Brackwell Freight Ltd / BB-Demo – Check In
Callcompleted
Brackwell Freight Ltd: documents · 2026-06-30 10:00
Gareth Whitlam, new to the account, asked what Brackwell gets for forty-four thousand pounds a year with six of forty users active. He wants facts before the 1 Dec 2026 renewal and will resist an increase without a defensible reason.
What was said
What this says
Current to 10 Oct 26Gareth Whitlam, new to the account, asked what Brackwell gets for forty-four thousand pounds a year with six of forty users active. He wants facts before the 1 Dec 2026 renewal and will resist an increase without a defensible reason.
What happened: Marcus Bell met Gareth Whitlam for the first time, with Aisha Rahman present. Gareth had read the order form, recent invoices and the usage report, and could not find a clear reason for the spend.
Customer view: He called Aisha's retail exceptions example an anecdote he cannot put in a budget paper. He said he inherited the subscription and will judge at renewal on what he can see.
Commercial: Renewal is 1 Dec 2026 and Gareth is not minded to accept an increase without a reason he can defend. He asked for the renewal in writing and wants Tom Ashdown only when the talk is commercial.
Watch: Marcus accepted that sizing the subscription is a legitimate discussion if only six people find it useful.
Themes
Current to 9 Oct 26Theme
Value challenge before renewal
Importance
renewal
Sentiment
negative
Voice
decision-maker
Who was there
BB-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
Current to 9 Oct 26- Marcus Bell to brief Tom Ashdown today and ask for the renewal set out in writing: what it is, what it includes and why.
- Marcus to book a follow-up call in a few weeks showing the usage trend and a first draft of the value summary.
- Aisha Rahman to produce the current staff list and send exceptions screenshots.
Risks
Current to 9 Oct 26- Gareth Whitlam sees six active users out of forty against forty-four thousand pounds a year and has no value case he can defend.
- He will not accept a renewal increase without a defensible reason and is under a brief to look hard at software spend.
- Some licensed seats may belong to people who have left, which strengthens a case for resizing.
Opportunities
Current to 9 Oct 26- A verified value summary built with Aisha and revenue operations could give him the facts he asked for.
- A clean user list and depot training could show early movement in usage within a few weeks.
Transcript
Marcus Bell NoneMorning, Gareth. Morning, Aisha. Can you both hear me okay?
Aisha Rahman NoneMorning, yes, all fine here.
Gareth Whitlam NoneYes. Morning. I'm in the finance office, so if the door goes, apologies.- Marcus Bell NoneNo problem at all. Gareth, good to meet you properly, Aisha's mentioned you. I'm Marcus, I'm the customer success manager for Brackwell on our side. Thanks for making the time, it's only a short one. Shall I share my screen and say what I'd like to cover?
- Gareth Whitlam NoneBefore you do, may I say where I am? I've read the order form and the last few invoices. I've had a look at the usage report Aisha forwarded. What I haven't found is a clear reason why we're paying forty-four thousand pounds a year. So that's what I'd like to understand today.
- Marcus Bell NoneThat's fair, and that's honestly the right question. Let me start where you've started. Aisha, you're happy for me to go through the usage?
- Aisha Rahman NoneYes, of course.
- Marcus Bell NoneSo, you're on Growth, which is forty licensed users. Over the last thirty days, on average, about six people have been active on any given day. That's down about a quarter on the previous quarter. So I'm not going to dress it up.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneSix. Out of forty. For forty-four thousand pounds.
- Marcus Bell NoneThat's the arithmetic, yes.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneSo what exactly are we paying for?
- Marcus Bell NoneFair. Two parts. One is the platform itself, the brain running inside your own Snowflake account, with the connectors to your CRM, helpdesk, call recorder and so on, refreshed every night. That's working. There have been no tickets in the last thirty days, and Aisha tells me the refresh lands before the Tuesday review. The second part is what people get out of it. And that's where the number you've just quoted bites.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneI was told it was a feature list when I asked. A list of things we could do. I don't take a list as an answer. What's it done?
- Marcus Bell NoneUnderstood. Aisha, can I lean on you here, because you're the one who uses it? I'd rather the example came from someone who was there.
- Aisha Rahman NoneYes. Um. Just flagging that I'm only describing what happens on the Tuesday review. So, before the brain, we'd go through the retail accounts using separate exports from the CRM and the helpdesk, and nobody had the calls. Now we pull up an account and see the delivery-exception tickets, the recent calls and the contract notes together. There was a retailer where exceptions were creeping up depot by depot. No single depot saw it. It only showed as a pattern when we looked across.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneAnd what did that save us? In money.
- Aisha Rahman NoneI don't know that I can put a figure on it. We had a conversation with the retailer earlier than we otherwise would have. I couldn't say what would have happened otherwise.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneSo it's anecdote. Which I'm not dismissing. But I can't put an anecdote in a budget paper.
- Marcus Bell NoneNo, and I'd not ask you to. That's why I want to build it properly, with you rather than at you. What I'd suggest is a short value summary: who's asking what, which questions are tied to retail accounts, and a handful of specific cases Aisha and revenue operations can verify. You'd see it before anyone else did.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneShow me the usage first. The actual report. Not the summary.
- Marcus Bell NoneSure. Sharing now. This is the user list for the last quarter. You can see who's active, how often, and who's never logged in at all.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneHow many have never logged in?
- Marcus Bell NoneA fair number. I don't want to quote the count, I'd rather Aisha and I tidy the list first, because some of those will be people who've moved on and haven't been removed. That's something we're doing this week.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneSo we may be paying for seats that belong to people who no longer work here.
- Aisha Rahman NonePossibly some. I haven't checked all of them yet. I'm not going to guess.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneNo, quite right. Don't guess. Check.
- Marcus Bell NoneI'll say this plainly, Gareth, because I'd want to know it in your position. Forty seats and six users is a low take-up. I'm not going to defend that as healthy. The real question is whether the right forty people are licensed, and whether the six are getting enough value to justify getting more of them in.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneAnd if they aren't? If it turns out the answer is that six people find it useful, and the rest don't need it?
- Marcus Bell NoneThen the conversation about how the subscription is sized is a legitimate one. That's a commercial discussion and it's Tom Ashdown's, he's the account owner. I look after adoption and the renewal conversation. But I'd rather we got to the facts first, so it's not a negotiation in the dark.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneTom Ashdown. Fine. I'll want to talk to him. And I should say now, so there's no confusion later. Renewal is on 1 Dec 2026. I've seen that some suppliers push increases at renewal as a matter of course. I'm not minded to agree to an increase without a reason I can defend.
- Marcus Bell NoneUnderstood. I'm not going to argue pricing with you on this call, that wouldn't be right, it's for Tom. What I can do is make sure you get a clear picture of what the renewal looks like well before the date, so there's no surprise.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneThat would be a start. I'd like it in writing. What the renewal is, what it includes, and why.
- Marcus Bell NoneI'll flag it to Tom today. I can't promise what he'll put in it, but I'll ask for it to be set out clearly.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneHm. Fine. Let's go back to usage. Why has it fallen? Aisha tells me the person who ran it before left. Is that the whole story?
- Marcus Bell NoneIt's most of it, from what I can see. When he left, a lot of the informal training and the nudging went with him. The data is fine, the product is working, so it's a people and habit problem rather than a technical one. And honestly we should have noticed sooner and helped Aisha more. I'll own that.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneI'm not interested in who owns what. I'm interested in what changes.
- Marcus Bell NoneOkay. Three things, concrete. One, we clean the user list so you know how many people genuinely should have access. Two, I run a session for the depot account managers on their own accounts, not a generic demo, and we see whether usage moves. Three, we write the value summary I mentioned. I'd say a few weeks to see whether the usage trend turns.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneA few weeks. Not months.
- Marcus Bell NoneA few weeks for the first signs, yes. I wouldn't claim it'll be transformed.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneGood. Do not claim that.
- Aisha Rahman NoneCan I add something? Sorry. I think the depots would use it more if they were shown it by someone. It's not that they don't want to. They don't know what to ask it. I can help organise that, but I'd need to be given the time.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneThat's a reasonable point. I'll think about that. Aisha, you'll talk to me about what time you actually have, rather than assuming.
- Aisha Rahman NoneYes. Okay. Thank you.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneMarcus, one more question. What do other companies of our size get from this? If I ask you for a comparison, can you give me one?
- Marcus Bell NoneI can talk generally, and I'd be careful, because I can't name other customers and every business is different. What tends to work is where a particular team has an obvious weekly use for it, and Brackwell's Tuesday review is that kind of thing. The ones that struggle are where it's licensed widely and nobody's got a routine around it. You're a bit of both at the moment.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneThat's honest, at least. A bit of both.
- Marcus Bell NoneIt's the truth as I see it. I'd rather tell you that now than in November.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneThen let me put it plainly. I came into this with a brief to look hard at software spend, and I inherited this. I didn't choose it. I'll make a judgement at renewal on what I can see, and what I can see today isn't enough. So between now and then I want facts, not enthusiasm.
- Marcus Bell NoneThat's completely reasonable, and facts are what I'll give you. Can I suggest a rhythm? A short call again in a few weeks, thirty minutes, where I show you the usage trend and the first draft of the value summary. And if there's something you want me to look at that I haven't mentioned, you tell me.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneYes. Book it. And include Tom Ashdown when it's commercial. Not before.
- Marcus Bell NoneUnderstood. I'll book the check-in and speak to Tom today about the renewal write-up.
- Aisha Rahman NoneI'll do the staff list tomorrow, so we know who's actually still here. And I'll send the screenshots of the exceptions work.
- Marcus Bell NoneGreat. Thanks, Aisha, that helps a lot.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneIs there anything else I should be asking?
- Marcus Bell NoneOnly that if the six-out-of-forty figure ever looks different when you check it independently, tell me. I'd rather have the numbers argued over than accepted.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneI will. I've no wish to keep you, I think we've covered what I wanted. We'll see what the next conversation looks like.
- Marcus Bell NoneThanks, Gareth. Thanks, Aisha. Speak soon.
- Aisha Rahman NoneThanks, Marcus. Bye both.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneGoodbye.
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