Cold calling, or the act of simply calling a number out of the blue for business purposes, can be very beneficial for businesses but they are not very helpful for consumers. Especially with the various laws that are being passed which are making cold calling even harder and harder to do legally.
There are plenty of cold calling laws and rules that have been updated, especially for these laws that are designed for people to be protected from unwanted phone calls and text messages, which can make it harder and harder to cold call effectively. So making sure that you understand the laws and how to cold call effectively is one of the best things that you can do for your business.
The TCPA And How It Works
The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) has been regulating telemarketing calls since 1991 by making sure that consumers are protected from unknown and unwanted phone calls, text messages, and other forms of communication. Especially calls that are made with automatic phone dialing systems and robocalls. These automatic systems create phone numbers through a random number generator and call them, and if your phone number was randomly generated, then you get the call.
Which isn’t too exciting for you! This is why these privacy laws require express written consent for the consumers to opt into being contacted through one of these systems. With consent given, then the company can reach out to the customers using these methods, otherwise, the action is prohibited.
Additionally, the TCPA mandates the calling hours that the businesses are allowed to reach out to the customers. Between 8 AM and 9 PM (the call recipient’s local time) is the only time that businesses can reach out to you.
What About Manual Calls?
Of course there is a difference between manually dialing the number to your recipient and simply allowing a machine to do all the dialing for you and leaving pre-recorded messages.
For manual calls where you are dialing the number, you aren’t going to be required to follow the TCPA laws. Just make sure that you are spending the time to organize your call list with services like Lead411, which are some good replacements for Apollo.
You just need to be sure that you follow the Federal Do Not Call List, and if someone on that list hasn’t given your business express consent to be contacted, then you can’t reach out to them. Additionally, you can’t call people who have opted out of the TCPA, so if people have requested to not be called, you need to add them to an internal do-not-call list.
Why Do You Still Get Some Unwanted Calls?
As a consumer, you might wonder why you might have opted out of every single call list in existence, but still have some people reaching out to work with you. For some businesses, the TCPA rules are not applicable and the information they provide can still get through, though most of these do come with an opt-out feature. These can include calls for debt collection, messages from political causes or charities, calls from healthcare providers, and calls that are focused on sharing information.
Cold Calls Are Going To Happen Less Often, So They Need To Be Impactful
If you are going to be following the rules and making fewer cold calls, then you need to make sure that you are ensuring that your cold calls are as impactful as possible. This doesn’t mean layering on the hard sell the second that the consumer picks up the phone and shows some interest, but it means that you need to focus on gradually warming the customer up.
So try to figure out why the customer has picked up the phone to start with and make sure that you can bond with them over those shared desires. Your cold calls need to make a massive impression on your clients, and you need to treat the cold calls with your clients like a conversation rather than trying to sell them something right off the bat.
Additionally, don’t be afraid to give your prospects a way to opt out of the cold calling, because every single customer needs a way out if they need it. Not all of them will take it, but you need to make sure they know about it.
Don’t Be Afraid To Keep Learning
The rules for privacy laws are going to keep on changing both in your home country as well as abroad, and you need to make sure that you are taking the time to learn them and continue to enhance your knowledge and ensure that you know how to provide good cold calls for your business. The more you can learn about the laws and make sure that your business can follow them when focusing on cold calling, the more impactful your cold calls can be!
Interesting Related Article: “3 Top Tips for a Successful Cold Calling Operation“