[kposehn]

I see a lot of criticism of this product by referencing it as a telemarketing solution - it is not.

These are not cold calls: they are inbound leads that you have to source and have permission to call. If someone fills out a lead form on your site and checks the “contact by phone” option, this allows you to scale a bit more rapidly in high-volume top-of-funnel lead gen where you are trying to filter out unqualified or low-value leads.

Edit: sueders101 pointed out that they reference cold calls. With the TOS in mind I bet that’s a copy mistake as they require permission to call berg secured before making a call. Thy definitely could use some copy updates and calling out security/privacy more clearly.

[sueders101]

"These are not cold calls"

When you hover over the solutions options they literally say

"Prospecting: We cold call businesses and generate new leads for you."

[kposehn]

Fair. I was referencing the demo and the ToS makes it clear you must have an Established Business Relationship, which means I’m this case it wouldn’t be truly cold as there is a lead and permission to call involved.

[sueders101]

"you must have an Established Business Relationship"

They say on the prospecting page:

"UPLOAD YOUR LIST: Upload a list of target businesses to call. We can help you finding one too."

It doesn't sound like you need an Established Business Relationship.

[kposehn]

Yeah, it’s not terribly consistent what they require. I do agree they need to call it out more clearly :)

[detaro]

No, they say you need an EBR or other reason. In many jurisdictions, for B2B calls "it can be imagined that they might be interested in our product" is a valid legal reason to cold-call someone.

[pavel_lishin]

> they are inbound leads that you have to source and have permission to call.

How does Upcall verify this? Does their employee UI have a big red button that they have to hit every time the person picking up the phone says "Sorry, I've never heard of CLIENT_X", and after a certain number of "cold call alarms", the account is terminated?

[kposehn]

That’s an excellent question and one I would expect and answer for posted pretty clearly on the site. Probably a similar process, and I would also expect some sort of stats around rejected calls akin to spam stats in email platforms like MailChimp.

[detaro]

They might offer that too, but they also fairly clearly advertise telemarketing approaches.