An emotional boiling point was reached in the anti-telemarketing hysteria that came over America about a decade ago.

This spilled over into legislation providing for the establishment of the Do Not Call Registry, enabling tens of millions of people to opt-out of receiving unwanted sales calls at home.

Now that this legislation has been in effect for a number of years, and there are fewer unwanted calls being made and received, are consumers becoming more receptive to cold calls received at work?

Or, are they just as prickly about being pitched at their desks as they are at their dining room tables?

While there isnt a scientific answer to this question, there is an anecdotal one that comes from the annals of door-to-door selling.

Crews that are deployed in residential neighborhoods are often instructed to knock on doors where signs are posted that warn, No Solicitors. This seems strange, doesnt it?

Heres the logic: People who hide behind such signs have so little sales resistance that they have to announce it to the whole world. And to whom would you prefer to sell, to those who are the most resistant or the least?

Ironically, those who logged their names onto the Do Not Call Registry are perhaps the very easiest to sell also, wherever they are situated, in the workplace or at home.

Their location may be irrelevant.

At the same time, because they havent been practicing saying no at home, you might infer theyre rusty at slamming the electronic door in the faces of telemarketers.

Thus in this battle of wills, the advantage may have shifted once more to those who dial and smile.