May 2003

By Rich Tehrani, 
Group Editor-In-Chief, Technology Marketing Corporation

Obviously, telemarketers in general aren't liked and that is a mild statement. The flipside to this statement is that many of us are happy to receive calls reminding us about subscriptions that have run out or special offers on credit card protection or sales in our local stores. Obviously, this is true as so much business is being done through the use of outbound calling. In fact we can chalk up about $300 billion dollars of sales in the U.S. economy to outbound telemarketing! (For more information, please see my February 2003 issue High Priority! for details.

Many e-mails we received told us that the industry should have done a better job of regulating itself, and I find this is a tough argument to accept because there has been a DMA do-not-call list in place for over 20 years, with over four million phone numbers on it. This list didn't get created by accident'the industry was policing itself and still does. Part of the problem is that many companies are using the phone to sell scams and illegal investment opportunities. These people aren't in the call center industry, in my opinion. They are criminals, in many cases, that are breaking laws when they call to sell you investments in ostrich farms that don't exist. If these unscrupulous callers don't abide by federal laws, it is doubtful that they will now or ever respect any do-not-call list that is established. Likewise, they aren't likely to break federal laws that risk jail yet succumb to 'industry policing.'

Therein lies the problem. The industry has done a good job policing itself over the decades, but a bad job of letting the world know about it. What on earth more can be done besides establishing our own do-not-call list and abiding by it? I guarantee that the federal government will have a bear of a time enforcing their own list'especially when calls originate overseas. What more could 'the industry' have done?

I am very concerned about a federally sponsored do-not-call list, as it will receive tremendous marketing via all media outlets. This list will grow rapidly as a result of all of this attention and as it grows, the pool of available numbers to call will shrink indefinitely. There will be an accelerated need to join the list as remaining households will receive ever-increasing calls. Without a doubt this will cause worldwide economic catastrophe. I am not an alarmist. But mark my words, when I say the government backing and subsequent free marketing of this list will plunge the world into depression. Few businesses are doing well right now'record numbers of companies are teetering on bankruptcy. The economy cannot support such a huge amount of lost sales and related three to five million job losses.

Worse yet, consider the cost of starting any type of business that involves the phone. Also, realize that most companies do use the phone to sell products on an outbound basis. The cost of checking phone numbers against multiple lists is prohibitively expensive for start-ups, meaning they may never be able to use the phone to sell products and services. This will result in making it even more difficult to start a new company. This is the opposite of what our administration needs to be doing right now. We are talking about business disaster here.

Understand the chain reaction that takes place when something is sold. Manufacturers, distributors and resellers all take a piece of a sale. If I use the phone to sell consumers a new garden rake that is made in China, myriad companies and employees derive sustenance from that sale. Kill the sales; lose the jobs, increase unemployment rates, bankruptcy rates, etc.

I have had a number of e-mails from people telling me that they don't care what happens to telemarketers as they are worse than drug dealers, etc. The problem is many of these people who feel this way don't realize that the companies they work for are in many cases dependant on outbound telemarketing for their very existence. I received a few e-mails against telemarketing where their e-mail address belongs to companies that sell call center/dialing equipment. These people are either ill-informed, not too bright or are happy to be unemployed. It's difficult to tell.

This is the same thing that happens when newspaper reporters complain about telemarketers without realizing what a large percentage of newspaper subscriptions are sold via phone. In other words, they are employed in part due to the efforts of telemarketers!

In many cases, telemarketing centers hire single parents, military wives, students, the elderly and the handicapped and other people that are not otherwise particularly employable. The majority of these people are employed in rural communities where there are no other employment opportunities. This is a very dangerous game we are playing at a time when our economy can't handle much more. These rural communities will be rife with unemployed workers.

Another argument I received is that companies need to find new ways to market besides the phone. Are there any untapped marketing vehicles that you are aware of? I am not aware of any. There is nothing as efficient as telemarketing, plain and simple. Internet? E-mail? I don't think so. Spam is making it difficult to even get an e-mail through to your spouse without it accidentally being erased by over-ambitious anti-spam software. We will definitely see sales further reduced at a ridiculous rate.

Furthermore, I take issue with the way these lists work. They are all phone number-based, and there is no method of managing this problem. In my household and many others, we want certain calls and don't want others. I am looking for life insurance'if Allstate were to call me with an unbeatable deal, I want them to send me info. I love car magazines and like just about all others. I would appreciate calls from most publishing companies. My wife doesn't like telemarketing calls unless it is Loehmann's, Saks, etc. Furthermore, we prefer no calls before 10:00 a.m. at home on the weekends while calls after 8:00 p.m. during the week are perfect. Many of us are used to setting preferences like these for e-mail newsletters. We need a like system for telemarketing. The list should be based on person and phone number, and allow people to receive calls on some topics and not others.

Another good idea is a global clearinghouse on calling ' restricting telemarketing calls per household to perhaps two or three per week. At the moment, there is no way to assure that every telemarketer in the world doesn't call you simultaneously. We do need to figure out a way to achieve this goal.

In conclusion, we appreciate all the letters that were sent on this topic. We set feedback records. But I am convinced that this list will spell disaster for the world's economy. I am not an alarmist, but I am someone that realizes that $300 billion dollars in sales are at stake and that the economy is too fragile to handle this blow. I agree that something more needs to be done, and besides the ideas I propose above, I am not sure how else to go about solving this problem. I still think a government-backed, number-only list is a bad idea. I am always open to suggestions. If you have additional suggestions, please e-mail me at [email protected].

Sincerely,
Rich Tehrani
Group Publisher,
Group Editor-in-Chief
[email protected]

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