Telemarketing is concerned with making sales over the telephone. These telephone calls go both ways, meaning that there are situations when companies initiate calls in order to sell their products and/or services, and there are situations when consumers are the initiators of such calls, with the purpose of purchasing something. The request on the part of the consumer to make a purchase may come as result of a form of advertising that he or she has encountered, such as mailings.

Telemarketing is maybe one of the most controversial ways of marketing, simply because just as they are many legitimate businesses conducted in this way, there are also many cases of abuse, when con artists take advantage of unsuspecting individuals. The amount of money that fraudulent telemarketing supposedly robs consumers off annually has reached $40 billion. But although fraudulent telemarketers are those breaking the law, it is after all the consumer’s responsibility not to buy a product that seems suspicious, because no one can force another person via the telephone into making a purchase.

Telemarketing, in its broader sense, is not a complicated process, as it involves no more than three components. These are identifying the customer, executing the call, and follow-ups. The last component is the most critical of this entire process, as it determine whether or not telemarketers have reached their goal. There is no doubt whatsoever that the systematic use of the telephone was once a very good sales and marketing strategy, as it offered probably the most direct way of reaching potential customers. However, there is a very thin line between convincing clients to try your products or services and irritating them. This is the main reason why telemarketing laws are more strict now than they used to be a couple of years ago.

The huge mistake that telemarketers made was to call just about any number on any list, hoping to achieve something, instead of carefully targeting individuals who would have been most likely to make purchases. The job of a telemarketer is now all the more difficult, as any campaign must fulfill two important conditions in order for companies to get results. The conditions are that the campaign be professional and highly targeted, otherwise the risk of damaging your business reputation and wasting resources is very high.

In the United States for instance, the restrictive telemarketing laws go as far as forbidding calls between 9 pm and 8 am, giving consumers the possibility of registering with a national do-not-call list and of suing telemarketers when they have broken these restrictive laws.

It is extremely important that your business be in the hands of telemarketing companies or callcenters whose service capabilities are proven and who are reputable. This is an essential condition when it comes to the prosperity and reputation of your own business.

As you well know, telemarketing companies operate based on a callcenter. Its management is vital to the success of a business because no caller wants to wait for hours before having his problem solved or finding the information he or she is looking for. In order to maintain high service quality, sufficient staff must be provided. However, staff costs are sometimes too high, which leaves the management with two options. One refers to minimizing the number of staff present., while the other is concerned with acquiring cheaper labor. This, in fact, was one of the most controversial strategies in the telemarketing industry, because at a certain point callcenters were installed in prisons. You can imagine the violent reaction of potential customers at hearing their names, addresses and phone number were in the hands of convicted criminals!

Fortunately, this is not the case with reputable telemarketing companies, and the services they provide are excellent for both businesses and consumers.

Not Knowing the Laws Associated with Telemarketing

People who work as telemarketers are not universally loved by all. The reason that some many in the public dislike telemarketers is that the calls tend to interrupt them at especially inappropriate moments, such as when it is time for dinner or when a parent is spending time with a child.

It is estimated that residents in Western countries receive about 16 billion sales calls each year, although the number varies by state and country. In some locations, legislation to stop these calls has been proposed at local as well as national levels. In the face of all the difference, each user of the telemarketing strategy has the sole responsibility to become familiar with the laws governing the industry in a specific locale. Telemarketers are required to comply with all relevant laws imposed on their industry.

In the United States, there are several well-established federal laws that apply to telemarketing.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) enacted the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR), which implements the Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act of 1994. This law is one of several designed to make the nations markets function in a competitive manner, while stopping activities that endanger a consumers chance to make an informed choice. The TSR had an amendment added in 2002, and it currently establishes a Do-Not-Call program, which mandates an abandonment rate of three percent for predictive dialers. The program also requires telemarketers to transmit Caller-ID information so people can screen these calls. There are some industries that are not covered under the TSR, however. These include federal credit unions, common carriers, banks, nonprofit organizations, and insurance firms.

The Federal Communications Commission also implemented specific laws applying to telemarketing in order to protect consumers privacy rights. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (TCPA) covers in-house lists and prohibits telemarketers from calling home numbers unless it has written policies and procedures to maintain a do-not-call list of consumers who specifically ask not be called any more. The telemarketing laws of the FCC also require that calls made by predictive dialers to wireless telephone numbers be prohibited. Basically, the TCPA limits telemarketing firms from calling a residential number unless there are procedures for placing consumers who ask not to be called in the Do-Not-Call registry. The law also prohibits sending any unsolicited fax advertisements, the use of automatic dialers, or sending recorded messages.

These telemarketing laws require the FTC to create regulations that will prevent telemarketers from engaging in abusive and fraudulent practices. Under the laws, the FTC was also allowed to develop the TSR.