Brackwell Freight Ltd / BG-Demo – Check In
Callcompleted
Brackwell Freight Ltd · 22 Jul 2024 09:00
Liam Doherty reports wider use across depot account managers and a quiet ticket queue. Marcus Bell flagged the 1 Dec 2024 Starter renewal early. Liam's one worry is justifying the spend to his own boss.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Liam Doherty reports wider use across depot account managers and a quiet ticket queue. Marcus Bell flagged the 1 Dec 2024 Starter renewal early. Liam's one worry is justifying the spend to his own boss.
What happened: Marcus Bell reviewed usage, the one recent ticket and the renewal with Liam Doherty on 22 Jul 2024. Questions are now spread across revenue operations and several depot people, not one person.
Customer view: Liam is happy with the single view and sees no problem with renewal. His concern is evidence he can show his own boss.
Commercial: Brackwell is on Starter with 15 licensed users, a soft limit, and only a handful are active daily. Wider depot rollout could push towards the limit, which Marcus placed with Tom Ashdown on the commercial side.
Watch: Liam wants an early-warning view of retail contracts going sideways, and a helpdesk system conversation is flagged for next year, a possible connector risk.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Adoption growth, early renewal notice
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- Marcus Bell to send a short list of weekly questions and a one-page set-up note.
- Marcus Bell to run a remote depot training call in September.
- Marcus Bell to brief Tom Ashdown with the usage picture before the autumn renewal notice.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Liam needs a concrete value story to justify the renewal to his own boss.
- A planned helpdesk system change next year could break a connector if BG-Demo is not told early.
- Two of the other depots barely know the brain exists, so use is concentrated at Trafford Park.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- A training call for the other depots could widen use and lead to a conversation about user numbers above the 15 on Starter.
- Liam's early-warning use case for retail contracts fits what the brain already does across calls, emails and exceptions.
Transcript
Marcus BellMorning, Liam. Can you hear me alright?
Liam DohertyMorning! Yeah, loud and clear. Can you see me? My camera's being weird.- Marcus BellJust about. You're a bit dark, but I can see you. Probably the Monday light.
- Liam DohertyHa, it's Manchester, it's always dark on a Monday. Sorry, I'm in the Trafford Park office and someone's got a pallet truck going outside the door, so if you hear beeping, that's not me.
- Marcus BellNo worries at all. It's grey over here as well. Did you get any holiday in, or is it all still ahead?
- Liam DohertyAll still ahead. Couple of weeks in August. Half the depot managers are going the same fortnight, so I'm trying to get everything tidy before then. You?
- Marcus BellSame, I'm hoping. Right, let me share my screen and say what I want to cover, if that's alright. I've pulled the numbers, so it's mostly a look at how the last few weeks have gone, then the ticket you raised, then a quick word about the renewal in December so it's not a surprise.
- Liam DohertyLove that. Go on, I can see it. That's the usage page, yeah?
- Marcus BellThat's it. So, the headline. More of your people are in the brain than last quarter. It's up quite a lot, actually, and it's not one person doing all of it, which is what I was a bit watchful of before.
- Liam DohertyYeah, that's the depot account managers. We did the session in June, the one where I walked them through pulling up a retailer and seeing the calls and the delivery exceptions together, and a few of them just kept going.
- Marcus BellIt shows. If I filter by who's asking questions, you've got revenue ops, which is you, obviously, and then a spread of depot people. Three or four of them are asking something most weeks now.
- Liam DohertyRight. Mm. Which ones, can you see? Is it the Trafford Park lot?
- Marcus BellMostly, yeah. But there's at least one from another depot, so it's not only the people sitting near you.
- Liam DohertyThat's good. That's really good. That's the thing I wanted, honestly. One view, that's the point. They don't have to ring me and ask me to dig out what happened on an account.
- Marcus BellExactly. And the questions themselves are the useful kind. It's not just 'what's this customer called', it's things like what's been going on with a retailer over the last month, what did we say on the last call, are there exceptions building up. That's the brain doing what you bought it for.
- Liam DohertyYeah. I had one of the account managers say to me last week, she was prepping for a review with one of our bigger retail contracts and she just asked the brain for the whole picture instead of opening four things. She said it saved her the best part of a morning.
- Marcus BellCan I steal that? I mean, can I quote that back to our team, internally? That's exactly the kind of example I like to have.
- Liam DohertySure, yeah. I'll see if she minds me naming her, but the story's fine.
- Marcus BellBrilliant, thanks. Okay, records indexed. This is the one I always look at for staleness. It's climbing steadily, no flat patches, so the nightly refresh is doing its job and your sources are all loading.
- Liam DohertyGood. Because that's what kills it, isn't it? The minute somebody sees yesterday's numbers they stop trusting it.
- Marcus BellThat's it exactly. And so far there's no sign of that. I'd keep an eye on it if you change anything on the systems side, but nothing's moved.
- Liam DohertyNo, we've not touched anything. Not till next year anyway, there's a conversation about the helpdesk but that's way off.
- Marcus BellFair enough. If that conversation gets real, just give me a heads up early and we'll make sure the connector's looked after. That's the one thing that can bite.
- Liam DohertyWill do. Noted.
- Marcus BellRight. Tickets. You've had one in the last month. I've got it here, and it was picked up and closed without any fuss. Did it feel alright from your side?
- Liam DohertyYeah, it was fine. I flagged it as high because a depot manager was about to go into a meeting and needed it, and they got back to me quickly. I chased once, but I chase everything, that's just me.
- Marcus BellHa, I'd noticed. No, that's fine, that's what I'd want you to do. Nothing's sitting open, nothing's overdue. It's a quiet picture, which with the numbers going up is a decent sign.
- Liam DohertyRight, so it's quiet and people are using it. I'll take that.
- Marcus BellYeah. Now, what would you want from it that it's not giving you yet? Before I go on to the renewal I'd rather hear what's on your list.
- Liam DohertyOkay, so, list. One, can we get the rest of the depots on it? Right now it's Trafford Park heavy. Two of the other depots barely know it exists. Two, I want the at-risk thing to be sharper. What I really want is to see a retail contract going sideways before the customer rings the managing director.
- Marcus BellRight. Say a bit more on that second one. What does going sideways look like for you, in terms of what you'd see?
- Liam DohertyIt's usually the exceptions. A run of late or damaged deliveries, the tone of the emails changing, a call where the buyer sounds fed up. Individually none of it's a big deal, but together, that's the early warning. We've been caught out before. One contract we found out about when the customer's procurement team were already talking to someone else.
- Marcus BellMm. Okay. So what the brain's good at is exactly that, pulling those together. What I'd suggest is we make it a habit rather than a feature. A question the account managers ask on every one of their big retailers, say weekly, and you can see who's doing it.
- Liam DohertyI like that. A standing question. Can you write me a few good ones? I don't want them making it up and getting rubbish back.
- Marcus BellYeah, happy to. I'll draft a short list of questions and send them over. Plain wording, the kind you'd say out loud.
- Liam DohertyPerfect. And on the depots, can you come and do a session? Like the one we did in June but for the others. Even remote.
- Marcus BellRemote's no problem. We can do it as a training call. Pick a date once people are back from the summer and I'll run through it with them. Bring a couple of their real accounts if you can, because it lands better on their own data.
- Liam DohertyYeah. September, probably. Let's not do it in August, nobody will turn up.
- Marcus BellAgreed. September it is. Now, can I flag something on the numbers side, because it's connected? You're on Starter, with fifteen licensed users. Bringing the other depot managers on is good, and I want it, but I'd like to be upfront that you'd want to be thoughtful about how many sit inside that.
- Liam DohertyRight. So how many are we actually using at the moment? Out of the fifteen.
- Marcus BellOn a typical day, only a handful are active. A few more dip in across the month. So there's plenty of room right now. The fifteen is a soft limit on Starter, so nothing breaks if you nudge past it, but it's a conversation we'd have rather than something to just drift over.
- Liam DohertyOkay. That makes sense. So realistically I can get the depot managers onto the brain within the fifteen for now.
- Marcus BellYes. I'd think so, given the current usage. If it takes off properly, then we'd look at what the right size is, and that's a conversation with Tom.
- Liam DohertyTom's the one I deal with on the commercial side, yeah. Tom Ashdown.
- Marcus BellThat's right. I keep adoption and the day to day, Tom owns the commercial side. I don't get into price, that's his area, but I'll make sure he's got the right picture before anything gets discussed.
- Liam DohertyFine by me. I'd rather one person who knows what we've actually done with it.
- Marcus BellRight. So, the renewal. It's a way off, but I'd rather say it now. Your first term started on 1 Dec 2023 and runs to 30 Nov 2024. You're on Starter at nineteen and a half thousand a year, and that's what's been invoiced, nothing odd there, no overdue invoices on our side either.
- Liam DohertyNo, finance haven't mentioned anything. We pay on time, I'd hope.
- Marcus BellYou do, yeah. So the renewal date is 1 Dec 2024. In the autumn I'll send the formal notice, as I'm supposed to, and then Tom will pick up the conversation about terms. I just wanted you to know it's coming and not hear it first from a letter.
- Liam DohertyAppreciated. Honestly, I can't see a problem. People are using it, it's doing the job. My only concern is what I'll need to say to my own boss to justify it.
- Marcus BellYeah, and that's actually what I wanted to ask. Whoever signs it off will want something concrete. A figure's fine, but a story's better. Is there one example, a real contract where having the brain made a difference? That account manager's review you mentioned could be it.
- Liam DohertyThat's the one I'd use. I can ask her to write a couple of lines. What she did before, what she did this time, how long it took.
- Marcus BellThat would be perfect. Short is fine. Even three sentences. And if there's any case where it flagged something early, even better, but I won't push.
- Liam DohertyI'll have a think. There's maybe one. I need to check I'm remembering it right before I say anything.
- Marcus BellNo rush. Better right than quick.
- Liam DohertyCan I ask something slightly off topic? The chat. Is there any way to make it default to our retailer names? Sometimes it gives me back a different spelling of a customer and I have to correct it.
- Marcus BellGood question. I can't promise anything on that one from the engineering side, I don't want to say something and get it wrong. What I can do is take it to the team and come back to you with a straight answer on whether it's possible.
- Liam DohertyThat's all I need. Straight answer.
- Marcus BellDone. I'll note it. Anything else on the list before I wrap up the numbers bit?
- Liam DohertyNo, I think that's it. Oh, actually, one more. When I move on to the next thing, or if somebody else picks this up from me, is there a handover pack of any kind? A proper note on how it's set up?
- Marcus BellAre you thinking of moving on?
- Liam DohertyNo, no, nothing like that. I just like doing things properly. If I get hit by a bus, someone should know how it all fits together.
- Marcus BellHa, fair. Yes, we can do that. I'll put together a one-page summary of how it's set up, what's connected, who does what. You can check it over and add your own bits.
- Liam DohertyLove that. Thank you.
- Marcus BellRight. So to recap, so I've got it straight. I send you the list of weekly questions for the account managers. I send the one-page set-up note. I take your question about retailer names back to the team and come back with a straight answer. You get a couple of lines from the account manager about her review. And we set a training call for the other depots in September.
- Liam DohertyThat's it, that's all of it. And you'll flag the renewal to Tom with the usage picture.
- Marcus BellI will, yes. I'll share the numbers with him before the autumn so he's not coming in cold.
- Liam DohertyGood. Is that everything then? I think I've got a meeting at half past.
- Marcus BellThat's everything from me. Thanks, Liam, it's a good place to be, to be honest. Enjoy the August break when it comes.
- Liam DohertyYou too. Cheers, Marcus. Speak soon.
- Marcus BellCheers. Bye for now.
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