Help! There’s Leaves on my Lawn

The view from my home office has changed considerably since the Spring. Now that the garden is landscaped (yes, I’ll take the applause – it was a long, hard DIY job) the view is lush, calming and inspiring. The neighbour behind has a row of big red and green leafed trees overlooking the garden which all adds to the verdant look.

The leaves are turning colour now – beautiful shades of gold, yellow and orange. And fluttering down onto the recently turfed lawn, my pride and joy. Eeeek. I rush out to rake the leaves to give the grass light but next day there’s a fresh new batch covering the grass.

I’m sure some people find it a pain in the neck but I love raking the leaves. It feels like I’m in an art installation with all the amazing colours.

Love it or hate it. The difference is mindset.

We usually see mindsets as either negative or positive, eg, fixed or growth. But in sales I think there are four mindsets of a different kind that underpin the success of the consistently top performing salespeople. One of these is READINESS – setting yourself up for success.

One way I check for this is to ask a salesperson these questions about their next meeting with the customer:

• What’s the purpose of the meeting?
• What outcome do you expect at the end of it?
• Who needs to be there to achieve that?
• Has all this been agreed with the customer?

How well attuned is your Readiness mindset or that of your team?

PS. I only did the landscaping. The design was by Pippa Martlew Garden Design, an old school friend of my wife.

PPS. If you’re interested in the other three mindsets, you know where I am!