Peter Cohan is the founder and principal of The Second Derivative and the author of the Great Demo! methodology focused on helping software organizations improve their sales and marketing results – primarily through improving organizations’ demonstrations.   

The bulk of his experience is with complex, enterprise software and strategic systems sold to varied audiences in a range of vertical markets.  He has enjoyed roles in technical and product marketing, marketing management, presales and presales management, sales and sales management, senior management, and the C-Suite – as well as serving on Boards of Directors. 

• The author shows that most so-called discovery sessions are wasted opportunities. Salespeople spend most of their time eulogizing their product or service and spend only a fraction of the time on actual discovery. One reason for this is that most people do not understand what discovery is, or what its purpose is. 
• Discovery is defined by the author as “the process of collecting information to enable a precise proposal of a solution to a prospect’s problem.” This book develops a framework whereby salespeople can ask the right kind of questions that help to identify problems that the prospect needs to solve. It is the sum of all the information a vendor can learn about a prospect.  
• Prospects, even though we are in the information era, do not know everything about options and solutions. Many vendors do not release all relevant information due to the nature of competition. Only discussions with vendors provides the prospect the complete picture. It is in this context that the vendor needs to do proper discovery to be able to offer a precise and appropriate solution to the prospect. Everything else being equal, most prospects will choose offerings from the vendor they feel has done a superior discovery. 

Run time – 58.52 mins.