Few people will mourn the demise of telemarketing or the door-to-door solicitation. That includes the person knocking just as much as the unsuspecting prospect whose day is being interrupted.

Despite a significant place in marketing history, these activities are being curtailed by technological advances and privacy legislations.

“There’s probably no aspect of selling worse than cold calling,” writes Andrew Shedden of the Peterborough marketing firm Broadfield Communications. “Here are few well-known facts about cold calling: cold calling is a major pain. Cold calling is demoralizing. Cold calling is the worst aspect of selling. Life in sales would be wonderful without the hassle of cold calling.”

Regardless, long before Alfred C. Fuller hawked his brushes at residential thresholds across Boston 100 years ago, salespeople have been tracking down their clients where they live and work.

In recent years, though, technology has become a formidable gatekeeper.

“With the advent of voice mail,” Shedden continues in his brief, “I’m sure some of these veteran sales people would happily be abused just to hear a real living person on the other end of the phone.

“Technologies like voice mail and e-mail, which were originally designed to assist communication, are being used as inexpensive and devastatingly effective ways of blocking access.”

Similarly, signs at corporate entrances prohibiting solicitation visits set the tone for anyone who dares ignore them.

“I had just finished a successful meeting, with a local manufacturer to whom I had been referred. While waiting to sign out at the security desk, I observed a frustrated man, standing with his promotional-products catalogue clutched in one hand and his proffered business card in the other, trying to get some contact information from the woman working the desk,” recalls Deborah Foster-Stahle, the Ontario Central North regional director for the business referral networking group BNI.

“When the woman politely suggested he seek the desired information on the company website, he snatched back his business card, grumbled ‘you’re obviously not going to give me what I need’ and stormed out the door.”

For sales reps who want are targeting consumers at home, they have more than company bureaucracy to overcome. The country has rallied behind irritated home-owners who want to eat their evening meal in peace.

The national Do Not Call List (DNCL) launched on Sept. 30, across Canada.

An initiative of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), the purpose is to “reduce the number of unwanted telemarketing calls and faxes Canadians receive.”

To be part of the DNCL, residents must register their home phone, cellular and/or fax numbers by going online or by calling 1-866-580-3625. The listing requires a renewal of registration every three years. Thirty-one days after registration, most telemarketers are forbidden to call.

There are exemptions. Registered charities seeking donations, newspapers selling subscriptions, political parties and their candidates, and companies with a recent pre-existing relationship, may continue to call. These callers, however, are required to build their own DNCL for people who request it and must comply within 31 days of notice.

The CRTC also outlines additional stringent rules that must be followed by telemarketers who continue to employ this sales strategy.

In another part of Ottawa, the Office of the Privacy Commission of Canada slammed the door on sharing private information without permission. While the Internet was once a boon of information for energetic marketers, and mailing lists were commonly sold to the highest bidder, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), a 2000 act updated in March 2006, put a damper on the exchange.

But as these doors close, “windows” open.

When Ken Gilmer, Barrie’s new branch manager of the staffing agency Manpower, was brought in two years ago, he had a mandate to get the company name out into the community.

Because many people he spoke to mistook the independent international employment giant for an arm of the government, he knew public education was important to growing the local 30-year-old branch.

“I tried to get out and knock on doors and basically did a lot of cold calls,” he recalls of the year-long struggle to get connected. “It was not very rewarding. My success rate (hampered by many competing agencies in town), was about one in 50.”

One prospective client he did get a chance to chat to, liked his suggestion that they could become referral partners.

“I was trying to present a value proposition,” says Gilmer. “He said, ‘wow, that’s exactly like the group I belong to – you might be interested in it.’”

He visited the referral networking group BNI and quickly joined.

“I thought it was fantastic,” he says. “I don’t have to cold call – I’m having breakfast with them every week.”

Although it’s taken a period of adjustment while he introduced himself to the other 25 members and developed trusting relationships, he now gets warm referrals (meaning the third party has agreed to take his call and is interested in the possibility of doing business with him) which results in about one new client every month.

“Your chance of doing business with a warm lead is up to one in three or one in four,” he says.

“It probably speeds up my sales cycle by about three months and improves your chances from cold calling.”

Since joining in April, Gilmer has also helped organize the BNI golf tournament and is involved in other marketing projects in partnership with his networking colleagues.

In February, BNI was recognized by the Wall Street Journal as one of 25 high performing franchises. Although there are other referral networking organizations, BNI is the largest, boasting 5,000 chapters in 40 countries with approximately 105,000 members.

In its 2006/07 fiscal year, it reported $2.2 billion of first-time business for its members. This doesn’t include the ongoing business between members or previous referrals.

“It’s about getting connected to the extended networks of the people you know,” explains Foster-Stahle. “It’s like taking buzz marketing to the next level, where you take the qualified business opportunity back to the individual person who sells the product or service – so you’re closing the circle.”

BNI founder Dr. Ivan Misner, called the Father of Modern Networking by CNN, and the Networking Guru by Entrepreneur magazine, founded the organization in 1985. A best-selling author of 10 books, he has also taught business courses at several universities.

His most recent book, The 29% Solution, builds on the “small-world experiments” of Stanley Milgram, who showed that 29 per cent of people are separated by roughly six degrees of separation. A minority, perhaps, but a group well-connected nonetheless.

“The good news in all of this is that it is possible to be part of the 29 per cent through education, practice and training,” Misner blogged on Sept. 4.

“We can be connected to anyone through the power and potential of networking. In fact, by understanding that, we can set ourselves aside from our competition by knowing that being able to make successful connections is not an entitlement. Instead, it is a skill that only some actually develop.”

Even those in networking groups, he says, membership alone won’t bring in the referrals.

“Going the extra mile provides you several ways to stand out and be positively memorable,” he writes a few days later, explaining the concept behind the BNI motto: Givers Gain.

“Even though our networking is about business, not social relationships, you have to admit that people like people who help them. If you help someone, he or she, in turn, wants to help you.”

Since taking over the region a year ago, Foster-Stahle has been busy getting connected locally.

“The previous owner started this region in 1995,” she says. “It was the first region in Canada. Now there are 250 chapters across Canada, in all provinces and in two languages.”

BNI members are welcome to visit any other chapter anywhere in the world.

An organizational development specialist by trade, Foster-Stahle continues to run her own consulting practice while working to build the infrastructure to support small business.

“BNI encourages its members to get involved with a couple of other networks,” she explains.

“A chamber of commerce and service club for example.”

But she is also working to make connections between the organizations themselves. In some cases, this is a process that has already started.

“For years, the chambers in South Simcoe worked unilaterally,” says Michael Keith, president of the Alliston and District Chamber of Commerce. He recalls parades scheduled on the same day and other conflicting events. “Two years ago, Nottawasaga Futures created the South Simcoe Business Links (of which he’s also the president).”

The new group, which includes members of the area’s business improvement areas, chambers and boards of trade, now come together and coordinate their efforts.

In Barrie, many organizations sit on each other boards and partner to benefit their business members.

“There are many business networking organizations within the City of Barrie offering great service to our local businesses by providing opportunities for organizations to engage in business development,” says Blaine Parkin, acting director of economic strategy and development.

“The collaboration of these business groups and organizations will help to ensure that the needs of business owners and operators are met, as well as stimulate economic growth from within the community, providing increased employment opportunities and new business prospects in the city.”

In Bradford West Gwillimbury, economic development manager Michael Disano recently worked with local business to establish the new board of trade. With networking in mind, one of its first events was the Mad Hatter Speed Networking session in September.

A small business enterprise centre is also in the works for the area.

Wanting to connect with people as she gets to know her new home better, Foster-Stahle asked Disano for an introduction to the leaders of small business in South Simcoe. He went one better by hosting a meeting.

Cold calling is being replaced with the warmth of welcome.