Ashwell Mercer Interiors / BG-Demo – Check In
Callcompleted
Ashwell Mercer Interiors · 14 May 2025 15:00
Craig Ashwell accepts that about six of forty Growth seats are active, down by around a tenth on the quarter before. He will back a project manager session, but called the brain an expensive search box if they do not use it.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Craig Ashwell accepts that about six of forty Growth seats are active, down by around a tenth on the quarter before. He will back a project manager session, but called the brain an expensive search box if they do not use it.
What happened: On 14 May 2025 Craig Ashwell raised an unsigned variation for extra third floor work. Marcus Bell checked the project view and found a site meeting recording and an email thread, but no signed variation.
Customer view: Craig said commercial and credit control now share one picture, while project managers do not touch it. He asked whether he should be paying for forty seats.
Commercial: The contract runs to 22 Aug 2025 at £40k a year, matching invoices. Marcus left price and seats to Priya, and Craig wants finance in the room for any money talk.
Watch: A fair share of questions come from Craig, a key-person risk by his own account. Usage is drifting down while tickets are quiet.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Low adoption, seat question
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 the one-page usage summary today or tomorrow in a form Craig can forward to finance.
- Marcus Bell to check this week whether a view of jobs with extra work and no variation is reliable on Ashwell Mercer data.
- Marcus Bell to book the project manager session once Craig sends names, and ask Priya to schedule a call after it.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- About six of forty Growth seats are active and the figure is down by around a tenth on the quarter before.
- Craig asked whether he should be paying for forty seats, so seat count is likely to come up at renewal.
- Craig asks a fair share of the questions himself and said the commercial team would go back to spreadsheets without him.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- A list of open jobs with extra work and no variation logged is a hook that could bring project managers in.
- Credit control like seeing calls next to invoices, which gives a use case to show other teams.
- A thirty-minute live-job session with three or four project managers could raise active users before the renewal conversation.
Transcript
Craig AshwellMarcus, hello. Can you hear me alright? I'm sat in the van, so there might be a bit of echo.
Marcus BellLoud and clear, Craig. Afternoon. No echo at all, you just sound like you're in a cupboard. A clear cupboard, mind.- Craig AshwellHa. Close enough. It's chucking it down here, so I'm staying put until it stops.
- Marcus BellSame in Manchester, so no sympathy from me. Right, give me a second and I'll share my screen. Can you see it? It's just the usage page for now.
- Craig AshwellYeah, I've got it. Before you start, can I throw something at you? Because it's been on my mind all week.
- Marcus BellGo on, please. I was about to say what I wanted to cover, but yours is probably more important.
- Craig AshwellThe office job for the landlord, out in the Thames Valley. We've done extra work on the third floor. The agent asked for it on site, nodded, said fine, go ahead. Now where's the variation? I've got nothing signed. What has the client signed? Nothing, as far as I can tell, and we're well into it.
- Marcus BellRight. Okay. That's a real one. Do you want me to have a look now, or would you rather I took it away and came back to you?
- Craig AshwellLook now, if it's quick. I've got a bit of time but not loads.
- Marcus BellOkay, bear with me, I'm switching to the project view. Mm. So I can see the recording from the site meeting where the extra work gets talked about, and there's an email thread after it where somebody on your side confirms the scope. What I can't see in your CRM is anything that looks like a signed variation attached to that job.
- Craig AshwellThat's what I thought. So we've talked about it, we've emailed about it, and nobody's papered it.
- Marcus BellThat's how it looks from here, yes. I'd be a bit careful, I'm only seeing what's been connected, so there could be a paper copy somewhere that never got loaded.
- Craig AshwellNo. There isn't. I know my project managers. That's on us, not you. I'll get it out of the project manager today. Let's get paid for what we've built.
- Marcus BellFair enough. And honestly, that's exactly the sort of thing the brain should be catching before it turns into a problem, which is a nice way into what I've pulled together. Is that okay?
- Craig AshwellYeah. Go on.
- Marcus BellSo, I've pulled the numbers for the last month. You've got forty licensed users on Growth. Over the month, on average, about six people have been active. And that's a little lower than the quarter before, down by around a tenth.
- Craig AshwellSix. Out of forty.
- Marcus BellYeah.
- Craig AshwellThat's not good, is it?
- Marcus BellI won't dress it up, Craig. It's not where I'd want it to be. I wouldn't call it alarming, you're paying on time, the tickets are quiet, and the people who do use it clearly get something out of it. But forty seats and six people tells me most of the people it was bought for aren't opening it.
- Craig AshwellI'll be straight with you. It's me, the commercial team and credit control. Credit control check where a client stands before they pick up the phone, and they like it. Everyone else, the project managers, they don't touch it. They're on site from seven. They live in their spreadsheets and their phones.
- Marcus BellRight. And that's the group the seats were really for, isn't it? You said at the start you wanted project, commercial and credit control all looking at the same client.
- Craig AshwellI did. And I still do. Commercial and credit control are looking at the same picture now, which is a first for this place. Projects are the missing bit. They're the ones who know what's actually been done on the ground.
- Marcus BellSo what would get them in? And I don't mean a lecture. I mean, what would make a project manager open it on a wet Tuesday?
- Craig AshwellSomething that saves them a phone call. If it tells them which of their jobs have got work done and nothing signed, they'll use it. Honestly, that's the third floor in one sentence.
- Marcus BellThat's a good hook. So here's what I'd suggest. I do a short session with the project managers, on a live job of theirs, not a demo job. Show them the client, the calls, the emails and the invoices in one place, and how to ask it about variations. Happy to jump on a call with them. Shall we book thirty minutes?
- Craig AshwellThirty minutes, no more, or they'll drift. And do it soon. Next week or the week after.
- Marcus BellNext week or the one after is fine from my side. If you send me who should be on it, I'll sort the invite so you're not chasing.
- Craig AshwellThree, four of them. I'll send you the names. And Marcus, can it give me a list? Open jobs where extra work's been mentioned and no variation's logged. Something I can look at on a Monday morning.
- Marcus BellI think so. I think that's something we can put together from what's already connected. But I'd want to check how reliable it is on your data before I promise it, and I'm not going to put a date on it until I know. I'll look at it this week and tell you what I find.
- Craig AshwellFine. Better to know.
- Marcus BellNext thing, tickets. Just a couple in the last month, nothing urgent, both closed off. So quiet.
- Craig AshwellGood. Quiet's good. I don't want noise.
- Marcus BellAgreed. The one thing I'd say is that a quiet account with usage drifting down is something I keep an eye on. Nothing dramatic. I just don't want it to slip without anybody noticing.
- Craig AshwellUnderstood.
- Marcus BellAnd the other thing I see, and tell me if I'm wrong, is that a fair share of the questions going into the brain are coming from you. Which is great, but if you're away or you get pulled onto a job for a month, I'd like there to be a few other people who'd carry on.
- Craig AshwellNo, that's fair. I ask it a lot. Every Sunday night, if I'm honest, before the week starts. I want to know which clients are sitting on money and which projects have gone quiet. But yeah, if I fall under a bus, the commercial team would go back to spreadsheets.
- Marcus BellWell, let's not do that. So, one more reason for the session. Spread it around a bit.
- Craig AshwellHang on, sorry, it's the site manager calling. Let me just, I'll let it go to voicemail. No, actually, give me a minute, he never rings unless it matters.
- Marcus BellNo worries at all. Take your time.
- Craig AshwellBack. Sorry about that. Delivery's late. Same as always. Where were we?
- Marcus BellNot far. I was about to give you a heads up on the renewal. It's not a conversation as such, just so it doesn't land on you out of nowhere. Your contract runs to 22 Aug 2025 and the renewal date is 23 Aug 2025. So it's a few months off, but I'll be writing to you formally in the next few weeks, as I always do. What's contracted is £39,600 a year, and that matches what's been invoiced, so no surprises on the paperwork.
- Craig AshwellRight. Is that going up?
- Marcus BellI'm going to be honest with you, price is Priya's side, not mine. She owns the commercial terms on your account. I don't want to guess and get it wrong. She'll come to you before the renewal.
- Craig AshwellOkay. And what about the seats? If only six of us are using forty, should I be paying for forty? I'm not trying to be difficult. It's just a fair question.
- Marcus BellIt's a completely fair question, and I'd rather you asked it than sat on it. That's one for Priya as well, really, because it's about what fits. My view is that I'd rather get the numbers up first and then have that conversation with a better picture. If they stay low, then she'll talk to you honestly about it.
- Craig AshwellFine. And look, anything about money, I want finance in the room. I don't do cash on my own.
- Marcus BellNo, of course. Nobody's asking you to. What I'd like is for us to walk into that conversation with a better usage story, which is why the session with the project managers matters.
- Craig AshwellYeah. I get it. Let's do it. If they use it, it's worth it. If they don't, it's an expensive search box.
- Marcus BellI'd put it more kindly, but yes.
- Craig AshwellHa. What else have you got?
- Marcus BellNot a lot. One thing: credit control. Is there anything you want them doing differently, or are they happy as they are?
- Craig AshwellThey're happy. They like seeing the calls next to the invoices. They say it stops them ringing a client who's already been on the phone to us about a problem. Don't touch it.
- Marcus BellGood, that's useful to hear, and I'll make sure that goes in my notes. Right, so let me recap, because I don't want to lose any of this. I'll send you the usage summary today or tomorrow. I'll look at the view for jobs with extra work and no variation this week, and tell you what I find. I'll set up the session with your project managers once I've got the names. And you're chasing the third floor variation and sending me the names.
- Craig AshwellThat's it. And you'll get Priya to ring me.
- Marcus BellI'll let her know. I'll suggest she gets something in the diary after the session, so she's got a fresher picture of how it's going when she talks to you.
- Craig AshwellGood. That's sensible. I don't want a call where she's reading from a script about a customer she hasn't looked at.
- Marcus BellShe won't be. She knows the account. And if it helps, I'll put the usage summary in a form you can forward to your finance people, so they're not starting cold either.
- Craig AshwellDo that. Keep it short, though. One page. Nobody reads two.
- Marcus BellOne page. I'll keep it plain.
- Craig AshwellRight. Rain's stopped. I need to go and look at a ceiling grid that someone swears is level.
- Marcus BellGo on then. Thanks for the time, Craig. I know you've got a lot on.
- Craig AshwellNo, it was worth it. Even if the number's not great. Better to hear it. Let's get those project managers in.
- Marcus BellWill do. I'll be in touch once I've got the names. Speak soon.
- Craig AshwellCheers, Marcus. Bye.
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