Consent is the permission a consumer has given to be contacted, by whom and about what. Prior express written consent is the standard most US telemarketing calls using autodialers or artificial or prerecorded voices are required to meet. It must be provable later, usually with a timestamped record of the form the consumer submitted.
Consent is specific: permission to call about one product is not permission to call about another, which is what makes cross-selling to an existing book a compliance question rather than a free list.
What consent looks like in practice
Most leads on US insurance and lead-generation campaigns come from web forms. The consumer enters their number and ticks or clicks through a disclosure that names the seller and says they agree to be called, including with automated or artificial voices. Lead vendors often capture a certificate or session recording of that form as proof. When a call is disputed, that record is the evidence.
Consumers can also withdraw consent. Federal rules say revocation can be made by any reasonable means, so "stop calling me" on a live call counts. Rules on how consent is collected and revoked have changed several times in recent years and some have been challenged in court, so confirm the current requirements with counsel.
How consent shows up on a floor
In the dialer, consent is usually a field or a reference attached to each lead: the source, the date, and a link to the proof. A manager should be able to pull that record for any number dialed. Bot calls rely on the same records, especially since AI voices are treated as artificial voices under the TCPA.
Common mistakes
Buying aged leads with no consent proof, or proof naming a different seller.
Using consent for one product to call about another.
Ignoring a verbal opt-out because the lead form said yes.