Visiting Regional Sales Manager Help Page
CLS has developed this Help Page to assist visiting Regional Sales Managers prepare for their trips and maximize the return on their time and travel cost investment.

If you’re planning a visit to the southern California area, please contact Marcus Cone via email at MarcusC@californialightingsales.com or by phone at 626-775-6111 (office) or 714-319-0930 (cell) to confirm your appointment. Don’t book an appointment through members of our outside sales team since they may not be aware of other commitments CLS may have already made on the date you wish to visit.

We also ask that you be prepared to discuss the objectives for your trip 6-8 weeks in advance and provide as much detail as possible since that will give us the time and information to plan accordingly. Many sales managers book multiple travel dates over an entire year in the December-January timeframe, but we gladly accommodate those who schedule visits on an as-needed basis as well. Getting into top accounts can take several months of planning and many of them only allow lunch ‘n learns once a week, so competition for those time slots is fierce.

If you wish to make a presentation to our outside sales team, remember that CLS sales meetings are now held every other Tuesday afternoon, limiting sales meeting opportunities to fewer than 22 per year once holidays and major events are factored in. The 30-minute main presentation slot at our Tuesday meetings will be reserved for the visiting Sales Manager and the audience will consist exclusively of CLS employees after we have excused other manufacturers and visitors.

The suggested itinerary for your visit is as follows:

Monday – Travel day
Tuesday-Thursday – sales calls and other activities
Friday – Travel day

Here are some other tips for making your visit a success:

  1. Please let us know as far in advance as possible what samples and literature you’ll need CLS to bring to your presentations. Samples are often in the field and can take several weeks to recover from specifiers or from mock-ups; plus, we may need to order additional literature.
  2. If you need a projector for your laptop, please let us know in advance. Some specifiers do not have projectors available for our use.
  3. Please make arrangements for your own rental car and we strongly suggest having a GPS navigation system. Our territory is huge and our traffic is ridiculous, so a GPS can often save enormous amounts of time and frustration both on the freeways and in densely populated urban areas.
  4. If you’re not familiar with driving in the greater LA area, please talk with your salesman about traffic time vs. miles travelled. (Yes, it really can take 45 minutes to travel 5 miles at certain times of day.) A quick conversation with your salesman can prevent cancelled sales calls and even worse, grumpy clients. Three or four sales calls can take up a full day in many of our metro areas once you factor in travel time. Some areas may also require extra time for parking, so we recommend you ask your salesman for tips!
  5. Bring cash for parking attendants & tolls and quarters for meters. Many client’s offices are in multistory buildings and parking can be quite expensive ($30 and up in the downtown area) and much of it is cash-only. In some other areas it’s easier just to park in the street for those quick sales calls, but nearly all street parking in metro LA/West LA/Hollywood is metered or permit-restricted.
  6. If you have cases or boxes that weigh more than 25 lbs, please let us know so we can sort out the logistical requirements. Some members of our sales team may have difficulty helping you carry that 75 lb case up two flights of stairs. Some of our clients do NOT have elevators, so a bit of planning here goes a long way. There’s no loading dock at CLS’ offices so please make sure you coordinate your sample and literature needs with Marcus ahead of time.
  7. If you have food restrictions or allergies please let us know, we are happy to accommodate these when we place the catering order. CLS generally pays 50% of lunch ‘n learn catering costs during visits made at the request of the regional manager.
  8. Time permitting, please work with the CLS sample and literature personnel to ensure your products are in optimal condition and that literature is current and amply stocked.