Todays' Telemarketing Challenges

Once there was plenty of opportunity for loan originators to make calls to all consumers to create mortgage business. However, the introduction of the Do Not Call List, October 1, 2003 presents challenges to consider. The rule dictates that it is illegal for telemarketers to contact consumers that have placed their name and phone number on the National Do Not Call Registry. Exceptions to this rule are calls placed by charities, political organizations or telephone surveyors. Failure to comply can result in up to $11,000 per incident fine, ouch!

At this point, the challenges focus around conducting telemarketing or selling to consumers, not businesses who are not on the list, but exceptions to exist within the law.

Existing Business Relationship

There are some laws in this National Do Not Call Registry to help B2C or business-to-consumer relationships; however they grapple with system challenges. First of all, sellers and telemarketers are permitted to phone consumers they've been doing business with for up to 18 months after the last purchase, payment or delivery, even if the person's name is on the National Do Not Call Registry.

And secondly, if someone who is on the National Do Not Call Registry makes an inquiry or otherwise submits an application of some type to a company, that company is allowed to call the prospect for up to three months afterwards. Plus if people grant permission in writing for companies to call, even though their phone numbers are listed with the National Do Not Call Registry, the parties who were granted permission to call may do so.

However, once a person asks a company to cease calls, the company must cease, period! Even if there was / is an existing business relationship. If a person wants to be placed on the company's Do Not Call list, the company must comply.

Scrubbing Your List

There are ways to clean your list of telephone numbers to weed out those on the Do No Call list and avoid the risk of such high penalties. You can scrub your list or run your numbers through the registry to pull out those that you cannot call.

Challenges to Scrubbing Your List include:

- You need to register as a selling or telemarketing company. - You need to pay fees per each area code you check or hire a service for this capability. - You may need knowledge of database software, list management and formatting, translation of programming languages and more.

Resources for Scrubbing Your list:

List Scrubbing Software - http://www.SafeCallerList.com

National Do Not Call Registry - http://www.telemarketing.donotcall.gov

Federal Trade Commission - http://www.ftc.gov/donotcall

Check around before taking the telemarketing plunge. It can pay huge dividends but you should to plan in advance to profit, stay in compliance with the law, and avoid the hefty fines that can devastate your business.

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