Guest Author - Sonja Meyer

The new federal Do Not Call Registry is great news for families who want to block unwanted sales calls to their homes. But what about the people on the other end of the phone: the telemarketers who earn money to support their own families by making these calls?

Who are these voices hoping to entice us to buy their product or service?

Some are people living on moderate incomes, employed by businesses to spend hours at "call centers" where they telephone long lists of numbers, memorizing their presentations and looking forward to making a sale. Others are small business owners who hope to generate new customers by calling on potential buyers directly. And, yes, some are slick marketing companies using a combination of computers and people to send thousands of sales pitches into homes across the country.

So what are you to do if you are a business owner relying on telemarketing to get sales? You'll have to adjust your marketing plan and play by the new rules. That means getting the federal Do Not Call List and checking your cold-call list against it so you can remove matching numbers. It means reading up on just when you can continue to call existing customers; the law allows you to make contact with people who've bought from you before, but only for a certain time period. If you only call residents within your state, you should check to see what your particular state's laws require. It means honoring people's wish if they ask you to remove them from your list.

Businesses are regrouping and looking at other ways to reach potential customers. You may consider other marketing avenues: print advertising; direct-mail through the postal service; e-mail and Web site advertising.

But be particularly careful with e-mail and Web sites: spamming, or sending unsolicited sales pitches via e-mail, is another practice you'll have to avoid. In fact, lawmakers are considering ways to crack down on e-mail spam, including one proposal to create a do-not-e-mail registry similar to the phone call registry. They are also debating opt-in (you can only e-mail people who've opted to give you their address) and opt-out (the customers have to opt to remove themselves from your list) policies. The current trend is to only use "opt-in" e-mail newsletters and notices: invite people to sign up for your e-mails and always give them a way to unsubscribe, too.

Telemarketing companies expect the new law to drastically cut into their work. That means if you rely on a telemarketing job to pay your bills, you might want to consider other employment.

In short, the new registry will drastically weaken one marketing tool, but businesses will have to adapt and find new ways to get customers' attention. And if you can devise a marketing plan that doesn't frustrate people by interrupting their dinner, you'll probably end up with happier customers, won't you?

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Read "Steps To Making A Sale Under The FTC's New Telemarketing Sales Rule," by The Direct Marketing Association.


See details about the Do Not Call Registry.
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Do Not Call Registry: How To stop telemarketing calls.