Initially hired into sales, I quickly rose to the ranks of corporate software sales and became the national sales manager for Westinghouse and other Fortune 50 companies. While the national account manager for Westinghouse, I was responsible for developing additional strategic corporate accounts in western Pennsylvania.

After a few months, my district manager and I convinced Egghead senior management to open a sales office in the Pittsburgh area where I hired, trained and managed sales representatives.

Due to a limited budget most of the marketing was done jointly with the major software companies, all had contracts not to sell directly into the reseller channel. And those dependencies developed in to User Acceptance Testing, Review Seminars, and even Beta Feedback groups.

Working side-by-side with sales, marketing and technical from Microsoft, Lotus, Borland and WordPerfect, Egghead was able to provide initial screenings of beta products. We obtained feedback from potential users. Copies of software would be distributed with feedback forms. We would also field questions from users and key decision makers during on-site sessions. Results were so well qualified that, in one instance, Lotus sold over 10,000 copies of Lotus for Windows upon its release to Westinghouse alone. Additional duties included the creation of customized catalogs and localized collateral materials.

Alas, there are only so many computers and only so much software that can fit onto a hard drive. As we reached market saturation and sales fell off, I moved on. Egghead’s Corporate Sales division was sold afterwards to Software Spectrum. A company that pioneered targeted statistically based inventory strategies.

There is quite a bit of history here. I started out as a fine artist turned illustrator and did my first work with magazines and newspapers, including Inc Magazine, Farmers Home Journal, Lab Week, and the Philadelphia Inquirer. Later on I graduated on to college textbooks and did extensive work with book publisher Saunders College Publishing. At that time Saunders and Saunders College was owned by CBS. CBS spent a considerable amount on market research and some of those results helped to make a small company like Saunders College into a leading force within the textbook industry. User studies and comparative research aided in a new pedagogical approach to book design and textbook illustration.

Over these years I developed a relationship with Rolin Graphics (see sidebar) in Minnesota for about a year where I did my first work for West Publishing and continued work for Saunders. Later my relationship with Rolin expanded as I returned east to take on additional titles from JP Lippincott (medical), Richard D Irwin Publications (business and physical education), Harcort Publishers (college text), West Publishing Company (legal), Wm C Brown Publisher (college text). I stayed with publishing until the call of technology and newly arriving children pushed me towards full time work.