Royal Mail Group – Inspiring Sales Mindsets in Turbulent Times

Royal Mail Group, who operate both the Royal Mail and Parcelforce brands, had undergone massive upheaval since 2020. Both their internal structure and the world they were operating in had radically altered, and it was clear their salespeople had to adapt to survive in the new world.

They approached Consalia to work with them in developing and delivering a blended-learning programme that would not only unify their sales team’s thinking, but completely transform it.

Recent years have presented some massive challenges for Royal Mail: Brexit, Covid, an organisational restructure, sustained industrial action, and most-recently a severe cyber attack. Each one of these had caused difficulties in sustaining existing client relationships as well as creating new ones, and it was clear that a new approach to sales was needed to rebuild trust in these VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) times.

Part of the restructure saw the Royal Mail and Parcelforce brands come together under one company. These two brands had operated separate sales teams previously, so there was also a need to create a collaborative environment where silos could be broken down.

Senior leaders identified that any training programme meant to address these issues would need to be transformative on both an individual and cultural level. Royal Mail Group needed a new, unified way of selling.

We worked alongside senior leadership at Royal Mail Group to develop a training programme built around the Consalia philosophy that spoke to the company’s specific needs. They identified that content around building successful habits was going to be key in supporting their goals around their internal restructure.

We also interviewed dozens of people throughout both Royal Mail Group’s sales teams and their customers prior to beginning the programme design stage. They gave us key insights into some of the pain points customers and prospects were experiencing with Royal Mail and Parcelforce, particularly when it came to experiencing friction when moving business between the two brands.

We used all this research to build a blended learning programme that combined in-person workshops with elearning modules from Consalia Online. Together we named the programme “Inspiring a Sales Mindset for Growth”.

We structured the programme around three themes: Manage Myself, Manage My Customer, and Support My Team. Manage Myself was the first module learners experienced, letting them learn about the Sales Mindsets and build productive habits that would serve as the foundation for their new, transformed way of selling.

The Manage My Customer theme incorporated an in-person workshop on our Winning Value Proposition system for bidding, before the Support My Team theme spoke directly to Royal Mail’s need to unify the Royal Mail and Parcelforce teams.

Because the programme involved self-study elearning, Royal Mail Group knew it would be essential to get buy-in from line managers. They were actively involved in the programme, coordinating group feedback calls and helping to ensure learners stayed motivated. For the second cohort Royal Mail Group took this a step further. They ensured that line managers were enrolled on the programme alongside their reports, this increased engagement even further.

We also used our online learning system to track module completion, working with Royal Mail Group to ensure that learners had appropriate support and were completing work in advance of the in-person workshops.

The first cohort began the programme in October 2021. So far 5 cohorts of learners have gone through the programme, with a total number of 160 employees participating.

Participants took the Consalia Mindset Survey once before the programme began and then again when they had completed it. All five cohorts showed significant improvements in how they assessed their own mindsets.

Royal Mail Group have also reported that the training has had an amazing, quantifiable impact on their business. They have attributed over 60 opportunities won to the success of the programme, contributing greatly to their revenue targets, with further opportunities identifies in their pipeline.

Individual feedback from learners has also been overwhelmingly positive. Take a look at some of the things they’ve been saying:

“The programme really opened my mind to thinking about how I sell customer propositions completely differently.”

-Account Manager at Parcelforce

“I never expected that understanding a customer’s financial position would help me in my role – the learning I received has helped me understand an area I always struggled with.”

-Account Manager at Royal Mail

“My team has evolved together over the last 12 months – the programme has helped us to bond, refocus, and re-energise after all the challenges we have faced.”

-Sales Manager at Royal Mail

Finally, the outstanding quality of the Inspiring a Sales Mindset for Growth was recognised in August 2023 when it received a Princess Royal Training Award. The awards, run by the City & Guilds Foundation, celebrate exceptional training programmes – passing their rigorous criteria is proof that Royal Mail Group fully embraced the programme from start to finish.

Click here for more details on why Royal Mail Group received the award.

Royal Mail Group saw and understood that the massive shifts the organisation was experiencing, both internal and external, required more than just change: they demanded transformation.

It wouldn’t be enough to simply introduce updated incentive schemes or refresh their methodology – their sales team needed to radically alter their thinking about how they deal with customers.

A big part of what has made the Inspiring a Sales Mindset for Growth programme such a huge success is how Royal Mail Group have enthusiastically got behind the training at every stage, from design to delivery. They made sure everyone from senior leaders to line managers were on the same page and understood the value the programme was going to create both for the organisation and their customers.

Right from the start stakeholders at Royal Mail Group approached the design of the programme in a customer centric way, considering the experiences of their clients even when looking to address internal issues with their organisational restructure. This approach has paid dividends and has helped create an entirely new culture for sales at the company.

Jon Nicholson, UK Sales Director at Royal Mail, had this to say in praise of the programme:

“In recent years, Royal Mail has undergone a major transition and required a training program that could help our Sales function navigate this transition. The ‘Inspiring a Sales Mindset for Growth Programme’ created a collaborative learning environment to allow us to do this. […] Providing new learning & focusing on sales mindsets change was crucial in supporting our sales teams and rebuilding trust with our customers, which is our top priority.”