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THREAD: How not to sell to small businesses trying to get on with their lives and day. How a sales call/email from Bertelsmann_com staff claiming to work for Microsoft or Microsoft India and South Asia turned into one of threat and bully.

Bertelsmann_com Microsoft Microsoft India and South Asia 1. Received sales calls and follow up emails from certain SJ starting with an opening line of “Cybersecurity threats cost the global economy an estimated market value of US$3 trillion, with 71% of companies admitting that they fell victim to successful cyberattacks.”

2. Microsoft would like to ‘work with you’ on preventing this and optimising your digital assets and find you the right tools. (Every sales person wants to do you a favour).

3. Tell us what products and tools and licenses you’re using so we can sell you the right solution. As an owner I ( Amir ) realise this is a waste of time and we have projects to worry about. I instruct staff to nip it in the bud and reply with Sorry, not interested

4. They don’t understand No means No. Go ahead and call again. A member of staff not aware of the email gives them count of computers and tools we use. They still ask for license info in an email. Phew!

5. Suddenly the sales call becomes that of compliance and audit. A new person emails and says we will need to send people over to your offices to check your machines if you’re not giving the info to them. Intellectual property and copyright act is thrown in now.

6. They want to verify if we are using licensed versions and there’ll be financial, reputational and legal complications if we don’t continue to talking to him. His words (XYZ risks depending on how the discussion takes shape HEREON! Want to sort this out in most amicable way) 🙄

7. Incase I don’t reply to their email - we will conduct onsite SAM review at your premises. Dude demands I take this as an ‘utmost priority’. I ask him to leave me alone, innit. Got biz to run + we use more Mac than windows and all are legit licenses. :-/

8. This dude SP now fires an email with PwC India PwC saying I have 6 working hours to get back to him with a date and time for an on premise review. If not, PwC will assume any day or time is good for me and just turn up.

9. Peeps from Redington.co.in are CC’d though. No emails from PwC domain. Instructions to PwC saying - Please conduct this review on priority. Seems like businesses too don’t understand the meaning of No.

10. 60% of our machines run on Apple . Guess who gets our money when we are looking to get new machines or upgrade existing ones? Microsoft or Apple We understand the need for licenses, but boy some heavy handedness here when dealing with small businesses.

11. I hope these are just rogue employees at Microsoft and Bertelsmann_com having a bad day and this isn’t how they conduct businesses generally. A lot of forums reporting similar harassment to small biz. What are my options? 🧐

Just read a painful blog by Vishal Shah at BLACKbox linkedin.com/pulse/ms-licen… #MicrosoftHarassesSMEs x.com/67commerce/sta…

Cheap developers cost the most money.

Man crush! x.com/elonmusk/statu…

Champagne dreams lemonade Money. 🧐 x.com/freelancewars/…

Guess what else Nancy has in one those bags? A Magento Certified Developer Plus badge that she just bagged today! Wooohooo! Oh and it’s her birthday too! 🎉 🎈 🎊 #celebrationsallaround #strengthtostrength #magentocertified #magento

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