Ashwell Mercer Interiors / BG-Demo – Check In
Callcompleted
Ashwell Mercer Interiors · 3 Nov 2025 09:15
Craig Ashwell saw the brain catch a priced but unsigned variation live and called it worth the call. Usage is rising but thin, he asks a large share of the questions, and he wants a value case before renewal.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Craig Ashwell saw the brain catch a priced but unsigned variation live and called it worth the call. Usage is rising but thin, he asks a large share of the questions, and he wants a value case before renewal.
What happened: Check-in on 3 Nov 2025 between Marcus Bell and Craig Ashwell. A live question on the ceiling variation showed it was priced, sent and unsigned while work had already started.
Customer view: Craig valued the answer but accepted that quiet and not used is less good. About six people are active daily out of forty seats, up about a fifth on the previous quarter, and Craig asks a good share of the questions.
Commercial: Craig wants to be able to say what the brain earned before he pays. Marcus confirmed £44k a year on Growth and left next year's price to Priya Raman.
Watch: One invoice shows as overdue and Craig will not discuss cash without his finance lead. The evidence does not show the reason.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Value case, project managers
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 Craig the answer on the ceiling variation and a short usage note after the call.
- Craig Ashwell to send Marcus four or five names for a 30 minute project manager session.
- Marcus Bell to email Craig's finance contact about the invoice, copy Craig, and find out if the paid versus outstanding picture can be clearer.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Craig asks a large share of the questions, so the value depends heavily on one person.
- Project managers, where the variation problem sits, are barely using the brain.
- An overdue invoice is open and Craig will not discuss it without his finance lead.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- A short session with a few project managers on their own jobs could build the value case Craig wants.
- Headroom on the forty Growth seats lets the contracts person and others join without extra licence cost.
Transcript
Marcus BellMorning, Craig. Can you hear me all right? I've got the little bars going on my side but I never trust them.
Craig AshwellMorning, Marcus. Yeah, loud and clear. Give me a second, I'm walking back to my desk, we've had a site walk-round overrunning.- Marcus BellNo rush at all. Dry where you are? It's been properly grim up here in Manchester since the weekend.
- Craig AshwellReading's the same. Drizzle and everybody on site in the wrong coat. Right, I'm sat down. Before you start, can I tell you what's bugging me?
- Marcus BellGo on, that's what the call's for.
- Craig AshwellWe've got a floor on one of the office jobs where the client asked for extra partitioning and a change to the ceiling spec. Work's started. The variation is still not signed. Where's the variation? That's what I keep asking. What has the client signed? Because I'm told one thing in the project meeting and another thing by the commercial team, and I don't want to find out at valuation that we've built it for free.
- Marcus BellRight. Yeah, that's exactly the sort of thing I'd like to cover then, because that's what you bought it for, isn't it. Projects, variations, what's been said on calls, what's been invoiced, all in one place.
- Craig AshwellThat's the idea, yes. Whether it's actually happening is another matter.
- Marcus BellFair. So I'll be straight about the plan. I'd like to share my screen and show you the numbers I've pulled on usage, then we talk about who's using it and who isn't, then your variation example, and then a quick word on the renewal timeline so there are no surprises. Is that all right? Should be done inside the half hour.
- Craig AshwellFine. Short sentences please, I've got another call at ten.
- Marcus BellShort sentences. Promise. Right, can you see that? It's the usage page for your account.
- Craig AshwellI can see a graph. It's going up at the end, which is nice.
- Marcus BellIt is, yeah. So the headline is that over the last month you've had about six people active on an average day. That's up on the previous quarter, by about a fifth, so the direction's good.
- Craig AshwellSix. Out of how many licences?
- Marcus BellForty. You're on Growth, so forty users are included.
- Craig AshwellRight. So six out of forty. Yeah. I'm not going to pretend that's brilliant.
- Marcus BellI'm not saying it's bad, Craig. It's rising, and the people who are in there are asking real questions, not just logging in and looking around. But there's a lot of headroom, put it that way.
- Craig AshwellWho are the six? Go on, I bet I know.
- Marcus BellWell, you're the biggest one. A good share of the questions asked come from you. Then a couple from the commercial side, and a couple from credit control.
- Craig AshwellYeah. That's about right. I'm in there most mornings, before the project meeting. Credit control use it to see what a client has signed before they chase anything. That bit works.
- Marcus BellThat's a good use. And I'll be honest, the thing I'd flag is the one-person thing. If a big chunk of the questions come from one person, and that person's off for a fortnight or moves on, the value drops off a cliff. Not saying you're going anywhere.
- Craig AshwellI'm not. Family firm. They'd have to carry me out.
- Marcus BellHa, well. Even so. It'd be better if the load was spread.
- Craig AshwellSo where are the project managers? Because that's where my variation lives. That's who should be in there.
- Marcus BellThat's what I was about to say. On the screen here, the project side is the thin bit. Hardly any activity from them.
- Craig AshwellMm. Because they hate another system. They've got the programme, they've got the drawings, they've got their phones. And I say, now go and log in somewhere else. They look at me like I've asked them to do the accounts.
- Marcus BellYeah, and that's fair. Nobody wants another login for the sake of it. The trick, I think, is not to show them the whole brain. It's to show them one thing that saves them a headache.
- Craig AshwellSuch as?
- Marcus BellSuch as, for this job, what's been agreed with the client in emails and on calls, what's been priced, and what's been invoiced so far. One question, one answer. Instead of ringing three people.
- Craig AshwellThat's my variation problem exactly. I'd have paid for that on its own.
- Marcus BellSo can I try it now? If you tell me the job, I'll ask the brain the question live, and we see what it gives us. If it's rubbish, we know where the gap is.
- Craig AshwellGo on then. It's the fit-out for the corporate tenant, the one with the extra partitioning. Ask what the client has agreed on the ceiling change.
- Marcus BellOkay. Typing that in. Bear with me, I'm a slow typist. Ceiling change, client agreement, latest. Right, it's thinking.
- Craig AshwellCome on, come on.
- Marcus BellThere we go. So it's found a call where the ceiling spec was discussed, and an email chain after that where your commercial team sent a priced variation to the client. And then, this is the interesting bit, nothing back from the client that says yes.
- Craig AshwellThere it is. That's it. They've never said yes. They've said 'looks fine' on the call and then gone quiet.
- Marcus BellSo that's priced, sent, and unsigned, as far as the brain can see.
- Craig AshwellAnd we've started the work. Right. That's going to be a conversation this morning. Can you leave that on the screen? I want to take a note of the wording.
- Marcus BellSure. I'll send you the answer after the call as well, so you've got it written down.
- Craig AshwellGood. Do that. And that's the thing, Marcus, I didn't have that an hour ago. I'd have had to ring the commercial manager, who'd have had to dig through his inbox.
- Marcus BellWhich is why I'd love your project managers to see that one question. Would it help if I ran a short session with them? Show them with their own jobs, nothing generic.
- Craig AshwellHow long?
- Marcus Bell30 minutes. Shall we book 30 minutes? Small group, a few of them, and I'd ask each of them to bring a job they're worried about.
- Craig AshwellThey'll come if it's quick and it's on their jobs. If it's a talk about data they'll all have a site visit suddenly.
- Marcus BellUnderstood. No slides. I'll keep it to jobs and variations.
- Craig AshwellGood. I'll find you a few names. Two or three who actually talk to the clients, not the ones who'll sit there with their arms folded.
- Marcus BellPerfect. That's all I'd ask. And honestly if it goes well, you've got a lot of room on the licences, so you can bring whoever else you like in without it costing you anything extra.
- Craig AshwellOkay. Good. What else have you got on that screen?
- Marcus BellA couple of other things. On the data side, the sources are loading as they should. Nightly refresh has been landing on time, nothing stuck, nothing flat that shouldn't be flat. So what you're seeing is current.
- Craig AshwellWhich is the bit I don't understand and don't want to. As long as it's right in the morning.
- Marcus BellIt's right in the morning. Then support. You've had one ticket in the last month. Nothing urgent, nothing high priority, and it was dealt with.
- Craig AshwellOne. Yeah, that'll be one of my credit control girls asking how to filter something. Fine.
- Marcus BellThat sounds right. Quiet's good here. Not a lot of fire-fighting.
- Craig AshwellQuiet's good. Quiet and not used is less good, though, isn't it. That's what you're really telling me.
- Marcus BellHa. Well. A bit, yeah. Usage is going the right way, but there's more in it for you than you're taking out. I'd rather say that to your face than put it in an email.
- Craig AshwellAppreciated. I'd rather hear it. Go on, what's next?
- Marcus BellThis one's slightly awkward and it's not really mine, so bear with me. Our billing side shows one invoice on your account as overdue. I don't have the detail, I just see the flag.
- Craig AshwellRight. Okay. I'm going to stop you there, Marcus. I don't do cash without our finance lead in the room. Not because I'm hiding anything, it's just how we do it. Valuations, payments, that's all hers.
- Marcus BellNo, completely fair. I'm not chasing, I just didn't want you hearing it first from someone else. Would it be okay if I drop a line to your finance contact and let her pick it up with our accounts team directly?
- Craig AshwellDo that. Copy me. It might be a purchase order thing, we're a bit fussy about references. Or it might be somebody's holiday.
- Marcus BellCould be either. I'll keep it light, just flag it and let them sort it out.
- Craig AshwellGood. Thank you.
- Marcus BellRight, last bit, and it's the dull one. Renewal. Your contract runs to the end of next August, so there's plenty of time. Nothing for you to do now.
- Craig AshwellNext August. Forty-four grand a year, that's what we're on?
- Marcus BellThat's right. £44k a year, Growth, forty users, and the invoices match the order form, so no confusion there.
- Craig AshwellAnd what's it going to be next year? Same?
- Marcus BellThat's one for Priya, honestly. She owns the commercial side and I don't want to guess a number at you and get it wrong. She'll come to you well ahead of the date and walk you through it.
- Craig AshwellHm. That's a no-comment, is it.
- Marcus BellIt's a not-mine-to-say. I'd rather not be the person who gets it wrong, Craig. What I will do is make sure that by the time you talk to her, you've got a clear picture of what the brain's done for you.
- Craig AshwellFair enough. That's what I'd want. If I'm going to be paying, I want to be able to say what we got. What's the client signed, what did we get paid for, where would we have lost money.
- Marcus BellExactly. And that's why the project managers matter. If we can show that a variation got caught before it became free work, that's your value case, in your own words, on your own job.
- Craig AshwellRight. So the session with the PMs isn't a nice-to-have. It's the thing.
- Marcus BellI'd say it's the most useful thing we could do before the spring, yeah.
- Craig AshwellOkay. Then let's do it. Properly. Don't let me go quiet on you.
- Marcus BellI'll chase. Gently. Can I ask one more thing about who else might benefit? You mentioned credit control, commercial, projects. Is there anybody on the estimating side, or the contracts team, who'd care about this?
- Craig AshwellContracts, maybe. We've one person who reads every client's terms and has opinions about all of them. She'd love to ask a machine what the payment terms are on everything.
- Marcus BellThen put her on the list as well. That's the kind of person who'll ask a lot of questions and make the numbers look healthier too.
- Craig AshwellRight. Four, five names then. I'll send them to you today or tomorrow, whichever the diary allows.
- Marcus BellBrilliant. Don't worry about doing it neatly, a list of first names in an email is fine, I'll sort out the invitations.
- Craig AshwellGood. Anything else? I've got about ten minutes before I need to be somewhere.
- Marcus BellJust one. When you're asking questions yourself, is there anything you try that doesn't come back well? Anything where you think, that should have been obvious and it wasn't?
- Craig AshwellHm. Let me think. Sometimes when I ask about a client, I get calls and emails but I don't get a clear line on what's been paid versus what's outstanding. It gives me a bit of a fog.
- Marcus BellOkay. That's useful. That'll be how the accounting side is connected, and what it can see. I can't promise you what it'll look like, I'd need to look at it with our engineers, but I'll take it away and come back to you with what's possible.
- Craig AshwellDon't promise me a date, just tell me if it can be done.
- Marcus BellThat's exactly how I'd put it. No dates until I've had a proper answer.
- Craig AshwellGood. Because last time somebody gave me a date, it was in the summer and we're still waiting.
- Marcus BellUnderstood. I won't do that to you.
- Craig AshwellRight. Let me play it back so I know what I've signed up for. You send me the answer on the ceiling variation. You email finance about the invoice and copy me. You come back on whether the accounting picture can be clearer. I send you names. You run the thirty minutes with the PMs.
- Marcus BellThat's it exactly. And I'll send you a short note of the usage numbers as well so you've got them for your own meetings. Nothing fancy, a few lines.
- Craig AshwellFine. Keep it short, I mean it. Bullets.
- Marcus BellBullets are my favourite thing. You'll have it today.
- Craig AshwellThanks, Marcus. Genuinely. That ceiling thing alone was worth getting out of bed for.
- Marcus BellGlad it landed. Go and sort that variation out, then. Speak soon.
- Craig AshwellWill do. Cheers. Bye.
- Marcus BellBye, Craig.
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