August 2004
Businesses are being advised to wise up to new legislation which came into force in July potentially meaning fines of up to £5,000 for those whose sales and marketing campaigns involve cold telephone calling.

The advice comes from Thomson Directories, industry leaders in direct marketing, who are particularly concerned about the lack of awareness amongst small to medium size companies regarding legislation on the use of company data in telesales or telemarketing campaigns.

“Sole trades and partnerships have been protected by the legislation for some time but now, local businesses need to know that private limited companies can also sign up to the Corporate Telephone Preference Service to protect them from receiving any unsolicited telephone calls”, explains Samantha Gray from Thomson Directories.

“Telephoning registered companies- knowingly or not – can result in hefty fines - a £2000 fine for contacting sole traders or partnerships, and a massive £5000 for private limited companies. So before buying any business names and addresses for telemarketing, companies need to make sure that the data has been checked against the TPS, CTPS and FPS datafiles. Reputable data providers will be able to answer questions on this and reassure as necessary. Thomson Directories' Database, for example, is regularly screened against these files so buying into Thomson Directories Business products will eliminate the risk of breaking this law.”

But will this legislation put companies off using direct marketing as a way of getting new business?

Far from it, say Thomson Directories who are advising businesses that this legislation will actually have a very positive effect on new business drives.

“These regulations will have the effect of upgrading the quality of direct marketing as a promotional tool,” explains Samantha Gray. “The process of contacting potential customers can be more targeted, and rather than wasting time and money trying to reach those companies that do not want to be contacted in the first place, resources can be ploughed into progressing those sales leads with the most potential”.

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