Delancey Haig / BB-Demo – Check In
Callcompleted
Delancey Haig: documents · 2025-01-03 14:15
Saskia Mendes at Delancey Haig said forty Growth seats have only seven or eight active users, down about a fifth on the quarter. Service and payment are clean. Renewal is 3 Jul 2025, so adoption needs a turn before then.
What was said
What this says
Current to 11 Oct 26Saskia Mendes at Delancey Haig said forty Growth seats have only seven or eight active users, down about a fifth on the quarter. Service and payment are clean. Renewal is 3 Jul 2025, so adoption needs a turn before then.
What happened: Daniel Okafor ran a check-in with Saskia Mendes on 3 Jan 2025. Usage was down about a fifth on the previous quarter, with seven or eight people active against forty licensed users.
Customer view: Saskia said the directors tried the brain early and it fell out of their routine. She framed it as habit, not data quality, and wants ten success stories, not one.
Commercial: the contract runs to 2 Jul 2025 with renewal on 3 Jul 2025. Saskia asked whether paying for forty seats is justified, and Daniel referred the seats question to Priya on the commercial side.
Watch: no tickets, connectors loading and nightly refresh on time, so the issue is under-use, not stale data. The evidence does not show what happened at renewal.
Themes
Current to 9 Oct 26Theme
Adoption dip 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- Daniel Okafor to send Saskia a first draft of five saved questions by the Wednesday after the call.
- Daniel Okafor to send a monthly usage line and brief Priya on the seats question.
- Saskia Mendes to take the questions to the directors' meeting and say by the end of the following week whether Daniel should join.
Risks
Current to 9 Oct 26- Active users are seven or eight against forty Growth seats, down about a fifth on the previous quarter.
- Saskia questioned whether paying for forty seats is justified, and finance may ask what the subscription earns before the renewal on 3 Jul 2025.
- Most directors tried the brain early and went back to spreadsheets, so the value case rests on a few stories.
Opportunities
Current to 9 Oct 26- A set of saved questions matching how directors prepare for client reviews could make the brain the first place they look.
- An early-warning question on disputed contractor invoices fits what the brain does well and gives the stories Saskia wants.
- A short introduction for a new director starting in a few weeks can build the habit from the first day.
Transcript
Daniel Okafor NoneHello Saskia, can you hear me all right?
Saskia Mendes NoneHi Daniel, yes, loud and clear. Can you hear me? I've got the headset on, it was crackling earlier.- Daniel Okafor NoneYou sound fine. Good afternoon, and happy new year. Thank you for making the time on the first Friday back, I know it's a strange week for everyone. Is it just the two of us today, or is anyone else joining?
- Saskia Mendes NoneJust me. I did ask a couple of the directors but one's at a client and the other one said, and I quote, 'send me the notes'. So that tells you something.
- Daniel Okafor NoneHa. Well, I'll make sure the notes are worth reading. How was the break?
- Saskia Mendes NoneLovely, thanks, properly offline. But can I tell you about yesterday? We came back and the heating on our whole floor had been left off over the holiday. A room full of recruiters in coats, on the phones, and one of the directors took a call with a client in a scarf and a woolly hat. The client thought it was hilarious. Facilities got it sorted by lunchtime but honestly, the mood was not one of fresh new year energy.
- Daniel Okafor NoneOh no. Well, I hope it's warmer today. We had the opposite, someone left a window open at ours and the papers went everywhere. But that's enough about offices. Shall we get into it?
- Saskia Mendes NoneYes, go on. What have you got?
- Daniel Okafor NoneSo this is a check-in, nothing alarming, and I'll say that up front. We're about six months in from when you went live, you're on Growth, and I wanted to look at how the team is finding it, what's working, what isn't, and just make sure we're pointing at the right things for the year. I've got the usage numbers in front of me, I can share my screen if that helps.
- Saskia Mendes NoneDo, please. Though I think I know what they're going to say, and I'd rather you just say it straight.
- Daniel Okafor NoneRight, okay. Let me find the right window. Can you see it? It's the usage page.
- Saskia Mendes NoneYes, I can see it. Lots of green, one of the lines going the wrong way.
- Daniel Okafor NoneThat's the one. So you have forty licensed users, and over the last month, on average, it's been seven or eight people active. And compared with the previous quarter that's down by about a fifth. Now, part of that will be the holidays, because December is always quiet, but I didn't want to hide behind that, and I don't think you'd want me to.
- Saskia Mendes NoneNo, I wouldn't. Forty seats and seven or eight people using it. That's not where I want it to be, Daniel. I'm not going to pretend otherwise.
- Daniel Okafor NoneI appreciate that. And just so it's fair, it isn't a catastrophe, those seven or eight are using it, and I can see who they are. But it's lower than it was in the autumn, and I'd rather we talked about it now than in the summer.
- Saskia Mendes NoneWho is it? Is it the directors or is it my team?
- Daniel Okafor NoneIt's a mix. You're in there most weeks, which won't surprise you. Two or three of the client-account directors are regular, and then there's a handful of people in your operations team who dip in. What I'm not seeing is the wider group of directors coming back after they've tried it once or twice.
- Saskia Mendes NoneRight. That's what I was afraid of. They had a go in the first couple of months, they thought it was clever, and then it fell out of their routine. They've got their own spreadsheets and their own way of walking into a review, and it's hard to shift.
- Daniel Okafor NoneMm. And that's very normal, if it's any comfort. The ones who stick are usually the ones who've had a specific moment where it saved them from walking into a room unprepared. Do you have a sense of whether that's happened for your directors?
- Saskia Mendes NoneFor a few, yes. There was one who found out an invoice dispute was brewing with a client before the client even raised it, because the complaint and the contractor invoice were sitting side by side. She told everyone about it for a week. But that's one story. I need ten.
- Daniel Okafor NoneThat's exactly the sort of story I'd like to build on. Can I ask a slightly awkward question? When the directors prepare for a client review now, what do they actually do?
- Saskia Mendes NoneHonestly? They ask someone on my team to pull the vacancies and the placements, they check the finance system for invoices, and they ring the consultant to ask whether there have been any complaints. So it's a morning's work, split across three or four people.
- Daniel Okafor NoneRight, and that's the thing the brain was meant to take away. So the habit hasn't moved, even though the tool is there.
- Saskia Mendes NoneCorrect. And I don't think it's that they don't like it. I think they don't think of it. It's not where their hand goes first.
- Daniel Okafor NoneThat's a useful way to put it. So it's less a product problem and more a where-does-the-hand-go problem.
- Saskia Mendes NoneYes. Although, can I be fair to the product as well? Let me ask you this. Is there anything on your side that would make it easier? Can we make it simpler for them? Because some of them said the question box is a bit of a blank page. They don't know what to ask.
- Daniel Okafor NoneThat's a good point and I've heard it from other teams too. The blank page. Right, so a couple of things we could do. One is a short session with the directors, not a training day, more twenty minutes before a review, where we run a real client through it together. And the other is we put together a handful of saved questions that match how they already prepare, so there's something to click on rather than something to invent.
- Saskia Mendes NoneI like the second one a lot. What would those look like?
- Daniel Okafor NoneSomething like, what's open for this client, what's been placed in the last few months, what's been invoiced and is anything disputed, and has there been a complaint. Basically the four things your directors told us they wanted when you first bought it. I'd draft them from what's already in your connected systems and send them to you to change before anyone else sees them.
- Saskia Mendes NoneYes, send me those. But I'll want to word them the way the directors talk, not the way a data person would. What did the client actually say, that kind of thing.
- Daniel Okafor NoneAbsolutely. That's your phrase and it's a good one, so we'll use it. I'll come back to you by Wednesday with a first draft.
- Saskia Mendes NoneWednesday's good. And then I'll take it to the directors' meeting, which is the week after, and I'll make them look at it. Right in front of me.
- Daniel Okafor NoneLovely. Could I join that for ten minutes, if you think it would help? Not to sell anything, just to answer questions and to watch what they do with it.
- Saskia Mendes NoneMaybe. Let me see how the agenda looks. Some of them get nervous when a supplier turns up, and I'd rather they were honest. But I'll tell you by the end of next week.
- Daniel Okafor NoneOf course, whatever feels right to you. Now, while I've got the numbers up, a couple of other things. There have been no support tickets in the last month, none at all, and nothing on the priority side. I'd like to take that as good news, but I always check it isn't silence.
- Saskia Mendes NoneIt's a bit of both, if I'm honest. Nothing's broken. But people who aren't using it don't raise tickets, do they?
- Daniel Okafor NoneExactly, that's the point I was making to myself. So I'm reading the quiet alongside the usage rather than on its own. Connectors are all loading, the nightly refresh has been on time, so the data is fresh when they do come in. It's not that the thing is stale. It's that fewer people are walking in the door.
- Saskia Mendes NoneGood, that's helpful, because if it was stale I'd have a very different conversation with the directors. Fresh but under-used I can work with.
- Daniel Okafor NoneAgreed. And on the finance side, just to close the loop, the invoice for this year is paid, nothing outstanding, and the contracted figure and what we've invoiced match at forty-one thousand eight hundred pounds a year. So there's nothing to untangle there.
- Saskia Mendes NoneRight, good. Our finance team would have told me if there was a problem. They're not shy.
- Daniel Okafor NoneI'm sure they're not. Which brings me to the thing I'd rather mention now, gently, so it isn't a surprise. The contract runs to 2 Jul 2025, with renewal on 3 Jul 2025. So we're about six months out. I'm not going to ask you for anything today, but I want us to be in a position, come the spring, where you can say with a straight face that the directors use it and it's earning its keep.
- Saskia Mendes NoneThat's fair. And I'd rather have that conversation than have someone in finance ask me in June what we're paying forty-odd thousand a year for.
- Daniel Okafor NoneThat's exactly the question I want us to have an answer to. So what would an answer look like, to you? If we were sitting here in the spring, what would you want to be able to point at?
- Saskia Mendes NoneEasy. Most of the directors using it before a review, without me nagging. And at least a couple of stories where it caught something early, a dispute or a complaint, so I can put a face to it. And, if I'm greedy, less of my team's time spent pulling the same four things for every review.
- Daniel Okafor NoneGood. Those are things we can actually look at. Let me write those down as the three things, so we're measuring the same thing. Directors using it unprompted, a few real catches, and less manual preparation time.
- Saskia Mendes NoneYes. And if the usage number turns round, I want you to tell me even if it's a small turn.
- Daniel Okafor NoneI will. I'll look at it every month and send you a line, nothing elaborate. And if it doesn't turn, I'll tell you that too.
- Saskia Mendes NoneGood. That's what I like about working with you. You don't dress it up.
- Daniel Okafor NoneThank you, that's kind. Can I ask about something different? You mentioned the contractor-invoice disputes. Is that still the thing that keeps coming up, or has something else taken its place?
- Saskia Mendes NoneStill coming up. It's less the disputes themselves and more catching them early. A contractor's timesheet doesn't match what the client approved, the invoice goes out, three weeks later there's a phone call. If we can see the mismatch while it's still small, that saves everybody a bad afternoon.
- Daniel Okafor NoneRight. And is that something the directors see, or does it stay with your team?
- Saskia Mendes NoneMostly stays with us. The directors only find out when it's a problem. Which is probably a mistake. Maybe one of the saved questions should be about that, so they see it before the client does.
- Daniel Okafor NoneI think that's a very good idea, and it fits what the brain does well, because it's the invoices and the placements and the complaints sitting together. I'll add that to the draft as a fifth one, and you can tell me if it belongs.
- Saskia Mendes NoneDo. Though, hold on, can I ask you something? On the seats. We've got forty. If we only end up with, say, a dozen regular users, are we paying for something we don't need?
- Daniel Okafor NoneIt's a fair question and I'd rather you asked it. Let me be careful here. The forty is what's in your order form, it's part of how Growth is set up, and I wouldn't want to guess on the commercial side from my chair. That's really a conversation for Priya, who looks after the account on the commercial side. What I can say is that I'd much prefer to see the usage come up so the question answers itself.
- Saskia Mendes NoneFine, that's an honest answer. I'm not asking to cut anything, I'm just trying to be straight with myself about what we've got.
- Daniel Okafor NoneI understand completely. And I'll make sure Priya knows we've had this conversation, so you're not repeating yourself later.
- Saskia Mendes NoneThanks. Okay. What else have you got? I've got about ten minutes before my next one.
- Daniel Okafor NonePlenty of time. A couple of quick ones. First, the people side. Is everybody who was involved when we set this up still around? I'm thinking of the folks in your team who did the early testing.
- Saskia Mendes NoneEveryone's still here. One of my team is on leave for a few weeks in the new year, but she's back. Nobody's left. Well, one of the directors moved to a different desk, but that's all.
- Daniel Okafor NoneGood, that's important to me. When people leave, usage tends to leave with them. Second one, is there anything in the systems that's changed or is about to? New finance system, a new way of logging complaints, anything like that?
- Saskia Mendes NoneNot that I know of. There's talk of tidying up how complaints are logged, because at the moment it's a bit free-text, but nothing's been decided. If it happens I'll tell you before it does, so it doesn't break anything on your side.
- Daniel Okafor NoneThank you, I'd really appreciate that, because a change in how something is recorded is the usual reason a connector goes quiet. And if you do tidy it up, it might actually make the questions better.
- Saskia Mendes NoneThat's the idea, yes. Right, so say it back to me, because I'm already forgetting. What's happening?
- Daniel Okafor NoneOf course. So, I send you a first draft of the saved questions by Wednesday, five of them, including the early-warning one on invoices. You reword them how your directors would say it. You take them to the directors' meeting and tell me by the end of next week whether it would help for me to join for ten minutes.
- Saskia Mendes NoneYes. And you'll send me a line each month on usage.
- Daniel Okafor NoneI will. And I'll let Priya know about the seats question, and that the renewal is on both our minds, so nothing lands cold. When we get closer, I'll write to you formally ahead of the renewal, with plenty of notice.
- Saskia Mendes NoneGood. I'd like to go into that conversation with some wins. Right, small thing, can I send you a couple of client names that the directors care most about, so the examples you build are real ones?
- Daniel Okafor NoneYes please, that would make it much better than anything generic. Send me whatever you're comfortable with, and keep it to the clients you'd actually want to discuss in a review. I'll be careful with them.
- Saskia Mendes NoneI'll do that this afternoon. Actually, is there a worry here, Daniel? Be honest. Is this the kind of thing where, if the numbers don't pick up, it gets awkward in July?
- Daniel Okafor NoneI'd say it's something to look after rather than something to worry about. A fifth down over a quarter with the holidays in it is not a pattern yet. But if it were still going the same way in the spring, then yes, we'd both feel it. Which is why I'd rather start now. And I'd say you've done the hardest part already, which is you know exactly what the problem is and you're not pretending.
- Saskia Mendes NoneHm. Okay. That's reassuring, in a not-very-reassuring way.
- Daniel Okafor NoneHa, fair enough. I'd say it's honest, which I think is what you prefer.
- Saskia Mendes NoneIt is. Right. Anything else from you?
- Daniel Okafor NoneOnly one last thing, and it's more of a question. How is the team finding it, day to day? Not the directors, your own people. Is there anything that irritates them? Because sometimes the small things get in the way more than the big ones.
- Saskia Mendes NoneSmall things. They'd like the results to link straight to the record in our own system, so they can click through and not have to search again. And one of them said the answers can be a bit long, she'd like the short version first.
- Daniel Okafor NoneThat's really useful. The short answer first is something I can take back to the team as feedback. On the linking, let me check how that's set up for you and come back to you on it, because I don't want to promise something before I've looked.
- Saskia Mendes NoneSure, no rush. It's more of a nice to have than a blocker.
- Daniel Okafor NoneUnderstood. I'll put it on my list anyway. Anything you want to raise that we haven't covered?
- Saskia Mendes NoneI don't think so. Oh, one thing. If a new starter joins the directors, how do they get going? I've got someone starting in a few weeks and I don't want to be the one doing the whole walkthrough.
- Daniel Okafor NoneOf course. There's a short introduction we can run for new people, and I'm happy to do it with them live, twenty minutes or so. Just let me know when they've started and I'll find a slot. And that's a good moment to catch them, honestly, before they build their own habits.
- Saskia Mendes NoneBrilliant. I'll tell you as soon as they've got a start date confirmed.
- Daniel Okafor NonePerfect. Then I think we're in good shape. Just to close the loop on the whole thing, nothing's wrong with the service, the money is straightforward, usage has dipped and we've agreed how we're going to try and turn it. Fair summary?
- Saskia Mendes NoneFair summary. And thank you for not sugaring it. The directors need this, they just don't know it yet.
- Daniel Okafor NoneHa, I'll take that as the tagline. Well, thank you for your time, Saskia, I know you've got your next one coming up. I'll write up the notes this afternoon and you'll have the draft questions on Wednesday.
- Saskia Mendes NoneLovely. Right, I'm going to go and see if the heating has finally got us above sensible. Speak soon, Daniel.
- Daniel Okafor NoneSpeak soon. Stay warm, and have a good weekend.
- Saskia Mendes NoneYou too. Bye for now.
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