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Is Cold Calling illegal in Germany?

Ika

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Hey German Fastlaners!
Cold Calling and Cold Emailing is a great tool to aquire new customers. But to what extend is it legal in Germany?

After researching, thats what I found out:
Calling a private person without a signed agreement is illegal.
To contact a business you don't need a signed agreement, but there has to be an obvious similar interest.
But what does a similar interest mean?
What I found online is:
Selling car tool to a car shop is legal. Selling a website to a car shop is illegal.

I know you can't give me legal advice. But what are your experiences or advice?
I personally would say a website for new customers is in the business' full interest, but others say the opposite..

Thank you!
 
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germandude

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Yes it is. I know because I worked for a company, getting an agreement to call door to door, so that the company can call these people that signed up. This was B2C sales.
 
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theag

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B2B cold calls in Germany are a grey area. A lot depends on how annoying you are and if the person you call is having a shit day. No risk, no reward ;).
 

Ika

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Yes it is. I know because I worked for a company, getting an agreement to call door to door, so that the company can call these people that signed up. This was B2C sales.
Thank you! How did you get the agreement?

@theag Thank you! So far taking the risk has worked out for you I guess.
If my intention (and action) is to help the other person, instead of reading a sales page out loud, do you think I will be allright?
 
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theag

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@theag Thank you! So far taking the risk has worked out for you I guess.
If my intention (and action) is to help the other person, instead of reading a sales page out loud, do you think I will be allright?
I'm not cold calling for sales. Did it for a time for another business that I worked on but hated it and sucked at it.

Now I'm the one getting cold calls and depending on my mood I usually tell them right in the beginning before they finish their first sentence to go F*ck themselves and then hang up.

Or, if I'm in a very good mood and have nothing better to do, I act as if I'm really interested, ask a lot of questions, let them explain, ask some more, qualify myself as a high value customer, tell them it all sounds amazing, ask about what more they can do for me or sell me, give them signals that I'm ready to close, let them smell the big commission and then, when I wasted a ton of their time and they try to close me, I tell them to go F*ck themselves and then hang up.

:cigar:

But I'm an a**hole. Most people you'll call will be nice and polite.
 

germandude

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Made a deal with the devil.
Thank you! How did you get the agreement?

@theag Thank you! So far taking the risk has worked out for you I guess.
If my intention (and action) is to help the other person, instead of reading a sales page out loud, do you think I will be allright?[/QUOTE
 

townhaus

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Selling car tool to a car shop is legal. Selling a website to a car shop is illegal.

I don't know the law, but surely that can't be right.

B2B sales calls should be allowed for a range of services that could be relevant (bookkeeping software, marketing services, websites, sign-writing, window cleaning etc). Just because it's a car business, that wouldn't mean your only allowed to be calling about supplying car parts or similar...

I could understand if the law was to prevent unsolicited calls to individuals (consumers). It just doesn't sound right to me (but could be wrong).

I'd imagine you should be ok about calling the owners/directors of businesses, as long as your offer is actually relevant to them.
 
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Ika

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I don't know the law, but surely that can't be right.
From what I have read, there was a case where a person selling office supplies got sued because he called a law firm or something. And the firm won the case, which surprises everyone. The caller might have been a total annoyance, or I might have read a fake story.

Looks like I will search again since I got mixed responses :)

Thanks for your answers!
 

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