p38 :: Outdoor
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Dirk Klopper, who runs the Kloppers sport section, recommended LJ Alg tips f bertyn as a top salesperson. “LJ has a real passion for what he 20 does,” he says. “He has managed to transform his sport and hobby into a very successful sales career. His main areas of expertise are cricket and hockey, and especially since moving down to Cape Town in April 2016, he has taken it upon himself to get better known in the hockey community through playing club and provincial hockey, and coaching individually and at schools. He is always on top of his game with the newest hockey trends, locally and internationally, and makes sure that Kloppers have the latest equipment and shoes in stock. He is also very aware of what our competitors are doing, price and range-wise. LJ offers excellent customer service and often delivers sticks or bats to customers after hours.
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ou have to act like a professional if you want to succeed in sales, says LJ Albertyn, assistant manager at Kloppers Sport in Brackenfell. “I often get the impression from people who work in retail that they don’t perceive themselves to be part of a leading profession. “The first day that I started working in the Kloppers store, I made sure that I wore my best looking pair of shoes and that I looked neat, because first impressions count,” he explains. “It gives a client a warm feeling when he sees a professional –looking person greeting him,
someone who is proud of who he is, and what he is doing.” Similarly, it’s important to be able to communicate with everybody at any level. When talking to a customer, Albertyn tries to form a relationship that will grow a one-time experience into something so much more. “It’s a relationship that you are basically trying to build for a lifetime. You have to remember that it’s not only a once-off thing.” The relationships you create with customers should be of such a nature that they would want to shake your hand when they see you again and want to get to know you on a first
More about LJ Albertyn LesLie John (LJ) Albertyn, the assistant manager at Kloppers Sport in Brackenfell, is an avid hockey player with a long-standing affiliation with the Kloppers stores (see p17). As a student he bought all the equipment for the sports he played at the Bloemfontein store. Kloppers Sport was his first work experience: with the help of family connections (his mother knows Steva Klopper, one of the directors) Albertyn started working for the retailer in Bloemfontein two weeks after finishing his degree. He found being employed in Kloppers’ sport department was the ideal work environment for him, as there was room for improvement to push out more sales, especially in the hockey department. “There wasn’t anybody else who played hockey and wanted to promote the sport, someone who was amped to see the new
Sports Trader :: Q1 2017
name basis, he adds. When a customer walks into the store, Albertyn greets them and makes his presence known without being too overpowering. He lets the customer know that he is available at their service, before leaving them to their own devices until they are ready to be assisted. “When a customer walks in to buy something specific, you would know that instantly as they would immediately look for assistance,” he says. It is very important to have played a sport To p39 in order to give people good
products come in, or was keen to find out about the new technologies that go into the hockey sticks,” he says. After a year, an opportunity arose for him to move to Cape Town when Kloppers took over the Somerset Sport store in the Cape Gate Mall. This resonated with Albertyn, as it was always his desire to live in Cape Town. He has been an avid hockey player for the past 11 years. He started playing hockey at the age of 14, and through the years he has played for his school’s first team, and later for the first teams at the University of the Free State and Central University of Technology. Since moving to Cape Town, he has joined a hockey club and earlier this year Albertyn also represented Western Province 10s in the country district rugby tournament. He also plays cricket and even helped launch a Kloppers staff cricket team, because he believes it is important for staff members to have experience of playing a sport when selling the equipment.