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Laharpur mein pehli baar...

Mahindra aapke dwar!!

Showroom less sales

Sagar Naik

1. Project Objectives

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Following are the objectives of the project:

Understanding the tractor market and identifying the factors
governing the sales of tractors in Laharpur
Creating brand awareness and representation in Laharpur by
Mahindra Aapke Dwar Generating enquiries
Making deliveries

2. Discussion with Dealer and Sales Personnel

The dealer branch namely M/s Sai Tractors, is present in
Biswan which is located 32 km from Sitapur. Being a branch they
had no tractor on display. After discussing with the dealer about the
tractor market in Biswan and Laharpur the following conclusions
were drawn by me:
a. Mahindra 265 DI is the most selling model in Biswan
b. Market for 25-30 hp tractors is nearly 90%
c. Eicher is the market leader in Laharpur
d. The major banks providing finance are Allahabad Bank and
Gramin Bank
The most selling model in Biswan is 265 DI which costs Rs.
4,40,000.
3. Market segmentation and Customer Survey
Before conducting customer survey the entire tractor market
was divided into 3 segments:
Tractor Market in
Laharpur

Consumers who
own Mahindra
tractor

Consumers who
own tractors other
than Mahindra

Consumers who
do not own a
tractor

The objectives behind making the consumer survey were as

follows:
a. Understand the factors governing purchase of a tractor
b. Awareness and perception of farmers towards Mahindra tractors
c. Understanding the financial condition of farmers

4. Survey report

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In 3 days I surveyed around 15-20 villages in Laharpur tehsil

and spoke to nearly 10 farmers per day. I also had a talk with the
local mechanics in the villages. There are a lot of service centres for
Eicher and Swaraj wherein the mechanics are officially trained by
these companies. Eicher and Swaraj also give incentives to these
mechanics for increasing their sales. As these local mechanics are in
regular touch with the farmers they are the major influencers for
them to buy tractors. As per the market segmentation made the
survey was conducted as given below:
Existing Mahindra users:
Service is a major issue in Laharpur due to the lack of reach of
our salesmen.
Competitor users:
We went to a village called Irapur which comes under
Laharpur tehsil. After talking to 7-8 users of Swaraj tractors it was
found that they were not aware of Mahindra Tractors at all. This
might be because of no dealership in that zone. This shows that we
need to increase our representation in this area. After briefing them
about Mahindra tractors they were quite overwhelmed with the
facilities and advantages that Mahindra would have given them.
The users of Swaraj had one common opinion about Swaraj
tractors that the hydraulic power of these tractors is far greater than
that of Mahindra. Farmers using competitor tractors have the
following perception against Mahindra tractor:
High cost
Less powerful that other tractors in the same price range
Low hydraulic power
No power steering
5. Present scenario in Laharpur
Laharpur comprises of a huge market for 25 hp tractors. The
market leader here is Eicher of which 242 single cylinder is sold the
most. The only dealership present in Laharpur is of Eicher. The other
players in the tehsil are Swaraj, Mahindra, Sonalika, Escort, etc.
6. Demographic data
Laharpur tehsil comprises of nearly 300 villages including both
small and big. The major occupation of the people here is farming.
The major crops cultivated here are sugarcane, peppermint and
wheat. The past 3 years has seen heavy floods in nearly 80% of the
area. Due to heavy floods there is no farming in monsoon. There are
a lot of brick manufacturing furnaces here who use tractors for
transporting the bricks to various other locations.

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The total tractor market of Laharpur is 362 tractors. The

number of Mahindra tractors is 32 which are quite low. This shows
that there has been a very low brand presence of Mahindra in the
tehsil. After surveying around the tehsil it was observed that there is
a huge market for 25-30 hp tractors here.
Following chart shows the major models sold here with their
approximate cost.
Model

Hp

Cylinder

Cost (in INR)

Eicher 242

25

3,25,000

Swaraj 724

25

3,60,000

Mahindra 255

25

3,16,000

7. Financial Statistics
In Laharpur approximately 56% of farmers buy tractors
through government and private finance while the rest pay the
entire amount in cash and take away the tractor. Private finance is
provided by financers like Mahindra Finance, Sri Ram Finance and
Magma Finance. They charge an interest of 11-15% depending on
the profile of the consumers. The major bankers providing finance
include Allahabad Gramin Bank, SBI and Union Bank of India who
charge an interest of 14.5%.
8. Tractor Market of Laharpur
The entire tractor market of Laharpur is 362. Out of which
Eicher holds a market share of around 63% followed by the Swaraj
and Mahindra having a market share of 18% and 9% respectively.
The other players here include Escort, New Holland, Sonalika, HMT
and John Deere.
9. Reason for low market share of Mahindra
After talking to almost 70-80 farmers a few grave concerns
were discovered for the low market share of Mahindra. Following are
the main reasons due to which we hold a low position in Laharpur:
No dealership: There has been no dealership of Mahindra
Tractors two years back in Laharpur but it was closed as the
dealer was involved in politics and was not interested
anymore to continue with our business . Since then Mahindra
dealership was not started in Laharpur. The after effects of
this were soon felt as Eicher gained deeper roots in the market

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10.

and influenced farmers to buy their tractors by spreading false

rumours to degrade the brand name of Mahindra.
No Ek Mahindra outlets: We have no Ek Mahindra outlets in
Laharpur hence we get no enquiries as such. So whenever a
person wants to buy a tractor he straight away goes to the
doorstep of Eicher tractors.
Wrong perception: Word of mouth has led the farmers to
develop a wrong perception about Mahindra as a failed brand
in the world of tractors.
Failure of Mahindra 235 and 255: Users of Mahindra 235 faced
a major problem of head gasket burst which further led to the
deterioration of our brand name in Laharpur from past 2
years. Another problem faced by our users was the lifting of
front tyres during heavy load.
High demand for Eicher 242: The single cylinder 25 Hp model
of Eicher better known as 242 is extensive promoted in the
tehsil which has led to its great demand.
Reasons for non purchase of Mahindra

The users of Mahindra 255 DI faced the following difficulties in

the old model due to which they have developed a wrong mindset
as given below:
Breakage of crank
Pump consuming diesel even when tractor is stalled
Less powerful tractor
Lifting of tractor at heavy load
Consumes more diesel as tractor looks heavy and bulky
Due to these reasons farmers are quite apprehensive to buy
Mahindra tractors.
11.

Locations identified for Mahindra Aapke Dwar

The initial consumer survey was followed by identification of

the three locations for Mahindra Aapke Dwar. One of the key
locations identified was on Tambaur Road where there were a lot of
tractor garages and tractor scrap yards present. The main reason for
choosing this location was the heavy traffic of tractor users in the
area.
The second location was at Lalpur Bazaar which is almost 14
km from the first location. Here a weekly bazaar is held on Thursday
and Friday where farmers from various nearby villages come to buy
and sell their goods. We decided to put up our canopy near a petrol
pump which was a few meters away from the bazaar location.

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The third location we choose was at Laharpur tehsil office. The

reason for choosing this location was that the farmers in Laharpur
used to come to the tehsil office for some or the other official work.
12.

Advertising and Promotion

It was decided to heavily promote Mahindra brand name in

each and every village of Laharpur. The main objective behind the
publicity and advertising was to make the farmers aware of
Mahindra Aapke Dwar. The flex was designed so as to include the
following details:
Advantages of buying Mahindra tractors
Details of various models
Location of virtual showroom and the respective days
Address of dealer with contact details
The initial publicity was done for 3 days at a stretch during
which we received a few enquiries too. We used to cover almost 1015 villages in a day talking to farmers on a random basis. We even
used to visit the houses of farmers explaining to them the
advantages of buying our tractors. Pamphlets were distributed in all
the villages visited by us. Similarly we had put up posters in all key
locations in the villages.
The publicity jeep was equipped with the tape and speaker
which had a cassette announcing the various features of Mahindra
and also giving details of the 3 locations where the tent would be
put up. We had put up 2 banners on the jeep giving it the look of
official Mahindra tractors publicity van.
After a week of Mahindra Aapke Dwar there was a very low
inflow of enquiries which was due to the low publicity in the interior
parts of Laharpur. Hence it was decided to publicise the project in as
many interior villages as possible in the coming weeks. We covered
the western and the northern areas of Laharpur in the next few
days.
13.

Enquiries generated

We were able to generate around 38 enquiries through

Mahindra Aapke Dwar and publicity campaigns. Out of which we
were able to convert 2 enquiries. We also lost 2 valuable enquiries,
one to Eicher and the other one to Swaraj. As of date we have 7 hot
enquiries on hand which will get converted post-monsoon.
14.

Operation Vijay

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During the month of June every year the Lucknow head office
holds a project called as Operation Vijay wherein each and every
dealer is given a heavy target for the month of June which is
followed by extensive campaigns and customer visits. This June the
sales target for UP was set as 1500. Flags, banners and canopy are
given to each location leader. All the salesmen and leaders were
given T-shirts and Mahindra pens to distribute amongst the farmers
in their respective locations.
The salesmen are also given a small MP4 player which
includes videos of all the model of Mahindra along-with a
comparison sheet with competitors models. This helps them in
creating a better impression in front of a prospective tractor buyer.
A discount of around Rs. 10,000-15,000 was offered to the
farmers for 3 models namely; 475, 255 and 215. Another scheme
was given to the farmers, which is known as the 0% finance
scheme.
The target assigned to Biswan dealer for Laharpur was 5
tractors. Soon we began with the project in Laharpur. We used to
visit nearly 5-7 villages everyday and pitch to the farmers. This was
more advantageous to us as we could reach most of the interior
villages in and around the tehsil.
15.

Deliveries done
We were successfully able to deliver two tractors in Laharpur.
Name

Village

Del Date

Model

Mr. Mohammad Saidul

Hak

Mankauda

30-05-2011

265 DI

Mr. Sridhar

Talpur,
Keshriganj

06-06-2011

Arjun 605

16.

Present and project sales

There had been no deliveries in the month of May while we

made 2 deliveries in the month of June. We also have 2 hot enquires
on hand who are willing to purchase tractors in the month of July.
Due to the dear of floods in the minds of the farmers we foresee no
deliveries during monsoon, but post monsoon we will try to deliver
nearly 7-8 tractors in the tehsil.
17.

Visit of Mr. Ashish Gupta DGM Sales, Lucknow Area Office

Mr. Ashish Gupta who heads sales in Lucknow Area Office

made a visit to Laharpur and Biswan. We left for Laharpur where we

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inaugurated 2 Ek Mahindra outlets through his hands. One outlet

was opened in Lalpur Bazaar where Mr. Ashok Verma who owns a
tent renting business. This person is in the tent renting business for
the past 10 years. He has also sold several Swaraj and Eicher
tractors through other dealers. After talking to him he was quite
overwhelmed with the benefits Mahindra would give him.
The second outlet was inaugurated in Tambaur Road where Mr.
Jalil Ahmed Ansari owns a saree weaving and tyre repair shop which
he has rented.
We were unable to inaugurate the 3rd outlet as the flex banner
was not ready yet. Mr. Hyder Khan has been doing the servicing
and repair of all the Mahindra tractors in Laharpur for the past 10
years. Hence we found that this person would be of great help in
increasing our sales here.
18.

Attacking Eicher head on

As the single cylinder model of Eicher better known as 242

25 hp is the most selling model here we need to position 255 as the
most fuel efficient and powerful tractor in comparison with Eicher
242. Also we need to make huge publicity and offer discounts on
255, 265 and 275 models. We also need to make more
demonstrations in the villages with competitor tractors on hand.
This would help in erasing the false mindset the farmers have
developed against Mahindra tractors.
Another suggestion would be to create an open discussion
forum for all the salesmen in Sitapur district where they can discuss
and share the difficulties faced by them while converting an Eicher
minded consumer to a Mahindra owner. This would also help the
salesmen to come up with new points while pitching to the
consumers.
19.

Increasing sales of 255 DI

We will be putting up a board which would mention the names

and the contact details of present Yuvraj owners. On the top it would
be mentioned These are our proud and satisfied owners of
Mahindra Yuvraj. This would help in increasing our sales of 215 and
255.
Another problem which the users of 255 faced in the past was
breakage of crank and high diesel consumption due to faulty fuel
pump. The fuel used to consume fuel even when the tractor was
stalled at one place. This problem has been solved but the
consumers are not yet aware and they are still apprehensive to buy
255. To solve this problem we will offer warranty for 5 years for

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crank and pump, for this we will issue a special warranty card to the
buyers.
20.

Future course of action

We have identified 2-3 people in Laharpur who are willing to

start Mahindra dealership in near future. The head salesman Mr.
Sunil Awasthi is in regular touch with these people. Another
important step would be to make wall paintings and advertise our
models in prime locations in and around the tehsil.
The enquiries which have been generated in the month of May
and June need to be regularly followed up as they would surely get
converted after monsoon.
We also need to tie-up with local mechanics as they are the
major influencers for the farmers to buy tractors. Another
suggestion would be make tie-ups with Allahabad Bank and Gramin
Bank which would further solve the problem of finance and would
help facilitate the farmers to get loans at lower interest rates.