Prospect brief
Meridian Shipping Ltd
Elena Georgiou, Head of Operations · customs documentation, quoted in March
Who they are
Freight forwarder, 140 staff, offices in Limassol and Piraeus. Family-held, second generation, no outside investors on record.
LinkedIn company page · Registrar filing HE 214785Opened a Piraeus route on 3 June and announced it publicly. Three weeks ago they posted two customs-clearance roles, both Limassol-based.
LinkedIn posts, 3 June and 14 JulyWorth reconciling in the room: your March notes put customs volume at roughly 40 declarations a week. The new route and two open roles suggest that number is well out of date, and it was the basis for the pricing.
Meeting notes, 11 March · CRM volume field, unchanged since 12 MarchWhere things stand
The deal sits at Proposal sent, €13,800, close date 30 April. Three months past and never updated. Two tasks on the record are overdue.
CRM deal 8841The last message in the thread is yours, 47 days ago, following up on the revised scope. Before that, Petros replied twice within a day each time. The silence starts exactly when he left.
Mail thread, 6 messages, 11 March to 9 JuneOpen on your side since March: whether the €8,400 setup fee covers migrating the existing spreadsheet, or whether that is quoted separately. Petros asked twice. It was never answered.
His emails, 18 March and 2 AprilWhat they said, in March
Petros, on the current process: “Two people spend their mornings retyping the same details into three systems.”
Meeting notes, 11 March · raised in the first five minutesOn timing: “We cannot start anything before the Piraeus route is settled.” The route opened on 3 June. That objection has expired.
His email, 2 April · LinkedIn announcement, 3 JuneOn approval: “Anything over ten thousand goes to the board, and the board meets quarterly.”
Meeting notes, 11 MarchEvery number, and where it came from
| Figure | Value | Origin |
|---|---|---|
| Deal value | €13,800 | CRM deal 8841, first year total |
| Setup and migration | €8,400 | Proposal, 14 MarchScope of migration never confirmed. |
| Training, two half-days | €1,800 | Proposal, 14 March |
| Annual support | €3,600 | Proposal, 14 March |
| Declarations per week | ~40 | Meeting notes, 11 MarchPre-dates the Piraeus route. Likely stale. |
| Board approval threshold | €10,000 | Meeting notes, 11 March · quarterly cycle |
| Days since last contact | 47 | CRM activity log, last outbound 9 June |
| Headcount | 140 | LinkedIn, band 101 to 200 |
| Open customs roles | 2 | LinkedIn jobs, posted 14 July |
Most likely objection
Not price. Expect: “I have just taken this over and I am not committing budget in my first quarter.”
The counter is in her own hiring plan. She is recruiting two customs clearers at roughly €28,000 each. The proposal costs half of one of them and removes the reason for the second. Frame it against the headcount she is about to add, not against last year's budget.
Meeting notes, 11 March · LinkedIn job postings, 14 JulyWhat could not be found
No agenda. The invitation is thirty minutes with no title beyond “Intro, Meridian / BackboneAI”.
No read on who else attends. The invitation lists Elena only, but she refers to “the team” in her reply.
Whether the March proposal ever reached the board. Nothing confirms it did, or did not.