Maruti’s rural drive pays off

Maruti Suzuki’s ‘Ghar ghar mein Maruti’, a rural sales scheme launched last year has helped its rural share in overall car sales climb to 8.5 percent this fiscal from just 3.5 percent in 2007-08.

This means a little over 60,000 cars have been sold in rural markets between April 2008 and February this year.

According to Mayank Pareek, executive officer (marketing and sales), “There are around 6,00,000 villages in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Punjab that we have identified as high potential. We have an understanding with regional rural banks for car finance to push sales.”

Maruti’s pan-India presence, with service stations in more than 2,000 cities and a strong dealer network, has helped in establishing the rural connect. The company has over 3,000 rural sales executives (RSEs).

“These sales executives are the key elements in generating demand for us. They educate the rural buyer about the EMI (equated monthly installment) scheme and how purchasing a Maruti product will give them value for money. Our dealers have started appointing RSEs in villages from among locals. The idea is to strengthen interaction with potential customers and convert them to buyers,” Pareek added.