Grisedale Search & Selection / BG-Demo – QBR
Callcompleted
Grisedale Search & Selection · 2 Mar 2026 13:30
Stuart Haworth asked what the consultants gain and called it a £24k tool few use. Only three or four of 15 licences are active, and all four connectors are in use. A 30-minute consultant session was agreed.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Stuart Haworth asked what the consultants gain and called it a £24k tool few use. Only three or four of 15 licences are active, and all four connectors are in use. A 30-minute consultant session was agreed.
What happened: Marcus Bell reviewed usage on Starter. About three or four of 15 licence holders are active in a normal month, up a little on last quarter, with no tickets in the last month.
Customer view: Lauren Pilkington said the client page is why they bought it and consultants no longer get caught out on calls. She could not say it had turned into placements, and Stuart said that is not fee income.
Commercial: All four connectors are used, a hard limit, and Nadia Bashir does not want a fifth mailbox yet. Stuart wants a conversation with Priya before signing, and Marcus will brief her on price and connectors.
Watch: Stuart wants to see usage numbers after the consultant session before the renewal talk.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Low adoption and value doubts
Importance
renewal
Sentiment
mixed
Voice
decision-maker
Who was there
BG-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Marcus Bell to send slots for a 30-minute consultant session, ideally on a Monday morning.
- Marcus Bell to brief Priya Raman on the renewal, price and connector questions.
- Marcus Bell to send a short note with the usage numbers, then show Stuart the numbers after the session.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Stuart does not see fee income from the Starter subscription and may push on price at the 1 May 2026 renewal.
- Only three or four of 15 licence holders are active, which weakens the value case.
- Lauren Pilkington and Nadia Bashir carry most of the usage, a key-person risk.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Getting more consultants active could build the value case before renewal.
- A fifth connector for the shared resourcing mailbox is a possible add-on once the mailbox is tidied.
Transcript
Marcus BellHello, can you hear me all right?
Lauren PilkingtonYep, loud and clear. Afternoon, Marcus.
Stuart HaworthAfternoon. Did you see the football on Saturday? Absolute misery. I'm not even going to talk about it.- Marcus BellI did, I'm trying to forget it. Nadia, are you with us?
Nadia BashirYes, sorry, just got my headset working. Hello, everyone.- Lauren PilkingtonQuick one before we start. One of the consultants asked me this morning whether she can see a client's complaints on the same page as their open roles. I said yes, but I wanted to check with you.
- Marcus BellYeah, that's on the client page, I'll show you in a second. Right, let me share my screen. Can you see it?
- Stuart HaworthI can see a lot of blue.
- Marcus BellThat's the one. So, what I want to cover today is three things. How the team's been using it since the last review, what's working and what's not, and then a quick word on the renewal, which is coming up on 1 May 2026. Happy to jump on a longer call after if we need it.
- Stuart HaworthGive me the headline first. Is it earning its keep?
- Marcus BellI've pulled the numbers, so let me answer that properly. You've got 15 licences on Starter, and in a normal month about three or four of you are in there actively. That's up a little on last quarter, so it's heading the right way, but it's still a small group out of the fifteen.
- Stuart HaworthThree or four. Out of fifteen. Right. So who's the three or four?
- Lauren PilkingtonThat's me, Nadia, and a couple of the senior consultants. The others dip in when they've got a client call coming up.
- Nadia BashirI'm in most mornings, to be honest. I check the connectors and make sure the overnight refresh has come through before the consultants start.
- Marcus BellWhich is exactly the admin job, so thank you. And it's been quiet on the support side, no tickets from you in the last month, which usually means it's ticking along.
- Stuart HaworthQuiet's good. Quiet's cheap. But what's in it for the consultants? That's what I keep coming back to.
- Lauren PilkingtonCan I take that one? So the thing that's saved us hours is the client page. Before, if a client rang up annoyed, the consultant had to go digging through the inbox to find the last email and then the CRM to see what roles were open. Now it's all in one place. That's the whole reason we bought it.
- Stuart HaworthAnd does that turn into placements?
- Lauren PilkingtonI can't say it's turned into placements directly. I'd be making it up. What I can say is the consultants don't get caught out on a call any more, and one of them told me she's stopped keeping her own spreadsheet of complaints.
- Stuart HaworthHm. That's nice, but it's not fee income. I'm not being funny, Lauren.
- Lauren PilkingtonNo, I know. It's just what I can see from where I sit.
- Marcus BellFair point, Stuart, and I don't want to oversell it. What I can show you is what people are asking it, because that's the best measure of whether it's useful. Let me pull up the questions.
- Marcus BellSo this is the last quarter. The most common thing is people asking for a summary of a client before a call. Then open roles by client. Then anything to do with complaints. There's a long tail of one-offs as well.
- Nadia BashirCan I ask something? Is it only me that can add a new source? Because someone in the team wanted to connect another mailbox and I wasn't sure.
- Marcus BellGood question. You're the admin, so yes, that's you. On Starter you've got a limit on connectors, four of them, and that one is a hard limit. Let me check how many you're using.
- Marcus BellSorry, bear with me. Right, you're using all four. So if you wanted a fifth, we'd need to talk about adding connectors. That's not something I'd push, it depends what the mailbox adds.
- Stuart HaworthWhat's that cost?
- Marcus BellI'd rather not guess on that, Stuart. Pricing's with Priya, she's your account owner, and I'll ask her to come back to you directly. I'd only be giving you a rough number and it wouldn't be right.
- Stuart HaworthFine. Tell her I'll want a conversation, mind. I don't sign anything without one.
- Marcus BellUnderstood. I'll make sure she knows that, and that it's about the renewal as well.
- Lauren PilkingtonSorry, going back a bit. The mailbox thing. It's the shared one the resourcing team use for candidate replies. Is that worth it, Nadia?
- Nadia BashirProbably not yet. We'd need to tidy it up first, there's a lot of rubbish in there. I'd rather get the four we've got working properly.
- Marcus BellThat's sensible. Make it work, then grow it. And on that note, the records indexed have been steady, so the four connectors are loading fine. Nothing's gone stale.
- Stuart HaworthRight. So the honest summary is it works, not many people use it, and I'm paying twenty-four grand for it.
- Marcus BellThat's a fair way of putting it. It's £24,000 a year, and you've got licences for 15 people with only a handful using them. So the opportunity is getting more of the consultants in, not paying for more.
- Lauren PilkingtonThat's what I'd like to do. I think the problem is they just don't think to open it. They go to their inbox first.
- Marcus BellYeah, it's a habit thing. I've seen it work when someone runs a short session with the team, thirty minutes, using their own clients. Shall we book 30 minutes with the consultants? I can run it or Lauren can, whichever you'd prefer.
- Lauren PilkingtonOoh, yes please. Would you do it? They listen to someone outside more than they listen to me.
- Stuart HaworthIf it gets them using it, do it. But I'm not having them off the phones for an hour.
- Marcus BellHalf an hour, early in the week, before the phones get busy. I'll suggest a couple of slots.
- Nadia BashirMonday mornings are quieter for us, if that helps.
- Marcus BellPerfect, that helps. Okay, on the renewal. The contract runs to 30 Apr 2026 and renews on 1 May 2026. I'll send the notice in the usual way, and Priya will pick up the commercial side with you, Stuart.
- Stuart HaworthWill the price move?
- Marcus BellThat's one for Priya, I'm afraid. I don't want to say something I can't stand behind. I'll flag that you'll be asking.
- Stuart HaworthFair enough. Straight answer, at least.
- Lauren PilkingtonCan I just check, the session with the consultants, does that happen before the renewal? Because I'd like Stuart to see people using it.
- Marcus BellYes, I'd aim for the next couple of weeks so there's something to look at. Then we can see in the usage whether it's made a difference.
- Stuart HaworthGood. Do that, show me the numbers after, and we'll talk. Anything else?
- Marcus BellThat's everything from me. So, next steps. I'll send you some slots for the consultant session, I'll brief Priya on the renewal and the connector question, and I'll send a short note with the usage numbers so you've got them in writing.
- Lauren PilkingtonBrilliant, that'd save us hours. Thanks, Marcus.
- Stuart HaworthCheers. Right, I've got a client waiting. Speak soon.
- Marcus BellThanks, all. Speak soon.
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