Brackwell Freight Ltd / BB-Demo – Renewal
Callcompleted
Brackwell Freight Ltd · 2026-09-08 11:00
Finance Director Gareth Whitlam questioned what £44k a year buys when fewer than three of forty licensed users are active, and challenged the £50k renewal figure. Nothing was agreed; written follow-ups are due.
What was said
What this says
Current to 13 Oct 26Finance Director Gareth Whitlam questioned what £44k a year buys when fewer than three of forty licensed users are active, and challenged the £50k renewal figure. Nothing was agreed; written follow-ups are due.
What happened: On the 8 Sep 2026 renewal call, Marcus Bell showed usage of fewer than three active people a day, roughly half the previous quarter. He admitted BB-Demo has no written value case.
Customer view: Gareth wants a reason he can justify line by line before any increase. He accepted that a clear no is a legitimate outcome.
Commercial: Tom Ashdown said the renewal record shows £50k against £44k invoiced for Growth, and promised a written breakdown. Gareth also asked for options at the size the customer actually uses.
Watch: Joanne Platt will need an amended order form or purchase order before she can match any new invoice. Renewal is 1 Dec 2026 and nothing is agreed.
Themes
Current to 9 Oct 26Theme
Renewal value and price
Importance
renewal
Sentiment
negative
Voice
decision-maker
Who was there
BB-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
Current to 9 Oct 26- Marcus Bell sends the usage report by Friday and speaks to revenue operations and depot managers, copying Gareth.
- Tom Ashdown sends a written breakdown of the £50,000 figure and options at different sizes.
- Both sides talk again before the end of the quarter, ahead of the 1 Dec 2026 renewal.
Risks
Current to 9 Oct 26- Fewer than three of forty licensed users are active on a typical day, and BB-Demo has no written value case.
- The £50,000 renewal figure against £44,000 invoiced has no justification yet, and the Finance Director resists any increase.
- The customer may give a clear no at the 1 Dec 2026 renewal.
Opportunities
Current to 9 Oct 26- Right-size the Growth contract with written options at the size the customer actually uses.
- Build a value case with revenue operations and the depot account managers.
Transcript
Tom Ashdown NoneMorning, all. Can everyone hear me alright?
Gareth Whitlam NoneYes.
Marcus Bell NoneMorning. Hear you fine, Tom. Joanne, are you with us?
Joanne Platt NoneGood morning. I can confirm I'm here. I've just had to find the right headset, sorry.- Tom Ashdown NoneNo drama. How's your week been, Gareth? Busy, I'd imagine, with it being budget season.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneBusy enough. I've read the renewal paperwork you sent over and I've looked at what we've been paying for. I still have some doubts, so I'd rather we start there.
- Tom Ashdown NoneFair enough, that's what today's for. Marcus, do you want to kick us off, and then I'll come in on the commercial side?
- Marcus Bell NoneYeah, happy to. I'm just sharing my screen now. Can you see that? It's the usage summary for Brackwell. What I want to cover is where you are on the contract, what the brain has actually been doing for you this year, and what we do between now and the end of November.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneI can see it.
- Marcus Bell NoneGreat. So, to level-set. You're on Growth, which you've been on since 1 Dec 2023. The order form is forty-four thousand a year, and the contract runs to 30 Nov 2026, so the renewal date is 1 Dec 2026. That's about twelve weeks away, so it's a good time to be talking.
- Joanne Platt NoneIf I may, I can confirm that the invoiced amount for the current term is £44,000, and that matches the order form and the purchase order we hold. Nothing is outstanding on our side.
- Marcus Bell NoneThat's right, and thanks, Joanne. Nothing overdue at our end either, so the money side is clean.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneGood. Then the money is not my question. What exactly are we paying for?
- Marcus Bell NoneOkay. So, straight to it. You've got forty licensed users on Growth, and the connectors into your CRM, the helpdesk and the call recorder, so revenue operations and the depot account managers can see accounts, delivery-exception tickets and calls in one place. That was the idea when you bought it.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneThat was the idea before I arrived. Show me the usage.
- Marcus Bell NoneRight. So this is the chart I've pulled. I'll be straight with you, it's not a good picture. On a typical day over the last month, fewer than three people were active in the brain. And compared with the previous quarter that's roughly half as many people as before.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneFewer than three. Out of forty licences.
- Marcus Bell NoneYes. That's the number.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneSo we are paying forty-four thousand pounds a year for something fewer than three people open on a given day. Have I misread that?
- Marcus Bell NoneNo, you've read it right. I'm not going to dress it up. The licences are there and the usage isn't. What I can't tell you from the dashboard is why. I'd rather ask your teams than guess.
- Tom Ashdown NoneCan I just come in there? Gareth, I sold this to Brackwell originally, so I've got a bit of history. The people who really got going on it were the account managers who had a retail contract wobbling. When that group changes, or somebody moves on, usage can fall away and nobody puts it back on the agenda. I'm not saying that's what's happened, I'm saying it's a pattern I've seen.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneA pattern is not an answer. I'm not minded to accept a general explanation.
- Tom Ashdown NoneNo, fair. Leave that with me and Marcus, we'll get you something specific.
- Marcus Bell NoneSo, other bits of the picture while I've got it up. No tickets in the last month, none of them high priority. Normally I'd read that as a happy customer. With usage like this I read it as quiet. Nobody's hitting a problem because hardly anybody is using it.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneThat is a candid thing to say.
- Marcus Bell NoneIt's what the numbers say. I'd sooner you heard it from me.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneThen let me ask the next question. What did we get for the money this year? Not a feature list. A thing someone did with it that they could not have done otherwise.
- Marcus Bell NoneRight. Honestly, mm, I want to be careful here. I can show you questions asked and records indexed, and the nightly refresh has been landing. But a specific decision someone made because of it, I don't have that written down. That's a gap on our side as much as yours. I should have been pulling that out of your account managers at each check-in.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneSo you cannot show me a value case.
- Marcus Bell NoneNot one I'd put in front of a finance director today. No.
- Tom Ashdown NoneWhich is why I'd like to go and build one properly, rather than wave something at you. Can I propose something? Marcus sits down with the revenue operations lead and a couple of the depot account managers, and we find out what they were using it for and what stopped. Then we come back with either a clear case or a clear no.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneA clear no is a legitimate outcome, then.
- Tom Ashdown NoneIt is. I'd rather have a straight no than a renewal nobody wants. That's no use to either of us.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneFine. Let's talk about the renewal itself. The paperwork shows fifty thousand. We pay forty-four. Why is it fifty?
- Tom Ashdown NoneYeah. So, the figure on the renewal record is £50,000. I don't want to quote it from memory as the final number, so let me say it plainly: I'll confirm it in writing and set out exactly how it's made up. My understanding is it follows the current list price for Growth, but I'll confirm that, not assume it.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneSo the price goes up and the usage goes down.
- Tom Ashdown NoneI can see why it looks like that. I'm not going to argue it on this call. I'll get you the breakdown.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneGood, because I'm not minded to agree that on the call, or to agree any increase, without a reason I can justify line by line.
- Tom Ashdown NoneUnderstood. That's reasonable.
- Joanne Platt NoneGareth, if it helps, whichever way it goes, I will need the order form or a purchase order amendment before I can match any new invoice. I can't pay against a figure I cannot match.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneNoted, Joanne. Nothing will be raised before I've agreed it.
- Marcus Bell NoneCan I add one practical thing? There's a decent chunk of the forty licences that look unassigned or unused. If we did right-size, that's a conversation we could have about what the contract should look like, not just whether it renews.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneNow that is a more interesting question. What would the contract look like at the size we use?
- Tom Ashdown NoneThat's one for me to go away and work out properly, because there are tiers and limits involved and I'd get it wrong from memory. I'll come back with options, including what you'd lose at a smaller size. No promises on the number.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneOptions, in writing, with the reasoning. Not a sales deck.
- Tom Ashdown NonePlain email. Cheers. That's what I'll send.
- Marcus Bell NoneAnd from my side, I'll send you the usage report, the actual numbers, by the end of the week. Who's asking questions, which connectors are loading, what's flat. Warts and all. Shall we book half an hour next week to go through it once you've had a look?
- Gareth Whitlam NoneSend the report first. I will tell you whether I need the half hour.
- Marcus Bell NoneFair. And I'll get in touch with revenue operations and the depot managers this week, so we're not waiting on the decision to start finding out what happened.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneDo that. Copy me. I want to see who you speak to and what they say.
- Marcus Bell NoneWill do.
- Tom Ashdown NoneSo, just to pull it together, so nobody leaves with a different version. Marcus sends the usage report by Friday and talks to your teams. I send the written breakdown of the renewal figure and some options at different sizes. Gareth looks at both, and then we talk again with a proper picture before the end of the quarter, well ahead of the renewal on 1 Dec 2026.
- Gareth Whitlam NoneThat is acceptable. Nothing is agreed today.
- Tom Ashdown NoneNothing's agreed today. Understood completely.
- Joanne Platt NoneKind regards to you all. I'll leave you to it.
- Marcus Bell NoneThanks, Joanne. Thanks, Gareth. Speak soon.
- Tom Ashdown NoneCheers, both. Speak soon.
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