Jed explains that they’ve been losing business and that if they don’t act, he may have to start laying people off. He pitches his idea to offer tree maintenance as well as lawn mowing. He says he’s spoken to a few customers who say they struggled to find tree surgeons when they needed to trim trees on their properties.
He also says he’s seen an advertisement from a power supplier looking for arborists to partner with them to keep electricity lines clear. Jed asks his team what they think of his plans and encourages them to share their ideas and concerns.
A few of the team are unsure and are worried about using a chainsaw. Jed shows them examples of the protective clothing he’s planning on getting and shares details of the training course he has lined up for staff who are interested in developing tree surgery skills.
He makes it clear people who aren’t will continue doing lawns. Jed also arranges for an arborist friend to be a mentor to talk to the team about how he finds the job and to answer the team’s questions.
Jed lets the team know he has a couple of customers keen on them cutting down trees in their gardens. Once they’re up and running, he gives them regular updates on bookings. He compares booking levels to when they only offered lawn mowing.
He makes sure they’re aware he’s meeting the power suppliers to talk about being a preferred supplier, and when they’re accepted into the next round of applications, he buys the team beers to celebrate.
Some of the team get behind the new offering straight away. Little by little those who were wary see Jed knows what he’s doing and start to relax about the new venture.