Telemarketing sales manual




















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SOP Navigation. The success of your follow-up call is directly relational to what you accomplished, and how you ended the previous one. And set the agenda for the next call. You never have to experience rejection again. After all, what is rejection? So, ensure that you accomplish something on each call, and you can hold your head high with a sense of achievement.

Give them something to look for, based upon what you uncovered during the call … something that might just cause them to call you back. We specialize in those type of projects, and would love to talk to you.

This is a way to proactively make it happen more often. Imagine every day is the end-of- quota-period day. As a sales professional using the phone as your main method of communication, you perform a function that very few people in the world could do well, or would even want to try. And do think about it. It takes a talented individual to be able to do that well. You are that person. Feel proud of what you do, and always strive to get better! Art Sobczak specializes in helping people say and do the right things to get more business using the phone and avoid rejection through his books, tapes, and seminars.

See free back issues of his weekly Smart Calling Tips of the Week newsletter at www. For more information, email Art. Business By Phone Home Page. Cold calling, inside sales, telesales, and telemarketing training by Art Sobczak. Get information before you give it. How could you make an effective presentation otherwise? Ask one question at a time. Regardless of the answer. Do not copy images or content without permission. A consumer calls in response to an infomercial advertising a home gym product for sale.

If the home gym product is the only item offered during the call, the call is exempt. But if the telemarketer offers a free-trial offer to a cookbook series after the sales pitch for the home gym, the cookbook offer constitutes a separate transaction and is an upsell covered by the TSR.

If both the home gym product and the cookbook series are prominently featured in the general media advertisement, transactions involving either or both products fall within the general media exemption. Still, to comply with the TSR, sellers of pay-per-call services must not:.

Part and business opportunities subject to the Business Opportunities Rule 16 C. Part are exempt from most provisions of the TSR but not all. Sellers and telemarketers selling franchises subject to the Franchise Rule or business opportunities subject to the Business Opportunities Rule must not:. The TSR generally does not cover telephone transactions where the sale of goods or services or a charitable contribution is not completed until after a face-to-face presentation by the seller or charitable organization, and the consumer is not required to pay or authorize payment until then.

This exemption is for transactions that begin with a face-to-face sales presentation and are completed in a phone call, as well as those that begin with a phone call and are completed in a face-to-face sales presentation. The key to the face-to-face exemption is the direct, substantive and personal contact between the consumer and seller. The goal of the TSR is to protect consumers against deceptive or abusive practices that can arise when a consumer has no direct contact with an invisible and anonymous seller other than the telephone sales call.

A face-to-face meeting provides the consumer with more information about — and direct contact with — the seller, and helps limit potential problems the TSR is designed to remedy. Nevertheless, even in transactions where there is a face-to-face meeting, telemarketers must not:. The TSR requires sellers and telemarketers, whether making outbound calls to consumers or receiving inbound calls from consumers, to provide certain material information before the consumer pays for the goods or services that are the subject of the sales offer.

More simply, it is information a consumer needs to make an informed decision about whether to buy goods or services or make a donation. Sellers and telemarketers may provide the material information either orally or in writing. Clear and Conspicuous: Clear and conspicuous means that information is presented in a way that is difficult to miss and that ordinary consumers will easily notice and understand, so that required disclosures are communicated as effectively as the sales message.

When a seller or telemarketer makes required disclosures in a written document that is sent to a consumer and follows up with an outbound sales call to the consumer, the disclosures are considered clear and conspicuous only if they are sent close enough in time to the call so that the consumer associates the call with the written disclosures.

When disclosures are oral , clear and conspicuous means at an understandable speed and pace, and in the same language s and in the same tone and volume as the sales offer s so that ordinary consumers can easily hear and understand it. When making outbound calls, a telemarketer must promptly disclose certain types of information to consumers orally in the sales presentation. Required information about a prize promotion must be given before or when the prize offered is described. Before a Consumer Consents to Pay: Sellers and telemarketers must give a consumer the information required by Section When sellers and telemarketers have pre-acquired account information, they must provide the required disclosures before the customer provides express informed consent.

When sellers and telemarketers offer to sell goods or services, they must provide the consumer with material information about the offered goods or services necessary to avoid misleading consumers. The TSR specifies seven broad categories of material information that sellers and telemarketers must give consumers:.

The TSR requires sellers and telemarketers to disclose the total cost to buy, receive, or use the offered goods or services. While disclosing the total number of installment payments and the amount of each payment satisfies this requirement, the number and amount of such payments must correlate to the billing schedule that will be implemented. The TSR also requires you to tell a consumer the total quantity of goods the consumer must pay for and receive.

You must provide both these items of material information to the consumer before the consumer pays for the goods or services that are the subject of the sales offer.

You may provide this material information orally or in writing, as long as the information is clear and conspicuous. Sometimes, the total cost and quantity are not fixed when the initial transaction takes place, but, instead, are determined over time.

For example, in a negative option plan , like those offered by some book clubs, the consumer may agree to buy a certain number of items over a specified time period. The consumer gets periodic announcements of the selections; each announcement describes the selection, which will be sent automatically and billed to the consumer unless the consumer tells the company not to send it. Similarly, a continuity plan is a type of negative option plan that offers subscriptions to collections of goods.

During the course of the plan, the consumer can choose to purchase some or all the items offered in the collection. Consumers who agree to buy an introductory selection also agree to receive additional selections on a regular schedule until they cancel their subscription to the plan.

Both negative option and continuity plans are structured to give consumers the opportunity to buy a series of products over time. The cost of the plan as a whole is determined by the number and type of items the consumer decides to accept in the series, and at the time of the initial sales offer, neither the seller nor the consumer necessarily knows how much product the consumer will purchase, or the total cost of the products.

To comply with the TSR, a seller or telemarketer offering a negative option or a continuity plan must disclose the total costs and quantity of goods or services that are part of the initial offer; the total quantity of additional goods or services that a consumer must purchase over the duration of the plan; and the cost, or range of costs, to purchase each additional good or service separately.

Cost and Quantity Disclosure in the Marketing of Credit Products: If sellers and telemarketers are offering credit products subject to the Truth in Lending Act TILA or Regulation Z, compliance with the credit disclosure requirements and the timing of the disclosures mandated by TILA or Regulation Z constitute compliance with the total cost and quantity disclosure requirements of the TSR with respect to the credit instrument. Nevertheless, the cost and quantity of any goods or services purchased with that credit also must be disclosed.

The TSR requires sellers and telemarketers to disclose all material restrictions, limitations, or conditions to purchase, receive, or use goods or services that they are offering to the consumer. Material information is information that a consumer needs to make an informed purchasing decision. A material restriction, limitation, or condition is one that, if known to the consumer, would likely affect the decision to purchase the goods or services offered; to purchase them at the offered price; to purchase them from that particular seller; or to make a charitable contribution.

Examples of material information that must be disclosed include:. Sellers and telemarketers may disclose orally or in writing information about material restrictions, limitations, or conditions to purchase, receive, or use the goods or services being offered, as long as the information is clear and conspicuous and disclosed before the consumer pays. You may give this information to consumers orally or in writing, as long as the information is clear and conspicuous.

A prize promotion includes any sweepstakes or other game of chance, and any representation that someone has won, has been selected to receive, or may be eligible to receive a prize or purported prize. A prize is anything offered and given to a consumer by chance. For the element of chance to be present, all that is necessary under the TSR is that if the consumer is guaranteed to receive an item, at the time of the offer the telemarketer does not identify the specific item that the person will receive.

For example, say you send a solicitation promising recipients that they will receive one of four or five listed items but you do not tell recipients which of the listed items they will receive. In that case, any item the consumer receives is a prize, and the solicitation is a prize promotion. A seller or telemarketer that offers a prize promotion must provide consumers with several items of information before the consumer pays for any goods or services being offered. This information may be given to consumers orally or in writing, as long as the information is clear and conspicuous.

You must tell consumers:. Other types of negative option features include continuity plans and other arrangements where consumers automatically receive and incur charges for shipments in an ongoing series unless they take affirmative action to stop the shipment. Under the TSR, any seller or telemarketer whose offer of a product or service involves a negative option feature must truthfully, clearly, and conspicuously disclose three pieces of information:.

As for disclosing how the consumer can avoid charges, it is not sufficient under the TSR to say that a consumer would have to call a toll-free number to cancel without giving the number. That includes reducing the balance, interest rates or fees a person owes. Under the TSR, any seller or telemarketer of a debt relief service must truthfully, clearly, and conspicuously disclose five pieces of information:. An outbound call is a call initiated by a telemarketer to a consumer.

The TSR requires that a telemarketer making an outbound sales call promptly disclose, before any sales pitch is given, the following four items of information truthfully, clearly, and conspicuously:.

These same disclosures must be made in an upselling transaction if any of the information in these disclosures is different from the initial disclosures if the initial transaction was an outbound call subject to the TSR or if no disclosures were required in the initial transaction, like a non-sales customer service call.

For example, in an external upsell, where the second transaction in a single telephone call involves a second seller, you must tell the consumer the identity of the second seller — the one on whose behalf the upsell offer is being made.

Telefunders must make two clear and conspicuous oral disclosures promptly before any charitable solicitation is made:. How does a for-profit company that telemarkets for a non-profit organization make the required oral disclosures? When a for-profit company makes interstate calls to solicit charitable contributions for a non-profit organization, the for-profit telemarketer must make the required prompt disclosures for charitable solicitation calls.

The company must identify the entity on behalf of which the charitable solicitation is made, and state that the purpose of the call is to solicit a charitable contribution. However, if a for-profit company solicits charitable contributions on behalf of a charity and offers goods or services that are of more than nominal value — a book, magazine subscription, or perhaps a membership — to induce donations, the required oral disclosures for both sales and charitable contributions must be made.

In a situation where the goods or services offered are of nominal value, stating the name of the non-profit organization on whose behalf the call is being made is sufficient. Multiple Purpose Calls. Some calls have more than one purpose. They may involve the sale of goods or services and another objective, like conducting a prize promotion or determining customer satisfaction. They may involve a charitable solicitation combined with a prize promotion. In any multiple purpose call where the seller or telemarketer is planning to sell goods or services in at least some of the calls, the four sales disclosures above must be made promptly — that is, during the first part of the call before the non-sales portion of the call.

Similarly, in any multiple purpose call where the telemarketer is planning to solicit charitable contributions in at least some of the calls, the two charitable solicitation disclosures must be made promptly — that is, during the first part of the call, before the noncharitable solicitation part of the call.

However, a seller may make calls to welcome new customers and ask whether they are satisfied with goods or services they recently purchased. Because the seller has no plans to sell goods or services during these calls, the disclosures are not required. The TSR prohibits sellers and telemarketers from making false or misleading statements to induce anyone to pay for goods or services or make a charitable contribution.

For example:. The TSR also prohibits both express and implied misrepresentations. The TSR prohibits sellers and telemarketers from misrepresenting the total costs to purchase, receive, or use the goods or services offered, or the quantity of goods or services offered at the stated price.

The TSR prohibits sellers and telemarketers from misrepresenting any material restriction, limitation, or condition to purchase, receive, or use goods or services offered to the consumer. For example, you may not falsely claim that a hotel certificate may be used any time at any major hotel chain in the country, when it can be used only at certain times or at a limited number of hotels.

The TSR prohibits sellers and telemarketers from misrepresenting any material aspect of the performance, efficacy, nature, or central characteristics of the goods or services offered to the consumer. It also prohibits sellers and telemarketers from claiming that tickets may be cancelled any time up to the date of an event when such cancellation requests would not be honored. For example, you may not misrepresent:.

The TSR prohibits sellers and telemarketers from misrepresenting any material aspect of an investment opportunity. You may not misrepresent any information needed to make an informed investment decision. Examples of material aspects of an investment opportunity include: the risk involved in the investment, the liquidity of the investment, or the earnings potential or profitability of the investment.

Depending on the nature of the investment opportunity, other material aspects may include markup over acquisition costs; past performance, marketability, or value of an investment; or fees charged in credit-financed purchases of precious metals.

The TSR prohibits sellers and telemarketers from misrepresenting affiliations with — or endorsements or sponsorships by — any person, organization, or government entity. Postal Service has approved a promotion. The TSR prohibits sellers and telemarketers from misrepresenting that any customer needs offered goods or services to receive protection against unauthorized charges that he or she already has under federal law 15 U.

For example, the TSR prohibits you from representing that to avoid being charged, the consumer need only call a toll-free number to cancel if, in fact, the number is never answered. The TSR prohibits telefunders from misrepresenting the nature, purpose, or mission of any entity on whose behalf a charitable contribution is being solicited. It would violate the TSR for a telefunder to claim, expressly or by implication, that a charitable contribution is being requested on behalf of a charity that seeks to protect endangered species if the purpose of the charity is to support a local petting zoo of barnyard animals.

And a telefunder may not represent that a charitable organization engages in cancer research if the organization simply educates the public about cancer through its fundraising calls.

Whether a contribution is tax deductible — or an organization is tax exempt — may be an important consideration when potential donors are deciding whether or how much to contribute.

The TSR prohibits telefunders from misrepresenting how the requested contribution will be used. This includes not only how a donation will be spent, but also the locality where the direct effect of the donation will be felt. The purpose for which a contribution is sought usually is important to a donor, and any misrepresentations about that would be likely to mislead a consumer.

You also cannot claim that a donation will be used to pay for bullet-proof vests for local law enforcement officers if the money goes to some other purpose. The charitable purpose described to potential donors may not be peripheral or incidental to the primary purpose for which the donation will be used.

The TSR prohibits telefunders from misrepresenting the percentage or amount of the contribution that goes to a charitable organization or program. This prohibition covers statements made in response to the questions of potential donors, as well as unprompted standalone statements.

Even though the TSR does not require you to affirmatively disclose the percentage or amount of the contribution that goes to a charitable organization or program, if a potential donor raises the question, you must answer truthfully and must not misrepresent this information in any way.

The TSR prohibits telefunders from misrepresenting any material aspects of a prize promotion in conjunction with a charitable solicitation. For example, you cannot falsely claim that the organization on whose behalf you are calling is affiliated with, sponsored by, endorsed by, or otherwise approved by any other entity or organization.

In addition, you cannot falsely claim — or create the impression — that you are related to or affiliated with a charity that the donor has heard of or contributed to in the past. Because many novel payment methods lack protection against unauthorized charges and dispute resolution rights should the customer be unhappy with the goods or services, the TSR requires that when customers in telemarketing transactions pay by such methods, sellers and telemarketers must meet a higher standard for proving authorization.

What about remotely created payment orders, remotely created checks, cash-to-cash money transfers, and cash reload mechanisms? The use of these four payment methods in both inbound and outbound telemarketing is prohibited by the TSR. Cash-to-cash money transfers and cash reload mechanisms likewise allow anonymous fraudsters to disappear with money paid by consumers for undelivered goods and services. What about cash, checks, and money orders? These payment methods have been used for years, and consumers are familiar with the advantages and relative risks of each.

But there are payment methods that consumers may be unfamiliar with and that lack fundamental protections. Who is responsible for obtaining verifiable authorization? Under the TSR, sellers and telemarketers that receive payment by methods other than credit or debit cards are responsible for obtaining verifiable authorization in those transactions.

Even if you use the services of a third party to process or submit billing information other than credit or debit card information, you are responsible for ensuring that the disclosure requirements of the TSR for verifying authorization are met.

Under the TSR, a third party also can be held liable for violating the TSR if the third party substantially assists a seller or telemarketer and knows — or consciously avoids knowing — that the seller or telemarketer is violating the TSR by failing to obtain verifiable authorization. Processing and submitting account information constitutes substantial assistance to a seller or telemarketer. A third party who processes and submits bank account information cannot avoid liability by not asking questions about whether authorization procedures comply with the TSR.

Indeed, a third party can be held liable under the TSR if it knows that the authorization procedures do not comply with the TSR and it processes or submits account information for payment anyway. Does the TSR apply if I only supply the software to process or submit bank account information for payment?

If the seller or telemarketer who is using the software is violating the TSR, a law enforcement agency may ask about the extent to which the software provider ensured that authorization procedures were in place to comply with the TSR. Deceptive telemarketers favor novel payment methods, like remotely created payment orders or checks. An electronic signature also is valid, provided it would be recognized as a valid signature under applicable federal or state contract law.

Any audio recording of an oral authorization payment must clearly demonstrate that the consumer has received each of eight specific pieces of information about the transaction and that the consumer has authorized that funds be taken from or charged to his or her account based on the required disclosures by the seller or telemarketer.

The tape recording must show that the consumer received each piece of information below and that, based on this information, the consumer understood and acknowledged each term of the transaction and authorized the transaction. State laws vary on permitting the recording of telephone conversations and the requirements to obtain consent of the recorded party.

Consult an attorney for guidance on these issues. The seller or telemarketer must clearly and conspicuously state, and the consumer must acknowledge:. It is the responsibility of each seller and telemarketer to determine how to comply with all applicable laws and rules. Compliance with the TSR requirements for obtaining authorization does not eliminate the obligation to comply with EFTA and other applicable laws. That does not mean that you must wait to submit this information until a consumer receives the confirmation: The TSR requires only that you send it before you submit the billing information for payment.

The written confirmation must contain all the information required in an audio recording of an oral authorization. In addition, if you choose to use the written confirmation method of authorization, you must have a refund policy in place and must disclose in the written confirmation how to obtain a refund if the consumer disputes the written confirmation.

The TSR leaves it to sellers and telemarketers to determine what procedures are necessary to ensure that confirmations are sent prior to submission, to put these procedures in place, and to ensure that records are generated and maintained to document that confirmations are sent at the appropriate time and required refunds are provided.

Note: In transactions involving pre-acquired account information combined with a free-to-pay conversion, sellers and telemarketers may not use the written confirmation method of obtaining authorization. This disclosure ensures that consumers know when to expect the charge or debit. Similarly, in a transaction involving a continuity plan, it would be sufficient for you to note when any initial charge will be submitted for payment, and then at what intervals each successive payment would be submitted, should the customer opt not to decline to purchase additional goods or services.

To identify the account with sufficient specificity for the customer or donor to understand what account will be charged, you must state the name of the account and enough other distinguishing information about the account to ensure that the customer understands which account will be charged. For example, telling the consumer that the charge will be placed on his mortgage account is not specific enough information.

It would be necessary to identify the account further, perhaps by the name of the lender and the property address, or a reference to some portion of the account number or expiration date. It is your obligation to ensure that the consumer knows specifically what account will be charged for the goods or services.

It is a violation of the TSR to substantially assist a seller or telemarketer while knowing — or consciously avoiding knowing — that the seller or telemarketer is violating Sections To violate the TSR, the assistance that a third-party provides must be more than just a casual or incidental dealing with a seller or telemarketer that is unrelated to a violation of the TSR.

Third parties who do business with sellers and telemarketers should be aware that their dealings may provide a factual basis to support an inference that they know — or deliberately remain ignorant of — the TSR violations of these sellers and telemarketers.

For example, a third party who, directly or indirectly, 1 provides sellers or telemarketers with mailing lists, automated dialing software, or telephony services, 2 helps in creating sales scripts or direct mail pieces, or 3 furnishes any other substantial assistance while knowing or consciously avoiding knowing that the seller or telemarketer is engaged in a TSR violation may be violating the TSR.

A merchant account is a kind of bank account: it is what a seller or telemarketer needs to gain access to a credit card collection and payment system and to get cash for goods and services sold. This practice violates the TSR, and is a criminal offense under federal law and the laws of some states. When the consumer pays by credit card, the merchant generates a credit card sales draft. In credit card laundering, sellers and telemarketers who are unable to establish a merchant account with a financial institution sometimes use the unlawful services of a launderer.

Except as expressly permitted by a credit card system, it is a TSR violation for anyone:. It is a violation of the TSR to cause billing information to be submitted for payment — directly or indirectly — without the express informed consent of the customer or donor.

The TSR requires that in any telemarketing transaction, sellers and telemarketers obtain the express informed consent of the customer or donor to be charged a specific amount on a particular identified account to pay for the goods or services offered, or to make a charitable contribution.

The TSR contains no specific requirements for how sellers and telemarketers must obtain express informed consent in transactions where they do not use pre-acquired account information. In obtaining this information from the consumer, you must get her express agreement to be charged for the goods or services being offered and to be charged using the account number she provides.

Any false or misleading statement to induce someone to divulge her account information to pay for goods or services or to make a charitable contribution is an additional TSR violation.

What is express informed consent? Under the TSR, consent is express if it is affirmatively and unambiguously articulated by the consumer. Consent is an affirmative statement that the consumer agrees to purchase the goods or services or to make the charitable contribution and is aware that the charges will be billed to a particular account. The TSR establishes safeguards to protect consumers in all telemarketing transactions in which sellers and telemarketers have pre-acquired account information.

When pre-acquired account information is used and the offer includes a free-to-pay conversion feature, telemarketers must:. Reading the information to the customer and asking for confirmation of the digits is not complying with the TSR. Neither is it sufficient to read the digits to the customer, and then ask the customer to recite them back. In addition, it is not adequate to reuse digits that a customer may have provided for identification purposes during another portion of the call — such as in an inbound call where you ask the customer to provide his or her account number by pressing digits on the telephone keypad.

The four digits the customer provides must actually be the last four digits of the account to be charged. The meaning here is simply that a charge cannot be processed unless the four digits provided by the customer are in fact the last four digits of the account to be charged. One way to ensure that the four digits match is to perform a real-time inquiry to verify that the leading digits of the pre-acquired account number plus the four provided by the customer are a valid account.



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