Linthorpe Trade Supplies / BG-Demo – Negotiation
Callcompleted
Linthorpe Trade Supplies · 4 Jul 2024 13:45
Pauline Metcalfe, Finance Director, found £25k high for an unfamiliar platform and worried about adoption. The product looked good, and she agreed to move forward once told the contract runs one year at a time.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Pauline Metcalfe, Finance Director, found £25k high for an unfamiliar platform and worried about adoption. The product looked good, and she agreed to move forward once told the contract runs one year at a time.
What happened: Tom Ashdown and Owen Tallis negotiated with Pauline Metcalfe and Tracey Bainbridge. Pauline called £25k a lot for a new platform, and Owen offered five per cent off the implementation.
Customer view: Pauline said the product looks good but the issue is adoption. She asked whether they could simply not renew if the £20k subscription is not worth it, and Owen confirmed the annual term.
Commercial: The subscription matches the Starter v1 list price, with a four-week implementation. Owen mentioned Growth at £44k and extra users or connectors, to be discussed at renewal.
Watch: The customer has been told that not renewing is an easy option, so the first-year value case matters. Pauline agreed to the close date Owen set, and the order form and MSA were due the next day.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Who was there
BG-Demo
Them
Follow-up
Next steps
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Tom Ashdown to send the order form and MSA to Pauline Metcalfe the day after the call.
- Pauline Metcalfe to review the order form and return signatures by the close date Owen set.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Pauline is unsure the team will adopt the platform and has noted she can decline to renew after the first year.
- Price was the main objection and the only concession offered was five per cent off the implementation.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Owen raised Growth at £44,000, extra users and extra connectors as options to revisit at renewal.
Transcript
Tom AshdownPauline, Tracey, thanks for taking the call. Owen's here from our sales team as well, just to help us close things off on the deal. Where are we at?
Pauline MetcalfeYeah, we've had a think about it. The product looks good. The main thing for us is the price. Twenty-four thousand five hundred and twenty-five, that's quite a bit for us on a new platform.
Owen TallisI get that. What does that break down to for you, the implementation and the subscription?- Pauline MetcalfeNineteen-five for the subscription, presumably, and the rest is implementation. Six thousand. Is that right?
- Tom AshdownClose, it's 19,500 for subscription, and there's a bit of discount baked into the total, but yes, broadly that's it.
Tracey BainbridgeWhat sort of discount are you offering?- Owen TallisFive per cent on the implementation. That's the best we can do on a new deal.
- Pauline MetcalfeOkay. The issue is, this is a platform we don't know yet. We're gambling a bit on adoption, aren't we? What if the team doesn't use it?
- Tom AshdownFair question. Look, that's where the implementation matters. We spend four weeks getting you set up, training your team, making sure it's connected to your actual workflows. By the end of that, you'll know whether it's working for you. We're not asking you to sign up for ever, you're contracting one year at a time.
- Pauline MetcalfeRight. So if at the end of the first year we don't think it's worth the 19,500, we just don't renew?
- Owen TallisThat's exactly it. Annual contract. You see how it goes, and you renew or you don't. We're confident you'll see value from having all that data in one place, though. The call tracking, the account data, the invoicing, it all speaks to how you do business.
- Tracey BainbridgeAnd what's the implementation process? How long does it actually take?
- Tom AshdownFour weeks. We'll work with Liam, your systems guy, on the connectors, make sure everything syncs. Then we do training with your team. By week four, you're live.
- Pauline MetcalfeOkay. And if we wanted to add more people or systems later, what would that cost?
- Owen TallisYou could add ten users for a fee, or another five connectors. If you wanted to move to a larger tier, Growth, that would be forty-four thousand a year and you'd get more capacity. But we'd talk through that at renewal.
- Pauline MetcalfeAlright. So if we sign at 24,525, what does the contract look like?
- Tom AshdownWe'll send you an order form and the MSA, that's the master services agreement. It's our standard legal terms. You'll see the price, the term, the subscription starting date. Once you're happy with it, you sign and we get rolling.
- Tracey BainbridgeWhat's the timeline for signing?
- Owen TallisWe'd like to close by 5 August. That gives us time to get the implementation kicked off before your summer.
- Pauline MetcalfeFive August, that's tight but we can do it. Let's move forward.
- Tom AshdownBrilliant. I'll get the order form and MSA to you tomorrow. You'll see everything in there. Any questions, just shout and Owen or I can walk you through it.
- Owen TallisAnd our close date is 5 August, so we need signatures in by then. Thanks for moving quickly on this.
- Pauline MetcalfeCheers. We'll take a look and get back to you.
- Tom AshdownCheers, both. Speak soon.