How if the market is consist of sales person only ?

This is not something new. Remember the time when Asian companies rose economically to be a power to be reckoned with in the late 70s. Many Asian companies started to form their brand of management. This is especially so with Asian hotel chains. . . . the likes of Shangri-la, Dusit, etc.

Then it was purely Salespersons running the show. Putting it bluntly, the salesperson is paid 1 sales person salary but have to figure out marketing process along the way - thrown in for free.

It took so long for Asia to put a value in attending trade shows. By the time the masses did, the buyers' trend have moved on. More and more buyers are now affluent to meeting the people they want to meet and do something else-while-I-am-there.

The costs of participating trade shows have also escalated unreasonably. Many event organisers are still in denial, thinking that their industry are crisis proof.
Many buyers do fly in into the city only to meet salespersons outside the show. Of course, pre-appointments is critical for this take place. Furthermore, the buyer do not need to hunt for their next appointment. They just plunked to a seat in a coffee house; all the sellers comes kow-tow to him/her. The buyer get to finish up everything in 1 day and move to other agenda while he/she is still in the city.

It is tough for the seller to be at the show and be at this "outside" appointment. Tougher still if the seller is still in door-to-door salesperson mode.

I've noticed a number of seller now organises walk-in appointments at a specified venue for buyers to attend. . . . right smack in the same dates as the trade show itself. This is having initiative on the part of the seller. He commands the full attention of all who buyers who did attend. The idea still works.

It will continue to be tough for salesperson if he/she
* do not improvise at these tough times
* do not have a systematic approach to acquiring business, or do not review and discard outmoded ones to embrace current technologies.
* continue to sell his/her product based on the product's fact sheets. For his/her sake, if they themselves, can't see how and why a buyer would benefit from buying their product, should it be not predictable that there would be no sale at all?

By attending a number of ASEAN TOURISM FORUM (ATF) in the past, I always get tickled when sellers compared among themselves as to how many appointments they managed to secure before the actual trade exchange (travex).
Even more tickled when seeing some 'professional' sellers slamming the registration counter for saying they do not have any pre-scheduled appointments confirmed fo the seller. . . like zero appointment for 3 days!
These sellers literally leave the success/failure of the show in the hands of tourism volunteers in ATF! Ironic, isn't?

Is it not possible for salesperson to decide who they want to meet at shows, be they customers or prospects?

Is it not possible to write to these customers and prospects, to enquire if they'd be attending the up and coming show? And, to those who are participating, is it not possible for salesperson to tell them that the seller is keen in scheduling the buyer for an appointment during the show?

Is it not possible to meet outside the time and/or venue of the show?

Is it not possible to have all issues and discussions resolved way beofre the show and only meet at the show for contract signing?

I have heard so many answers to the above questions, explaining the difficulties of this and that; but I have yet to meet 2 salespersons who actually tried.

"The impending crisis is now here. What change should a salesperson make this morning that ensures relevance to customers' needs this afternoon? Asking this question implies the seller is awake? Actually, brainstorming and deciding an approach, shows he/she has character. Implementing those resolves, marks his/her leadership."