Cold Calling in South Carolina

[Central Coast Agent]

Question for anyone that cold calls in South Carolina. I'm out of state and a family member just moved to S.C. in the Spartanburg area. I'll be visiting frequently and may eventually move there. I was thinking about cold calling into that area to establish a small book of commercial policies to keep me busy while I am visiting and create a base in case I move there.

I came across S.C.'s cold calling laws which look pretty harsh compared to here in California. Specifically that you have to identify yourself as a sales call and offer an opt out and there seems to be a monetary incentive of between $1,000 and $5,000 if someone makes a complaint against you for violating S.C. Code Ann. § 37-21-50

If you cold call to businesses (telemarket) in South Carolina, can you tell me your actual experience and offer any guidance. Like, if calling on the phone is more liability then it is worth in lieu of these laws? What are you doing to gain new clients?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Josh]

I don't know what SC does specifically, but you may be in the clear because of being a commercial agent. The federal DNC laws only apply to consumer calls (and like 4 other weird exceptions). I would definitely check with the SC law and see if it applies to businesses. If you find out either way, could you update it here? People read this for a long time.

 

[Central Coast Agent]

A follow up to my original question.

It does appear to me from reading the statute in South Carolina that telemarketing sales calls are calls to "natural persons" and so my understanding is that business to business calls would be exempt.

However, where one could get into trouble, and this pretty much goes for any State, is if a business owner uses his/her personal phone as their business number and also has that number on the DNC list. If that person were to make a complaint they could be awarded between $1,000 and $5,000 per call under the S.C. Statute. So, its almost like an economic incentive to make a complaint IMO.

So, I think its a good idea to scrub against the DNC even for B2B calls.

 

[Tahoe Ray]

However, where one could get into trouble, and this pretty much goes for any State, is if a business owner uses his/her personal phone as their business number and also has that number on the DNC list.

So, I think its a good idea to scrub against the DNC even for B2B calls.

I think Senior Life would agree with you:

https://tcpaworld.com/2022/05/16/bu...garding-calls-to-business-numbers-quite-well/

 

[Markthebroker]

Most business owners know other business owners.

I suggest you educate yourself and research how to ask for referrals during and after the sales process. Once you make a few sales you should be able to get a handful of referrals, then some of those turn into sales, then more referrals, and so on. I'm a commercial broker and I was getting about 3 or 4 referrals on average on a sales appointment. Then I'd go back and get more referrals from the client later. Now I don't need to do anything - the phone just rings.

Or you can spend hours and hours cold calling to get cold leads. Either way - your choice.