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 isn’t 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, doesn’t it?

Here’s 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 haven’t been practicing saying no at home, you might infer they’re 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.

Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of www.Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone®, You Can Sell Anything By Telephone! and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service, and the audio program, “The Law of Large Numbers: How To Make Success Inevitable,” published by Nightingale-Conant. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide. A Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School, a Loyola lawyer, and an MBA from the Peter F. Drucker School at Claremont Graduate University, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations in the United States and abroad. He holds the rank of Shodan, 1st Degree Black Belt in Kenpo Karate. He is headquartered in Glendale, California, and he can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com