourself in front of an audience about which you...
Why Did They Say, “Oh That’s Cool
In the delivery of traditional demos, presenters typically note when audience members react positively to particular software screens – and often incorporate those screens...
Coming Up-to-Speed in Presales – What Works Best?
How long does it take to bring a new hire up to competency/proficiency in a presales role for B-to-B software? And how do...
Why Structure a Demo Like a News Article?
Remember newspapers – the analog version of web-delivered news? News organizations have been presenting information for several hundreds of years, in print and more lately...
Epic Poem Demos Delivered Remotely – Seriously Stunningly Awful
It is bad enough to have someone present a demo in "EpicPoem" format in a face-to-face situation – it is stunningly awful to see...
Stunningly Awful Demos – As Epic Poems
Have you ever heard phrases such as, "Show them the demo…", "This is our demo…", or "We'll need 2 hours todo our demo…"? These...
Stunningly Awful Demos – Insufficient Discovery
Imagine walking into a doctor's office and, before you can open your mouth, the doctor immediately writes prescriptions for a broad range of drugs…...
A Novel Thought About Screening Candidates For Presales Positions
How do we assess theskills and competence of candidates for presales positions? I look carefully at resumes, but there is awonderful expression that...
Early January Is Demo Skills Assessment Time!
The start of the New Year… what a terrific time to perform anassessment of your own or your team's demo skills! Doing an...
Twas the Night Before The Big Demo
'Twas the Night Before The Big Demo (with apologies to Clement Clarke Moore) 'Twas the night 'fore the demo and all through the house Not…
Discovery – It Shouldn’t Be Surprising That…
It shouldn't be surprising that many sales and presales people are not be particularly skilled at doing Discovery… Why? When interviewing candidates...
What’s in a Name? More Than One Might Expect – Consider “Discovery” vs. “Qualification”
The process of gathering information about customers' situations is variously labeled "Discovery", "Qualification", "Analysis" and other terms. Interestingly, the name used by your...
“Why” Questions – Uncovering the Drivers in Discovery
"We need a new system…" says the customer. "Great!" says the sales person, "We've got several possibilities for you…!" And the discussion...
Discovery – Fail Early, Fail Cheaply
Far too many sales opportunities run far too long, for arange of reasons. One simple example is not asking questions about"show-stopper" requirements early...
Provocative Questions – Starting Discovery
Using provocative questions is a great way to start conversations and move a discussion into Discovery. A good provocative question causes your customer...
Sales Manager Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance is the uncomfortable situation of trying to rationalize ideas that conflict with one another. Sales managers (and presales managers) are often...
RFP Responses – When to Pull Back
Far too often vendors invest incredible amounts of resources in RFP responses and resulting Scripted Demos – even when they know they have little...
Metrics – Why We Need To Include the Denominator
In addition to earlier posts, here's a simple idea: make sure to include an appropriate (or more complete) denominator in measurements. A richer denominator...