✳ Guide · Lead Axis

Cold outreach rules in plain English: what the law asks of every sales email and call to another business

5 minute read · Published 11 October 2026 · All guides

Cold outreach to other businesses is legal in the United States. It also has rules, and the fines for breaking them are counted per message. None of the rules are hard. This guide puts them in plain words, says how Lead Axis handles each one, and ends with a checklist to run before you send.

This is a plain summary to help you follow the rules, not legal advice. If your situation is unusual, ask a lawyer.

Who this covers

A business reaching out to another business, by email or phone, about something that business might buy, inside the United States. Rules for selling to people at home are stricter, and Lead Axis is for business-to-business outreach only.

Email: the CAN-SPAM Act

The CAN-SPAM Act sets the rules for commercial email, and the Federal Trade Commission enforces it. Two facts surprise people. First, it is not only about bulk email: it covers any email whose main purpose is to sell or promote something. Second, it makes no exception for business-to-business email. The FTC's guide puts the penalty at up to $53,088 for each email that breaks the law.

Here is what it asks, in plain words.

1. Be honest about who it is from. The From, To and Reply-To lines must be accurate and identify you or your business.
2. Write an honest subject line. It must match what the email is about. No "Re:" on a first message, no fake order notices.
3. Say it is a sales email. You have leeway in how, but it must be clear.
4. Include a real postal address. A street address, a PO box registered with the Postal Service, or a private mailbox registered with a commercial mail receiving agency.
5. Make opting out easy. A clear way to say "stop", such as a link or a reply, that an ordinary person would spot and understand.
6. Honor every opt-out within 10 business days. The way to opt out must keep working for at least 30 days after you send. You cannot charge for it, ask for anything beyond their email address, or make them do more than reply or visit one page. Once someone opts out, you cannot sell or pass on their address.
7. You are responsible for what goes out in your name. Hiring someone else, or a tool, to send for you does not move the responsibility off you.

How Lead Axis handles it

Every email Lead Axis drafts gets a footer with your name, your business, your mailing address, the line "This is a sales email." and an unsubscribe link signed for that one lead, so nobody can unsubscribe someone else by guessing. The link keeps working. When someone uses it, their address goes on your do-not-contact list at once, and Lead Axis will not draft or offer sending to that address again. Axis is told never to use made-up deadlines, fake replies or misleading subject lines, and you read every draft before it goes. Lead Axis setup asks you to agree to these rules, because you are the sender of every message and you send it from your own email. Do not remove the footer.

Good practice the law does not require, but your inbox will thank you for

• Write to the address a business publishes for itself, not one you guessed.
• Do not send to an address that cannot receive mail. Lead Axis checks this when it checks a website.
• Send at a pace you can answer the same day.
• Two follow-ups, then stop. Silence is an answer.
• Treat "not interested" as an opt-out even if they did not click the link.

Calls: you, dialing a business

A real person calling a business about something the business might buy is the safest kind of cold call. The FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule exempts most business-to-business calls, with exceptions: calls selling nondurable office or cleaning supplies (paper, toner, cleaning solvents and the like) must follow the rule, and so must calls to someone at work trying to sell them something for their own personal use.

Two habits keep you clear. Call the business's own listed number, not a person's private phone. And if the number turns out to be someone's personal cell, treat it as personal and do not make a sales pitch.

Some states add their own calling rules, such as registration or calling hours. If you call businesses in another state, check that state's rules.

In Lead Axis a call step gives you a short script to read. You place the call yourself and log how it went.

Robocalls, AI voices and texts: get consent first

This is where the strict rules live, and they are written about phone numbers, not about whether the person answering is a business.

• AI voices count as artificial voices. In February 2024 the FCC ruled that calls using AI-generated voices are "artificial" under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. Those calls are illegal unless the person agreed to receive them or the caller is exempt.
• Prerecorded and autodialed calls need consent. The FCC requires prior written consent before a prerecorded telemarketing call to a home or wireless number, and consent before an autodialed or prerecorded call or text to a wireless number.
• Sales texts need written consent. The FCC says commercial texts require written consent, whether or not the number is on the Do Not Call Registry.

Lead Axis does not place AI calls and does not send texts. Text follow-ups stay switched off until carrier approval for business texting is in place, and Axis placing calls for you stays off because each lead would first have to agree to it.

Before you send: the checklist

• It is going to a business, at an address or number the business publishes.
• The From line and Reply-To are you, and the subject line matches the email.
• The footer is intact: name, business, mailing address, "This is a sales email." and the unsubscribe link.
• You have read the draft and every fact in it is true.
• The address is not on your do-not-contact list, and it can receive mail.
• Anyone who said stop, by link or by reply, is never contacted again.
• Calls are made by you, to the business line. No recordings, no AI voice, no texts without written consent.

Sources

• FTC, CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for Business
• FTC, Complying with the Telemarketing Sales Rule
• FCC, FCC Makes AI-Generated Voices in Robocalls Illegal (February 8, 2024)
• FCC, Stop Unwanted Robocalls and Texts