Lane Sorgen of the Microsoft Corporation Forcing Unethical Sales Las Colinas, Texas

I left the Microsoft Corporation after a long career of serving customers in corporate software sales.  As you can see by New York Times articles an other media, Microsoft is declining in sales.  Though the company is talking to the media about its new and great software that will turn the ship, in reality, the company has put ultimatums to the entire field sales force.  The ultimatum is "force your clients to upgrade however you can or loose your job and your family's benefits".

After Chris Weber took over North American enterprise sales, I saw agressive changes I'd never seen in my time at the company.  This included moving out our field management and replacing them with new ones.   Our plant was Lane Sorgen.  Though I'm sure he is getting his instructions from Chris Weber and the Microsoft management above, my team and I were told by Lane Sorgen that you will force your customers to upgrade and make your quotas or you will be shown the door.  I saw several around me get shown the door.  Good people where were appreciated by their customers and very hard workers.  People dedicated to the company during good and bad.  People who had won awards in the past for their performances.

I represented a set of customers that had been severly impacted by the economic downturn.  I presented this case with a plan in how our company could make our numbers by the end of this fiscal year; however, the plan called for coming up short for the first 3 quarters.  I was told that if my quarterly numbers were short, I'd be fired and loose my benefits.  I chose to simply leave as my professional reputation meant more to me.

If you are a Microsoft customer in North America and you know your sales rep is acting with desperacy and they have anything to do with Chris Weber and/or Lane Sorgen organization, put a stop to if unless you feel you have to upgrade or you can work your numbers to make it make sense. 

I've never seen it this bad and I've never seen people being forced to sell things that don't make sense for the customers.  The words I were told were sell it, threaten licensing reviews, and push whatever you can.

Best of luck to all durng these trying times.  Also, keep in mind that some of the employees impacted by this don't have a choice.  Don't lead them on or take it out on them.  Escalate to senior management or to Redmond based chanels.