Reseller Good Guy Awards

There are a lot of blogs talking about resellers recently, it seems. With Jeff Mirisola’s blog being the latest. We all know that there are a few deadbeats out there when it comes to resellers, sales organization that don’t really care to support the technical needs of the product they represent. That’s old news, and pain that some of us live with every day.  The good news, though , is that there are also some reseller good guys. These are the ones who have a work ethic that really cares about delivering what they promise, and are genuinely interested in your success with the software.I’ve got a couple of people on the top of my list, but I’d like you to add your two cents too. It’s about time that the industry sees what it is that customers value in a reseller. Anyway, these names are in no particular order. I don’t want anyone to be offended if you’re not first on the list. If you’re not on the list and think you should be, maybe one of your customers will nominate you!

So this is the inaugural Dezignstuff Reseller Good Guy Awards. What does it mean? Nothing. You don’t get anything for winning this award, other than your name in lights on the Dezignstuff blog. Sorry, no t-shirts or sloppy kisses from a busty booth babe. It’s kind of like the Darwin Awards except no one gets hurt, and its a lot better to get a Good Guy than a Darwin. I think it is long over due for end users to pool information and get some sort of a system to rate their resellers. A system like this is not likely to get official approval or support, so who better to start it than a renegade blogger? Anyway, here are the awards! 

John Picinich, CADimensions, Albany, NY

John has been a CAD reseller for a lot of years. He started out in AutoCAD, and has moved into SolidWorks. I worked at CADimensions with John for a while, and gained a lot of respect for him. The best thing about John is that as a salesman, he knows the software every bit as well, and I would argue better than most reseller application engineers out there. John has acheived Elite AE status, which means that he has the following technical certifications from SolidWorks: cswp, tech support, training, api training, Cosmos, PDMWW support, PDMWE support. I only ever acheived the first three. Way to go John! This definitely qualifies him for a Dezignstuff Reseller Good Guy award!

Kieth Pedersen, CAP, Massachusetts or New Hampshire somewhere

Kieth is a bit of a legend among reseller application engineers. He has a great way of communicating with users, and really knows his stuff. At some of the early SolidWorks Worlds, Kieth’s presentations were the spring boards that launched deeper curiosity into the software for me and many others. In recent years, I have not seen him at SWW, but his reputation is still the best around. Anyone who has seen him present technical information must agree that Kieth deserves a Dezignstuff Reseller Good Guy Award! 

Lou Gallo, Digital Dimensions, Phoenix, AZ

I was introduced to Lou by Ben Eadie this past year at SW World in New Orleans. Lou runs an audio blog with a good bit of helpful info. It is nice to see reseller folks giving something back to the community in the form of free valuable and useful information. Lou gets a Dezignstuff Reseller Good Guy Award! 

Steve Ostrovsky, TPM

I’ve run into Steve a couple of times at user group events. He shows up even when he isn’t presenting. He participates by adding comments to my blog, and I have even seen him on the forums I think chipping in with some helpful hints. This is the kind of thing we need to see more reseller application engineers doing – interested, involved, and helpful. Steve gets a Dezignstuff Reseller Good Guy Award! 

Jeff Mirisola, Shounco, Seattle, WA

Jeff’s only been a reseller engineer for a couple of weeks now, but I thought I’d put him on the list anyway. He’s a good guy, but if he gets lazy I’ll kick his @$$. Jeff has been an involved blogger, and has even presented at a SWUGN Tech Summit, where he taught me a few neat little tricks I hadn’t seen anywhere else. I’m sure Jeff will continue to give back to the community, and be a positive role model for the rest. Jeff gets a Dezignstuff Reseller Good Guy Award!  I’m sure I’ve left out some people who deserve some recognition, so I’ll leave it up to you to nominate your favorite reseller who really gets it. Oh, yeah, girls can get good guy awards too.