As a Sales person, what impact does GDPR have on my day to day work?

In order to comply with the GDPR regulation from a Sales and Marketing perspective, there are some (new) procedures we at Televic need to put in place when it comes to

(a) Gaining consent from newly generated (i.e. generated from May 25th onwards) prospects and contacts to be added to your marketing database
After establishing the first connection with a contact, either at an event, or through a cold call, or via social media, please follow the following steps
Step 1: follow up via an individual email in Outlook in which you put the context of your meeting and request the contact to sign up in the subscription center of your BU if s/he wishes to receive newsletters, webinar invites and more on your products and solutions.
Link to the subscription Center of your BU: please check with your BU Marketing colleague. In case there is not yet a BU subscription center available, please use this Televic general subscription center .
Step 2: Flag in your CRM that the contact has opted-in.

Remark: For customers we do not require the consent as this is needed in light of our contract execution.

Please find the full Consent procedure here.

(b) managing unsubscribes (customers, prospects or other) from your marketing database.
The contact sends (or a Televic employee) forwards the request for removal to gdpr@televic.com. This request should at least contain the first or last name of the contact, company name, job title, email address and the applicable BU.
From there on, the CTO office and GDPR responsible of your BU will take over, i.e. they will manage the verification of the requester and will ensure the lists incl. the CRM tool (if present) are updated accordingly.

Please find the full Removal procedure here.


Further concrete consequences of GDPR to your daily work are described in a new policy on the acceptable use of information and information security (see attachment). Please read this policy carefully. Section 6 explains the concrete attention points with regard to GDPR.

Some more FAQs related to prospecting under GDPR:

1. Can I still send emails to prospects and others?
You can always send individual (Sales) emails to any contact. Mass or marketing emails you cannot, unless the contact has given you permission for this. Therefore, from now on, for any new contact you establish, you should request their consent in order to send him/her our marketing emails (See "(a) Gaining consent..." see higher)

2. I receive email addresses through purchased contact lists/contacts received from 3rd parties
If you acquire or receive leads that contain personal data from third-party ‘lead generators’ (purchased, partners…), you need specific consent to use the email addresses for Marketing purposes. If the 3rd party gained the consent for Televic to possess and use the data, you must document proof of the indivisual's consent : ask the third party you purchased or received the list from.
If they cannot show the consent, send the contacts an individual email, while referring to the 3rd party and ask them to sign up to your subscription center.
Make sure the consent is flagged in your CRM system/tool.

3. Cold calling
There is confusion about this, as to some cold calling doesn’t come under the same regulation as GDPR.
In any case, each time you add a new prospect to your marketing database, you’ll need to get their consent before you can start sending them marketing emails.

4. Contacts generated after (networking) events
Receiving business cards doesn’t show the contact has given you his permission to send marketing emails.
Therefore, you are advised to send them an email after the event and ask them to opt-in to marketing emails via the subscription center. See higer.

5. Passing on contact details of references to prospects
You need to have the electronic permission from the customer before you pass on his contact details to the prospect.
Make sure this is recorded in an email.

6. Social selling
As long as the conversation remains on the social media platforms, you are fine. Remember, individual emails are always allowed.
If the conversation shifts outside of the social media platforms:
- you can always send individual (Sales) emails, though it is recommended to ask them to sign up to the subscription center to be added to our marketing database (see here).
- you need the explicit consent to use them in mass marketing e-mailings. See higher.

7. Website
All web forms need add the following opt-in box:
“I agree to receiving further news from Televic [BU]. I have read and accept the privacy and cookie policy (link)”
Marketing will need to upload the consents to the BU CRM tool/excel at frequent times.

8. "My client has questions about GDPR"
- concerning Processor Agreements: talk to your BU GDPR contact
- about GDPR and our products in general: talk to your BU GDPR contact
Or, contact CTO Office (gdpr@televic.com)

9. "I have a contact who wishes to unsubscribe from our marketing emails. What do I do?"
Follow the "Removal" procedure (see higher).

10. Do we need to ask the consent from the prospects we already have in our database?
No, due to reasons of "legitimate interest", we do not send a separate email to the existing prospect contacts to gain the permission to send marketing emails to.

11. Can my colleagues from Marketing send (marketing) emails to all my contacts?
They can send Marketing emails to
- customers upon the condition they have not unsubscribed
- prospects generated before May 25 upon the condition they have not unsubscribed
- prospects generated AFTER May 25 that have given their consent/opt-in via the subscription center.