Brackwell Freight Ltd / BB-Demo – Qbr
Callcompleted
Brackwell Freight Ltd: documents · 2026-06-24 13:15
Marcus Bell and Aisha Rahman reviewed usage: about six of forty licensed users active daily, down about a quarter. Data is healthy; the fall follows the admin's departure. Finance Director Gareth Whitlam was absent and is asking what the brain is for.
What was said
What this says
Current to 10 Oct 26Marcus Bell and Aisha Rahman reviewed usage: about six of forty licensed users active daily, down about a quarter. Data is healthy; the fall follows the admin's departure. Finance Director Gareth Whitlam was absent and is asking what the brain is for.
What happened: Marcus Bell ran the QBR with Aisha Rahman alone, as Gareth Whitlam was in budget meetings. Around six of forty licensed users are active on a given day, down about a quarter on the quarter before.
Customer view: Aisha says the informal training stopped when the previous admin left, and she has not had time to replace it. The nightly refresh lands before the Tuesday review and there were no tickets in thirty days.
Commercial: The contract runs to 30 Nov 2026, with renewal on 1 Dec 2026. Marcus raised no upsell and said right-sizing may be the honest answer if take-up does not improve.
Watch: A few people ask nearly all the questions, which is a key-person risk. Gareth is new in finance, has already asked what the brain is used for, and has not yet met Marcus.
Themes
Current to 9 Oct 26Theme
Low adoption before renewal
Importance
renewal
Sentiment
mixed
Voice
champion
Who was there
BB-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
Current to 9 Oct 26- Marcus Bell to run a remote training session for depot account managers on their own accounts.
- Aisha Rahman to send a sheet of current staff and an exceptions screenshot so Marcus can draft the value summary.
- Aisha to ask Gareth Whitlam to take a short introductory call with Marcus.
Risks
Current to 9 Oct 26- Only about six of forty Growth users are active, down about a quarter, with a finance director who has no written value case.
- Questions come mostly from Aisha, a couple of revenue operations colleagues and one depot manager, so the value rests on very few people.
- Gareth Whitlam was absent and has not been introduced to Marcus before the 1 Dec 2026 renewal.
Opportunities
Current to 9 Oct 26- The Tuesday review gives a clear weekly use case that links exception tickets, calls and contracts for retail accounts.
- Depot training and a one-page usage and value summary could widen use across the licensed seats.
Transcript
Marcus Bell NoneHello, afternoon Aisha. Can you hear me alright?
Aisha Rahman NoneYes, I can, hi Marcus. Afternoon. Sorry, I've got the wrong headset on, give me a second. There. Is that better?- Marcus Bell NoneMuch better, thanks. How's the week been? It's gone proper drizzly here, very Manchester.
- Aisha Rahman NoneSame at Trafford Park. The yard's like a lake. It's been busy though, end of the month always is, and a couple of the other depots are short-staffed because of holidays.
- Marcus Bell NoneRight, I bet. Well, thanks for making the time. Is Gareth joining us, or...?
- Aisha Rahman NoneNo, he's in budget meetings most of the day. He said to say sorry. He did read the invite, I think. He asked me what a QBR actually is, to be fair.
- Marcus Bell NoneHa, fair question. That's fine, honestly. I'd like to be introduced to him properly at some point, so maybe we sort that out before the end of the call. Shall I share my screen and say what I want to cover?
- Aisha Rahman NoneYes please.
- Marcus Bell NoneRight. Three things. Usage over the last quarter. What's actually being asked of the brain, and by whom. And then what we do about it, because I'll be straight with you, the numbers aren't where either of us would want them. After that, anything you want to raise, and a light touch on renewal planning at the end. Can you see the dashboard?
- Aisha Rahman NoneI can, yes. Can I say what I've already tried first? Just so you know where I'm coming from.
- Marcus Bell NonePlease, go on.
- Aisha Rahman NoneSo, I noticed a few weeks ago that the user list looked quiet. I went into the admin page and checked who had logged in, and it was a lot fewer names than I expected. I thought maybe it was me, is it me or is the report only showing one depot? But I checked the filters and it isn't. So I wasn't sure whether to raise it or just wait for this call.
- Marcus Bell NoneNo, you did the right thing, and you're not misreading it. Let me show you. So this is the last thirty days. We've got forty licensed users, and on average there's around six people active on any given day. And if I compare that with the quarter before, that's down about a quarter.
- Aisha Rahman NoneSix. Yeah. That's what I made it, give or take. I just didn't want to say it first.
- Marcus Bell NoneMm. And it's not a blip, it's been a steady slide rather than one bad week. Do you know off the top of your head why? I don't want to guess.
- Aisha Rahman NoneI don't want to guess either. What I can say is that when the previous admin left, a few of the depot account managers lost the person they used to ask. He used to run little sessions, show people how to ask the brain about their own retail contracts. That stopped. And I took over the admin side but I'm an analyst, I've got the Tuesday review to get out, so I haven't had the time to do the sessions.
- Marcus Bell NoneThat makes sense. And I think that's on us as much as on you, we should have picked that up when he left rather than leaving you to find it. So I'm not going to read you a lecture.
- Aisha Rahman NoneThank you. I did feel a bit like I'd been left holding it.
- Marcus Bell NoneYeah. Hang on, I'll pull up the next view. So here's who's actually using it. And this is the bit I wanted you to see. The activity is concentrated. A small group is asking nearly all the questions, and you're one of them.
- Aisha Rahman NoneI know. It's me and a couple of people in revenue operations. And then one of the depot managers, who I think just likes it.
- Marcus Bell NoneRight. And the rest of the forty are, what, licensed but dormant?
- Aisha Rahman NoneSome of them have probably moved role. Some I'm not sure were ever properly set up. I've got a list somewhere, I'd have to check it against the HR list but that's not something I can see.
- Marcus Bell NoneThat would be really useful, actually. Could you do that? Just a simple sheet: name, depot, whether they've still got a role in the business. I can match it with the login data on my side.
- Aisha Rahman NoneI can do that. Is that okay to share with you? There's names on it.
- Marcus Bell NoneIt's your own data in your own Snowflake, and I'm only matching it against the user list I already see. But if you want to check with Gareth first, do that. I'd rather you were comfortable.
- Aisha Rahman NoneI'll mention it to him. He's quite careful about, well, everything. He's very focused on costs.
- Marcus Bell NoneYeah, I'd expect that from someone new in a finance role. That's sensible. So that's the usage. Before I go on, is there anything on the data side that's bothering you? Connectors, freshness, anything like that? I'm looking at the tickets and there's been nothing in the last thirty days, which is either good or it's people having given up.
- Aisha Rahman NoneHonestly, I think it's mostly fine. The nightly refresh is landing before the Tuesday review, which is what I care about. I haven't raised anything because nothing's been wrong. Just flagging that the delivery-exception tickets from the depots do show up properly, I checked that last week against the helpdesk.
- Marcus Bell NoneGood, that's the Zendesk side, yes. So the data is behaving. That makes the usage a people problem rather than a product problem, which is actually easier to fix, even if it doesn't feel like it.
- Aisha Rahman NoneIs that a good thing?
- Marcus Bell NoneIt's a better thing than the opposite. Right, shall I show you what the active people are actually asking? I think it tells a story.
- Aisha Rahman NoneYes please.
- Marcus Bell NoneSo, the questions are nearly all about the same sort of thing. Which retail accounts have had repeated delivery exceptions, what was said on the last few calls with that customer, and which contracts look wobbly. That's literally what you bought it for. The profile says revenue operations and depot account managers see accounts, exception tickets and calls together and spot the awkward retail contracts early.
- Aisha Rahman NoneYes. That's exactly how we use it on a Tuesday. We go through the accounts and someone pulls up the brain to see if anything's off. Before, that was three different spreadsheets and about an hour of arguing.
- Marcus Bell NoneThat's the value case, right there, and I'd like to write it down properly rather than just say it. Could you tell me one or two times when the Tuesday review caught something that would otherwise have been missed? Even in general terms?
- Aisha Rahman NoneHmm. There was one with a retailer, the exceptions had gone up depot by depot and no single depot manager could see it. In the brain it just showed as a pattern. I'd have to find the exact one. I could send you a screenshot.
- Marcus Bell NoneThat would be gold. Don't worry about names, I only need the shape of it. Because here's the honest position. If Gareth looks at six people out of forty and a contract of forty-four thousand a year, and nobody's written down what it's done, that's a hard conversation. I'd rather have the story ready.
- Aisha Rahman NoneYes. I think he will ask. He's asked me already what exactly we're using it for, and I didn't have a tidy answer.
- Marcus Bell NoneThat's not a criticism of you. Nobody gave you a tidy answer to give. Okay. So let me suggest a plan, and tell me where it's unrealistic.
- Aisha Rahman NoneGo on.
- Marcus Bell NoneOne. I'll run a short training session for the depot account managers, remotely, so nobody has to travel. Forty-five minutes at most, on their own accounts, not a generic demo. You'd just need to get the right people in a room, or on a screen.
- Aisha Rahman NoneI think I can get most of the depots on. The Trafford Park one is easy. The others might need Gareth, or whoever their manager is, to say it's worth it.
- Marcus Bell NoneFair. Two. You send me the sheet of who's actually still in the business, and I'll show you who's licensed but dormant. Three. We make a short usage and value summary, one page, that you can show Gareth. I'll draft it, you correct it, because you know what's true on the ground.
- Aisha Rahman NoneThat sounds sensible. Is there a bit about the admin side in there? I'd like to learn more, I don't want to keep not knowing things. Just in case something breaks.
- Marcus Bell NoneYes, absolutely. I can do a separate walkthrough for you on the admin pages, connectors, user management, what to check each week. It'd be just the two of us, so you can ask the silly questions.
- Aisha Rahman NoneThere aren't silly questions. Well. There might be mine.
- Marcus Bell NoneHa. Mine are worse. Okay, shall we put time in the diary for that? Maybe next week?
- Aisha Rahman NoneNext week is fine, the Tuesday review is the busy day, so any other day.
- Marcus Bell NoneThursday afternoon, then, thirty minutes. I'll send an invite. Now, one more thing on the user side, and it's more a commercial question. You're on Growth, which is forty users and the dashboards builder. Has anyone built any dashboards?
- Aisha Rahman NoneA few. I built one for the exceptions by depot. Someone in revenue operations made another. I don't think anyone else has touched it.
- Marcus Bell NoneThat's still useful, it shows you've put some of your own effort into it. I'm not going to push you on anything more, to be clear, that's not why I'm asking.
- Aisha Rahman NoneOkay. I wasn't sure if this call was going to be about upselling.
- Marcus Bell NoneIt isn't. If anything the opposite. If you've got forty seats and six people use it, the answer isn't more seats. The answer is getting more of the forty to find it useful. If we can't do that, then we should be honest about what's right-sized.
- Aisha Rahman NoneI appreciate that. I'll be honest, I'd been a bit worried you'd turn up with a pitch.
- Marcus Bell NoneNo pitch. Though I should say, on contract and price, that's Tom Ashdown, he's the account owner on our side. I look after adoption and the renewal conversation. If Gareth wants to talk commercial terms, Tom would join.
- Aisha Rahman NoneOkay. I wouldn't speak for Gareth on the contract. That's his.
- Marcus Bell NoneOf course. Let me just say what I know so you're not surprised. The contract runs to 30 Nov 2026, and the renewal date is 1 Dec 2026. That's a few months off. I like to start the conversation well ahead of the notice period, not at the last minute.
- Aisha Rahman NoneRight. Okay. So that's why you wanted to see Gareth.
- Marcus Bell NonePartly. Also because someone new in finance is going to look at every line, and I'd rather he heard from me than found it on an invoice. Would you be happy to ask him if he'd take a short call with me? Something light. Introductions, what he'd like to see.
- Aisha Rahman NoneI'll ask him. I think he'll say yes. He's not unfriendly, he's just very, what's the word. Direct.
- Marcus Bell NoneDirect is fine. I prefer direct. Right, is there anything on your list that I haven't covered?
- Aisha Rahman NoneOne thing, and it's a bit small. When someone leaves, how do I take their seat away? I wasn't sure if I should delete the user or just deactivate.
- Marcus Bell NoneDeactivate, always, so their history stays. I'll cover it in the admin walkthrough, it takes a minute. Anything else?
- Aisha Rahman NoneNo, I think that's it. Oh, actually. Is it normal? Is six out of forty normal for a company our size?
- Marcus Bell NoneNo, not at this point, I won't pretend it is. Most customers a couple of years in have a bigger share of their licensed users active. But I don't want to lean on a comparison, because every business is different. What matters is whether the people using it are getting something. And from what you've told me, they are. The job is to get that to more people.
- Aisha Rahman NoneOkay. That's fair. Thank you for being straight.
- Marcus Bell NoneAlways. Right, so to recap. I'll send you an invite for the admin walkthrough on Thursday. You'll send me the sheet of current staff and the screenshot of the exceptions pattern. I'll draft the one-page summary and plan the depot training. And you'll ask Gareth about a short call.
- Aisha Rahman NoneYes. That all sounds doable. Sorry, I've gone a bit quiet, I'm writing it down.
- Marcus Bell NoneNo, take your time. Honestly, thanks for being open about it. A lot of people wait until the renewal to say the thing's not being used.
- Aisha Rahman NoneI'd rather it worked. I do use it every week.
- Marcus Bell NoneI know. Okay. I think we're done, and we've even finished a bit early, I'd allowed more time. Thanks, Aisha. Speak soon.
- Aisha Rahman NoneThanks, Marcus. Bye.
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