Opt-out sales generate a whopping $2 billion in revenue every year. It’s a totally unethical practice … yet completely legal.
There are two key parts to any sales process: convincing the potential customer to buy what you’re selling, and then getting paid. What if there was a way to eliminate both of these steps from your sales cycle? What if you could just go ahead and send something to somebody and automatically get paid for it? That’s exactly what some companies are doing, the sneakiest way to make a fortune, and they’re making a fortune. Welcome to the world of opt-out sales.
How Opt-Out Sales Works
The opt-out sales model eliminates “sales,” because sellers deliver the product to customers without their explicit consent. Sometimes consent is obtained in an indirect way; other times, it isn’t obtained at all. The customer has the option of rejecting the sale and paying nothing, but if they don’t follow the steps to reject the sale, then it’s a done deal.
This model also eliminates collections and accounts receivable because the seller works through a billing partner. The partner is either a credit card company or a telecommunications provider with whom the customer has an existing relationship. Instead of sending an invoice to customers directly for something they didn’t explicitly want to buy, the seller informs the billing partner that they need payment, the charge is made to the customers’ account and the seller is paid by the billing partner (minus a juicy processing fee).
Lawmakers Smell a Rat
If this way of doing business doesn’t pass the smell test with you, you’re in good company. Congress and President Obama agree. In 2010, Obama signed into law the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act (ROSCA), which specifically prohibited certain practices related to opt-out sales. ROSCA specifically addressed the problem of “data-pass” marketing, a type of opt-out sales.
