Brackenlea Recruitment / BG-Demo – Discovery
Callcompleted
Brackenlea Recruitment · 16 Jan 2023 09:45
Discovery call on 16 Jan 2023. Sally Bettinson wants one answer across the CRM, call recorder and emails. Vernon Toon wants to know what it costs and is worth. Nell quoted £26k as total deal value, Starter as a likely tier.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Discovery call on 16 Jan 2023. Sally Bettinson wants one answer across the CRM, call recorder and emails. Vernon Toon wants to know what it costs and is worth. Nell quoted £26k as total deal value, Starter as a likely tier.
What happened: Nell Ashcombe ran discovery with Sally Bettinson and Vernon Toon, who left early for a call about a lorry. Sally described candidate and client notes split across the CRM, the call recorder, emails and personal documents.
Customer view: Vernon said he pays for systems he does not trust and checks everything by hand. He owns contracts and wants a breakdown, not a summary, and said he has been promised things before.
Commercial: Nell gave £26k as the total deal value and said it should not be read as a yearly price. She suggested Starter as the place to look first, without promising it.
Watch: Whether B-Viz can connect to Brackenlea's email is unconfirmed. Candidate data access needs a written answer from the CTO, and Vernon is sceptical until the breakdown arrives.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Disconnected recruitment systems
Importance
neutral
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- Nell Ashcombe to send Vernon Toon the written price breakdown.
- Nell Ashcombe to have the CTO write down who sees what candidate data, and send it to Sally Bettinson.
- Sally Bettinson to send the list of daily systems, and a follow-up call with both to be pencilled in.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Vernon Toon is price-focused and sceptical, and wants a written breakdown before committing.
- Email connectivity and candidate data permissions are unconfirmed and could undermine the pitch.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- A Starter-tier deal built around the question of what was said to a candidate or client last time.
- Cross-system answers on client and vacancy notes would address the pain Sally Bettinson described.
Transcript
Sally BettinsonCan you hear me? I think I've got the wrong microphone on.
Nell AshcombeI can hear you fine, Sally. Morning. Is it just you for now?- Sally BettinsonVernon's on his way, he's got a driver on the phone. Morning. How's your week been?
- Nell AshcombeBusy, but not in a bad way. Thanks for making the time, I know it's a Monday.
- Sally BettinsonNo, thanks for coming to us. Oh, there he is. Vernon, you're on mute.
Vernon ToonI'm not on mute, I'm just not being heard. Morning, Nell. I've got the morning, mostly, so I'll need to duck out for a call about a lorry at some point. Sorry in advance.- Nell AshcombeThat's fine, we'll keep it moving. Before we start, what do you two need to leave with today?
- Sally BettinsonHonestly? I need to know whether this does what we think it does. We spend a lot of Monday mornings chasing spreadsheets.
- Vernon ToonWhat she means is I want to know what it costs and whether it's worth the bother.
- Nell AshcombeFair. Then let's start with Sally's Monday, then talk money, and I'll tell you what I don't know as we go. Say what happened, say how you know, that's how I like to run these.
- Sally BettinsonOkay. So a typical Monday, candidates come in from the job boards and some from referrals. They land in the CRM, but half the notes are in the call recorder because the consultants ring people from their phones.
- Nell AshcombeRight. And the call recorder isn't linked to the CRM?
- Sally BettinsonNot properly. Someone exports a list and pastes it across. That's fine until it isn't, and then you're phoning a candidate about a job they've already taken.
- Nell AshcombeThat's the bit I hear most, honestly. Are the client notes in the same place?
- Sally BettinsonClients are the mess. Some is in the CRM, some is in emails, and the account managers keep their own notes in a document each. When Vernon asks me who's been told what about a vacancy, I have to go and ask three people.
- Vernon ToonAnd I end up asking Sally, which is why she looks tired.
- Sally BettinsonThank you, Vernon.
- Nell AshcombeWhat's that cost you, roughly? Not a precise number, just the feel of it.
- Vernon ToonThe feel of it is I'm paying for a set of systems I don't trust, so I check everything by hand. The software's fine. The trouble is none of it talks to anything else.
- Nell AshcombeThat's a good sentence, I'll probably steal it. The honest answer is that B-Viz doesn't replace the CRM or the call recorder. It sits over them and answers questions across them, so Sally can ask who's been told about a vacancy and get one answer.
- Sally BettinsonCan it read the emails too?
- Nell AshcombeIt can, if your email is in a system we can connect, and that's the first thing I'd want us to check together. I'd rather not promise it before we've looked.
- Vernon ToonGood, because I've been promised things before.
- Nell AshcombeI'd expect that. Where does your data sit at the moment? Who owns it day to day?
- Sally BettinsonDay to day, me, on the candidate side. Vernon owns the client relationships and the contracts.
- Vernon ToonContracts are mine, yes, and that's where I need a straight answer. What do I get for the money?
- Nell AshcombeLet me take that carefully. The number on our side against this is £25,500. That's the total deal value as it sits now, and I'd be wrong to call it a yearly price. I'd rather send you the breakdown than guess on a call.
- Vernon ToonFine. And what tier are we talking about?
- Nell AshcombeStarter, I'd think, to start with. Not a promise, but that's where I'd look first.
- Vernon ToonRight, I've got to go, the lorry's finally called me back. Nell, send me the breakdown, not a summary.
- Nell AshcombeBreakdown, yes. Thanks, Vernon.
- Sally BettinsonSorry about him. He's like that on a Monday. Can I ask about candidate data? Who sees what?
- Nell AshcombeGood question, and it's the one our CTO would ask first. I'm not going to answer it from memory. I'll get him to write it down, because I'd rather be exact.
- Sally BettinsonThat's fine. Honestly, the consultants will ask that before anything else, so it needs to be in writing.
- Nell AshcombeAgreed. Walk me through a day for one consultant. What do they open first?
- Sally BettinsonThe call list, then the CRM for the candidate, then they flip to the recorder to see what they said last time. Then they've forgotten the job.
- Nell AshcombeSo the question they want answered is what did we say last time, and what's changed since. That's the one I'd build around.
- Sally BettinsonYes. That would save them ten minutes before every call, easily.
- Nell AshcombeLet's not promise minutes yet. Can you send me the list of systems the team touches every day? Just names, no detail.
- Sally BettinsonYes, I'll send that over this week.
- Nell AshcombeAnd Vernon will want a follow-up with you both in the diary. Shall we pencil that in?
- Sally BettinsonHe'll say yes and then ask you to rearrange it. But yes, let's do it.
- Nell AshcombeThen I'll send the note today, the breakdown to Vernon, and the questions I've written down to you. Speak soon, Sally.
- Sally BettinsonThanks, Nell. Bye.
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