Wanting to know more about the job opportunities (for himself) in the software industry and believing that others did as well, he thought it would be a good idea to create a class the Center could offer that would explain the opportunities and qualifications for the various jobs described in the Sunday papers.  Jeff called Lotus HR and asked if they were interested in supplying an instructor for the workshop.  They were and "Job Opportunities in the Software Industry" became a class offering at the Boston Center.  Although Jeff never attended the class, he did find his own "opportunity" at Lotus and was hired by John Rudolf for an Educational Sales position. 

  Jeff migrated from Educational Sales to Channel Sales and worked in the Atlanta office from ‘87 to ‘91 where "that dawg’l’ hunt" meant you had a qualified customer and product training for resellers meant - "hey vendor dude, bring some spec sheets and a case of Bud".  Through all of this Jeff did successfully manage relations with all sorts of resellers in the south east and also managed to create a very successful program that provided hands-on training on Lotus products to several hundred reseller reps in 13 cities across the south.  

In ‘91 Jeff found himself back in Boston  where resellers wanted spec sheets and Sam Adams.  By ‘94 Jeff had provided enough Sam to the territory and business was flowing to the point where he was recognized by Lotus with a Summit Award for Channel Sales Rep of the year.  It was also in ‘94 that Jeff (bass) was a founding member of the Lotus International All Stars Blues Band along with such notables as  Mike Davey (guitar & vocals), Steve Webster (harp), and others. Jeff preferred the name of the band to be "The Replicators", but it wasn't upper management's idea... 

Acknowledged as one of the more "technical" channel sales reps, (he knew how to make spreadsheets with @DSUM functions) Jeff was promoted to a channel sales operations staff position.  Initially believing that his sales skills would rust in this staff position, he soon realized he could sell anything.   Jeff was responsible for setting, revising (often), and justifying (never ending) sales quotas for the reps and managers, and channel resellers for rebate purposes. 
 

IntraNetics Click here for big picture
TOP, L to R: Steve Crummey, CEO; EJ McGowan, Systems Architect; Rick Faulk, VP of Marketing; Eric Morin, Lead Quality Engineer; Tim Peacock, VP of Development; Bill Corrigan, Director of Product Management
BOTTOM: Dan Vetras, VP of Sales; Jeff Todd, Eastern Regional Sales Manager; Bethann Cregg, Director of Customer Support; Alice Mead, UI Design; Corinne Melick, Product Manager
MISSING, "out selling something": John "JR" Rudolf (Austin), Devin "Devo" Dooley (Seattle), Jay "Flash" Gordon (Palo Alto)

This past July Jeff joined up with IntraNetics and a bunch of former Lotus people.  Jeff  described his decision to leave Lotus and join this start-up as "a no brainer".  The meeting with Dan Vetras, former Loti and VP of Sales at IntraNetics, went something like this.  "Dan, let me see if understand this.  You have a Bill Gross idea, Steve Crummey running it, Rick Faulk branding it and  you building the sales team.  You even have John Rudolf on board!  OK, I'll do it, but I want 4 weeks of vacation, a six week sabbatical after 2 years, stress management classes, and health benefits for my fish." 

Jeff took the job anyway and is IntraNetics’ Eastern Regional Sales Manager, managing distributor relations with Tech Data (US & Canada) and building a channel of  VAR’s up and down the east coast to sell IntraNetics.  He lives in Watertown in a "condo on the Charles" with a few unhealthy fish and spends most of his free time sharpening his golf game and noodling on his bass.

November 24, 1997