Insurance telemarketing is a great way to connect with prospects, but compliance has to be part of your plan.
When you work in insurance sales, one of the best ways to connect with potential clients is through insurance telemarketing. It’s proven to be an effective strategy, both for reaching new clients and reconnecting with past clients.
The best part is that it’s a strategy anyone can use, whether you run a telemarketing agency that contracts with an insurance company or take the do-it-yourself approach as a small agency. So while it certainly helps to have some guidelines and phone sales experience, there’s nothing stopping you from picking up the phone and calling prospects.
However, there are a few things you have to consider, the largest of which is compliance. While there are multiple approaches to strategy and plenty of room to try out different ideas, compliance is a different issue altogether. The good news is that it’s not hard to follow compliance regulations if you set yourself up with a few parameters.
Call Logic’s auto-dialer and call management software offers dozens of helpful tools to increase your success and simplify your daily tasks. Call for your free consultation today to learn more!
8 Easy steps for insurance telemarketing compliance
1. Get acquainted with the TSR. The Telemarketing Sales Rule, or TSR for short, outlines the rules regarding telemarketer disclosures and actions. The TSR is governed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which offers this summary:
The TSR “prohibits misrepresentations; sets limits on the times telemarketers may call consumers; prohibits calls to a consumer who has asked not to be called again; and sets payment restrictions for the sale of certain goods and services.”
It’s a smart idea to read through the rule, however, so you can have a good grasp of what it entails.
2. Familiarize yourself with the TCPA. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) is governed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The TCPA includes several provisions, including the time of day you can call consumers, how you need to identify yourself, and rules around robocalls.
Fines for noncompliance with the TCPA can be up to $1,500 “per willful violation.” That means this is one rule you want to be sure to follow.
3. Understand the DNC List. A subset of the TCPA is the Do Not Call List, or DNC. The DNC allows consumers to opt out of receiving calls from most telemarketing calls, including insurance telemarketing calls. There are exceptions for certain types of calls or organizations making calls. Similarly, a pre-existing business relationship may count as an exception to the rule. Even so, since the fine for noncompliance with the DNC List is more than $43,000 per violation, this is absolutely something you want to pay attention to.
4. Use the right dialing software. One way to help you maintain insurance telemarketing compliance is to use dialing software that offers TCPA compliance. Better yet, use dialing software that scrubs the national and state lists in the milliseconds before a call goes out. Real-time scrubbing provides the highest level of protection from calling numbers on the DNC list, so you can stop worrying about hefty fines and start focusing on making sales.
5. Register for a SAN. A subscription account number (SAN) gives you access to the numbers on the DNC list. You can read more in How to Get a Subscription Account Number (SAN) for Telesales, and find out how the process works.
6. Maintain written procedures. It’s important to have your procedures written down and accessible to everyone on your team. In addition, these procedures should include the rules for compliance, such as calling only between the hours of 8 a.m. and 9 p.m., and disclosing who you are and why you’re calling.
7. Train your team. Compliance with insurance telemarketing regulations isn’t going to happen if you don’t train your team on what those regulations are. You can only follow the rules if you know what they are, right? Not only is that a smart practice, but it also helps you if you do get audited by the FTC or FCC. Mistakes happen, and when they do, you want to be able to show that you have training and procedures in place that make these mistakes a rare occurrence.
8. Update your DNC list. While the DNC registry is updated daily, the FTC only recommends downloading the entire list every six months. In the interim, they offer a “Change List” of the numbers added since your last download. There’s no rule around how often you need to update your list, but since you don’t want to make a habit of calling numbers on the DNC list, it’s not a bad idea to make updates at least monthly.
Even though compliance might seem like a lot, once you take a closer look, it’s not that complicated. You just need to be organized.
Make more calls in less time with Call Logic. From donor profile management to automated voicemails to built-in compliance, we’ve got you covered in every aspect of your business. Call for your free consultation today to learn more!