ATCP, LLC

If you understand what Sales Engineers are, then you realize that they should be isolated from the general population in the same way that field reps are-and for the same reasons. The same traits that make a Sales Engineer effective are the same that alienate them from the common cubers, and I’ve recently proved this is true.

For one thing, successful Sales Engineers are able to convey confidence above all else. That confidence, in a sales situation, translates into credibility for the Sales/Account Rep. That confidence is completely 180 degrees against the flow of a successful cuber, in that they learn to survive by being passive in all matters, avoiding making decisions. A no-decision is a decision that can never be wrong, right?

But in the Sales Engineer’s world, there is no room for indecision-we may only get this one chance in front of a prospect! We need to be able to say what is needed, and say it confidently. There are many funny names/phrases for what we do in a tight spot, such as “being frugal with the truth”, but one of my primary axioms for Sales Engineering is:

Never leave the call with questions about your stuff.

More »

Google’s new development language was released, and I am shaking my head with the rest of the world. How does this enhance Google’s brand? Google has long since been known for/as a search destination, and their huge company considered devoted to search and only search.

From here:

What is the purpose of the project? More »

The IT Manager has no clothes!

If you want to know what a company sells, ask to see their comp plan. If your sales managers are compensated to sell a product/service that the one they are selling can’t be sold under, guess what? Thats right! It fails. This is the primary reason for companies not being able to move their wares.

But not just any comp plan will do. And that is the rub.

Companies today are in a financial bind. They need to spend less and save more. Do more with what they have, and all that. But how do you do this with a strategic product? You know, strategic, one of dozens of words and phrases we throw about as if we know what they mean, and assuming that they mean the same thing to everyone. Wrong.

More »

I was at a show at our local veterinarian, and I took shots that were all ad-hoc and casual. I just walked around the show and took in what I could. There were rescue dogs from a volunteer rescue organization there, and I took a lot of shots of their shepherds.

I also took a few candid portraits, and one of them provides a great opportunity to show just how dramatic a photoshop makeover can be, as well as fix a common mistake of mine by letting my self be caught in the reflection of the subject.

Here is the original, from thumbnail:

So what we want to do are basically two things:

1. Flatter our subject with touch-ups
2. Remove my reflection from the sunglasses
More »

In part 2, I’ll talk about the next way to do low poly trees and shrubs.

For this example, we’re using a standard tree map you’ll find in any package. There are 2 files, the map itself (in color), and the mask (the one that has the tree in white on a black background). This is what they look like:

The images are always the same size. In this case, the images are 1645 pixels wide, and 1991 pixels high:

More »