Brackwell Freight Ltd / BB-Demo – Check In
Callcompleted
Brackwell Freight Ltd · 2026-06-30 10:00
On the 30 Jun 2026 check-in Gareth Whitlam repeated that about six of forty users does not justify £44k a year, asked about a smaller tier, and said he will decide after seeing a usage table.
What was said
What this says
Current to 13 Oct 26On the 30 Jun 2026 check-in Gareth Whitlam repeated that about six of forty users does not justify £44k a year, asked about a smaller tier, and said he will decide after seeing a usage table.
What happened: Marcus Bell met Gareth for the first time. Active use is about six in a typical week, down by around a quarter, and questions asked lean heavily on Aisha Rahman.
Customer view: Gareth wants money saved or money made against the £44k. Aisha described the Tuesday review work as taking most of a morning by hand, but would not put a number on it.
Commercial: Gareth asked whether the company can pay for fewer users and wants a Starter comparison before signing. The contract ends on 30 Nov 2026 and renews on 1 Dec 2026, and he wants a written reason for any increase.
Watch: The former admin who championed the brain has left. Gareth said the call has not changed his view, and he will decide when he has seen the table.
Themes
Current to 9 Oct 26Theme
adoption gap, price doubts
Importance
renewal
Sentiment
negative
Voice
decision-maker
Who was there
BB-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
Current to 9 Oct 26- Marcus Bell to send a table of usage by person and team over the last two quarters to Gareth and Aisha by Friday.
- Tom Ashdown to write to Gareth about the renewal with reasoning and a comparison against Starter, and join the follow-up call.
- Aisha Rahman to collect Tuesday review examples with a before and after by the end of next week.
Risks
Current to 9 Oct 26- Gareth is not convinced the subscription is worth £44,000 and is asking about Starter, so a downgrade at renewal is possible.
- Questions asked rely heavily on Aisha, and the former admin who championed the brain has left.
- Gareth will not agree to any increase without a written reason, which conflicts with the move to the newer list price.
Opportunities
Current to 9 Oct 26- A named first-stop person in each depot and a training session for the depot account managers could widen use.
- A short, test-based case of what would need to be true could give Gareth a basis to renew.
Transcript
Marcus Bell NoneMorning both. Can you hear me all right? I've got Gareth and Aisha on, I think.
Aisha Rahman NoneMorning, yes, I can hear you. Sorry, my camera's being slow, give me a second.
Gareth Whitlam NoneMorning. I can hear you fine.- Marcus Bell NoneGrand. Good to meet you properly, Gareth. We've swapped a couple of emails but this is the first time we've actually spoken. Is it raining over in Trafford Park? It's chucking it down here.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneIt's raining. It has been since Sunday. Shall we start?
- Aisha Rahman NoneSorry, I'm here now. It's the depot roof I notice, you can hear it from the office. Hello, Marcus, hello Gareth.
- Marcus Bell NoneHa, yeah. Right, I'll share my screen in a second and say what I'd like to cover, and then please jump in whenever. We've got twenty five minutes. I want to go through how the brain's being used, how the admin side is going for Aisha, and where we are on the renewal timeline. Then anything you want from me.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneBefore you do that, can I say what I've read? I've read the usage summary you sent last week and the order form. I've seen that we're paying £44,000 a year, I've seen that we're licensed for 40 users, and I don't understand what the other thirty-odd people are doing. So that's my doubt, and I'd rather it was out on the table.
- Marcus Bell NoneNo, fair, that's a good place to start. Let me get the screen up. Can you see it? It should say Brackwell, usage, last ninety days.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneI can see it.
- Marcus Bell NoneSo licensed users, forty, that's what Growth includes. Over the last thirty days the number actually active in a typical week is about six. That's down by around a quarter on the quarter before. I'm not going to dress that up. It's lower than it was and lower than I'd like.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneAbout six. Out of forty. What exactly are we paying for?
- Marcus Bell NoneYeah. So, fair question. What you're paying for is the Growth tier: several teams, up to eight connectors, the dashboards builder, the quarterly reviews, and the implementation we did when you joined on 1 Dec 2023. But I know that's the feature list, and I suspect you want something different from that.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneI do. A feature list isn't an answer to a value question. Show me the usage. Who is asking questions, and how many?
- Marcus Bell NoneRight. So questions asked is the number I'd look at first. It's held up better than the user count, which is interesting. But it's concentrated. A big share comes from Aisha, and then a handful of depot account managers and one or two people in revenue operations. Beyond that it falls away quickly.
- Aisha Rahman NoneSorry, can I just say, that's probably right. I run a lot of the questions for the Tuesday operations review, so it does lean on me.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneSo if Aisha is off for a week, the usage stops?
- Aisha Rahman NoneNot completely. The depot account managers do still ask things. But just flagging, I'd rather it wasn't only me.
- Marcus Bell NoneAnd that's a fair thing to say out loud, Aisha. When the previous admin left, the brain more or less passed to you, and I don't think we did enough then to help with that. That's on us, and it's partly why I wanted this call.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneI've inherited this. I didn't choose it, and I wasn't here when it was bought. So I'm coming at it as a line in the accounts, and a line that has to be justified. I'm not minded to agree that it's worth what it costs yet.
- Marcus Bell NoneUnderstood. I'd rather you said that than nodded. Can I ask what would make it justified for you? Not what I'd say, what you would need to see.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneMoney saved or money made. Something I can put next to forty-four thousand and say, this is what it did. If it's only a nicer way of looking up a ticket, then I can get that elsewhere, or do without. What did it do last quarter that someone would have noticed?
- Marcus Bell NoneOkay. Honest answer, I can show you activity, and I can show you it's stable. No tickets from you in the last month, no priority issues, the nightly refresh is landing. That's the plumbing. What I can't do from here is tell you what decisions got made off the back of it. That's what Aisha and the depot people know. Aisha, can I put you on the spot?
- Aisha Rahman NoneOh. Yes, go on. I've, um, I might not have it all lined up.
- Marcus Bell NoneNo pressure. Just, in the Tuesday review, what do you actually use the brain for? In your own words.
- Aisha Rahman NoneSo, before the review I ask it which retail contracts have had the most delivery exceptions, and I pull the related tickets and the call notes into one place. Before, I'd have been jumping between the CRM, the helpdesk and the call recorder. I've tried to do the same thing by hand a couple of times when it was slow and it takes most of a morning. I've attached a screenshot to the notes before, I can send the latest one.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneMost of a morning. How many mornings a month?
- Aisha Rahman NoneWeekly, so, every Tuesday, really. I wouldn't want to give you a number I can't stand behind.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneFine. That's honest. That's a morning a week of one analyst. It isn't forty-four thousand. Tell me what else.
- Marcus Bell NoneAgreed, on its own it's not. The case for Growth is the spread: depot account managers seeing accounts, delivery exception tickets and calls side by side, so a retail contract that's going sour gets spotted early. That's why Brackwell bought it. But if only a handful of people use it, then the spread isn't happening, and I think that's the real finding here.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneSo the answer to my question is that we're paying for forty and using six.
- Marcus Bell NoneUsing about six in a typical week, yes. I'm not going to argue with the arithmetic. What I'd say is that it's an adoption gap rather than a product gap, and adoption is the bit I'm here to help with.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneEveryone says that. Adoption. What would be different in three months?
- Marcus Bell NoneConcretely? Three things. One, a training session for the depot account managers, thirty minutes, on their own accounts, so they're asking real questions rather than watching me. Two, a proper handover for Aisha on the admin side, so it isn't only in her head. And three, a monthly note from me with usage by person and by team, so you can see it moving, or not moving.
- Aisha Rahman NoneThat would really help. I've asked a couple of times about the admin settings and I wasn't sure who to go to.
- Marcus Bell NoneThat's me, now. I'll make that clearer, I should have. Send me anything you've been stuck on and I'll walk you through it. Happy to jump on a call.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneLet me come to the renewal, because that's what's actually on my desk. The contract runs to 30 Nov 2026. I'd like to understand the notice, and I'd like to know what happens to the price.
- Marcus Bell NoneSo the contract end is 30 Nov 2026 and it renews from 1 Dec 2026. I'll send the formal renewal notice around ninety days ahead, that's part of my job. On price, I'm not the right person, and I don't want to guess in front of you. Tom Ashdown owns the commercial side of the account, and I'd like him to come back to you in writing.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneThen let me be clear for him. I'm not minded to agree to any increase without a reason I can read. A reason, not a list.
- Marcus Bell NoneHeard. I'll pass that on word for word. I won't pretend to know what Tom will say, but he'll want to hear it before the notice goes out.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneAnd is there a smaller version? If forty users is more than we use, can we pay for fewer?
- Marcus Bell NoneGood question, and I'd be doing you a disservice to answer it badly. The tiers are Starter, Growth and Enterprise, and Starter is one team with fewer users and connectors. Whether that fits what you do across the depots is something Tom and I should look at with you, with the usage in front of us, rather than me waving it about on a call.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneFine. I'd want that comparison before I'm asked to sign anything.
- Marcus Bell NoneOf course. Okay, let me flip to the connectors, if that's all right, because there's one more bit I'd like you to see.
- Marcus Bell NoneSo, your CRM, the helpdesk and the call recorder are all loading. The nightly refresh is landing and I'm not seeing anything broken. I want to be straight that I'm not seeing a technical problem, and I'd be surprised if you were.
- Aisha Rahman NoneJust flagging, the refresh has been fine for me. It's there by the time I get in on Tuesday. My worry is more that people don't think to ask it.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneWhy don't they think to ask it? Is that training, or is it that they've got along without it for years?
- Aisha Rahman NoneI'd only be guessing for everyone, so I'll ask them. What I do know is a couple of them told me it was easier to ring me. And the person who set it up, who used to be the admin, was the one pushing it, and then they left.
- Marcus Bell NoneThat's a pattern I see, honestly. The person who champions it leaves, and nobody picks up the cheerleading. It's not a Brackwell failing. But it does mean it needs someone to own the adoption, and I'd say that shouldn't just be Aisha on top of her day job.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneWho then? I'm not creating a role for it.
- Marcus Bell NoneNo, no, I'm not suggesting a hire. I mean a named person in each depot, or in revenue operations, who's the first stop. An hour of their time, not a job. And me, on the other side, reporting on whether it's working.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneA named person. And what would that person do that they don't do now?
- Marcus Bell NoneAsk the brain the question first, before they ask Aisha. Share a good answer in the team channel when they get one. Tell me when it gave them something wrong. That's about it, honestly.
- Aisha Rahman NoneI think I could do that with the depot managers. I'd feel better if it was written down somewhere, though, who does what.
- Marcus Bell NoneI'll write it down. A single page. You review it, Gareth, if you want to see where the time goes.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneI do. And I'd like the single page to say what it costs us in time. I've asked a lot of questions today. I'm not trying to be difficult.
- Marcus Bell NoneYou're not. It's the right set of questions. Honestly it's better to have them now than in November.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneWhat do other customers of your size see? Is six out of forty normal?
- Marcus Bell NoneI don't want to quote you a benchmark I can't back up with a record in front of me. I'd say typically more of the licence gets used by now, but I'd sooner give you something I can show you. I'll see what I can put together on how similar accounts use it and come back.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneShow me the usage. That's the only thing I trust.
- Marcus Bell NoneUnderstood. I'll go back through the last two quarters by team and send you the table, not a chart. Tables you can check.
- Aisha Rahman NoneCould I see it too? I'm not sure I've seen it split by team.
- Marcus Bell NoneOf course, you'll both be on it.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneOne more. If the person who championed this has gone, who at BB-Demo knows this account? I've only had emails from Tom, and now you. I don't want to be passed around.
- Marcus Bell NoneFair. Tom's still your account owner and he handles anything on the contract. I'm your customer success manager, so adoption, the quarterly reviews, the renewal notice and the conversation are mine. If either of you isn't sure who to ask, ask me and I'll route it. You won't get bounced.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneI'll hold you to that.
- Marcus Bell NonePlease do. Okay, can I check I've got this properly, because I don't want to go away and send the wrong thing. From me: one, a table of usage by person and by team over the last two quarters, to both of you. Two, a short page on what a first-stop person in each depot would do. Three, a thirty minute training session for the depot account managers, on their own accounts, and I'll find a slot with Aisha. And four, I'll get Tom to write to you, Gareth, about the renewal, with the reasoning, and with the comparison against Starter.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneAdd one. What would need to be true for me to be comfortable at renewal. Not a pitch, a test.
- Marcus Bell NoneI can do that with Tom, yes. Honestly I think that's the most useful frame. What would have to be true. Then we're measuring against something.
- Aisha Rahman NoneAnd I'll collect a few examples from the Tuesday reviews, so there's something concrete. Is that all right, Gareth?
- Gareth Whitlam NoneYes. Examples with a before and after. Time or a decision, not a description.
- Aisha Rahman NoneRight. I'll try to get it to you by the end of next week.
- Marcus Bell NoneBrilliant. I'll aim to get my table to you both by Friday. And shall we book thirty minutes in a fortnight, just the three of us, to look at it together?
- Gareth Whitlam NoneMake it with Tom as well. If we're discussing the price, I want him there.
- Marcus Bell NoneWill do. I'll ask Tom to join for the second half, so it doesn't turn into a sales call at the start.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneIt had better not.
- Aisha Rahman NoneSorry, one small thing, while I've got you. Is there a guide for the admin settings I could look at before the training?
- Marcus Bell NoneThere is, I'll send the link with the table. And if it's not clear, tell me, because then it's the guide that needs fixing, not you.
- Aisha Rahman NoneThank you. That helps.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneMarcus, for the record. Today hasn't changed my view. It hasn't made it worse. I'll decide when I've seen the table.
- Marcus Bell NoneThat's more than fair. I'd rather earn it than argue it.
- Marcus Bell NoneOne last thing from me. Growth includes quarterly reviews, and I'd like the next one to have you in it, Gareth, with your questions as the agenda rather than mine. It's the place where we'd go through the table properly.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneProvided it's short. And provided there's a number in it.
- Marcus Bell NoneShort, and a number. I can do that. Is anything changing on your side, systems-wise? A new CRM, a helpdesk move, anything that touches the connectors?
- Gareth Whitlam NoneNot that I've been told. And I'd expect to be, given the brief I came in with.
- Aisha Rahman NoneNothing I know of. If anything changes I'll tell you straight away, because the connectors are the part I'd least want to break.
- Marcus Bell NonePerfect, thank you. That's what I need, a heads-up, and then we can sort it before anyone notices.
- Aisha Rahman NoneIs it all right to ask about the depot account managers who are on leave over the summer? I'd hate to hold training and half of them were away.
- Marcus Bell NoneGood point. Then let's not rush it. I'd rather do it properly in a couple of weeks when more of them are back than do it next week with four people. I'll check dates with you.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneDon't let it drift though. The renewal doesn't move because people are on holiday.
- Marcus Bell NoneNo, agreed. 1 Dec 2026 is the date and I'll work back from it.
- Marcus Bell NoneRight. I think we're about done on time. Thank you both, genuinely, I know it wasn't an easy one to sit through, Gareth. I'll get the email out today with what we agreed, so you can check I've got it right.
- Gareth Whitlam NonePlease do. Make it a list.
- Marcus Bell NoneBullet points, you'll have them. That's how I write them anyway.
- Aisha Rahman NoneThank you, Marcus. Thanks, Gareth. Speak soon.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneGoodbye. I'll wait for the table.
- Marcus Bell NoneRight, stopping the share. Cheers both, speak soon.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneBye.
- Aisha Rahman NoneBye, thanks.
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