Brackwell Freight Ltd / BG-Demo – Check In
Callcompleted
Brackwell Freight Ltd · 5 May 2026 12:30
Marcus Bell's 5 May 2026 check-in with Liam Doherty found about seven daily users out of forty seats and questions flat, though connectors are healthy. Liam is a large share of the questions. Depot sessions agreed ahead of the renewal.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Marcus Bell's 5 May 2026 check-in with Liam Doherty found about seven daily users out of forty seats and questions flat, though connectors are healthy. Liam is a large share of the questions. Depot sessions agreed ahead of the renewal.
What happened: Marcus walked through usage, depots and connectors. Active users average about seven of forty seats, a little down on the quarter before, and a large share of questions comes from Liam.
Customer view: Liam says depot staff have logins but do not open the brain, partly because of old spreadsheets and a single rollout session. In his words, people value it but do not open it.
Commercial: The Growth term runs to the end of November and renews on the first of December. Marcus said plainly that seven users would make the renewal harder to justify.
Watch: Liam is the key-person risk. Finance connector interest is parked, which leaves headroom on four of eight Growth connectors.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Depot adoption and renewal
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 sends afternoon slots for a thirty minute Trafford Park depot session and a usage summary the following week.
- Liam Doherty speaks to depot staff this week and sends one name per depot as champion.
- Marcus Bell reviews who has moved after the end of the following week, then nudges quiet depots.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- About seven daily users out of forty Growth seats, with questions flat, makes the renewal harder to justify.
- A large share of questions comes from Liam Doherty alone, so usage depends on one person.
- Depot account managers have logins but do not open the brain, and no tickets mean little signal.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Depot-by-depot thirty minute sessions and named depot champions could widen use on the existing Growth seats.
- A finance connector is possible, with four of eight Growth connectors unused, once Liam has spoken to his finance team.
- The grocery delivery exception story gives a value case for Liam's leadership.
Transcript
Liam DohertyMarcus, hello. Can you hear me alright? I've got the warehouse noise next door, they're moving pallets about.
Marcus BellAfternoon, Liam. Yeah, loud and clear. A bit of a clatter in the background but I can hear you fine.- Liam DohertyGood. I'll go and sit in the little meeting room in a sec if it gets worse. How's your week been?
- Marcus BellBusy, but good busy. Bank holiday weekend just gone so everyone's been catching up. Did you get away at all?
- Liam DohertyNot really. Did some jobs in the garden, rained on me, came inside. Peak Salford, honestly. Right, what have you got for me?
- Marcus BellOkay, so I'll share my screen and say what I want to cover, and you tell me if I've missed anything. Give me a second. Can you see that?
- Liam DohertyYep, I can see the usage page. Slightly small but yes.
- Marcus BellI'll zoom in. Right. Three things really. One, I've pulled the numbers for the last quarter so we can see how Brackwell's using the brain. Two, how the depots are getting on with it. And three, anything you need from us before the summer. Happy to add to that.
- Liam DohertyThat's about it. I've got one extra, which is the delivery exception view, but it fits under the depots bit.
- Marcus BellPerfect, we'll do it there. So, headline first. You're on Growth, forty licensed users, and the contract's at £44k a year. Order form and invoices match, nothing overdue on the finance side, and there's been no tickets raised in the last month, which is quiet.
- Liam DohertyQuiet's good. Quiet means it's not broken.
- Marcus BellThat's how I read it, mostly. Though I'll be honest, I don't want to just take quiet as a good sign without checking the usage, which is why I've pulled this.
- Liam DohertyGo on. What's it say?
- Marcus BellSo active users, on a typical day over the last month, we're averaging about seven people. Out of forty seats. And that's down a little on the quarter before, a bit over a tenth, so not a cliff, but it's drifted.
- Liam DohertySeven. Mm. Yeah, that sounds about right, actually. It's me, it's the two analysts in the commercial team, a few of the account managers at Trafford Park.
- Marcus BellThat matches what I can see. And I can see who's asking the questions as well. A large share of the questions are coming from you, Liam. Which is lovely, but I mention it because it's, you know, a lot sitting on one person.
- Liam DohertyHa. Yeah. I know. I'm the one who keeps poking it. Honestly I like it, I ask it things in the morning before the exec stand-up, what's going on with our biggest retail accounts, where have exceptions piled up. One view, that's the point.
- Marcus BellAnd that's exactly how it should be used. I'm not saying stop. I'm saying it'd be nice if a few more people were doing what you do.
- Liam DohertyRight. Which is the depots thing.
- Marcus BellWhich is the depots thing. So let me show you. This is the breakdown by site. Trafford Park is the bulk of it. Then you've got a trickle from a couple of the others, and a couple of the depots, nothing at all in the last month.
- Liam DohertyYeah. That's the bit that annoys me. Can we get the depots on it? Because the whole reason we bought it was so the depot account managers could see their retailers, the calls, the tickets, the delivery exceptions, in one go, without ringing me.
- Marcus BellTotally. And they've all got logins, that's not the problem. I checked. They've got seats, they've been invited. They just don't seem to be opening it.
- Liam DohertyRight. So it's a habit thing, not an access thing.
- Marcus BellThat's my read. Can I ask, from your side, what do you think is stopping them? You're closer to them than I am.
- Liam DohertyHonestly? A few things. One, they're out on the floor, they're not at desks. Two, they've got their own spreadsheets they've used for years and they trust them. Three, and this one's on me, when I rolled it out I did one session, one big call with everybody, and then I got pulled onto the budget stuff and didn't follow up properly.
- Marcus BellOkay. That's really useful, thank you. And it's very normal, by the way. One session and then nothing is what happens most places.
- Liam DohertyDoesn't make me feel better but I'll take it.
- Marcus BellHa. Fair. So what would help? I can think of a couple of things and you tell me which are sensible. One is smaller sessions, a depot at a time, thirty minutes or so, on their own accounts. Not a general tour, just here's your biggest retailer, here's what's open, here's what you'd ask.
- Liam DohertyLove that. That's what I should have done in the first place. Their own accounts, yes. If they see their own numbers they'll care.
- Marcus BellRight. And the second thing is, and this is optional, we could pick one person per depot as the go-to. Someone who gets it a bit more than the others and who the rest can lean on.
- Liam DohertyA depot champion. Yes. Yeah. I've got a couple in mind already. There's a woman at one of the northern sites who's brilliant with data, she's basically running her own reports anyway. And at Trafford Park there's a lad who's always asking me for extracts.
- Marcus BellThat's exactly the sort of person. Do me a favour and don't tell me names now, just jot them down, and send them over when you've had a think. I'd rather you'd talked to them first.
- Liam DohertySure. I'll have a word this week. Probably better they hear it from me than from a calendar invite out of nowhere.
- Marcus BellDefinitely. Okay, let me move on a bit, because there's more on this page. Questions asked. So this is the number of questions put to the brain, month by month. It's flat. Not falling, not climbing. Roughly the same as the start of the year.
- Liam DohertyFlat. Hmm. Is that bad?
- Marcus BellNot bad. It's steady, and steady with fewer people means the people who are on it are asking a bit more each. But I'd like to see it growing, because questions are the best sign that it's earning its keep.
- Liam DohertyYeah. No, fair. And it does earn it. Can I tell you the one that sold it to my boss? Last month one of our big grocery contracts, the delivery exceptions had been building up for about two weeks and nobody in the depot had flagged it. I saw it in the brain on a Monday, rang the account manager, and we got ahead of it before the retailer's people rang us.
- Marcus BellThat's the use case. That's the whole thing. Did that get written down anywhere? Because that's a story I'd love your leadership to have in front of them when value comes up.
- Liam DohertyNot written down as such. I mentioned it in the commercial meeting. I can put a note together, it's not hard.
- Marcus BellIf you do, great, and if you want a hand shaping it I'm happy to jump on a call. Sometimes it's easier to have somebody else ask you what happened and then tidy it up.
- Liam DohertyYeah, maybe. Let me try first and I'll shout if it's rubbish.
- Marcus BellDeal. Okay, so connectors. Let me flip to that tab. Give me a second, it's being slow. There we go.
- Marcus BellSo you've got the CRM connected, the helpdesk, the call recorder, and the mailboxes via Microsoft 365. All four loading fine. Records indexed have been going up steadily, nothing stuck, no failed syncs that I can see.
- Liam DohertyGood. That I do trust. Nightly refresh is landing before we start, I check it sometimes at about seven and it's always there.
- Marcus BellGood, that's what I see too. Now, Growth gives you eight connectors and you're using four. So there's headroom. Is there anything else you'd want to bring in? Finance, say, or shared drives, or the like?
- Liam DohertyHmm. Finance, probably. Eventually. I'd love to see margin by contract next to the exceptions, because some of the retail contracts look busy but I suspect they're not making us much. But that's a conversation I'd need to have with our finance team first. They're a bit protective.
- Marcus BellThat's fair. And I'm not pushing. It's just there if you want it, and the accounting system is one we connect to commonly. If you want me to talk your finance people through what it would and wouldn't see, I can do that. Plain explanation, no sales pitch.
- Liam DohertyThat might actually help. They worry about who sees what. Park that, I'll come back to you after the depots are sorted. One thing at a time.
- Marcus BellPerfect. Parked.
- Liam DohertyCan I ask about the exception view? That's my extra one.
- Marcus BellYes, go on.
- Liam DohertySo at the moment, when I ask about delivery exceptions it gives me a good answer, but it's by account. What I'd like is by depot as well. Like, show me the exceptions that are open for Trafford Park versus the others, by retailer. Can it do that, or am I asking it wrong?
- Marcus BellLet me have a go live. Hang on. I'll type it as you'd say it. Open delivery exception tickets by depot, grouped by retailer, last thirty days.
- Liam DohertyOkay, it's thinking.
- Marcus BellRight, so it's come back with a table. You can see it's got the depot on the left, the retailer across the top. So yes, it can. I think what's happening for you is the question isn't naming the depot, so it defaults to the account view.
- Liam DohertyOh. Oh, that's easy then. So I just have to say depot.
- Marcus BellPretty much. And if you save that as a page, you can pin it, and the depot managers can open the same page each morning without having to ask anything at all. Which might actually be a gentler way in for the ones who don't love typing questions.
- Liam DohertyOoh. Yes. A page they just open. That I like a lot. It's a lot less scary than a chat box.
- Marcus BellRight. So I could build that with you in the first depot session. You'd have a page per depot, say, and then each person only really needs to learn one thing.
- Liam DohertyYeah. Do that. Start with Trafford Park because that's the biggest and the lad there will be keen.
- Marcus BellOkay. I'll put a thirty minute slot in with you and him, and we'll do that first. Then we'll roll the others once we've seen how it lands. Does that work for you in terms of time? I know you're stretched.
- Liam DohertyI am stretched but this is the thing I'd rather be doing than the budget. Next week, if you can. Afternoons are better, I'm in the depot mornings.
- Marcus BellAfternoons next week, got it. I'll send you a few options after this call and you pick one.
- Liam DohertyBrilliant.
- Marcus BellOkay. Let me ask something else, and stop me if it's not useful. Is there anything that's frustrating you about the brain at the moment? Anything you've been putting up with? Because with no tickets I can't tell if that's because everything's fine or because people have stopped bothering.
- Liam DohertyHa, honest answer, I think it's fine. I'm the one who'd raise a ticket, and I don't let things sit, you know that. If something broke I'd chase it. There's the odd answer that's a bit wordy, that's all.
- Marcus BellWordy answers, okay. That's a how-you-ask-it thing mostly, and I can show you a couple of ways to tighten the questions. Short ones, name the thing you want, name the time period.
- Liam DohertyYeah, go on, show me one.
- Marcus BellSo instead of what's going on with our grocery customers, you'd say, list the open exceptions for the grocery accounts since the first of the month, oldest first. And it gives you a short list rather than a paragraph.
- Liam DohertyRight, right. Oldest first, that's a good one. Because the oldest is the one that'll bite.
- Marcus BellExactly. I'll put a few of those in the note I send you, so you've got them to pass on to the depot people.
- Liam DohertyThat'd be perfect. Genuinely. Something I can forward without having to rewrite.
- Marcus BellRight, good. Last bit from me, and it's the boring bit, so bear with me. Your term runs to the thirtieth of November, so renewal's on the first of December this year. That's a while off, and we'll talk about it properly nearer the time, I'll send the notice at the right point. I just don't want it to be a surprise to anyone.
- Liam DohertyNo, fine. That's well flagged. Is there anything I should be doing on that now?
- Marcus BellHonestly, not really. The most useful thing you can do is what we've just been talking about. If more people are using it by the autumn, the conversation's easy. If it's still seven people, then it's a harder one for anybody to justify, and I'd rather be straight with you about that.
- Liam DohertyYeah. No, I appreciate that. It's not a mystery to me. I know what I need to do. It's not that people don't value it, it's that they don't open it.
- Marcus BellRight. And any pricing questions, you'd go through Tom, he's your account owner, I'd just be passing it on. But there's nothing on the table, I'm only mentioning the date.
- Liam DohertyUnderstood. Tom's fine. I haven't spoken to him in a bit actually. Is he still the one who does the, whatever it is, the commercial side?
- Marcus BellHe is. Tom Ashdown, still your account owner. I can say you were asking and he'll probably drop you a line.
- Liam DohertyDo that, yeah. Nothing urgent, just so we're in touch.
- Marcus BellWill do. Okay, anything else from your side before we pull together next steps? I've been talking a lot.
- Liam DohertyHmm. One thing. The exec team. My boss is going to ask me, probably in the next month or so, what are we getting out of this. Is there a thing, a one pager, a chart, something simple I can show him?
- Marcus BellYes. I can put together a short usage summary. Questions asked over time, who's using it, which connectors, and the headroom. Nothing fancy. And if you pair that with your grocery story, I think that's a decent case on one page.
- Liam DohertyThat's exactly it. And be straight in it, don't make it look better than it is. If it says seven people, say seven people. I'd rather he heard it from me with a plan.
- Marcus BellThat's how I'd do it. Seven or so people, a plan for the depots, and a clear idea of what we want to see by the summer. Honest and short.
- Liam DohertyLove that. Okay. So what's the list? I want to make sure I've got it right.
- Marcus BellRight. From me: one, I send you a few afternoon slots next week for a thirty minute session with you and the Trafford Park lad, and we build the depot page there. Two, I send you the usage summary, short, honest, something you can show your boss. Three, I put a few tighter question examples in the same email so you can pass them on.
- Liam DohertyGood. And from me, I talk to the depot people this week and send you names, one per depot. And I write up the grocery story, rough, and you can look at it if I need a hand.
- Marcus BellThat's it. And the finance connector, parked until you've talked to your people. If you want me on a call with them, say the word.
- Liam DohertyYep, parked. I'll shout.
- Marcus BellOne more thing, and it's small. Do you want me to chase the quieter depots directly, or would you rather it came from you first? I don't want to step on your toes.
- Liam DohertyFrom me first. Give me till the end of next week, then if somebody's gone quiet, you can nudge. They'll take it better that way round.
- Marcus BellUnderstood. End of next week, then I'll have a look at the numbers again and see who's moved.
- Liam DohertyGood. I think that's it then. Oh, actually, how many other customers do you do this with? Is it normal for the rollout to be a bit of a slog?
- Marcus BellIt's really normal. I've got a lot of accounts and the pattern's the same. The champion gets it, the first team gets it, and then it's about the second ring. The ones who do best are the ones who do exactly what you're about to do, small sessions, a named person at each site.
- Liam DohertyOkay. That makes me feel slightly better. Slightly.
- Marcus BellHa, good, slightly's a start. Honestly though, the fact that you spotted that grocery contract is the sort of thing most places never get to. You've got the hard part.
- Liam DohertyCheers. That's kind. Right, I should get on. I've got a stand-up in a few minutes and I need to find my laptop charger.
- Marcus BellNo problem at all. I'll get that email to you this afternoon, with the slots and the summary, and a couple of the question examples.
- Liam DohertyBrilliant. Thanks, Marcus. Really useful, this.
- Marcus BellPleasure. Thanks for your time, Liam. Speak soon, and enjoy what's left of the sunshine.
- Liam DohertyWhat sunshine? Ha. Cheers, Liam. Sorry, cheers, Marcus. See you.
- Marcus BellBye, Liam. Take care.
Callsmade from