Achieving it involves growing fast, and as the organisation scales up, the charity and social enterprise recognised that the commercial confidence of its people is increasingly important. In partnership with The Melting Pot Consultancy, Changeworks has been equipping colleagues across the organisation to have better conversations and build stronger relationships, to help the organisation grow and meet its target.

A growing organisation

Changeworks has been at the heart of Scotland’s energy efficiency and fuel poverty agenda for almost 40 years, but the organisation of today looks very different from the one it was just a few years ago.

With a refreshed board, an ambitious leadership team, and a strategy to decarbonise Scotland’s homes at scale, Changeworks has over doubled its workforce. The organisation also rebranded, moved offices, and –invested in development of its staff with a focus on strengthening its services and business development function.

Roddy Hamilton, Head of Business Development, said:

“With the ongoing energy crisis and accelerating climate emergency, the support Changeworks provide is more important than ever. To achieve our ambitious target, we have been upskilling colleagues across the organisation to help support income generation to be able to scale our services further. We need to make sure we’re giving them the right tools and confidence to enable Changeworks to work with more organisations and partners.”

Supporting development

As part of Changeworks’ continued focus to support colleagues in their learning and development, a need was identified to further strengthen certain skillsets across the organisation.

Three topics stood out as key to build on: bid writing, networking and relationship building, and sales conversations. To support this, Changeworks created a Business Development Community of

Practice, bringing together colleagues with business development responsibilities from across the organisation, and began building a learning journey to support them.

A partner who understood the brief – and the sector

Changeworks reached out to several consultants and training providers, and The Melting Pot stood out. “They seemed to understand us more than some of the others,” says Roddy. “And they were very flexible in their approach and working relationship.”

Changeworks is a mission-driven organisation. Sales in the context of social impact doesn’t always feel comfortable, so the solution needed to take the team on a journey.

The programme designers, Emily Graveson and Daniela Garcia, understood this from the outset.

Their focus was on developing a consultative sales framework – one that felt conversational and supportive – and could be applied confidently by people across a wide range of roles and experience levels.

The programme

The sales programme was the third in the series, following bid writing and networking, the latter of which was also delivered by The Melting Pot. The consultative sales programme was designed to build on the networking skills, enabling the team to build strong connections that move from the first interaction to a working partnership.

The programme of learning brought together colleagues from across Changeworks.

Built around four interactive workshops, the programme was supplemented by small group coaching, accountability check-ins and a final mock sales lab.

Crucially, it was co-designed as it went along – evolving in response to the cohort’s needs and ongoing input from Changeworks’ leadership team.

Daniela describes this as central to how The Melting Pot works: “We engaged people from different teams and departments, creating a ‘melting pot’ of perspectives that enriched shared learning in a way that’s more integrated than traditional, siloed consultancy programmes.”

Engaging with the training

As Changeworks’ Business Development Community of Practice brings together colleagues with business development responsibilities from across the organisation, some colleagues were newer to the training topics than others.

Hazel Anderson, a Senior Project Officer at Home Energy Scotland South East – delivered by Changeworks on behalf of Energy Saving Trust and the Scottish Government – recalls her initial reaction: “My role isn’t directly involved with business development, so at first I wasn’t sure what relevance this would have for me.”

Her role involves coordinating regional engagement campaigns and working with partners to collaborate and refer clients through Home Energy Scotland’s portal.

She hadn’t previously thought of these conversations as ‘sales’, but the training changed that.

“I’ve realised how applicable this is across so many different areas – to communicate and engage with colleagues and partners effectively. It’s given me a new appreciation of what ‘sales’ conversations can be and when to utilise these techniques.”

Hazel describes a specific shift in the way she approaches partner meetings: “The training has given me a new set of tools which I’ve already seen the impact of. Particularly, around building rapport and not being so quick to offer ‘solutions’ without first getting a full read of a partners’ motivations and needs.”

She has also found herself applying the questioning framework and active listening techniques in her one-to-one conversations as a line manager. “It’s about how to connect with people on an authentic level to achieve meaningful outcomes – that’s how I’ve come to see this training.”

Learning together – across the organisation

One of the most consistent themes in participant feedback has been the value of shared learning across teams.

Emily observed that at the outset, many participants were quiet and uncertain, with some lacking confidence in having commercial conversations. “Since then, we have seen a significant increase in engagement, with participants actively contributing, asking thoughtful questions, and embracing the sales labs and practical exercises.”

Hazel describes the energy in the room: “Each session I’ve sat at a different table and engaged with different colleagues than I would in my normal day to day. Hearing that other people are having similar experiences to me has been interesting and quite validating too.”

Measurable momentum

The programme is still live – but the early signs of impact are already visible.

The networking strand has contributed to stronger cross-team collaboration internally, and colleagues who once felt unsure about talking across service areas are now more confident doing so.

Why it matters

For Changeworks, this programme is not simply about sales techniques. It is about enabling more people across the organisation to have the conversations that will ultimately help more households access energy efficiency support, reduce fuel poverty, and move Scotland closer to its climate goals.

As Roddy puts it: “We’re commercially driven and as a social enterprise, we’re also impact driven. Supporting our staff to continually develop and upskill is key to delivering our mission.”

The Melting Pot CEO, Helen Denny, reflects: “Changeworks is doing vital work for Scotland’s future, and this programme is an example of the capability, capacity and confidence building organisations need to invest in to meet these ambitions. It also signifies a culture shift – people discover strengths they didn’t know they had, and the whole organisation becomes more resilient as a result.”

If you are interested in learning more about this programme, or The Melting Pot Consultancy, please check out the webpage (themeltingpotedinburgh.org.uk) or contact us directly ([email protected]).