Cold-call freeze

Entrepreneur, March, 2003 by Elizabeth J. Goodgold

Telemarketers beware: The FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule will change the way you do business. The rule will create a national "do not call" registry, which will limit cold-calling to consumers who register with the government to opt out of telemarketers' databases. Those who sign up can't be contacted for five years or until their phone number changes. The penalty for violators? Up to $11,000 per call!

Arthur W. Conway, president of DialAmerica Marketing, an outbound telemarketing firm, believes the financial impact on growing businesses will be enormous. "Telemarketing is a very efficient channel for entrepreneurs," he says.

What's a marketer to do? According to Kathleen Peterson of PowerHouse Consulting, an expert in call-center management, this is a wakeup call for entrepreneurs: "Now is the time to create a good database." She notes companies that have conducted business with the consumer within the past 18 months are exempt from the regulations.

Peterson recommends an off-the-shelf database program such as Access, ACT! or Goldmine to track consumer history. The key is to ensure an departments share the same database. She also recommends that your company institute a permission-based telemarketing program. Says Peterson, "Ask your prospects if you can call them back in a year; then recontact them."

Depending on when it receives federal funding, the registry could be in effect as early as this summer. For more information and updates, log on to the FTC Web site, www.ftc.gov.