Ashwell Mercer Interiors / BG-Demo – Proposal
Callcompleted
Ashwell Mercer Interiors · 1 Jul 2024 11:30
Proposal call on Growth at a total deal value of £52k, implementation included. Craig is keen; Valerie must take it to the board. Signature target is Fri 9 Aug 2024, which she calls a target, not a promise.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Proposal call on Growth at a total deal value of £52k, implementation included. Craig is keen; Valerie must take it to the board. Signature target is Fri 9 Aug 2024, which she calls a target, not a promise.
What happened: Priya walked Craig Ashwell and Valerie Okon through the Growth proposal. Craig wants the brain to catch client changes that are never written down as variations.
Customer view: Craig said he is in and wants it started. Valerie asked about exit, flexibility on price, stale data and access to finance information, and said the board must see the paperwork.
Commercial: Priya said £52k is the total deal value, not an annual price. She offered room on the first term only if the order form is signed by Fri 9 Aug 2024.
Watch: Valerie said she would rather not be rushed by a discount and that the date is a target. The board timing is not yet known.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Growth proposal and board approval
Importance
upsell
Sentiment
positive
Voice
decision-maker
Who was there
BG-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Priya to send the order form, master agreement, payment schedule, access note and one-page summary in one email the next day.
- Craig to name a commercial contact and the systems person for a connector session with Marcus Bell.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Valerie needs board approval and has not given a board date, so the signature target of 9 Aug 2024 may slip.
- Valerie asked about stale data and exit mid-term, so value must be shown early through the quarterly reviews.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Craig wants the unrecorded changes on a big fit-out as the first real example in the build.
- Growth is sized for several teams, and extra users can be added in blocks later.
Transcript
Priya RamanHello, hello. Can you both hear me all right? I've got a bit of an echo on my side.
Craig AshwellLoud and clear. Valerie's just joining, I can see her in the lobby.
Valerie OkonGood morning. Apologies, I was finishing something. Can you hear me?- Priya RamanPerfectly, Valerie, thanks for making the time. Morning both. Nearly lunchtime, but just about morning.
- Craig AshwellJust about. Look, before we start, can I say what's on my mind? We've got one of the big fit-outs where the client keeps asking for changes and none of it is written down as a variation. That's exactly the sort of thing I want this to catch.
- Priya RamanGood, that's a perfect place to start, because that's the thread I wanted to pull on today. Let me do a quick recap so we're all on the same page. We've done the discovery, you've seen the demo on your own data, and the proposal landed with you last week. Today is about walking through it, answering anything that's open, and agreeing what happens next.
- Priya RamanAnd the date I've got in my diary is Friday 9 August 2024 for signature. That's the target. To keep momentum, if we can get this over the line by then, we can have the implementation team start on a good footing.
- Valerie OkonBefore we go further, can I ask about invoices? When we had the demo, I saw the invoice view next to the project. What's outstanding by client? Does it actually show that, or was that a mock-up?
- Priya RamanNot a mock-up, Valerie, that was built from the sample you gave us. Once your accounting system is connected, the brain reads the invoices and the payments, and you can ask it that question in plain English. What's outstanding for a given client, how old it is, and which projects it sits against.
- Valerie OkonAnd it doesn't change anything in the accounting system itself.
- Priya RamanNo. It reads, it doesn't write back. It all sits inside your own Snowflake account, so your data doesn't leave your environment.
- Valerie OkonGood. That will matter to the board.
- Craig AshwellMm. Priya, say it back to me in my language. Where's the variation? If the site manager emails the client to say we're doing extra work, and the client says yes on a call, where does that end up?
- Priya RamanSo that's the interesting bit. The brain pulls in the emails, the call recordings and the project records. If someone asks, show me work discussed with this client that doesn't have a matching variation, it can surface the email and the call together. It won't create the variation for you, but it shows you the gap.
- Craig AshwellThat'll do. The gap is the problem. Nobody's hiding anything, it just doesn't get written down.
- Priya RamanExactly, and that's why I put your commercial and credit teams in the same scope as the project team in the proposal. Same view of the same client.
- Valerie OkonCan we go through the proposal document itself? I have it open.
- Priya RamanOf course. Happy to make this easy. I'll share my screen so we're looking at the same page. Give me a second, I've got a couple of windows open. There we go. Can you see it?
- Craig AshwellYes. A bit small. Can you zoom in?
- Priya RamanBetter? Right. So page one is the summary. You're taking the Growth tier. That's the one aimed at several teams working from the same data, and it includes the dashboards builder and a review with us every quarter.
- Valerie OkonA review of what?
- Priya RamanUsage and value. Marcus Bell, who'll be your customer success manager, sits down with you each quarter and goes through what people are asking, what's being used, what isn't, and whether the sources are still loading properly. It's meant to stop the thing quietly going stale.
- Valerie OkonMarcus is the person we'd call if something was wrong.
- Priya RamanHe's your day to day, yes. For anything urgent there's the support route as well, and the order form sets out the response times for your tier. I'll make sure that page is easy to find.
- Craig AshwellFine. Go on to the money. Valerie's going to ask anyway.
- Valerie OkonI am. What's the number?
- Priya RamanSo the figure on the proposal is £51,600. And I want to be clear what that is, because it matters. That's the total deal value, the whole thing together, implementation included. It isn't an annual price on its own.
- Valerie OkonUnderstood. So when it's said to the board, I should say fifty-one thousand six hundred covers the implementation and the first period of the subscription.
- Priya RamanThat's the right way to say it. The implementation is a one-off fixed fee, the subscription is annual, and the order form separates the two so nothing's blurred. I'll flag the split on a single page, so you're not hunting for it.
- Valerie OkonPlease do. And payment terms?
- Priya RamanThe subscription is invoiced annually in advance, thirty-day terms. If quarterly suits your cash better, that can be asked for and we'd write it into the order form.
- Valerie OkonWe'll pay on the agreed terms. What I'd want is to know exactly when each invoice would fall. I don't want surprises in a month where retentions are slow.
- Priya RamanCompletely fair. I'll add a short schedule: what's invoiced, when, and against which part. Then the board can see it in one go.
- Craig AshwellCan I come back to the implementation? Valerie cares about the cost, I care about how long my people are tied up. Last time, for the previous system, they were in workshops for months and nothing came out.
- Priya RamanI hear that. This isn't workshops. It's connecting the sources, checking the data comes through properly, and then training your teams on their own questions. For Growth it runs in a matter of weeks, around two months at the outside, and the order form carries a commitment on when each connector goes live.
- Craig AshwellA commitment. In writing.
- Priya RamanIn writing, in the order form. Each connector promised has a live-by window, so it isn't a hope, it's a term.
- Valerie OkonWhich connectors, specifically? I'd like it listed.
- Priya RamanFrom what we've discussed: your CRM, your accounting system, the call recorder, the mailboxes and the helpdesk, if the credit team uses one for queries. I'd rather you and Craig confirm the final list than have me guess. Marcus can run through each of them with whoever looks after your systems.
- Craig AshwellThat's our IT contractor, mostly. And one of the commercial team knows the CRM better than anyone.
- Priya RamanPerfect. Then a short session with those two, early, and we know exactly what we're connecting before the clock starts.
- Valerie OkonMay I ask about something else. If we sign and later find we don't use it, what then?
- Priya RamanIt's a fair question. The subscription is annual, so you're committed for the term. That's why the quarterly reviews are in there, so that we see low usage early and fix it, rather than finding out at renewal.
- Valerie OkonSo there's no exit mid-term.
- Priya RamanNot for convenience, no. That's standard under the master agreement. If we miss the service levels in the order form, there are service credits, and those are written in too.
- Valerie OkonNoted.
- Craig AshwellValerie, you're not going to love this, but I think that's reasonable. We're not buying a toy.
- Valerie OkonI'm not saying it's unreasonable, Craig. I'm saying the board will ask. Priya, is there any flexibility on the figure?
- Priya RamanI thought you might. So, honestly, there's a bit of room on the first term, and I'd look at it properly. But I'd want it tied to a date. If we can get the order form signed by Friday 9 August 2024, I can take something to my side. After that I couldn't promise it. I'll put the terms and that deadline in one email so there's no ambiguity.
- Valerie OkonThat's acceptable. I'd rather have it clear and dated. And any discount applies to the first term only, I assume.
- Priya RamanCorrect, first term only. After that it goes to the list price for your tier. I'd rather you hear that now than at renewal.
- Valerie OkonThank you. That's the sort of thing I like to know.
- Craig AshwellCan I do a practical one while we've got you? Show me again how someone on my team asks a question. Not the polished demo. A real one, say a client where we've done the work and haven't been paid.
- Priya RamanSure. Let me pull up the sample workspace. Bear with me, it takes a moment to load. Right. So I'd type something like, for this client, show me valuations issued, what's been paid, and what's still open. And it comes back with the table, and underneath it lists where it got each line from.
- Craig AshwellSo I can see the source.
- Priya RamanEvery answer links back to the record it came from. That's deliberate. People trust it because they can check it.
- Craig AshwellAnd if I add, and what's been said on calls about it?
- Priya RamanThen it brings in the call recordings and the emails for that client and summarises them. You'd see, for instance, that the client said on a call they'd pay once a particular item was signed off.
- Craig AshwellThat's it. That's the whole point. Let's get paid for what we've built.
- Valerie OkonAnd if the information in the project system is wrong, the answer is wrong.
- Priya RamanIt is, yes. It reflects what's in your systems. It won't fix bad data, but it does show up where two systems disagree, which people tend to find useful in itself.
- Valerie OkonThat I can believe. We spend a lot of time reconciling by hand.
- Craig AshwellEvery month end. Three people and a spreadsheet.
- Priya RamanWhich is exactly the pattern we see. The teams stop reconciling and start asking.
- Valerie OkonLet me raise something about access. Not everyone should see the finance information. Retentions and the bank facilities particularly.
- Priya RamanUnderstood. Access follows the permissions in the underlying systems and in your Snowflake account, so you decide who sees what. I'd want Marcus to go through that with you in the setup, and I'm happy to put a note in the proposal that finance data is restricted by default.
- Valerie OkonI'd like that in the document.
- Priya RamanDone. I'll add it.
- Craig AshwellRight, what about the numbers of people? We've got project managers, commercial, the credit control team. I don't want to find out we're over some limit.
- Priya RamanGrowth is sized for several teams, and what you've described sits comfortably inside it. If you grow later, extra users can be added in blocks without changing tier. I'd rather you start with the people who'll actually use it and expand.
- Craig AshwellGood. Start with commercial and credit, then bring the project managers in once they see it works.
- Priya RamanThat's a sensible order. Win the commercial team first and the project managers will ask for it themselves.
- Valerie OkonWho from your side is responsible during the implementation?
- Priya RamanMarcus Bell leads on adoption and the quarterly reviews, and the implementation team does the build. I stay your commercial contact until signature and through the handover, so you won't be passed around.
- Valerie OkonAnd on our side, I'd suggest Craig is the day to day. I'm the sign-off for anything involving cost.
- Craig AshwellFine by me. I'll nominate someone from commercial to do the detail.
- Priya RamanLovely. That's the kind of clarity that keeps these things moving.
- Valerie OkonCan we talk about the contract documents? I'd need the order form and the master agreement together, with the terms I've asked about. I will not be signing anything new without the board seeing it.
- Priya RamanOf course. I'll send both as a single pack: the order form, the master agreement, the payment schedule and the note on restricted access. And for the board, would a one-page summary help? What it is, what it costs, what you get, what the commitments are.
- Valerie OkonThat would help considerably. Plain language, please.
- Priya RamanPlain language, one page. I'll draft it and you can tell me what's missing.
- Craig AshwellWhile we're being practical. Valerie, is there anything else the board is going to throw at us?
- Valerie OkonThey'll ask what happens if the data in it is out of date. We had an issue with a report before that nobody noticed was weeks old.
- Priya RamanGood one, and I'd answer it straight. The brain refreshes each night, and the order form sets when that should be complete on business days. If something stops loading, that's visible in the usage, and it's one of the things Marcus looks at in each review. I won't pretend it can never happen, but you'd see it, and there's a defined route to get it fixed.
- Valerie OkonA defined route. Fine. Put that in the summary as well.
- Priya RamanWill do.
- Craig AshwellLet me say something about why I'm pushing this. We've had a good few years, but I'm tired of finding out in the monthly meeting that a client is three valuations behind. By then it's a conversation, not a reminder.
- Valerie OkonIt's true. It costs us cash.
- Craig AshwellAnd we're the ones who look daft. So if this gives us the warning earlier, it pays for itself. I'll say that to the board myself if it helps.
- Valerie OkonIt might. I'll tell you after I've read the pack.
- Priya RamanHonestly, that's the best outcome I could ask for. Having you both in the room with the board is what makes the difference.
- Craig AshwellWhat about the first month? When the system's switched on, what do we actually see?
- Priya RamanIn the first stretch, the CRM and accounting data come through, so the credit team can start asking the outstanding question almost straight away. Calls and emails follow. By the end of the build you've got all the sources together and a short training for each team, with their own questions rather than generic ones.
- Craig AshwellTheir own questions. Good. My commercial team will want examples from live clients, not demo ones.
- Priya RamanThat's how we do it. Real data, real clients, otherwise nobody believes it.
- Valerie OkonWill you be there, Priya, at the start?
- Priya RamanI'll be at the kickoff, yes, to make the introductions and make sure the commitments in the order form are understood by everyone. Then Marcus and the implementation team take over day to day.
- Valerie OkonGood.
- Craig AshwellOne more. Priya, am I right that nothing is final until the order form's signed? Because Valerie's board will want to change something, I know it.
- Priya RamanRight. The proposal is a proposal. If the board wants a change to the connectors, the schedule, the wording, send it to me and we'll go round again. The only thing with a clock on it is the commercial offer I mentioned, which is tied to Friday 9 August 2024.
- Valerie OkonUnderstood. And I'd rather not be rushed into that date because of a discount.
- Priya RamanNo, and I wouldn't want that. If it genuinely can't be done by then, tell me early and we'll talk about what's sensible. I'd rather have an honest date than a hopeful one.
- Valerie OkonThank you. That's helpful.
- Craig AshwellRight, so what do we owe you? What do you need from us?
- Priya RamanThree things, really. First, a name from commercial and the person who looks after your systems, so Marcus can set up that connector session. Second, any questions from Valerie on the pack once she's read it. Third, a view on when the board can look at it.
- Craig AshwellI'll get you the names today, or tomorrow at the latest.
- Valerie OkonAnd I will tell you the board timing once I have spoken to the chair. I can't commit to a date I can't keep.
- Priya RamanTotally understood, and it's much better to hear it that way.
- Priya RamanAnd from me: the pack with the order form and the agreement, the payment schedule, the access note, the one-page summary, and the email setting out the first-term offer with its deadline. I'll aim to have that with you tomorrow.
- Valerie OkonTomorrow is fine. Please send everything together, not in pieces.
- Priya RamanEverything together, one email. And I'll copy Marcus so he's across it from the start.
- Craig AshwellGood. Marcus, if you're listening in the recording, hello.
- Priya RamanHe'll love that. He's not on this one but he's well briefed.
- Valerie OkonMay I ask one last detail? When the term ends, who contacts us about renewing? I'd rather it was not a surprise.
- Priya RamanMarcus owns that. There's a formal notice well ahead of the end of the term, and he'd have been through the value with you in the reviews before then, so it should never come out of the blue.
- Valerie OkonGood. I'll be keeping a note of the date myself.
- Craig AshwellShe will. She keeps everything.
- Valerie OkonSomeone has to.
- Priya RamanBefore we go, shall I read back what I've got, so we're all clear?
- Craig AshwellPlease.
- Priya RamanYou're looking at Growth, with a total deal value of £51,600, implementation included. Terms are annual in advance, thirty days, with quarterly available if you ask. The commercial and credit teams start, project managers follow. The connector list is confirmed with your systems person and a colleague in commercial. I send the full pack tomorrow. Valerie takes it to the board once she's confirmed timing, and the target for signature is Friday 9 August 2024.
- Valerie OkonThat is accurate. I would add that the date is a target, not a promise.
- Priya RamanNoted and agreed. A target. I'll keep it in that spirit.
- Craig AshwellFrom my side, I'm in. I want it started. Valerie, you do what you need to do.
- Valerie OkonI will, Craig. Properly, and in the right order.
- Priya RamanThat's all I can ask. Is there anything else either of you wanted to cover that we haven't?
- Craig AshwellNo. Actually, yes, one thing. The big fit-out I mentioned at the start. Could we use that as the first real example in the build? If the brain can show me the unrecorded changes on that one, I'll be telling everyone.
- Priya RamanI love that. Real project, real problem, and a proper test. I'll make sure Marcus knows to start there.
- Craig AshwellGood. Then we're done on my side.
- Valerie OkonNothing further from me today. I will read the pack when it arrives.
- Priya RamanBrilliant. Thank you both, really. This has been a useful conversation, and I think we're in a good place. I'll get that email to you tomorrow.
- Craig AshwellSpeak soon, Priya. Thanks.
- Valerie OkonThank you, Priya. Goodbye, Craig.
- Priya RamanBye both. Have a good afternoon, and enjoy the rest of the week.
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