Ashwell Mercer Interiors / BG-Demo – Check In
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Ashwell Mercer Interiors · 10 Aug 2026 10:15
Craig Ashwell, who championed the brain, accepts that only two or three people use it on Growth and that he asks most questions. He still sees value, wants a usage summary before taking the renewal to the directors, and wants an overdue invoice sorted first.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Craig Ashwell, who championed the brain, accepts that only two or three people use it on Growth and that he asks most questions. He still sees value, wants a usage summary before taking the renewal to the directors, and wants an overdue invoice sorted first.
What happened: Marcus Bell showed that average daily use is two or three people against forty licensed, down by nearly half on the quarter before. Craig confirmed project managers went back to their own spreadsheets and that there are no tickets, so the cause is routine, not a fault.
Customer view: Craig says it is worth having and gave a one-minute answer to a client question that would take his team an afternoon. He accepts he is the key person asking questions and says he has some explaining to do to the other directors.
Commercial: Marcus gave the current price as £44k a year on Growth and left renewal terms to Priya. Craig will not go to the directors with just a number, and wants the overdue invoice resolved before the renewal conversation.
Watch: Craig calls the questions chart the test and says a flat line means a harder conversation with the board. The call is dated 2026-08-10, before the renewal date of 23 Aug 2026, and the evidence does not show the outcome.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Usage drift before renewal
Importance
renewal
Sentiment
mixed
Voice
champion
Who was there
BG-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Marcus Bell sends Craig a one-page usage summary with a real client example by the end of the week.
- Marcus asks Priya to call Craig about renewal terms before the renewal date.
- Marcus gets the billing team to send the overdue invoice details, and books the half-hour session once Craig sends times.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Only two or three people use the brain on a forty-user Growth licence, and Craig asks most of the questions, so there is key-person risk.
- Craig may struggle to justify the renewal to the other directors without a clear value case.
- An overdue invoice sits on the account and Craig wants it cleared before the renewal conversation.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- A short session with two or three project managers on their live jobs could rebuild use of the Growth subscription.
- A joint session for project managers and credit control on variations and outstanding valuations matches the original purpose.
Transcript
Marcus BellHello Craig, can you hear me alright? I've just joined, so give me a second to sort the sound.
Craig AshwellYep, loud and clear. Can you hear me? New headset. The laptop mic was rubbish.- Marcus BellPerfect. Good morning. Sorry, I'm a minute or two behind, my last call ran over.
- Craig AshwellNo problem. I only just got off the phone myself. Site manager, the usual.
- Marcus BellBusy week then?
- Craig AshwellAlways. The job that's worrying me most is the one where the landlord keeps changing the ceiling spec and nobody wants to put it in writing. Where's the variation? That's all I keep asking. Anyway. That's the week.
- Marcus BellSounds familiar, I hear the same from a lot of contractors. Right, thanks for making the time. I'm going to share my screen, and I want to cover three things: how the team's been using the brain, the renewal coming up, and what would actually be useful for you. Can you see it?
- Craig AshwellYeah, I can see it. Bit small. Can you make the text bigger?
- Marcus BellIs that better?
- Craig AshwellBetter. Yep.
- Marcus BellGreat. So, I've pulled the numbers for the last quarter or so, and I'll be straight with you, they're quieter than I'd like. You're licensed for forty users on Growth, and on an average day it's only two or three people actually in the brain. That's down by nearly half on the quarter before.
- Craig AshwellNearly half. Right.
- Craig AshwellYeah. That doesn't surprise me, if I'm honest. Nobody's said much, but I can see who's logging in, and it's me, and the credit control side, and that's about it.
- Marcus BellMm. And the project managers?
- Craig AshwellDrifted. They went back to their spreadsheets. They've each got their own tracker for each job, they know it, they trust it. We said at the start the whole point was one picture of the client: the projects, the variations, the calls, the invoices. But when it's a busy month people go back to whatever's quick.
- Marcus BellThat's fair, and it's really common, honestly. Can I ask what got in the way? Was it something not working, or more that it never became part of the routine?
- Craig AshwellRoutine. It's not broken. You haven't had a ticket from us in weeks, have you?
- Marcus BellNo, nothing in the last thirty days at all. Not a single one.
- Craig AshwellRight. And that's not because it's perfect. It's because nobody's asking it anything.
- Marcus BellThat's how I read it too. Quiet on the tickets and quiet on the questions. Let me show you the questions chart. See this line? That's questions asked. It was building nicely when you first got going, and since the spring it's come down and just sat there. And the bulk of the recent ones are yours.
- Craig AshwellMine. Lovely. So I'm the key man.
- Marcus BellA bit, yes. Which isn't a criticism. It's just that if you're away on site or tied up, there's nobody else asking.
- Craig AshwellHm.
- Craig AshwellLet me be straight with you, Marcus. I championed this. I stood up in front of the other directors and said project, commercial and credit teams would see each client together. If it's three people, I've got some explaining to do.
- Marcus BellI don't think anyone's looking to point fingers, and I'm certainly not. What I want to know is whether it's still worth having for you, and if it is, what gets the teams back into it.
- Craig AshwellIt's worth having. When I use it, it's good. I asked it last week what a client had signed against what we'd built, and I had an answer in a minute that would have taken my team an afternoon. What has the client signed? That's the question. It answers it.
- Marcus BellThat's the use I'd love more people on.
- Craig AshwellSo why aren't they?
- Marcus BellHonestly, I think nobody's shown the project managers that it answers their question, not just yours. They set it up with you in mind, the commercial view, and then it never got translated into their day. That's partly on us, to be fair, we should have picked that up sooner.
- Craig AshwellGo on.
- Marcus BellCan I show you something? Give me a second, I'll type it in. I'm asking for the open variations on a client, with the emails and the invoices alongside.
- Craig AshwellGo for it.
- Marcus BellRight. It's thinking. There we go. So here's the client, here's the variation that's been raised, here's the latest email on it from the client side, and down here is the invoice status. One page.
- Craig AshwellThat's it. That's what they need. Where's the variation, who's agreed it, has it been billed. Yes. That's exactly the thing.
- Marcus BellAnd it's on your own data, so it's not a demo job, it's the real projects.
- Craig AshwellThen why have I got a project manager telling me he's chasing a variation off an email from March? Sorry. I'm not blaming you. I'm blaming me, really. I didn't push it.
- Marcus BellNobody's to blame. So what I'd suggest is a short session, half an hour, with a couple of your project managers, on their own live jobs. Not a general training. Their projects, their questions.
- Craig AshwellTwo of them. Maybe three. The ones with the messiest jobs, because they'll see the point fastest.
- Marcus BellThat's the right way round. Happy to jump on a call whenever suits, I can do it this month.
- Craig AshwellI'll have to check diaries. Thursday, maybe? No. I'll come back to you.
- Marcus BellNo rush. Send me a couple of times and I'll fit round you.
- Craig AshwellFine. And the other thing, so we don't just repeat this in three months. How do I stop it drifting again?
- Marcus BellFair question. Part of it is habit. If the weekly project review starts with the brain's view of each client rather than the spreadsheet, people use it because it's in the meeting. And part of it is me. I'd like to check in more often than I have, for a little while anyway, just a short look at who's asking what.
- Craig AshwellThe weekly review. Yes. I chair that. I can do that.
- Marcus BellThen that's your lever. And honestly it's a better one than anything I can do from here.
- Craig AshwellRight. Let's get paid for what we've built. If it helps with that, they'll use it.
- Marcus BellThat's the pitch to them, exactly.
- Craig AshwellOkay. Renewal. I know it's coming. Remind me of the date.
- Marcus BellSo the contract runs to 22 Aug 2026 and the renewal date is 23 Aug 2026. So a couple of weeks, really.
- Craig AshwellA couple of weeks. Right. And that's forty-four thousand, same as now?
- Marcus BellAt the moment it's £44k a year for the forty users on Growth, and that's what's on the order form and what's been invoiced. As for the terms for the new year, that's Priya's side, not mine. I'll ask her to give you a call this week. I'd rather you hear it from her than have me guess.
- Craig AshwellPriya's good. Fine. But I'm not going to the other directors with just a number, Marcus. If finance see forty seats and three people using it, they'll ask the obvious question. What are we getting for it?
- Marcus BellIt's a fair question and you should ask it. I'm not going to dress it up. What I can do is put together a one page summary: what's been asked, who's been asking, how it's trended. So you've got the honest baseline, and then we can see it move after the sessions.
- Craig AshwellYes. And put one of those client examples in. The variation page. Something the directors recognise as money.
- Marcus BellWill do. Anonymise it or use a real one?
- Craig AshwellReal one. They're all our clients. Just don't send it round outside the building.
- Marcus BellUnderstood. Straight to you only.
- Craig AshwellGood.
- Marcus BellOne more thing, and I'm a bit awkward raising it. Our finance team have one invoice showing as overdue on your account. I don't have the detail and it's not my area, I just didn't want to leave it unsaid.
- Craig AshwellRight. I don't talk about cash without finance in the room, you know that. Send me the details by email and I'll get our finance lead to look at it today. Could be a purchase order thing. Could be that it's sat with someone.
- Marcus BellThat's all I'd ask. I'll get our billing team to send it over so you've got the paperwork. And no, I'm not reading anything into it, before you ask.
- Craig AshwellGood. Because I'd rather it was sorted before the renewal conversation, not during.
- Marcus BellAgreed. Cleaner for everyone.
- Craig AshwellCan I ask something else while you're there? The credit control team. They're the ones who've kept using it. Is there anything else they should be asking it that they aren't?
- Marcus BellGood one. Let me have a look at what they've been asking. Hang on. Right, they're mostly asking about individual client balances and who they spoke to last. Which is useful. What I'd add is asking across all clients at once: which of them have a valuation outstanding and a variation not agreed. That's the combination that hurts.
- Craig AshwellWhere's the variation and where's the money. Same question, both ends.
- Marcus BellExactly. So that could be a nice joint session, project managers and credit control together. One conversation, one picture. That was the original idea, wasn't it?
- Craig AshwellIt was. Funny how the thing you bought it for is the thing you stopped doing.
- Marcus BellMm. Happens. Easy to fix, though, as long as someone owns it.
- Craig AshwellI'll own it. Put it down.
- Marcus BellWill do. Let me just make sure I've got this down. Hold on, I'm writing it as we go.
- Marcus BellSo from my side: one, I send you the usage summary with a real client example, by the end of the week. Two, I ask Priya to call you about the renewal terms before the date. Three, I get our billing team to send you the overdue invoice details. Does that sound right?
- Craig AshwellYes. And mine: I get the finance lead on that invoice, I pick two or three project managers and send you times, and I put the brain at the top of the weekly review.
- Marcus BellPerfect. And I'll book the half hour as soon as I've got your times, plus a follow-up check-in a couple of weeks after, so we can look at the questions chart together and see if it's moved.
- Craig AshwellFine. Shall we say that's the test? If the line doesn't move, I've got a harder conversation with the board.
- Marcus BellI think that's reasonable. And if it doesn't, then at least we'll know why, rather than guessing.
- Craig AshwellOne last thing. If one of the project managers asks me why they should bother, what do I say?
- Marcus BellI'd say: it answers where's the variation and has it been billed, in a minute, on your own job, without hunting through your inbox. If it doesn't do that for them in the session, tell me and I'll want to know why.
- Craig AshwellThat'll do. Short and to the point. I like it.
- Marcus BellCheers. And thanks for being so open about it, Craig. I know it's not the easiest conversation when you've been the one standing behind it.
- Craig AshwellBetter to say it. I'd rather know. Send me the summary and let's get those sessions in the diary.
- Marcus BellWill do. Anything else from you before I stop sharing?
- Craig AshwellNo. Actually, yes. That chart. Send it with the sessions, I want to show them what three people looks like.
- Marcus BellI'll put it in. Right, stopping the share. Thanks, Craig.
- Craig AshwellCheers, Marcus. Speak soon.
- Marcus BellSpeak soon. Have a good rest of the day. Bye.
- Craig AshwellBye.
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