Etowah Lane Equipment Rental / BB-Demo – Proposal
Callcompleted
Etowah Lane Equipment Rental · 2026-09-15 14:45
Proposal call with the CFO and VP National Accounts. The CFO wants a three-year side by side against Signalvane and a held year-two subscription price. She will not sign before security and procurement close.
What was said
What this says
Current to 13 Oct 26Proposal call with the CFO and VP National Accounts. The CFO wants a three-year side by side against Signalvane and a held year-two subscription price. She will not sign before security and procurement close.
What happened: Jordan Pike walked through the Enterprise proposal at £155k, stating it includes the one-off implementation fee and is not an annual price. No decision was asked for.
Customer view: Laura Kessler questions what the brain adds to the group-wide analytics suite already paid for, and says a board will ask why a vendor is being added. DeShawn Mitchell backs the value case from the branch counter.
Commercial: Laura asked for the subscription to be held in year two, or an explanation. Jordan could not commit and will take it to the team. A target close of Friday 4 December 2026 was given as a forecast, not a promise.
Watch: Security review is not finished and procurement has not seen the proposal. Laura said she never decides on a call.
Themes
Current to 9 Oct 26Theme
Enterprise proposal price hold
Importance
renewal
Sentiment
mixed
Voice
decision-maker
Who was there
BB-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
Current to 9 Oct 26- Jordan Pike to send a side by side comparison with three-year cost once the customer sends its suite cost.
- Jordan Pike to take the year-two price hold request to the BB-Demo team and reply in writing.
- Laura Kessler to forward the proposal to procurement; DeShawn Mitchell to gather facts on manual weekly work.
Risks
Current to 9 Oct 26- The CFO sees the brain as an added vendor cost and may not accept it unless it replaces spend on the analytics suite.
- A year-two price hold is a commercial term Jordan could not commit to on the call.
- Security review and procurement are open, so the 4 Dec 2026 target may move.
Opportunities
Current to 9 Oct 26- Enterprise tier with company-wide use, SSO and an executive sponsor, backed by a VP who supports the branch-level value case.
- Time saved on hand-built reconciliation reports could support the value case if the national accounts team documents it.
Transcript
Jordan Pike NoneHi Laura, hi DeShawn. Can you both hear me okay?
DeShawn Mitchell NoneLoud and clear, Jordan. Hey.
Laura Kessler NoneYes, I can hear you. Good afternoon.- Jordan Pike NoneGreat, thanks for making the time. Here's the agenda in one line: I walk you through the proposal, we set the brain next to what you already pay for, and we agree what happens next. We have thirty-six minutes, so I'll keep an eye on the clock. Sound okay?
- Laura Kessler NoneBefore we start, what decision do you need from me today?
- Jordan Pike NoneNone, to be transparent. I'm not asking you to decide anything on this call. I want you to see the proposal clearly and tell me where it doesn't hold up.
- Laura Kessler NoneGood. That's the right way round.
- DeShawn Mitchell NoneCan I start with something quick? I was at one of our branches last week, out at the yard, and a contractor walks up to the counter. Big national account, rents from us all over the region. The branch manager is nice to him, gives him the machines, totally friendly. Meanwhile credit has had that same contractor on a hold for two weeks. Nobody at the counter knew.
- Laura Kessler NoneI remember that one. It was in the credit report.
- DeShawn Mitchell NoneRight, it showed up in a report. After the fact. That's my whole point, Laura. Show me the account, not the dashboard. What does the branch see at the moment the contractor walks in?
- Laura Kessler NoneI understand the story. I also understand that we already pay for a group-wide analytics suite, so I want to be careful about what problem we are solving.
- Jordan Pike NoneThat's fair, and it's exactly where I want to spend the time. Let me share my screen first so we're all looking at the same page. Give me a second.
- DeShawn Mitchell NoneTake your time. Let's keep this moving, but take your time.
- Jordan Pike NoneOkay, you should see the proposal summary now. Can you see it?
- Laura Kessler NoneYes.
- Jordan Pike NoneSo the scope is the Enterprise tier. That means company-wide use, single sign-on and user provisioning, an executive sponsor on our side, and the connectors to your CRM, your helpdesk, your call recorder, your mailboxes and your accounting system. The brain runs inside your own Snowflake account, so your data does not leave your environment. That matters for your security team, and I'll come back to it.
- Laura Kessler NoneIs security review part of this proposal, or separate?
- Jordan Pike NoneIt's part of the Enterprise implementation. We support your security team through the questionnaire and the architecture review. To be transparent, it's not finished. Your team has the documents and we are waiting on their questions. I'm not going to tell you it's done when it isn't.
- Laura Kessler NoneGood. I won't sign anything before security and procurement are complete. I'd like that to be clear from the start.
- Jordan Pike NoneUnderstood, and that's already how we've planned it. The order form only goes to you after both of those are closed.
- DeShawn Mitchell NoneAnd my team is ready for the review. Whatever they need, they'll turn it around.
- Jordan Pike NoneAppreciate that, DeShawn. Okay, the money. The deal amount in the proposal is £155,000. I want to be careful how I say this, because that is the total value, and it includes the one-off implementation fee. It is not an annual price. The subscription is the recurring part, and the implementation is a fixed fee that happens once.
- Laura Kessler NoneSo the one fifty-five is everything, in the first year, implementation included.
- Jordan Pike NoneThat's how to read it, yes. It's the all-in figure for the deal as proposed. The following years are the subscription only, without the implementation.
- Laura Kessler NoneThen I need the three-year cost. Not the first year. What does this cost us over three years, with nothing hidden?
- Jordan Pike NoneAbsolutely. I'll put a three-year view in writing, so you have it line by line. I'd rather you see it on paper than take it from me on a call.
- Laura Kessler NoneThank you. Now, the question I keep coming back to. What does this do that we don't already pay for?
- Jordan Pike NoneRight. Here's where we are, and I'll be straight about it. Signalvane is strong at what it was built for: reporting across the group on structured numbers. Revenue, utilisation, branch performance. I'm not going to tell you to replace it, and I wouldn't want to.
- DeShawn Mitchell NoneYeah, and let me say, the suite does its job. Nobody here is trying to run it down.
- Jordan Pike NoneThanks, DeShawn. So the difference is in what a person can ask. The brain sits over the structured data and the unstructured material together: the calls with the contractor, the emails, the support tickets, the notes in the CRM, the finance records. And people ask it questions in plain language. So the branch manager can ask what's going on with this contractor before the machines go out.
- Laura Kessler NoneCan the analytics suite not do that if we connect the same sources?
- Jordan Pike NoneIn part, yes. If your team builds the reports and keeps the models up to date, the suite will show you a lot of it. What it won't do out of the box is answer a new question nobody built a report for, and read a call transcript or a ticket thread next to a payment record. That's the gap I'd point to. But you know the suite better than I do, so tell me if I've got it wrong.
- Laura Kessler NoneI don't think you have it wrong. I think it's narrower than you would like it to be. My finance team would say the reports we have are adequate.
- DeShawn Mitchell NoneAdequate for finance, Laura. Not for the people at the counter. What does the branch see? That's the test.
- Laura Kessler NoneI take the point, DeShawn. I'm not saying there's no value. I'm saying I have to explain it to a board that asks why we are adding a vendor, not removing one.
- Jordan Pike NoneThat's a real concern, and I won't argue with it. What would make this a yes for you? Not today, I mean generally. What would you need to see?
- Laura Kessler NoneA side by side. What we pay for the suite, what we would pay for you, and what each one does for the national accounts and credit teams. Send me the comparison, with the three-year cost on both sides.
- Jordan Pike NoneI can do that. I'll need the suite side from you or from your team, because I don't know your contract and I'm not going to guess at it. I'll build our side, and we put the two next to each other.
- Laura Kessler NoneI can have someone send you what we pay. Not the contract itself, just the cost.
- Jordan Pike NoneThat works. The cost is enough.
- DeShawn Mitchell NoneAnd I'd like to put the credit losses in that comparison. That's the number the leadership team cares about. If the branch sees the hold, we don't lose that rental.
- Laura Kessler NoneCredit losses on contractor accounts are my concern too. But I would want to see it from our own history, not from a brochure.
- Jordan Pike NoneAgreed. That's what the demo on your own data was for, and it's what I'd suggest we repeat with the credit team in the room. The numbers should be yours, not ours.
- Laura Kessler NoneMm. Let me ask about the term. If we do this, what are we committing to?
- Jordan Pike NoneThe subscription is annual, billed in advance, with thirty-day payment terms. Quarterly billing is possible if you ask for it. The implementation fee is a single fixed amount, and there's a delivery commitment for the connectors that go into the order form.
- Laura Kessler NoneAnd the implementation takes how long?
- Jordan Pike NoneFor Enterprise it's a few months, with the security review support inside it. I'll put the exact plan in the follow-up so I don't give you a loose answer here.
- Laura Kessler NoneFine. Now I want to raise the point I really came to raise.
- Jordan Pike NoneGo ahead.
- Laura Kessler NoneI'm looking at what we pay for Signalvane and I'm looking at what you propose, and I don't love the comparison. If I'm asked to add a vendor, I want certainty on cost. So I'd like the price held for a second year. Whatever the subscription is in the first year, it is the same in the second.
- Jordan Pike NoneOkay. I appreciate you saying it plainly. Let me make sure I have it right. You want the subscription fee in year two to match year one, no uplift.
- Laura Kessler NoneCorrect. That, or an explanation of why not.
- Jordan Pike NoneTo be transparent, I can't commit to that on this call. It's a commercial term, it would need to be written into the order form, and I'd have to take it to our team and come back to you with a real answer. What I can tell you is that I understand why you're asking, and I'll make the case.
- Laura Kessler NoneThat's an honest answer. I'd prefer that to a yes I can't rely on.
- DeShawn Mitchell NoneJordan, from my side, that's a reasonable ask for a company this size. I'd back it.
- Laura Kessler NoneDeShawn, you don't hold the budget. I do. But thank you.
- DeShawn Mitchell NoneFair enough. I know where the line is.
- Jordan Pike NoneCan I ask one question back, Laura? If the second year is held, does that change how you see the comparison? Or is there something else underneath it?
- Laura Kessler NoneIt changes the three-year number, so yes, it matters. Underneath it, the question is still whether it replaces any cost. If it only adds, the answer is harder.
- Jordan Pike NoneUnderstood. I'll say this plainly: I don't expect it to replace the analytics suite, and I won't build the comparison as though it does. If there are reports your team runs by hand today to reconcile the CRM and the accounting records, that's where the time saving would sit. I'd want your team to tell us how much of that is real.
- Laura Kessler NoneThere is some of that. I couldn't put a figure on it right now.
- DeShawn Mitchell NoneI can get the national accounts managers to write down what they do by hand every week. It's probably longer than anybody thinks.
- Laura Kessler NoneDo that, but keep it factual. I don't want a wish list.
- DeShawn Mitchell NoneFacts only. Understood.
- Jordan Pike NoneThat would help a lot. So let me read back what I'm taking away. One: a side by side comparison of the suite and the brain, with three-year cost on both sides. Two: your team sends me what you pay for the suite. Three: a written view of the second-year price, which I take to our team. Four: the security review continues in parallel. Did I miss anything?
- Laura Kessler NoneProcurement. They haven't seen the proposal yet.
- Jordan Pike NoneGood catch. Who should I send it to, or would you rather forward it yourself?
- Laura Kessler NoneI'll forward it. I'd like to see it first and decide what they need.
- Jordan Pike NonePerfect. Then procurement is step five, and it comes through you.
- DeShawn Mitchell NoneWhat's the timing on all this? I want to keep it moving but I don't want to push Laura.
- Jordan Pike NoneOur working target is the close on Friday 4 December 2026. That's the date on my forecast, and I'd rather tell you it's a target than a promise. If the security review or procurement take longer, the date moves, and that's okay.
- Laura Kessler NoneThat date is plausible if the comparison is convincing. If it isn't, it isn't.
- Jordan Pike NoneUnderstood. I'd rather lose the date than push you into a decision.
- Laura Kessler NoneGood. I never decide on a call, by the way. I think about it afterwards.
- DeShawn Mitchell NoneShe really doesn't. I've tried.
- Laura Kessler NoneThen you know.
- Jordan Pike NoneOkay. I'll send the comparison and the three-year view as soon as your team has sent the suite cost, and I'll come back to you separately on the second-year price. Anything else for today?
- Laura Kessler NoneNo. That's what I needed. Thank you, Jordan.
- DeShawn Mitchell NoneNothing from me. Thanks, Jordan. Let's keep this moving.
- Jordan Pike NoneThanks, everyone. Speak soon.
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