AbhijithDigital Marketing Specialist

European Union’s privacy law for protecting personal data is the hot topic now. We have already discussed What GDPR is and how it affects SalesboxAI and our customers. But still, sales teams are confused about “How GDPR is going to affect prospecting?”
GDPR doesn’t directly call out cold calling and cold email, but it does require you to fulfill the legality of data processing. Before we dig deeper into prospecting let’s discuss the Legality of Data processing for the better understanding of the concept:

 
First of all for legally processing the personal data of EU residents, companies need to be compliance with a legal obligation to which the controller is subject. If the controller is subject to the legal obligation- the lawfulness of processing comes next, among the laws in Article 6 of the GDPR, Sales will be mostly concerned about few
 

 
Consent of the data subject – the data subject has given consent to the processing of his or her personal data for one or more specific purposes Performance of a contract – processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which the data subject is party or in order to take steps at the request of the data subject prior to entering into a contract
 

Legitimate interest pursued by the controller- processing is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by the controller or by a third party, except where such interests are overridden by the fundamental rights and freedoms or interests of the data subject which require protection of personal data, in particular where the data subject is a child

So before processing, companies need to think whether they have the right to process the data. GDPR ensures that the processing of data will not threaten the rights and freedom of individuals.

Now we know how to be compliant for processing data, then the next important thing is minimizing the data:

The concept of data minimization allows organizations only to process data that is necessary for the legitimate interest. When sales team is concerned the following data elements are the most necessary:

First and Last Name
Email address
Phone number

Collection of the above data types is allowed in case the company is legally complaint to data processing. But details like Call recordings, Email open tracking, Link click tracking need to be avoided if they are not necessary for purposes of marketing and sales.

• Use Relaxed Cadences

While prospecting the data in Europe, keep in mind you are using relaxed cadences

• Using the “Do Not Call option”

  European Union’s member states may maintain its own “Do Not Call” list so it will be prudent to verify that your prospects are not on these lists prior to reaching out.

• Opt-out links and privacy notice links

  To increase your transparency and reduce the intrusiveness of the emails, it will be critical to include notice of your company’s privacy practices as well as the opportunity for the recipient to object to receiving future communications.