Peter Cohan

Summary

Peter Cohan is the founder and principal of The Second Derivative and the author of the Great Demo! and Doing Discovery methodologies, focused on helping software organizations improve their presales, sales and marketing results – primarily through improving organizations’ discovery and demonstration skills. 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. He has executed and delivered thousands of discovery conversations and demos – and has been on the receiving end of thousands of discovery calls and demos from a broad variety of vendors around the world, from start-ups to the world’s biggest software vendors, and verticals from accounting to zymology. In 2003, he authored Great Demo!, a book that provides methods to create and execute compelling demonstrations. The 2nd edition of Great Demo! was published March 2005. In July 2004, he enabled and began moderating DemoGurus®, a community web exchange dedicated to helping sales and marketing teams improve their software demonstrations, which was subsequently transitioned to the Great Demo! LinkedIn Group in 2010-2011. In August 2022, he published Doing Discovery, a methodology providing a structured approach to discovery for B-to-B software vendors. And in July 2023, he released the Third Edition of Great Demo!, updating the methodology and incorporating new practices. His third and latest book, Suspending Disbelief: A Collection of Sales, Presales, and Marketing Stories (and Lessons Learned) was released in May 2025. Before The Second Derivative, Peter founded the Discovery Tools® business at Symyx Technologies, Inc., where he grew the business from an empty spreadsheet into a $30 million/year operation. Prior to Symyx, Peter served in marketing, sales, and management positions at MDL Information Systems, a leading provider of scientific information management software. Peter currently serves on the Board of Directors for Collaborative Drug Discovery, Inc., and is an advisor to several companies. He holds a degree in chemistry. Peter has experience as an individual contributor, manager and senior management in marketing, sales, business development, and as a member of the C-suite. He has also been and continues to be a prospect and a customer.