Merriott Lyle Distribution / BG-Demo – QBR
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Merriott Lyle Distribution · 10 Aug 2026 10:00
At the 10 Aug 2026 QBR, Deepa Chauhan asked why fewer people use the brain than a quarter ago. Active users are down about sixteen per cent, mainly in branches. The £128k contract is sound and Lewis Kerr parked renewal talk until the autumn.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026At the 10 Aug 2026 QBR, Deepa Chauhan asked why fewer people use the brain than a quarter ago. Active users are down about sixteen per cent, mainly in branches. The £128k contract is sound and Lewis Kerr parked renewal talk until the autumn.
What happened: Daniel Okafor showed average active users just over fifty against two hundred licences. Deepa said she must explain this at the account-data review.
Customer view: branch managers went back to colleagues or the CRM after one answer that did not match. Deepa calls it a handover problem, not a tool problem, and wants credit control involved.
Commercial: Lewis confirmed Enterprise at £128k a year, invoiced the same, nothing overdue, term to 27 Feb 2027 and renewal on 28 Feb 2027. He ruled out additions and parked renewal shape until the autumn.
Watch: Thursday's note covers the two high priority tickets, refresh timings and a source check. A CRM data tidy-up over the summer is a possible cause of patchy answers.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Falling usage before 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- Daniel Okafor to send the two high priority ticket timings, the refresh record and the source check by Thursday after the call.
- Daniel Okafor to send usage by team and region, questions asked separate from pages viewed, by the Friday after the call.
- Deepa Chauhan to send the CRM tidy-up detail by the Wednesday after the call, with names of two or three branch managers.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Active users are down about sixteen per cent on the previous quarter, with the fall concentrated in branch users.
- A fairly small group asks most of the questions, so losing one or two of them would be felt at once.
- The summer CRM tidy-up may have stopped a connector picking up records, which would explain answers that look behind.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Regional adoption sessions built on real trade accounts could rebuild branch trust within the existing service.
- Two or three branch managers who use the brain could tell the story in their own words at the review.
Transcript
Daniel OkaforMorning, Deepa. Can you hear me all right? I've got you coming through nice and clear on my side.
Deepa ChauhanMorning, Daniel. Yes, loud and clear. Give me a second, I'm just moving the window so I can see you both.
Lewis KerrMorning both. Lewis here. Apologies, I'm in a room with a very enthusiastic air conditioning unit, so tell me if I'm drowning out.- Deepa ChauhanYou're fine. It's a bit of a grey Monday here, to be honest. Half the office is still on holiday, and the other half are acting like it.
- Daniel OkaforThat's August for you. Well, thank you both for making the time. I think that's everyone who's meant to be here, so it's the three of us. Deepa, how was the rest of your weekend? Did the garden survive?
- Deepa ChauhanJust about. Thanks for remembering. The tomatoes are doing better than I am. Right, can I say the one thing I need from this call, so we don't lose it?
- Daniel OkaforPlease do.
- Deepa ChauhanI need to understand why fewer people are using the brain than a quarter ago. I saw the number in the usage summary you sent, and I'm due to stand up at the account-data review and I don't want to be the person who sponsored this and can't explain it.
- Daniel OkaforThat's fair, and I'd rather we start there than bury it in the slides. Just so we're level, I'll share the usage view in a moment, and then I'd like to hear from you what you're seeing on the ground, because the numbers only tell me what, not why.
- Lewis KerrAnd if it's useful, I'll stay quiet on commercial matters until you've had that conversation. I'm here mostly to listen and to be clear on where the contract sits.
- Deepa ChauhanThanks, Lewis. Go on, Daniel.
- Daniel OkaforRight. Can you see my screen? It should be the quarterly summary.
- Deepa ChauhanYes. It's a little small. Could you make it bigger? Lovely.
- Daniel OkaforSo, headline first. You're licensed for two hundred users on Enterprise. Over the last thirty days the average number of people active has been just over fifty. Against the previous quarter that's down about sixteen per cent.
- Deepa ChauhanMm. Sixteen. I'd hoped it was rounding. So a quarter of the licences are in use, roughly.
- Daniel OkaforAbout a quarter, yes. I won't dress it up. It's lower than I'd like, and lower than the trajectory we were on in the spring.
- Deepa ChauhanOkay. Thank you for saying it plainly. Which teams? Which branches? Because I know the key-account team is in there every day, and I'd be astonished if credit control had dropped off.
- Daniel OkaforI can see it by team, and I'll come on to that. The short version is that the fall isn't evenly spread. It's concentrated more in the branch users than in key accounts, but I want to be careful, because I don't want to guess at a branch level from a screen like this.
- Deepa ChauhanThat fits, actually. It's what I was afraid of. Branch managers are the ones who have to change their habits, and they're the ones with the least time.
- Daniel OkaforHow is the team finding it, from what you hear? Not the official line, just what people say in the corridor.
- Deepa ChauhanHonestly? Mixed. The people who got a good answer early on are loyal and tell others. But a couple of regional directors have told me the branch managers went back to asking someone in the office, or to the way they did it before. Phone a colleague, check the account in the CRM, whatever's quickest.
- Lewis KerrCan I ask a small thing? When they go back to the CRM, is that because the brain was wrong, or because it was slower, or just because it's the habit?
- Deepa ChauhanThat's the right question and I don't have a clean answer. Some of it's habit. Some of it, I think, is trust. If someone gets one answer that doesn't match what they know about a trade account, they don't try it a second time. It's very human.
- Daniel OkaforYes. One bad answer costs ten good ones. I've seen that in other places too, and it's usually quite recoverable, but it does take a deliberate effort.
- Deepa ChauhanWhich brings me to the tickets, because I've seen a few come through and I want to link them. Can we look at those?
- Daniel OkaforOf course. Let me move across. So in the last thirty days there have been four tickets from your side. Two of those were marked high priority.
- Deepa ChauhanRight, and that's the bit that bothers me, because it's not many, but two high priority in a month is two more than I'd like.
- Daniel OkaforI agree, and I want to be straight about how I read it. Four tickets from a user base that's gone quieter could be a sign of health, or it could be people simply not bothering to raise things. I honestly don't know yet which it is, and I'd be wary of telling you it's the good one.
- Deepa ChauhanThat's a bit of a relief to hear, if I'm honest. I'd rather you didn't spin it.
- Daniel OkaforI wouldn't. Now, on the two high priority ones, I've been through the timings, and as Enterprise you're due a first response within thirty minutes. I'd like to go through those with our support lead and make sure I can tell you exactly what happened on each, rather than give you a rough impression on a call.
- Deepa ChauhanOkay, so I should hold off judging until you've come back with that.
- Daniel OkaforPlease. I'll come back to you by Thursday with the full picture on both, including when each was raised, when we responded, and where each one stands now.
- Deepa ChauhanThursday. Good. Write that down, somebody.
- Lewis KerrNoted on my side as well. Sorry, go on.
- Deepa ChauhanNo, I was going to say, my worry is that those two are the ones the regional directors will quote. Whatever the truth is, a ticket with the word urgent on it becomes a story very quickly.
- Daniel OkaforWhich is why I'd like to hand you facts you can put on a slide. Not a defence, just what happened.
- Deepa ChauhanMm. Let me ask the thing I really came for. Let's say the drop is real and it's mostly branch managers. What do we actually do? Because I can't just send another email telling them to log in.
- Daniel OkaforNo, I wouldn't. Emails like that tend to get one click and a shrug. Can I suggest three things, and you tell me which ones make sense for your people?
- Deepa ChauhanLists of three, I'm in. Go.
- Daniel OkaforFirst, find out who has stopped, by team and by branch, rather than assume. I can pull that for you, and it lets you speak to a handful of actual people instead of a whole region. Second, a short, practical session for branch managers, built around their own trade accounts, so they see a real answer to a question they'd have asked on a Monday morning anyway. Third, agree with you a small number of questions that every branch manager should be asking weekly, so there's a reason to open it.
- Deepa ChauhanI like the second and third. The first one, show me where that number comes from. Is it people who logged in, or people who asked something?
- Daniel OkaforPeople who were active in the product in the thirty-day window. So it's anyone who did something, not merely signed in. I can split it by those who asked questions and those who only viewed pages, if that's more meaningful for you.
- Deepa ChauhanYes, please. That's the difference between someone using it and someone glancing at it. And can I have it by region, not just by branch? The regional directors think in regions.
- Daniel OkaforBy region and by team, yes. I'll build it so you can drop it straight into the review.
- Lewis KerrDeepa, if I may, one question that's more about shape than money. Is the intention that all two hundred licences are branch and office staff you'd expect to be in there regularly? Or were some of them provisioned ahead of need?
- Deepa ChauhanGood question. Some were ahead of need. We bought for the whole picture, branch, key-account and credit control, because the point was everyone seeing the same account. But we never expected every one of the two hundred to be daily users. I'd have called a half a good result.
- Lewis KerrRight. And that's useful for me to hear, because to put a number on it, I'd rather we understood what a healthy level looks like for you before anyone starts talking about the renewal.
- Deepa ChauhanWhich is the other thing on my mind, to be fair. Where do we stand, contract-wise? I know it's not imminent, but the finance director will ask me.
- Lewis KerrOf course. So you're on Enterprise, contracted at one hundred and twenty-seven thousand five hundred pounds a year, which is £127,500, and that matches what's been invoiced, so the order form and the invoices agree. The term runs to 27 Feb 2027, and the renewal date is 28 Feb 2027.
- Deepa ChauhanAnd nothing's overdue on our side? I'd hate to find out something's slipped.
- Lewis KerrNothing overdue. Your team has been on time throughout, so there's no billing issue hanging over this. Which is why I say it's a conversation about value, not about money owed.
- Deepa ChauhanThank you. That's helpful, because it means if it comes up I can say the relationship is sound and the question is use.
- Lewis KerrThat's an accurate summary. And I'll be clear about my position: with usage where it is, I'm not going to be coming to you with additions. If anything, I'd want us to show you the value you've already bought before we discuss another thing.
- Deepa ChauhanGood. Honestly, thank you. I've sat through calls where that was the opposite.
- Daniel OkaforAnd just to close the loop on timing, the formal renewal conversation sits with me as your CSM, with the notice going out ninety days ahead of the end date. That's a good while away, and the point of today is that we use the months in between.
- Deepa ChauhanThat's the bit I wanted to hear. Months, not weeks.
- Daniel OkaforNow, can I go back to something you said earlier? You mentioned trust, that one answer that doesn't match what someone knows. Do you have an example in mind, even loosely? Which account, which branch?
- Deepa ChauhanHa, you've stolen my line. Loosely, yes. A branch manager looked at a trade account and the brain showed an open dispute that, as far as he was concerned, had been settled the week before. He rang the account manager, who confirmed it was settled, and he told three other managers the brain was behind.
- Daniel OkaforMm. And do you know whether the dispute had been marked as settled in the source system by that point?
- Deepa ChauhanThat's exactly what I don't know. It might have been settled on the phone and only logged days later. In which case the brain was right about what the system said, and wrong about the world.
- Daniel OkaforWhich is a very different problem from the brain being broken. That would be a process point about when things get recorded, and it's one that credit control and sales can solve between them.
- Deepa ChauhanLet's get credit control in the room, then. That's my whole instinct on this. We keep treating it as a tool problem when it's a handover problem.
- Daniel OkaforI'd be glad to join that, if it helps. I'm happy to sit in on part of the next account-data review and show them where the answer came from, so it doesn't become a blame question for anyone.
- Deepa ChauhanI'd want that. I never let it become blame. It's just data and a date.
- Lewis KerrSorry to cut in, and Daniel, tell me if this is out of turn. Is there anything about the freshness side that's relevant here? Since Enterprise carries a freshness commitment as well as availability.
- Daniel OkaforIt's a fair thing to ask, and I'm glad you did. The nightly refresh is meant to be complete by seven in the morning on business days. I can check how it has run for you over the quarter. I haven't seen anything that worries me, but I'd rather confirm than say it from memory.
- Deepa ChauhanPlease do check, because if there's a morning when the refresh finished late, that's exactly the morning a branch manager gets an answer that looks stale. And they remember it.
- Daniel OkaforAgreed. So that goes on my list alongside the tickets. I'll include the refresh timings in the same note on Thursday, so you get one document and not three.
- Deepa ChauhanPerfect. Less paper is better paper.
- Deepa ChauhanCan I ask about the session for branch managers, then? How long, and who runs it? Because if it's an hour on a webinar, I'll lose them in five minutes.
- Daniel OkaforI'd keep it short and specific. Something you could run in a regional meeting slot rather than a separate diary entry. I'd run it with you, using three or four of your real trade accounts, so what they see is familiar. We could do it more than once, by region, rather than one big session.
- Deepa ChauhanBy region would work. The Midlands and the North don't have the same rhythm anyway. Lewis, would that be covered, or is that a separate thing?
- Lewis KerrTraining and adoption support of that sort sits with Daniel as part of the service, so I wouldn't expect a quote for it. If you wanted something on site at a branch, that's a separate add-on, and I'd put that in writing with the VAT position so there's no ambiguity. But I don't think you need it for this.
- Deepa ChauhanNo, not yet. Let's see what the data says first.
- Daniel OkaforThat's sensible. Let me ask another one, and tell me if I'm being nosy. Who, among the branch managers, do you think would be a good voice for this? Someone who uses it and who others listen to.
- Deepa ChauhanOh, there's a couple. I'd rather not put names on a call, but I'll send you two or three and a line on each. If one of them tells the story in their own words, it lands better than me saying it.
- Daniel OkaforThat would be ideal. I'll keep it light, I promise. Nobody's being asked to endorse anything.
- Deepa ChauhanThey'd see through it if you did.
- Daniel OkaforThey would. Right, let me show you the by-team view, since I promised, and then I think we can go through the rest more quickly. Give me a second to switch tabs.
- Deepa ChauhanTake your time.
- Daniel OkaforOkay. So what you can see here is the key-account team and credit control, which are the steadiest. They're not rising, but they haven't fallen much either. Then the branch groups, where the drop is, and it's quite uneven. A few branch groups are flat and a few have gone quiet almost entirely.
- Deepa ChauhanAlmost entirely. That's the sort of detail that matters. Which ones, can you tell?
- Daniel OkaforI can, by group, and I'll put the names in the note. I'd just flag that I'm reading activity, not intention. A quiet group might be on holiday, or short-staffed, or simply busy in the summer.
- Deepa ChauhanIt's the building season. Merchants are flat out. If anything, summer's when branches are busiest and least interested in a new way of working.
- Daniel OkaforRight, which is useful context. It doesn't excuse a sixteen per cent fall, but it might explain some of the timing, and it tells me not to schedule training in the middle of the busiest weeks.
- Lewis KerrThat's a point worth making to your regional directors as well, Deepa. Part of this might be seasonal, but you can only say that with confidence once you've got the prior year alongside it, and I'd rather Daniel gave you that comparison than anyone guessing.
- Deepa ChauhanCan we get that? Same quarter last year against this one?
- Daniel OkaforYou joined us on Friday 28 February 2025, so I have a bit over a year of history. A same-month comparison would only stretch back as far as that, but I can show you what I have. I'd be cautious about reading too much into one year.
- Deepa ChauhanUnderstood. One year of data is a hint, not a pattern. But I'll take a hint.
- Daniel OkaforGood. I'll include it.
- Deepa ChauhanRight, sorry, I was just reading through the sheet you've got up. Can I ask something slightly different? About who is asking the questions. Is it a few people doing most of it?
- Daniel OkaforThat's a sharp thing to ask. I'll need to check the concentration properly before I give you a figure, but I can say that a fairly small group accounts for a large share of the activity. It's not unusual, and it's partly why I'd like to broaden it, because if one or two of those people moved on, you'd feel it straight away.
- Deepa ChauhanWhich includes me, I imagine. I'm in there more than I'd like to admit.
- Daniel OkaforYou're certainly one of the regular ones, yes. Which is lovely, but it's the reason I don't want your own usage making the picture look better than it is.
- Deepa ChauhanFair. So the thing I'm describing to the review is: usage is lower, it's concentrated, the branches have drifted, and we have a plan. Is that honest?
- Daniel OkaforI think that's honest. I'd add that the invoices are clean and the contract is sound, so it's a usage and trust question, not a relationship one. And I'd say the plan is still forming, so describe it as a plan we're agreeing, not a finished one.
- Deepa ChauhanThat's how I'd put it anyway. I don't promise the regions things before they exist. I got caught once and I won't again.
- Lewis KerrFrom my side, I'd suggest that the question of the renewal, scale and shape of the licence be parked until the autumn, when you'll have a clearer view of whether usage has recovered. Is that workable for you?
- Deepa ChauhanYes. And any commercial question has to go through our finance director, so I wouldn't want to be discussing that with you directly. I'll flag it internally and let finance come to you when they're ready.
- Lewis KerrCompletely understood. I'll keep it factual and send whatever finance needs, the same day they ask.
- Deepa ChauhanThank you. Now, Daniel, one more thing before the time runs out. The connectors. Are all the sources still feeding properly? I've had a feeling something's patchy but I couldn't point at it.
- Daniel OkaforI'm glad you raised it, because a patchy source is a classic reason for an answer not matching. I don't see anything that's stopped outright, but I haven't looked at how much each one is bringing in over the last few weeks. I'll add that to Thursday's note, so you have the same check on every source.
- Deepa ChauhanGood. If something upstream changed, I'd rather know. We did tidy a few things in the CRM over the summer, and I'd hate it if that was the cause.
- Daniel OkaforThat would be exactly the kind of thing worth checking. If a system changed, the connector can quietly stop picking things up and nobody notices until an answer looks wrong. Could you send me a line about what was tidied and roughly when?
- Deepa ChauhanI'll ask my team and send you what I get by Wednesday. It was a data-cleaning exercise, mostly duplicates, but let me get the detail.
- Daniel OkaforPerfect, thank you. That's very helpful, and it's one of those things that's much easier to look at with a date attached.
- Deepa ChauhanAnything else you think I should know? I'd rather hear it now than in the review.
- Daniel OkaforOnly that I'd value being invited to the review, even for ten minutes. I think it's easier for the regional directors to ask the awkward questions to someone who's in the room than to you on your own.
- Deepa ChauhanI'll look at the agenda and put you on it. Give me a couple of days to confirm. The next one's not until later in the quarter anyway.
- Daniel OkaforThat's fine. And I'd be very happy to run the regional sessions around it, so the review sees something in motion.
- Lewis KerrCan I just make sure I have the contract position right for the file, so there's no confusion later? Enterprise, two hundred licensed users, £127,500 a year, invoiced the same, nothing overdue, and the term ending 27 Feb 2027 with renewal on 28 Feb 2027.
- Deepa ChauhanThat matches what I have. Good.
- Daniel OkaforThen let me try and summarise what I think we've agreed, and you correct me. By Thursday I send you the two high priority tickets with their timings, the refresh record for the quarter, and the source check. By Friday, or sooner, I send the by-team and by-region usage view with questions asked separated from pages viewed.
- Deepa ChauhanHang on, is that Thursday and Friday? I want to be sure which is which.
- Daniel OkaforThursday for the tickets, refresh and sources. The usage breakdown a day after, on Friday. If it's ready earlier, you'll have it earlier.
- Deepa ChauhanLovely. And I send you the CRM tidy-up detail by Wednesday, and the names of two or three branch managers who might help.
- Daniel OkaforYes. And then we agree dates for a short session in each region, around the busiest weeks, built on your real accounts.
- Lewis KerrAnd I leave the commercial side alone until the autumn, and finance contact me if and when they want the detail. I'll send over a one-page summary of the contract position today, so you've got it in writing for the review.
- Deepa ChauhanThat's very useful, Lewis, thank you. And honestly, thank you both for not making this defensive. I came in expecting to be sold something.
- Lewis KerrNot this month. The usage has to earn the next conversation.
- Deepa ChauhanI'll hold you to that.
- Daniel OkaforWe've got a little time left. Is there anything you'd like to use it for? Anything about how the team is working with the brain that we haven't touched?
- Deepa ChauhanOne thing, and it's small. A couple of the key-account managers asked whether they could save a view of their own accounts, so they don't have to ask the same questions each Monday. I haven't promised anything, because I don't know what's possible.
- Daniel OkaforThat's a good request, and it's close to what I was suggesting about regular questions. I'll look at what's available on Enterprise and tell you what's possible today rather than what might be possible later. I don't want you promising something to the regions that isn't there.
- Deepa ChauhanExactly my rule. Thank you.
- Daniel OkaforI'll put that in Thursday's note too. It's turning into a long note, I'm afraid.
- Deepa ChauhanLong is fine if it's clear. Use headings.
- Daniel OkaforHeadings, noted. Well, thank you both. Deepa, I appreciate how open you've been, and I know it's not a comfortable number to bring to a review.
- Deepa ChauhanIt's better coming from you first than from the regional directors, believe me. Thanks, both. Speak soon.
- Lewis KerrThank you, Deepa. Speak soon. Kind regards.
- Daniel OkaforTake care, everyone. Best wishes.
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