Merriott Lyle Distribution / BG-Demo – Discovery
Callcompleted
Merriott Lyle Distribution · 2 Dec 2024 12:45
Discovery on 2 Dec 2024 with Deepa Chauhan, who sponsors but does not sign. She wants one view of a trade account; Lewis Kerr put the deal at £146k in total including implementation. Finance sign-off is still ahead.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Discovery on 2 Dec 2024 with Deepa Chauhan, who sponsors but does not sign. She wants one view of a trade account; Lewis Kerr put the deal at £146k in total including implementation. Finance sign-off is still ahead.
What happened: Deepa described five or six systems that disagree about a trade account and showed a hand-built three-tab sample that took most of an afternoon. Lewis Kerr confirmed Enterprise, a target decision of 14 Feb 2025, and a price of £146k in total, plus VAT.
Customer view: She wants branch managers to stop phoning head office and credit control and key-account to share one page. She distrusts overpromising and valued Lewis not claiming more than he knew.
Commercial: Finance signs, regional directors must want it and credit control must trust it. She would start with one region rather than company-wide.
Watch: Data cleaning, another login for branch managers, and permissions on credit notes and disputes are her stated worries. The security review is its own line in the plan.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Enterprise single account view
Importance
neutral
Sentiment
positive
Voice
champion
Who was there
BG-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Lewis Kerr to send the proposal with subscription and implementation separate, plus VAT, and support options marked.
- Deepa Chauhan to send the open disputes figure and the name of the IT security lead.
- Lewis Kerr and Daniel Okafor to run the demo on Merriott Lyle's data using the single account question.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Finance sign-off and credit control trust are unresolved, and February is only a target.
- Deepa would walk away if the data needed months of clean-up or branch managers had to use another tool.
- A phased start in one region may delay the company-wide use the Enterprise price assumes.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Enterprise with security review support and a Premium support option, which she asked to see itemised.
- A demo on her own data with regional directors and credit control present could widen the buying group.
Transcript
Lewis KerrAfternoon, Deepa. Can you hear me all right?
Deepa ChauhanI can, yes. Sorry, I'm a couple of minutes behind. The call before this one with the regional directors overran.- Lewis KerrNo problem at all. We've got the time. How's the week treating you?
- Deepa ChauhanBusy. Month end is coming and it's turned cold, so every branch manager is ringing head office about deliveries. Same as every year, really.
- Lewis KerrHa, I can imagine. Right, thanks for making the time. What I'd like to do is confirm what you're looking to buy and roughly by when, and then spend most of the call on how things work for you today. Is that all right?
- Deepa ChauhanYes. The one thing I need from this call is to know whether the brain can give a branch manager one view of a trade account. Orders, disputes, calls, invoices, all in one place. Everything else is detail.
- Lewis KerrGood, that's clear. So you're looking at Enterprise, company-wide, with a decision targeted for Friday 14 February 2025. Is that still the shape of it?
- Deepa ChauhanBroadly, yes. February is the date I've been given, but it depends on credit control being comfortable and on finance. I don't go around finance on money, so treat it as a target, not a promise.
- Lewis KerrUnderstood. I'll record it as a target. Right, take me through today. Which systems do your branches and key-account managers actually work in?
- Deepa ChauhanSo there's the CRM, which I run, and that's where the key-account managers live. Then the order system, which the branches use for quotes, orders and deliveries. Credit control have their own ledger and a set of spreadsheets for disputes. Then we record calls for the key-account team and some of the branches, and each region has a shared mailbox. So that's five or six places, and none of them agree.
- Lewis KerrWhen you say none of them agree, give me an example.
- Deepa ChauhanWhich account, which branch? That's the question I get asked most. A builder rings a branch about a disputed delivery. The branch manager sees one thing, the key-account manager sees another, and credit control has put the account on hold over an invoice the branch thinks is settled. Three people, three answers, and the customer is on the phone the whole time.
- Lewis KerrAnd how long does it take to get to a straight answer?
- Deepa ChauhanDepends who you ask. Sometimes the same day. Sometimes a week, and it goes round the houses. Mostly it's someone phoning someone else. Show me where that number comes from is more or less my job title.
- Lewis KerrMm. To put a number on it, do you have a sense of how many of those are open at any one time? Roughly is fine.
- Deepa ChauhanHonestly, no, and I'd rather not guess on a recorded call. I could pull something together from the monthly account-data review. Give me a few days.
- Lewis KerrThat would be really useful. I'd rather have your figure than quote one from memory anyway.
- Deepa ChauhanHa. Quite.
- Lewis KerrWho sits in that monthly review?
- Deepa ChauhanCredit control, the regional directors, a couple of the key-account leads, and me chairing. Let's get credit control in the room is what I say every month. When they're there, disputes get closed. When they're not, we spend the hour on rumour.
- Lewis KerrThat's helpful. And is the rumour problem mostly stale information, or people looking at different records of the same customer?
- Deepa ChauhanBoth, but mostly the second. The same builder can be three accounts, one for every branch that's ever sold to them, and nobody has the full picture. And the first as well, because the ledger moves at one rhythm and the CRM at another.
- Lewis KerrRight. That's squarely what the brain is for. It sits across those systems, runs inside your own Snowflake account, and people ask it questions instead of reconciling by hand. Do you have Snowflake today?
- Deepa ChauhanWe do. Mostly finance and the BI people use it. I'd need someone from IT in the room for that conversation, and I'm fairly sure they'll have security questions.
- Lewis KerrOf course. Enterprise comes with support through the security review, so we'd expect that. Do you know who would lead it on your side?
- Deepa ChauhanSomeone in IT. I'll find out and give you a name.
- Lewis KerrGood, thank you. Now, if you imagine this working, who are the first people using it?
- Deepa ChauhanI'd start with one region. The key-account team and credit control for that region, and branch managers from a dozen or so branches. If it works there I can take it to the regional directors with something real in my hand, rather than a slide. Then widen out. I wouldn't want to go company-wide on day one.
- Lewis KerrThat's sensible, and it fits how people tend to roll Enterprise out even when they're buying for the whole company. Which sources would you want connected first?
- Deepa ChauhanThe CRM, the order system and the credit control ledger. Calls and the mailboxes second. And I'm wary here, because I won't promise the regions something before it exists. If the brain can't show disputes cleanly, I'm not telling branch managers it can.
- Lewis KerrFair, and I wouldn't ask you to. What we'd do is demo it on your own data, so you see what it does and what it doesn't. Daniel Okafor, who would look after your account day to day, would join that.
- Deepa ChauhanGood. I'd want that before anything goes near finance.
- Lewis KerrUnderstood. Can I ask about the people side? Who has to say yes, besides finance?
- Deepa ChauhanThe regional directors have to want it, otherwise branch managers won't touch it. Credit control have to trust it, which is the harder one, because they've been burnt by dashboards before. And someone in finance signs it off. I'm the one sponsoring it, but I'm not the one who signs.
- Lewis KerrThat helps. Is there anything that would make you walk away, or slow it down?
- Deepa ChauhanHonestly? If it's another project that needs my team to clean the data for six months before it shows anything. We haven't the people. And if branch managers have to log in to yet another thing. They won't.
- Lewis KerrMm. On the first point, it works on what's in your systems, so I wouldn't promise the data is pristine. The brain will show you where records disagree, which is useful in itself, but your team would still own fixing the sources. On the second, I'd rather show you in the demo how branch managers would actually reach it than promise from here.
- Deepa ChauhanI appreciate you saying that. Thanks.
- Lewis KerrRight. Price. I'll be careful, because I don't quote from memory and I'll send it properly in writing. What I can say is that the deal as it's currently shaped comes to £146,500 in total. That includes the one-off implementation fee, so it isn't an annual price.
- Deepa ChauhanOkay. And that's plus VAT?
- Lewis KerrIt is, plus VAT. I'll show the subscription and the implementation separately, with the VAT position on each line, so it's obvious what recurs and what doesn't.
- Deepa ChauhanThat's what finance will ask first. What recurs, what doesn't. Can you also make it clear what each line is for? I'd like to be able to say it in one sentence.
- Lewis KerrYes, I'll build it that way. And anything on discount would only apply to the first term, so I'd flag that clearly rather than let it surprise anyone at renewal.
- Deepa ChauhanGood, because nothing ought to surprise finance at renewal.
- Lewis KerrAgreed. I'd rather you hear it from me now than find it in a clause later.
- Deepa ChauhanShall I show you what I mean by the account view? I've got a sample open, with the names taken off.
- Lewis KerrYes please, go ahead.
- Deepa ChauhanGive me a second. Sharing now. Can you see that?
- Lewis KerrI can see a spreadsheet. Yes.
- Deepa ChauhanSo this is one trade account, anonymised. The left tab is the CRM view: owner, last contact, open opportunities. The middle one is what the branch has, orders and deliveries. The right one is the credit control view, with the invoices and the disputes. Three tabs, and I built this by hand last Thursday for the review. It took most of an afternoon for one account.
- Lewis KerrOne account, most of an afternoon.
- Deepa ChauhanYes. And that's before anyone has listened to a call.
- Lewis KerrRight. So the call recordings aren't linked to the account anywhere today?
- Deepa ChauhanThey're linked to the key-account manager, not the account, which is part of the problem. I'd like to be able to say: this builder, the last six weeks, what did they tell us, what did we send, what do they owe.
- Lewis KerrThat's the sort of question people ask the brain. I won't claim today that it would answer it perfectly on your data, which is why the demo uses your own records. But it's the right test.
- Deepa ChauhanIt is the right test. Let's use that one.
- Lewis KerrNoted, that's the demo scenario. So, after the first quarter, what would make you say it was working?
- Deepa ChauhanTwo things. Branch managers stop phoning head office to ask what's going on with an account, and credit control and key-account are looking at the same page in the review. If both are true I'll count it as a win, and I'd be comfortable saying so to the directors.
- Lewis KerrGood, those are measurable. I'd suggest we agree them with Daniel Okafor at the start so they're written down, and we can check against them rather than against a feeling.
- Deepa ChauhanI like that. Written down, and with a date.
- Lewis KerrOn timelines, I don't want to give you a week count from memory. What I'll do is put the implementation plan in the proposal, with the order you gave me: CRM, order system, credit control ledger, then calls and mailboxes.
- Deepa ChauhanThat works. And please put the security review in the plan as its own line. IT will want to see it's accounted for.
- Lewis KerrWill do. Anything else you'd want covered in the proposal?
- Deepa ChauhanSupport. If a branch can't get an answer at nine in the morning I don't want to hear about it through three people. What happens when something breaks?
- Lewis KerrEnterprise carries the strongest response commitments we offer, and there's a Premium support option on top. I'll set out exactly what's included rather than give you the half version from memory.
- Deepa ChauhanPlease. And what's included versus extra.
- Lewis KerrYes, I'll mark which is which.
- Deepa ChauhanAnd one more. I might bring one of the regional directors to the demo, just to listen. Is that all right?
- Lewis KerrMore than all right. The more of the people who'll use it in the room, the better the demo.
- Deepa ChauhanRight. I'll invite credit control as well. Let's get credit control in the room.
- Lewis KerrHa, I knew that was coming.
- Deepa ChauhanIt's a habit.
- Lewis KerrSo, to recap, so we're agreed. I'll send the proposal breakdown today: subscription and implementation separately, plus VAT, with the support options marked. You'll send me a feel for how many open disputes there are, from the monthly review, and the name of whoever will lead security in IT. We'll set up the demo on your own data with Daniel, with the single account question as the test. Did I miss anything?
- Deepa ChauhanYou've got the lot. I'll check diaries with credit control before I commit to a time. Early next week is probably realistic.
- Lewis KerrEarly next week is fine. I'll send a couple of slots with the proposal.
- Deepa ChauhanCan I ask something? What does the first month usually look like for people?
- Lewis KerrHonest answer: mostly it's getting the connectors right and the first questions are simple ones. The teams that do best get a couple of real questions answered in the early weeks and build from there. The value shows when more than one team is asking.
- Deepa ChauhanThat's what I'd expect. Small and real first.
- Lewis KerrExactly.
- Deepa ChauhanOne last thing. Who sees what? A branch manager shouldn't see another region's accounts, and I'd be careful about who can see credit notes and disputes. Is that something you handle?
- Lewis KerrIt's a fair question and an important one. Access follows what's in the source systems, and we'd go through it properly in the security review and again in the demo. I don't want to say more than I know, so I'll put it in writing with the proposal.
- Deepa ChauhanThat's fair. I'd rather hear that than a quick yes.
- Lewis KerrAnything else from your side?
- Deepa ChauhanNo, I think that's me. Thanks, Lewis, this was more useful than I expected.
- Lewis KerrGlad to hear it. I'll send that over today, and I'll speak to you early next week. Thanks, Deepa.
- Deepa ChauhanThanks. Speak soon.
- Lewis KerrCheers, bye.
- Deepa ChauhanBye.
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