Ashwell Mercer Interiors / BG-Demo – Check In
Callcompleted
Ashwell Mercer Interiors · 17 Apr 2025 09:15
Craig Ashwell, Commercial Director, wants credit control using the brain and a value case built on variations before any price talk. Six or seven of forty seats are active, and he says seats will come up at renewal.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Craig Ashwell, Commercial Director, wants credit control using the brain and a value case built on variations before any price talk. Six or seven of forty seats are active, and he says seats will come up at renewal.
What happened: Marcus Bell reviewed usage, one how-to ticket and the contract with Craig Ashwell on 17 Apr 2025. Craig opened on an unsigned variation on a retail fit-out, and the brain was queried live on it.
Customer view: Craig wanted the value in credit control, who still work from old spreadsheets. He said that if it is still six or seven active in the summer, he will be asking the seat question properly.
Commercial: Growth, £40k a year, contracted and invoiced. The term ends 22 Aug 2025, and Craig wants usage and value shown before any talk about price.
Watch: One invoice shows as overdue and Craig passed it to his finance lead rather than discuss cash. The call does not show how the renewal ended.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Usage, seats, renewal value case
Importance
renewal
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- Marcus Bell to send session slots for the following week and run a half-hour live-job session with credit control and project managers.
- Marcus Bell to send the overdue invoice details the same day so Craig can pass them to his finance lead.
- Marcus Bell to prepare a value summary for the renewal conversation with Priya, after the team has had time to use the brain.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Only six or seven of forty Growth seats are active and Craig said he will question the seat count if that does not change by the summer.
- Credit control, where Craig wanted the value, barely use the brain, so a value case built today would look weak.
- One invoice is showing overdue and Craig would not discuss cash without his finance lead.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- A live-job training session with credit control and project managers could widen use across the forty seats.
- A dashboard of open, unsigned variations by client, which Craig called very useful, uses the Growth dashboards builder.
- Several new project managers starting over the summer would add active users if onboarded.
Transcript
Marcus BellMorning, Craig. Can you hear me all right?
Craig AshwellMorning. Yes, loud and clear. You're a bit echoey, mind.- Marcus BellAh, sorry, let me switch headsets. Is that better?
- Craig AshwellBetter. Right. Before you share anything, can I start with the retail fit-out? The one out in the Thames Valley. It's keeping me up.
- Marcus BellGo on. What's happening with it?
- Craig AshwellScope moved twice since January. The client's facilities lead keeps asking for changes on site. Verbal, always verbal. And my project manager says yes because he wants to be helpful. So, where's the variation? What has the client signed? Nothing, that's the answer.
- Marcus BellRight, yeah. And that's exactly the sort of thing you brought the brain in to catch, isn't it. Calls, emails, the commercial side, all in one place.
- Craig AshwellThat's the idea. Has it caught it? Honestly I don't know. That's partly why I wanted this call.
- Marcus BellOkay, good. I've pulled the numbers, so let me share my screen and I'll say what I want to cover. Three things really. How people are using it, the one ticket you've had, and then what's coming up on the contract. Can you see that?
- Craig AshwellI can see a spreadsheet. Hang on, now it's bigger. Yes, fine.
- Marcus BellLovely. So, starting with usage. You're on Growth, forty licensed users, £39,600 a year contracted, and that's what's been invoiced too, so those line up. Questions asked in the brain are up on last quarter, and the number of people actually using it has gone up by about a third.
- Craig AshwellA third. That sounds decent. Is it?
- Marcus BellIt's a good direction. I'll be straight with you though, the number it's going up from is small. On an average day there's about six or seven people active. Out of forty seats.
- Craig AshwellSix or seven. Right. So that's me, my two commercial managers, a couple of the project managers...
- Marcus BellThat's about what the activity looks like, yes. I can see who's asking the questions, if you want to know who.
- Craig AshwellGo on, who?
- Marcus BellWell, a fair share of them are yours. I'd say you're the heaviest user by a distance, and then two people in commercial. The project managers dip in. Credit control, hardly at all.
- Craig AshwellHmm. Credit control is where I wanted the value. Chasing valuations, seeing what's been agreed on a job before they pick up the phone. They're still doing it off the old spreadsheets.
- Marcus BellWhich is a shame, because that's the use case you described when we started. If credit control could ask, what's the latest approved variation on this client, and get an answer in seconds, that changes their day.
- Craig AshwellIt would. They just don't trust it yet. Or they haven't been shown properly. Probably the second one.
- Marcus BellI think it's the second one, honestly. Nobody's sat with them. That's on us as much as you. Happy to jump on a call with them, or do a proper walk-through, half an hour, using their own jobs. Not a demo with dummy data.
- Craig AshwellDo that. Use live jobs. Make it real for them. If they see a client they chase every month, they'll get it.
- Marcus BellYeah. And I'd suggest we pull in a couple of the site-facing project managers at the same session, because that's where your verbal variations start. If they log what the client asked for as it happens, it lands in the brain, and then credit control can see it.
- Craig AshwellThat's the bit. Log it at the time. Not three weeks later when the client's forgotten asking. Yes.
- Marcus BellOkay. Let me move on to the connectors for a second, because that feeds into this. The sources are all loading, nothing's gone quiet. Records indexed are still growing steadily, so the brain's current. Nightly refresh has been landing on time.
- Craig AshwellGood. That's not been a worry for me. If it was stale I'd have shouted.
- Marcus BellI know you would. Fair. So the second thing, tickets. You've had just the one in the last month. A how-to, about filtering the projects view by client. It was picked up and closed, nothing urgent, nothing high priority.
- Craig AshwellOh, that was one of my managers. He couldn't find the client filter. Silly really.
- Marcus BellNot silly. Honestly it's a good sign someone's trying to use it properly. But it tells me people probably want a bit of hand-holding, which loops back to the training.
- Craig AshwellFair. Put it in the diary. Who do I need to get together, then? Give me names or roles.
- Marcus BellRoles are fine. Say two or three from credit control, two project managers who run the live jobs, and whoever's doing the commercial variations log. If you can get that group in a room together, or on a call, I'll make it practical.
- Craig AshwellOkay. I'll nominate. Next week sorted? I want it done before people get distracted by the next job starting.
- Marcus BellNext week works for me. I'll send a few slots after this. Right, and the third bit, which is the one I'd rather get out of the way, there's a thing on the invoices.
- Craig AshwellGo on.
- Marcus BellOne invoice is showing as overdue on our side. I'm not chasing, I just didn't want it to sit there without you knowing. It could easily be a purchase order thing, or it went to the wrong inbox.
- Craig AshwellRight. I'm not going into cash on this call, Marcus. That's one for our finance lead. I don't talk money without them in the room. Send it to me and I'll pass it on today.
- Marcus BellTotally understand. I'll send you the invoice details after the call so you can forward it on. No drama.
- Craig AshwellGood. Anything else on the money side?
- Marcus BellNot from me. Pricing and terms go through Priya anyway, she's your account owner, so I'll stay out of that.
- Craig AshwellFine. Then the contract. Remind me where we are.
- Marcus BellSo your term ends on 22 Aug 2025, and the renewal date on the paperwork is 23 Aug 2025. We're a few months out, but the notice period is ninety days, so the conversation needs to start sooner than it feels. Priya will reach out, and I'll be part of it.
- Craig AshwellGood, let's not leave it to the last minute. What do you need from me?
- Marcus BellMostly, I want to be able to put a value case in front of you. Not just logins. Something like, here's what the team asked, here's what got answered, here's what it saved or caught. Can you help me with that? What would actually convince you, and your finance lead?
- Craig AshwellVariations. Easy. How many variations got recorded and agreed that would have gone unrecorded before. And valuations paid on time. I don't need a pretty chart, I need to know I'm getting paid for what we've built.
- Marcus BellOkay, that's clear. I can't promise the brain can attribute every payment to a question someone asked, I'll be honest about that. But I can show you how many variation conversations it surfaced and how often credit control looked at a client before chasing. Which is why getting them using it first matters.
- Craig AshwellRight, so train first, measure after. That makes sense. Don't show me a number from a team that hasn't touched it.
- Marcus BellExactly that. If we ran the numbers today, credit control would look like they got nothing out of it, when really nobody showed them.
- Craig AshwellYeah. Okay. Also, seats. Forty seems a lot if only a handful are using it. Is that going to come up at renewal?
- Marcus BellIt might, and it's a fair question. I'd rather we got more of those forty seats active than shrink the number. If credit control and the project managers come on board you'll start filling them. But that's one to talk through with Priya, I won't pretend to decide it.
- Craig AshwellFair enough. Get them using it, then we see. If it's still six or seven in the summer, I'll be asking the question properly.
- Marcus BellThat's fair. I'd say the same in your seat.
- Craig AshwellRight. Back to the retail job, because I'm still annoyed. Can you show me now, on that screen, what the brain knows about it? What's been agreed with that client?
- Marcus BellI can have a go. Give me a moment, I'll switch from the report to the brain itself. Sorry, bear with me.
- Craig AshwellTake your time. I'm not going anywhere.
- Marcus BellOkay. So I've asked it, what changes has this client requested on the fit-out since January, and which are approved. It's pulling from the emails and the call notes and the commercial records.
- Craig AshwellAnd?
- Marcus BellIt's listing a handful of change requests from emails and calls. Two of them have an approval attached. The rest it says it can find the request for, but no sign-off. So, no signed variation.
- Craig AshwellThere it is. That's what I said. Verbal, verbal, verbal. Well, that's useful. Can you send me that exact answer? I'm going to put it in front of my project manager.
- Marcus BellYes, I can export it and send it across. Though I'd gently say, treat it as a starting point. It only knows what's been written down somewhere, an email or a call. If something was agreed in the corridor, it won't see it.
- Craig AshwellUnderstood. That's the point, isn't it. If it's not written down, it didn't happen. Where's the variation? That's what I keep saying.
- Marcus BellHa, yes. And that's a good line for the training session, actually. If you don't mind me borrowing it.
- Craig AshwellBorrow it. Just make sure the site managers hear it.
- Marcus BellWill do. One more thing while I've got the screen up. The dashboards. You've got the dashboards builder on Growth, and I can see only a couple have been built so far. Would a dashboard of open, unsigned variations by client be useful to you?
- Craig AshwellVery. That's the Monday morning view. Client by client, what's open, what's unsigned, what's been invoiced against it. If I had that, I'd stop asking people.
- Marcus BellRight. I can help you build a first version, or we do it during the session so the team sees how. Probably better as part of the session, so people own it.
- Craig AshwellYes, do it live. And I want credit control looking at it before they ring anyone.
- Marcus BellGood. Then I'll note that as the outcome we're aiming for. A dashboard credit control checks before a chase call.
- Craig AshwellPerfect.
- Marcus BellAnything on the technical side I should know about? New systems coming in, anything being replaced, new people joining that'd need access?
- Craig AshwellNothing replaced. We've got a couple of new project managers starting over the summer. So that's more seats used, if they get onboarded properly. Don't let them slip through.
- Marcus BellGood, that's helpful to know. Send me their names when you have them, or tell your admin to, and we'll get them set up and into the next session.
- Craig AshwellWill do. Who's my admin on it these days? Is that still the same person?
- Marcus BellStill the same, I can see the admin hasn't changed. Probably worth a second one, though, in case that person's off. I'd suggest it as a small thing to sort.
- Craig AshwellSensible. I'll ask them to add someone. Put it on the list.
- Marcus BellWill do. Okay, I think that's most of what I had. Let me recap what we've said so I get it right.
- Craig AshwellGo for it.
- Marcus BellOne. I send you slots for next week for a half-hour session with credit control and a couple of project managers, on live jobs, including building the unsigned variations dashboard. Two. You nominate who comes and give me the new project managers' names when you have them. Three. I send you the overdue invoice details today and you pass them to your finance lead. Four. I export the answer on the retail job and send it over. Five. I put together a value summary ahead of the renewal conversation with Priya, but only after the team's had time to use it.
- Craig AshwellThat's it. And add a second admin to the list, I'll do that bit. Anything I'm missing?
- Marcus BellThat's the second admin, yes, I had it on mine. I think that's everything.
- Craig AshwellGood. Can I say something, though? I've been a bit sharp today. It's the retail job, it's not you.
- Marcus BellNot at all, I'd be the same. Honestly it was useful to hear it straight. It's the sort of thing I can actually do something about.
- Craig AshwellGood. I'll admit, when you said six or seven people I nearly choked. But it's fair. We've not pushed it.
- Marcus BellIt's early days really, and it's heading the right way. A third more people than last quarter is not nothing. I'd just like it to be the right people.
- Craig AshwellRight people. Yes. Credit control, project managers, site leads. Let's get it right.
- Marcus BellThen I'll let you get on. Oh, and quickly, should I copy Priya on the follow-up email, so she's aware of the renewal chat?
- Craig AshwellCopy her. Better she hears it from both of us. And tell her I want to see the usage before any talk about price. Not the other way round.
- Marcus BellUnderstood, I'll say that. Usage and value first, then terms.
- Craig AshwellExactly. Anything else you want from me today?
- Marcus BellNo, that's plenty. Thanks for being straight with me, it helps.
- Craig AshwellAlways. Right, I've got a site meeting at ten. Speak next week, then.
- Marcus BellSpeak next week. Thanks, Craig. Good luck with the retail job.
- Craig AshwellI'll need it. Cheers, Marcus. Bye.
- Marcus BellBye now.
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