A user on TikTok has sparked controversy after claiming that, as a cold caller, she generally does not honor customer requests to not be called again.
In a video with over 58,000 views, TikTok user Sarah (@sploww) lays out, in her words, “Why you should never really technically have a Do Not Call List when you’re in sales.”
“If you don’t even get through your pitch and someone’s like, ‘Don’t call me back,’ and hangs up right away—chances are you can definitely get them on another call a different day, and they’ll actually respect your pitch, respect the hustle,” she details. “That’s what sales leaders do.”
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This is only one of two groups of call recipients Sarah identifies. For the other group, she suggests waiting to call them again, but not taking them out of your call rotation.
“For example, there’s another person, kind of like I had the other day, where they were like, ‘Sarah, I got your call. I know you’ve been calling. I understand your persistence. I know what you’re calling about. But please just stop calling me. I’m not interested,’” she recounts. “That person I would recommend calling back in like six months because timing is everything in sales. And people change their minds, and people need things most when they least expect it.”
If a cold caller gets immediately hung up on, Sarah suggests trying them again “the same afternoon.”
Depending on the specific circumstance, what Sarah is suggesting may actually be illegal. According to the Do Not Call Implementation Act of 2003, if one has signed up to the official Do Not Call Registry, “it’s illegal for telemarketers to call those numbers on the list and those found violating this law face fines of $11,000 per call,” per Congressman Brad Sherman.
Ignoring the Do Not Call Registry, a sales caller can still face consequences if they continually call someone who has requested to be taken off of a caller’s list.
“Calls, and even text messages, placed after you demand to be blocked off their list can be met with a $500 or $1,500 fine levied against the company,” writes Atlas Consumer Law.
Naturally, there are some exceptions to these rules, and as Sarah appears to be dealing with business-to-business services, it’s possible that her work could fall into these exceptions.
However, it’s unclear if that message was adequately conveyed to viewers, as many users in comments questioned the legality of her methods. Additionally, some said they even disapproved in a business context, noting that they would be unlikely to work with someone who disregarded their request to be removed from a sales list.
“The way I would lose my mind if I told someone no don’t call me and they called me,” wrote a user.
“Yeah no when I say do not call me again I mean it,” added another.
“This is why people hate sales people,” declared a third.
For her part, Sarah appears undeterred. When someone in the comments brought up the idea of simply blocking the caller’s phone number, Sarah countered, “good thing i have multiple numbers.”
The Daily Dot reached out to Sarah via email.
