Merriott Lyle Distribution / BG-Demo – Check In
Callcompleted
Merriott Lyle Distribution · 22 Oct 2025 15:00
Active use is sixty-odd daily, up about a fifth on the quarter. Deepa Chauhan wants to keep going and add branches, with finance in the room for renewal. £116k matches the order form and invoices.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Active use is sixty-odd daily, up about a fifth on the quarter. Deepa Chauhan wants to keep going and add branches, with finance in the room for renewal. £116k matches the order form and invoices.
What happened: Daniel Okafor reported sixty-odd active people on an average day, up by about a fifth on the quarter before. Deepa agreed: credit control are in daily and key-account managers open it before every customer review.
Customer view: Branch use is patchy and depends on the person. Deepa said she has been telling managers it is good for them rather than showing them, and she asked whether sixty-odd of two hundred users was bad.
Commercial: Contract runs to 27 Feb 2026 with renewal on 28 Feb 2026. Deepa said she is not looking for anything other than to keep going and get more branches on, with finance present before any talk of money.
Watch: A regional director asked for a branch-only view and Daniel has promised an answer. The on-site training day is a paid add-on and is for Lewis Kerr's commercial side.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Usage growth and renewal
Importance
renewal
Sentiment
positive
Voice
champion
Who was there
BG-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Daniel Okafor to answer the branch-only view question by the end of next week.
- Daniel Okafor to draft a one-page usage and examples note before the new year, ahead of the formal renewal notice.
- Deepa Chauhan to send the list of questions people did not know they could ask and the review invite.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Branch manager use is patchy and person-dependent, so the renewal case rests on visible adoption.
- The branch-only view request is unanswered and could become a configuration issue.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Around sixty daily users on two hundred Enterprise seats leaves headroom to bring branches in without extra licences.
- The on-site training day add-on could follow a successful remote session.
Transcript
Daniel OkaforHello Deepa, can you hear me alright? Thanks very much for making the time.
Deepa ChauhanLoud and clear. Sorry, give me a second, the sun is straight in my eyes in this room. Right, there, blind pulled. Hello.- Daniel OkaforHello, hello. Good afternoon, I nearly said morning, it's been that sort of day. It's just the two of us, I think, so I won't wait for anyone. How's your week been?
- Deepa ChauhanBusy, but busy in a good way. We had the regional directors in Birmingham on Monday, so I've mostly been making tea and finding chairs. But I did want one thing from today, if that's all right. I want to know how we get more of the branch managers into the account view, because that's what keeps coming up.
- Daniel OkaforThat's a good place to start, and honestly it's where I wanted to get to as well. Let me just close the loop on a couple of bits first, and then we'll spend most of the time on that. Is that fair?
- Deepa ChauhanFair. Go on.
- Daniel OkaforSo, a quick look at where you are. You're on Enterprise, two hundred licensed users, and you're about eight months in now since the start of the contract. Which feels wrong, doesn't it? It feels like last week.
- Deepa ChauhanIt does. Although the first couple of months felt like a year, with the connectors. I'm not complaining, I'm just saying.
- Daniel OkaforHa, no, fair enough. So on usage, the number of people active on an average day over the last month is sixty-odd, and that's up by about a fifth on the quarter before. So it's moving the right way. How does that sit with what you're seeing on your side?
- Deepa ChauhanThat matches. Credit control are in there daily now, which was always the thing I was after. The key-account managers open it before every customer review, and they'll tell you they'd not go back. It's the branches that are patchy. Some branch managers use it every morning and some have never opened it, and it's not big branches against small ones, it's just the person.
- Daniel OkaforMm. Is it the person, do you think, or is it that nobody has shown them why it matters to them? Because in my experience it's usually the second.
- Deepa ChauhanProbably the second, yes. If I'm honest, I've been telling them it's good for them, and that's not the same as showing them. What happens is, a customer rings the branch, says they've been put on stop, and the manager says that's not what I heard. And then it's a conversation based on rumour. Whereas if they'd looked at the account page they'd see the orders, the open disputes, the last call, the invoices, all in one place.
- Daniel OkaforRight. And that's precisely the case the Enterprise set-up was built around, the branch, key-account and credit-control people all looking at the same trade account.
- Deepa ChauhanWhich is why it winds me up when they don't. Sorry. It's not a blame thing, I don't want it to be a blame thing. Nobody's done anything wrong. They just haven't got the habit.
- Daniel OkaforNo, I agree, and I'd keep it exactly that way. Before we get to the habit, let me just do the housekeeping, so I'm not forgetting it. Tickets: six in the last month, none of them high priority, and nothing sitting open that I'm worried about. Does that fit with what you've heard from the team?
- Deepa ChauhanI think a couple of those were mine, to be fair. Nothing dramatic. Nobody's come to me saying it's broken, put it that way.
- Daniel OkaforGood. And on the money side, just so we're reading from the same page, the annual contract value is £116,500. That's what's on the order form and it's what's been invoiced, and there's nothing overdue on our side. So no surprises there.
- Deepa ChauhanGood. Finance said much the same to me last week, actually. Show me where that number comes from, I said, and they did, and it all lined up. So that's one less thing.
- Daniel OkaforLovely. Right, so, the branch managers. Can I ask how the monthly account-data review works at the moment? Who's actually in it?
- Deepa ChauhanSo it's me, somebody from credit control, and the regional directors, or whoever they send. We go through the accounts that have caused the most noise that month. Which account, which branch, what did we know and when. It's methodical, it's a bit dull, but people have started to come.
- Daniel OkaforThat's exactly the kind of room I'd want. Because the regional directors are the people who can say to a branch manager, this is how we look at an account now. It carries more weight coming from them than from me or from you.
- Deepa ChauhanThan from me, certainly. I'm head office. I'm the one who sends the spreadsheet.
- Daniel OkaforHa. Well. What if I came to one of those reviews, just for part of it, and walked through one real account the way a branch manager would see it? Not a slide deck, just the live account. Ten minutes or so, then questions.
- Deepa ChauhanWhich account would you pick? Because I'd want it to be one where there was a real argument, not a tidy one. Otherwise they'll say, well, that's easy, that's a nice customer.
- Daniel OkaforI'd leave that to you, you know them. Pick the one that caused most noise last month, and I'll look at it beforehand so I'm not fumbling. If I can see the orders, the disputes and the calls on the one page, so can they.
- Deepa ChauhanYes. Yes, I like that. Let's get credit control in the room for it as well, because the argument is usually between them and the branch. If they hear it together, it stops being he said, she said.
- Daniel OkaforAgreed. And from my side, how is the team finding it, the day to day? Not the managers, I mean the people who use it daily. Any frustrations I should know about before they turn into tickets?
- Deepa ChauhanHonestly, mostly it's the opposite. They ask me can it do this, can it do that, and half the time it already can and they've not noticed. The key-account managers especially. One of them was asking me whether she could ask it about all the calls on an account in one go, and I said, you can, you just ask it.
- Daniel OkaforThat's a nice one to hear. It's worth writing those questions down, if you don't mind. The ones people didn't realise they could ask. They make a good starting list for the branch session.
- Deepa ChauhanI can do that. I'll start a list. Should I just email them to you, or is there a place in the product for it?
- Daniel OkaforEmail is perfect. Just a line each, nothing formal. I'll do something with them rather than let them sit in my inbox.
- Deepa ChauhanGood. Now, can I ask something about the users? We've got two hundred, and you said sixty-odd are active. Is that, I don't know, is that bad? Should I be embarrassed in front of anyone?
- Daniel OkaforNot at all. It's the other way round. It's growing quickly, and the licence was sized for the whole business, so what you have is room. The branches you haven't reached are already paid for in the licence. You don't need to buy anything to bring them in.
- Deepa ChauhanThat's useful to hear, because I did worry someone would say we'd over-bought.
- Daniel OkaforI'd say you bought for where you're heading, and now you're walking towards it. The thing I'd watch is the trajectory rather than the level, and the trajectory is good.
- Deepa ChauhanRight. And the other thing I wanted to ask about is the on-site days. I think somebody mentioned a training day. For the branch managers, would that be the sort of thing?
- Daniel OkaforIt could be. There's an on-site training day, but it's a paid add-on, so it isn't part of the contract as it stands, and I wouldn't want to commit anything on price. That's one for Lewis, he looks after the commercial side. What I can do, no cost, is a remote session or two for the managers, shorter, and see how that lands first.
- Deepa ChauhanI'd rather start with the remote one anyway. I don't want to go to the regions and promise them a big day out and then find nobody turns up.
- Daniel OkaforSensible. Small first, and then you've got something to point to.
- Deepa ChauhanExactly. And there's one other thing, which is a bit awkward, so bear with me. One of the regional directors asked whether the account view can show a branch's own accounts only. As in, a manager only sees their branch.
- Daniel OkaforMm. I don't want to guess at that one, because it depends on how your teams and access are set up, and I'd rather give you a proper answer than a quick one. I'll come back to you on it by the end of next week, once I've checked with the team who built your set-up.
- Deepa ChauhanThat's fine. I'm not promising anyone anything until I hear from you. I said to him, let me check, and left it there.
- Daniel OkaforGood. And if it turns out it needs a bit of configuration, we can work out who does what together. I'd just rather you had the real answer.
- Deepa ChauhanAgreed. Okay. What else was on your list?
- Daniel OkaforTwo things, and the first is the renewal, just so it isn't a surprise. Your contract runs to 27 Feb 2026, and the renewal date is 28 Feb 2026. Nothing for you to decide today. I'll come back to you by the new year with the formal notice, and Lewis will walk you through the commercial side with you and your finance director.
- Deepa ChauhanYes, I'd want finance in the room for that, and I wouldn't say anything on money before they're there. But I'll tell you now, from where I sit, I'm not looking for anything other than to keep going and to get more of the branches on.
- Daniel OkaforThat's good to hear, and I'll be honest, it makes my job easier. What would help us both, though, is a clear picture of what's changed by then. What you can say in February that you couldn't say at the start.
- Deepa ChauhanShow me where that number comes from, as I keep saying to everyone. So yes. What would that look like, in practice?
- Daniel OkaforA short note, one page really. Usage by team over time, who's asking the questions, which teams have grown, and the examples you've got. The disputes that were sorted faster, the calls somebody found. Your finance director can look at that without needing to know how the product works.
- Deepa ChauhanI like that. And I can give you the examples, there are a few I've been keeping. There was an account last month where credit control and the key-account manager were each holding half of the story, and with the one page they sorted it in a single call.
- Daniel OkaforThat's exactly the sort of thing. Keep hold of the details of that one, and we'll put it in. Not names of the customers if you'd rather not, just what happened.
- Deepa ChauhanI'll check what I can share and send it with the list of questions.
- Daniel OkaforPerfect. The second thing is smaller. Is there anyone new on your side who ought to be on these check-ins? A new admin, somebody joining credit control? I'd like to make sure I know the people, not only the names.
- Deepa ChauhanNot at the moment. It's still me, really, and credit control when we need them. I might bring one of the regional directors next time, if I can find a gap in his diary. He's the one who asked about the branch-only view, so he's keen.
- Daniel OkaforPlease do. Always better if the person asking the question hears the answer.
- Deepa ChauhanRight. So to be clear on actions. I send you the list of questions people didn't know they could ask, and what I can share about that dispute. You look at a live account before the next account-data review and come along for part of it. And you come back to me on the branch-only view.
- Daniel OkaforYes, that's it. And I'll draft the one-page note ahead of the new year, so you've time to tell me if it's missing something. Just to close the loop, the date of the next review, is it in your diary already?
- Deepa ChauhanIt's early next month. I'll forward the invite as soon as I've got off this call, so you've got it.
- Daniel OkaforWonderful. Thank you, Deepa, it's been really useful, and it's good to hear it's landing the way you'd hoped. Say hello to the regional directors for me.
- Deepa ChauhanI will. Thanks, Daniel, speak soon.
- Daniel OkaforBest wishes, bye for now.
Callsmade from