New sales executive at BMW Motorrad in Nelspruit
Gabrielle Pieterse is the new sales executive at the BMW Motorrad dealership in Nelspruit, and she has already sold a few motorcycles to customers who followed her from the West Rand of Gauteng.
Gabrielle says she is a self-taught mechanic and had been working on engines – even overhauling engines and gearboxes – from when she left school.
“I was formally employed in the steel industry for quite some time,” says Gabi, as she is known. “I worked as a steel merchant and for a bolt-and-nut business for about nine years, but then it got boring. The steel business changed, and it got difficult to do things differently. It had always been a male-dominated world, but that never was a problem for me. But I needed something new.”
She wanted to apply for the position of service advisor at the BMW Motorrad dealership in Fourways, but took too long to apply, and missed it.
“Then I heard about the sales executive position at West Rand BMW Motorrad. I got the job and then showed that I can do the job. Quite well, as it turned out.
“We lived on the West Rand and the crime was getting too much for us. My husband had been badly injured during a home invasion and we did not want to stay there anymore.
“I was lucky enough to get a call from Motorrad Mbombela in December and after a successful interview, I started working here on 15 January.
“Apart from selling BMW motorcycles to Lowvelders – and further afield – I see myself working to get the dealership more recognition in the market, and to work closer with the committee of BMW Club Lowveld – as well as any other club that wants to work with us. I will attend as many motorcycle-related events as I can get to, and host events here at the dealership.”
Gabi does not just sell motorcycles, she rides them too – although she has only been riding for three years.
“My husband and I went to look at a BMW K1200 S and while we were deciding whether we should buy it, I got onto it and sat on the rider’s seat. And that was it. It was going to be my bike, not our bike,” she says.
Her husband Ferdie, a motorcycling journalist, taught her to ride.
“In less than an hour I was riding in a parking lot, managing turns around trees and so on. But since then, I have ridden thousands of kilometres.”
She says she has always wanted a proper sports bike and when she found the one that her heart wanted, she bought it.
“I bought an MV Augusta F4 312, a 2007 model. I do not ride her very often, but this bike is the point of my heart.”
Gabi says she is very happy with her new job.
“I have had great support from the dealership’s management, as well as my sales manager, Dominic Combrink. I am very grateful for this, and I know that good things are waiting for us as a team,” she says.
