In the new millennium, businesses will face an ongoing need for people who can reach out to potential customers using traditional methods as well as new technologies. Street vendors often own their stands and kiosks, setting their own hours and keeping a percentage or all of the profits while handling all of the purchasing, bookkeeping, and maintenance. Door-to-door sales people visit prospective clients at their home of business to sell products on behalf of the company they're contracted with.

Sales territories are increasingly virtual: prospective clients can often visit a sales rep's web site to place an order directly or set up an appointment for a demonstration or delivery. Today's door-to-door salesperson still needs to be self-motivated, organized, and comfortable making presentations to individual customers or to groups.

Telemarketers sell products and services over the phone. Working from lists and a script, these telephone salespeople take orders for businesses and ask for donations to charities. They may interview people for opinion polls. Telemarketing jobs are extremely stressful. The work is closely monitored and involves dealing with rejection and even anger from people who don't want to be disturbed.

Short-term, on-the-job training is generally provided for these jobs. Evening and weekend shifts are common to pursue potential customers when they're most likely to be home. Some of these workers are paid a straight salary, while others work on commission. The intense pressure in some work environments leads many to seek other employment, so this is a job with quite a bit of turnover.