Before picking up the phone and making your first or next solicitation call to a consumer, STOP and read this!
You must be registered with the National Do Not Call Registry (www.telemarketing.donotcall.gov) before making any solicitation calls in the United States to any consumer or “residence” pursuant to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 or you will be violating national do not call law and could possibly face hefty federal fines. In other words, if you desire to solicit or sell any product or service to a consumer via the telephone, you must carefully and consistently follow Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR).
If you are planning to sell or attempt to sell any type of product or service at any point to the consumer, even if you are not asking for the consumer to “sign on the dotted line” during the initial call, then yes, it is a sales call. If you plan on selling your product or service to the consumer at any point or time during or after your call to them, then yes, it is still considered a sales call.
Per the Federal Trade Commission, there are exemptions to this rule however for the following organization types:
- calls from organizations with which you have an established business relationship;
- calls for which you have given prior written permission;
- calls which are not commercial or do not include unsolicited advertisements;
- calls by or on behalf of tax-exempt non-profit organizations.
So unless you currently do business or have done business with the consumer within the past 18 months, have received written permission from the consumer, are calling a business or are calling from or on behalf of a tax-exempt organization like a charity, you must “scrub”, filter your lead list against the National Do Not Call Registry before picking up the phone to make any calls; and must only call those leads that are not on the National Do Not Call List or you are breaking the law.
Also, if a customer has asked to be placed on your “company specific” or “Internal Do Not Call List” then again, you are not allowed to call them ever; unless they have written to you and asked that their phone number be removed from your company’s “internal Do Not Call List”.
Although it can be a little overwhelming and in some cases a little costly, in the end, it is must more cost effective to just follow the National Do Not Call Law.
Sources:
FTC.gov. http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/donotcall/
Federal Trade Commission. http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/business/alerts/alt129.shtm