Brackwell Freight Ltd / BG-Demo – Check In
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Brackwell Freight Ltd · 4 Feb 2026 16:15
On 4 Feb 2026 Liam Doherty said £44k for forty seats with eight in use will be questioned by his finance director. Usage is flat and he asks most questions. Marcus Bell will write a value note.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026On 4 Feb 2026 Liam Doherty said £44k for forty seats with eight in use will be questioned by his finance director. Usage is flat and he asks most questions. Marcus Bell will write a value note.
What happened: Marcus Bell reported about eight and a half active users on forty Growth licences, flat on the previous quarter. Liam Doherty confirmed a big share of questions come from his own login and the other analyst would not carry on without him.
Customer view: Only two of the six depots use the brain regularly. Liam wants short, remote, grouped sessions and a concrete example of value, not usage graphs.
Commercial: Liam said his finance director will look at the seat count. Price and contract terms were passed to Tom, and on-site training would be an add-on.
Watch: The data is current and there were no tickets in the last month, so the risk is value and key-person, not service. The evidence does not show whether usage improved before the 1 Dec 2026 renewal.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Seat value and depot adoption
Importance
renewal
Sentiment
mixed
Voice
champion
Who was there
BG-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Marcus Bell to send a value note on the retail example and a usage summary by the end of that week.
- Liam Doherty to send depot manager names and a starting depot by the end of that week.
- Marcus Bell to run a session with the two analysts, then grouped remote depot sessions.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Liam Doherty expects his finance director to question £44,000 for forty seats with about eight in use.
- Value sits on Liam's login, and only one of the two analysts would keep asking without him.
- Only two of the six depots use the brain regularly, so adoption is thin before the 1 Dec 2026 renewal.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Headroom in the forty licences lets depot managers join without changing the contract.
- The Growth dashboards builder lets the analysts build per-depot views they will own.
- An on-site training day is an add-on if Liam wants Marcus Bell at the depots.
Transcript
Marcus BellHello Liam, can you hear me all right?
Liam DohertyLoud and clear. Can you hear me? I've got the headset on today, the laptop speakers were doing that echo thing.- Marcus BellYeah, you're good. Afternoon. Bit of a late slot, sorry, it was the only gap I had with the diary the way it is.
- Liam DohertyNo, no, it's fine. Quarter past four, I was only going to be sat looking at a spreadsheet anyway. How's Manchester? Still raining?
- Marcus BellAlways. It stopped for about ten minutes at lunch and I got a sandwich, so I can't complain. You're at Trafford Park?
- Liam DohertyYeah, in the office today. The lorries are queueing out the gate because somebody's late with a load, so it's a noisy afternoon. If you hear a reversing beeper, that's just life.
- Marcus BellHa, fine by me. Right, I'll share my screen and say what I wanted to cover, and you tell me if there's anything you want to add. Can you see it? It's the usage report.
- Liam DohertyYep, I can see it. Bit small but I can see it.
- Marcus BellI'll make it bigger. So, three things really. First, I've pulled the numbers for the last month or so, who's using the brain and what they're asking. Second, I want to hear how the depots are getting on, because I know that was the plan. And third, just a heads up on the renewal timetable, nothing to decide today.
- Liam DohertyLove that. Go on then, hit me with the numbers. I'm braced.
- Marcus BellNo need to brace, it's not bad. So you've got forty licensed users on Growth. Over the last thirty days the average number of people active is about eight and a half. And that's pretty much flat on the previous quarter, down a hair, nothing you'd call a trend.
- Liam DohertyRight. Yeah. So forty seats and eight or nine people actually in there. I know. I've been looking at that number in my own head for a while.
- Marcus BellI'm not saying it as a criticism. It's steady, and the people who are in there are in there properly. But it does leave a lot of headroom, and I'd rather talk about that now than at renewal.
- Liam DohertyFair. So who's the eight? It's me, it's the two analysts in rev ops, finance, a couple of the account managers from the bigger depots, and then it's sort of whoever dips in when there's a retail customer shouting.
- Marcus BellThat matches what I see. And can I ask something a bit awkward? Looking at questions asked, a big share of them come from your login.
- Liam DohertyYeah. Yeah, that'd be me. I'm the one who actually likes it. Is that a problem?
- Marcus BellNot a problem as such. It's just that if one person asks most of the questions, the value sits on one person. If you were off for a fortnight, would the team carry on asking?
- Liam DohertyHm. Honestly? One of my analysts would, the other one would go back to exporting things. So, no. Not properly. That's a fair point, actually.
- Marcus BellOkay. Well, that's something we could work on. I'm happy to jump on a call with the analysts and just walk them through the kind of questions you ask. Half an hour, nothing heavy.
- Liam DohertyYes. Do that. They're a bit shy of it, they think it's my toy. Can you show them the exception stuff? The delivery exceptions next to the call history, that's the bit that sells it.
- Marcus BellCourse I can. I'll build it around your own accounts so it's not generic. Right, that's one. Let me write that down so I don't forget.
- Liam DohertyGo on, write it down. Marcus writes things down, it's a known fact.
- Marcus BellIt is. Notebook, old school. Right. Depots. Last time we spoke, you wanted the depot account managers on it. Where's that got to?
- Liam DohertyYeah. So. Slowly. Two of the six depots have people in there regularly, Trafford Park obviously, and one other. The rest, it's, I'd say it's not that they don't want to. They've got their own way of doing things. They live in the exceptions queue and on the phone. And if something takes more than a minute to find, they go back to ringing someone.
- Marcus BellMm. So it's less about the tool, more about it fitting into their day.
- Liam DohertyExactly. One view, that's the point. But they have to see that view as theirs, not as rev ops watching them. I can't just send an invite and a PDF.
- Marcus BellNo, that never works. What would help? A short session in each depot? Or something remote, grouped together?
- Liam DohertyRemote, grouped, short. They hate long meetings. If you could do it by region, say two or three depots at a time, and keep it practical. Here's a delayed delivery, here's the customer, here's the last call, here's what was said.
- Marcus BellI can do that. I'll be straight with you on one thing. If you wanted me physically at the depots, that's an on-site training day, and that's an add-on, so it'd be a conversation with Tom. But the remote sessions are fine, that's part of what I'm here for.
- Liam DohertyRemote is fine. Honestly, remote is better, half of them are in a cab or a yard anyway.
- Marcus BellRight. So what I need from you is the names of the depot managers and which depots you'd start with. Then I'll suggest a couple of slots.
- Liam DohertyI'll get you a list. Give me till the end of the week. I want to check with the depot leads first, I don't want them hearing it from a calendar invite.
- Marcus BellPerfect, that's the right way round. And while we're on it, there's a lot of headroom in the licences. If more of the depot people come on, you've got room for them without changing anything.
- Liam DohertyWhich is the other thing, to be honest. I'll just say it. We're paying £44,000 a year for forty seats and we're using eight. My finance director is going to look at that, and I'd rather have an answer ready.
- Marcus BellYeah, that's a fair thing to say out loud. Price and contract is Tom's side, so I won't wade into that, but what I can do is the value side. I'll put together a one-pager. What the brain is being asked, which accounts it's been used on, and where it's changed something.
- Liam DohertyThat's what I need. Not usage graphs. An actual, here's a thing that happened because of it.
- Marcus BellDo you have one in mind? You mentioned one of the retail contracts a while back.
- Liam DohertyYeah. One of the big retail contracts. The delivery exceptions were building up, nothing dramatic on any single day, but the same store kept getting late drops. I only saw it because the exceptions and the customer's calls and emails were sat together. Before that, we'd have found out when their buyer rang the managing director.
- Marcus BellAnd what happened?
- Liam DohertyWe got the depot manager to ring them first, sorted a different slot for the drops, and they stayed. Quiet fix. Nobody outside the team even knows it was nearly a thing. That's the bit I find hard to put in a slide, because the point is that nothing went wrong.
- Marcus BellNo, I get it. That's the value, it's the call you didn't have to take. Would you be happy for me to write that up in your words? Not naming the customer, just the shape of it.
- Liam DohertyYeah. Send me a draft and I'll tidy it. I'll make it sound less like me.
- Marcus BellI'd keep it sounding like you. It's more believable. Okay. Tickets. I looked and there's nothing in the last month. No tickets at all, high priority or otherwise.
- Liam DohertyGood. Is that good? I can never tell with tickets. Silence is either brilliant or the sound of everyone giving up.
- Marcus BellHa, no, fair, it can be either. In your case, I'd say it's the first one. The nightly refresh is landing, the data's current, and the people who use it haven't hit anything. But you'd tell me if something was annoying you.
- Liam DohertyI'd tell you. I'd probably chase you, actually. I hate leaving a ticket sitting.
- Marcus BellI know, I've seen your chasers. Right, last bit, then I'll stop sharing. Renewal. Your contract runs to 30 Nov 2026 and the renewal date is 1 Dec 2026. So it's a good while off, but I like to flag it early so it doesn't land on you.
- Liam DohertyOkay. And who does that? You or Tom?
- Marcus BellBoth, but different bits. I'll run the review and the notice, make sure you've got the full picture of how it's been used. Tom handles the commercial terms and the paperwork. I'll introduce you again properly nearer the time.
- Liam DohertyFine. I know Tom a bit from the start. Just, you know, I'd like to go into it with the depot numbers looking better than they do now. That's my aim between now and then.
- Marcus BellThat's a good aim, and honestly it's the same as mine. If we get more of the depot managers asking questions regularly, the conversation at renewal's a lot easier for both of us.
- Liam DohertyYep. Hey, one other thing, while I've got you. Dashboards. I'd love something simple per depot. Exceptions this week, repeat customers, that kind of thing. Is that something I can build or do I need you?
- Marcus BellYou can build it. You're on Growth so the dashboards builder's in there. I can show you how in the same session as the analysts, or sit with you separately if you'd prefer. I'm not going to promise anything fancy, but a per-depot view is exactly what it's for.
- Liam DohertyDo it with the analysts. If they build it, they'll own it. That's the other half of the key person thing, isn't it.
- Marcus BellIt is. You're ahead of me. Right, so, to recap, because I'd rather say it than assume. I send you a short value note on the retail example, and a usage summary, by the end of the week. You send me the depot names and which to start with, also by the end of the week. I get a session in with your two analysts, and then we do the grouped depot sessions after that.
- Liam DohertyYep, that's it. And I'll sort the diary side with the analysts, I'll tell them it's not a test.
- Marcus BellPlease do, it's really not. Anything else on your side? Anything you want me to look at, any system you're changing?
- Liam DohertyNot that I know of. Nothing planned with the CRM or the helpdesk. If that changes I'll shout, I know the connectors can get funny if someone tweaks something upstream.
- Marcus BellPlease do. Even a heads up in passing helps, it saves me finding out from a flat line on a chart. Okay, I think that's everything from me.
- Liam DohertyBrilliant. Thanks, Marcus, this was useful. Better than I thought it'd be, I thought you were going to tell me off for the seats.
- Marcus BellNever. Happy to jump on a call whenever. Speak soon, Liam. Enjoy the beeping.
- Liam DohertyCheers, Liam out. I mean, cheers, Marcus. Cheers. Bye.
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