Delancey Haig / BB-Demo – Check In
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Delancey Haig: documents · 2025-12-29 14:45
Saskia Mendes admitted active use is down about a quarter, with nine people a day on 40 licences. Directors have gone back to spreadsheets after an invoice mismatch. She expects finance to ask what the £44,000 buys at the July renewal.
What was said
What this says
Current to 11 Oct 26Saskia Mendes admitted active use is down about a quarter, with nine people a day on 40 licences. Directors have gone back to spreadsheets after an invoice mismatch. She expects finance to ask what the £44,000 buys at the July renewal.
What happened: Daniel Okafor opened with usage. Saskia agreed the dip began before the holidays and named two causes: fewer client reviews, and directors reverting to spreadsheets.
Customer view: One invoice mismatch, which she thinks was refresh timing, damaged trust. No tickets in the last month, because people shrug rather than raise them. She still believes in the product, but says belief is not adoption.
Commercial: Saskia said the Growth subscription costs £44,000 a year and that finance will ask what directors got for it. Daniel declined to discuss renewal terms and offered a short value case instead.
Watch: A few people, Saskia included, do most of the asking, which is a key-person risk. The evidence does not show whether the invoice mismatch was timing or a fault.
Themes
Current to 9 Oct 26Theme
Falling usage, value case
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 check whether the invoice mismatch was refresh timing and report back early the following week.
- Daniel to check what the brain sees on complaints and send a breakdown of who is asking questions.
- Daniel to draft a one-page client brief with Saskia, while she collects examples where it helped.
Risks
Current to 9 Oct 26- Active users are about a quarter down, with directors back on their own spreadsheets after an invoice mismatch.
- Finance is expected to question the cost at the July renewal, with no value case yet.
- A small group, including Saskia, does most of the asking.
Opportunities
Current to 9 Oct 26- A standing one-page brief per client before reviews could make the brain the first thing directors see.
- Documented review wins and caught contractor-invoice disputes could form a short value case.
Transcript
Daniel Okafor NoneHello Saskia, thanks so much for making the time. Can you hear me alright?
Saskia Mendes NoneLoud and clear. Can you hear me? I'm in the office and it's practically empty, so if there's an echo, that's why.- Daniel Okafor NoneA tiny bit, but it's fine. Just you on your side this afternoon, I think?
- Saskia Mendes NoneJust me. Everyone's either away or pretending to be. Story of my week, actually: I came in on Monday last week expecting a quiet one and the only other person on the floor was the cleaner, who asked me if I'd lost my keys.
- Daniel Okafor NoneHa. Well, I'm grateful you're here then. Thank you for your time, especially at this point in the year.
- Saskia Mendes NoneNo, it's good. I'd rather do it now than have it hanging over January.
- Daniel Okafor NoneGood. So, just to close the loop on why I asked for the call. I was looking at the usage for Delancey Haig before the year ends, and I wanted to hear from you how the team is finding it, rather than just read numbers off a page.
- Saskia Mendes NoneRight. Yes. I saw your note. And I'll be straight with you, because I've looked at the numbers as well and I'm not going to pretend they're better than they are.
- Daniel Okafor NoneI appreciate that. That's really what I was hoping for.
- Saskia Mendes NoneActive people are down. It's about a quarter down on the last quarter, isn't it? Is that what you've got?
- Daniel Okafor NoneThat's about right. Over the last month it's averaging nine or so people a day, and a quarter ago it was noticeably higher. And you've got forty licensed users on the Growth plan, so, well.
- Saskia Mendes NoneSo nine out of forty. Yeah. That's not what we bought it for.
- Daniel Okafor NoneI wouldn't put it quite like that, but I do want to understand it. Some of it will be the time of year, surely.
- Saskia Mendes NoneSome, definitely. The directors are mostly off until the new year, and the ones who aren't are doing the bare minimum. But I don't want to hide behind the holiday. The dip started before that. I'd be fooling myself.
- Daniel Okafor NoneWhat have you seen?
- Saskia Mendes NoneSo my usual question is, what did the client actually say, so I went and asked a few of the directors properly, not in a meeting, just a quick chat each. And it comes down to two things really. One, a couple of them said the moment they used to open the brain was when they were prepping for a client review, and the reviews have moved around. There were fewer in the autumn than they expected.
- Daniel Okafor NoneMm. That makes sense. And the second?
- Saskia Mendes NoneThe second one is the one I don't love. A few of them have gone back to their own spreadsheets. Because that's what they trust when a client is on the phone and asking about a placement or an invoice.
- Daniel Okafor NoneRight. Do they say why they trust the spreadsheet more?
- Saskia Mendes NonePartly habit, honestly. Partly there was an occasion, maybe two, where what the brain showed for invoices didn't line up with what our finance team had, and the director got caught out in the conversation. And once is enough, with a director. Once is enough.
- Daniel Okafor NoneYes. I can see that. Do you remember roughly when that was, or which part of the data it touched?
- Saskia Mendes NoneIt was a while back, a few months. And please don't make me name the client. It turned out to be a timing thing, I think. Finance had raised a credit after the nightly refresh had run, so the brain was a day behind. But the story went round, you know how it is.
- Daniel Okafor NoneI do. And it's helpful that you've told me, because I'd like to go and check it properly rather than guess. I'll come back to you on whether that was timing, or something in how the invoices were coming through.
- Saskia Mendes NoneThat would be great. Because if it was timing, I can say that to the directors and it's a very different message.
- Daniel Okafor NoneAbsolutely. Can I raise something else? We haven't had a ticket from you in the last month. Not one. And I read that in two ways. Either it's all running smoothly, or people have stopped bothering to tell us.
- Saskia Mendes NoneStopped bothering, mostly. Which, fair, is worse than complaining.
- Daniel Okafor NoneIt is, a bit. I would honestly rather have the complaint. A complaint I can fix.
- Saskia Mendes NoneI know. I know. I'll tell them to complain. Loudly. Can we make that simpler, though? Because I think one reason they don't is that it feels like a form and a process for something small.
- Daniel Okafor NoneThat's a fair challenge. Tell me a bit more about what small looks like. What would they have raised, if they'd raised something?
- Saskia Mendes NoneThings like, this number doesn't match what I've got, or, I asked it about a client and the answer felt thin. Not a broken system. More like a shrug. And a shrug isn't a ticket.
- Daniel Okafor NoneNo, that's well put. A shrug isn't a ticket. And that's actually the more worrying kind for me, because it's invisible to us.
- Saskia Mendes NoneYeah.
- Daniel Okafor NoneLet me ask you about the data underneath, then. The brain is meant to bring vacancies, placements, invoices and complaints together for each client. Is that still the picture the directors expect, or have things changed on your side? New systems, people moving things around?
- Saskia Mendes NoneNothing's been replaced, as far as I know. The complaints side is the weakest, to be honest. People log things in different places, an email here, a note there, so it's patchy whatever we do. That's our problem as much as yours.
- Daniel Okafor NoneUnderstood. Well, I can look at what's coming through on the complaints side and tell you what the brain can see, so you know what's missing from its end and what's missing from the source.
- Saskia Mendes NonePlease. That's the sort of thing I can actually do something with.
- Daniel Okafor NoneGood. Now, how about who's asking questions? When I look at it, it's a fairly small group doing most of it. Does that match what you'd expect?
- Saskia Mendes NoneWell, I'm in there a lot, obviously. Probably more than anyone. And two of the directors who got it early. Then it's a long tail of people who tried it, liked it and drifted.
- Daniel Okafor NoneThat's what the numbers say too. And I'll say it gently: it does mean that if you were away for a few weeks, we'd feel it. I don't want the whole thing resting on you.
- Saskia Mendes NoneHa, no, I hear you. I'm not going anywhere. But yes. It shouldn't be me.
- Daniel Okafor NoneSo what would help? If I could change one thing for the directors in the new year, what would it be?
- Saskia Mendes NoneHonestly? Make it the first thing they see before a client review. Not a thing they have to remember to go and open. If a director has a review on Thursday, they should get the one page with the facts. Vacancies, what we've placed, what's been invoiced, what's been complained about. The directors need this. They just need it to turn up.
- Daniel Okafor NoneRight. So less pull, more push. I think we can do something with that. There's a way of setting up a standing page for each client that they can open with one click, and we could look at how it gets in front of them.
- Saskia Mendes NoneDo the directors have to build that, or can you?
- Daniel Okafor NoneI'd do the first one with you, so you can see what good looks like, and then the rest is copying it. I wouldn't ask them to build anything.
- Saskia Mendes NoneGood. Because they won't. Not in January, anyway.
- Daniel Okafor NoneNo. Fair. Can I ask, just so I'm honest with you about where things stand: has anyone above you asked what it's worth? Since the numbers dipped?
- Saskia Mendes NoneNot yet. But they will. We pay forty-four thousand a year, and the renewal's in July. Someone in finance will put it on a list, and the first thing they'll ask is what the directors got for it. And the answer can't be nine people.
- Daniel Okafor NoneNo. It shouldn't be. And just to be clear, I'm not here to talk about renewal. It's some way off, and we'll come to the detail nearer the time. But I would much rather we had the value case in good shape well before then than be scrambling in the spring.
- Saskia Mendes NoneSame. So what does a value case look like? Because I don't want a glossy deck. I want something I can put in front of a director and they go, oh, right, that's what it did.
- Daniel Okafor NoneI think it's a handful of real moments, honestly. A review where someone walked in with the facts. A dispute caught early. And then the numbers behind it, so questions asked, by whom, on which clients. Not a deck. A page or two.
- Saskia Mendes NoneContractor-invoice disputes are the big one for me. If one of those gets caught early, that's real money and real goodwill. Did we catch any this year? I genuinely don't know.
- Daniel Okafor NoneI don't know either, and that's something I'd want to look at with you rather than assert. Maybe you can think about the ones you remember, and I'll see what the questions history shows.
- Saskia Mendes NoneOkay. I can do that. I'll ask two or three of the directors for the review where it actually helped. If there's one.
- Daniel Okafor NoneIf there's one is fine. Even one is a start. And if there isn't, then that tells us something too and we deal with it.
- Saskia Mendes NoneI like that you said that. Most suppliers would say, oh, there'll be loads.
- Daniel Okafor NoneWell, I'd be guessing, and I'd rather not. Right. Let me say back what I think we've agreed, and you tell me if I've got it wrong.
- Saskia Mendes NoneGo on.
- Daniel Okafor NoneFirst, I'll look into that invoice mismatch and tell you whether it was the refresh timing or something else, so you've got a straight answer for the directors. Second, I'll check what the brain can see on the complaints side and what's missing at source. Third, I'll send you a breakdown of who's asking questions and about which clients, so we're looking at the same picture. And fourth, I'll draft that one page per client, starting with one you pick, so we can try it on a real review.
- Saskia Mendes NoneThat's more than I expected. Good. And I'll go back to the directors, get the examples of where it helped, and tell them to raise things instead of shrugging.
- Daniel Okafor NonePerfect. And early next week I'll come back to you with the first of those, the invoice question, because that's the one with the sting in it.
- Saskia Mendes NoneDon't kill yourself over it. It's a quiet week. Early next week is fine.
- Daniel Okafor NoneThank you, that's kind. And before we go, how are you finding it yourself? You're the person who brought it in, so I do want to ask how you are with it.
- Saskia Mendes NoneStill believe in it. I really do. When I use it on a client I know, it's quick and it's right and I think, why isn't everyone doing this? But belief isn't adoption, is it. So I need to earn it back with the directors, and I'd like you alongside me.
- Daniel Okafor NoneI'll be alongside you. That's the job. Maybe in January we find an hour with the directors who are using it least, and I just ask them what would make them open it. No sales, just listening.
- Saskia Mendes NoneYes. Do that. I'll set it up once people are back. Right, I should let you go, and I've got a pile of things on my desk that nobody else is going to touch.
- Daniel Okafor NoneOf course. Thank you again, Saskia, and have a lovely few days off if you get any. I'll be in touch early next week.
- Saskia Mendes NoneThanks Daniel. You too. Best, bye for now.
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