Marketing restrictions on the doorstep?
When federal and state do-not-call regulations put a decided crimp in the ability of telemarketers to reach out and touch prospective customers nearly three years ago, some companies returned to a marketing method of the past – peddling their services door-to-door through residential neighborhoods. But a bill being proposed by a Cape Cod legislator could put the kibosh on that sales strategy as well in Massachusetts.
It’s called the do-not-knock bill and is modeled after the do-not-call measure now credited with keeping dinnertime and home life in general safe from annoying sales calls. Rep. Cleon Turner (D-Yarmouth) sponsored the measure in July 2006 at the request of Yarmouth Police Lt. Frank Fredrickson. The Yarmouth Police department noted getting an onslaught of complaints each summer regarding door-to-door sales, particularly of magazines by so-called youth crews. Several local communities, including Auburn, have fielded similar complaints in recent years.
The bill was the subject of a July hearing but lawmakers didn’t act on it before the summer session’s end. Turner will re-file it in the upcoming term, says Stefanie Coxe, Turner’s legislative aide, noting that her office has received positive feedback on the measure.
But it does have its detractors. While the bill may stem the summer crews of door-to-door magazine hawkers, some area companies say it will also inhibit legitimate and well-orchestrated door-to-door sales efforts.
Tom Steel, vice president of government affairs for Princeton, NJ-based RCN Corp., says his company’s door-to-door campaigns in Greater Boston and Metrowest are an important part of its strategy to gain cable TV customers over heavyweight competitors like Comcast. The do-not-knock measure, he says, will inhibit RCN’s ability to compete in Massachusetts. And Memphis, TN-based TruGreen Cos., which has several branches in Mass. including one in Franklin, says the measure could quell its door-to-door marketing. TruGreen spokesman Bridget Glavaz says her company ensures that its door-to-door sales force is well-trained, only using local hires who are background checked and who must wear badges. But if the bill is passed, her company will comply.
Joseph Mariano, executive vice president of the Direct Selling Association, a non-profit Washington, DC-based trade association, says his group opposes the do-not-knock measure as a "draconian" way to deal with concerns about a very specific problem group – unscrupulous, traveling youth crews that are sometimes linked with criminal activities. He says the law is an ineffective way to deal with sellers who move through a community in just a few days. Do-not-knock will end up "restricting people who are going to abide by the law anyway," Mariano says.
While it’s difficult to place a dollar amount on door-to-door sales, Mariano says about 70 percent of direct sales are through some form of face-to-face interaction and 62 percent of those are in the home.
Turner’s office is working with representatives of the direct selling industry to address their objections to the measure. They include Misty Fallik, an attorney in government relations at the DSA. Fallik wants the bill to include language distinguishing between traveling sales crews and legitimate direct sellers who live in the community. She is working to insure her group’s members won’t be saddled with time-consuming and expensive registration requirements outlined as part of the bill. She says that establishing a do-not-knock list sounds simple, but it poses considerably administrative demands for community police departments and for direct sellers trying to keep track of updated lists.
Coxe contends, however, that the underlying premise behind the bill is simple: People should have a right to say no to having door-to-door salesmen on their doorstep as they do to telemarketers.
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