How to cold-call automation

Do you remember when websites arrived around the turn of the millennium? Whoever had one first was years ahead. Whoever said “the internet is a fad” — nobody remembers them today. This is exactly the same. I'm not offering you a fad, I'm offering you a place among the first.

And one more thing: in a year, when you're forced to deal with this, the prices will be several times higher. Meanwhile you could have had the whole system paid off from what it saved you. In Switzerland, with the labour costs you're paying, it pays for itself faster than anywhere else in Europe.

Let's look at it in numbers. What's your monthly revenue — say, a million francs? Accenture says AI lifts corporate profitability by an average of 38 percent, and according to PwC, companies using AI grow productivity four times faster than the rest. Even if we stay very conservative and talk about a fraction of that — every single percent is ten thousand francs a month for you. And that's before what you save on costs, which we just talked about. Does that make sense to you?

Good morning, Mr. Weber, this is [name] from [Company]. How are you doing today?

Glad to hear it. Beautiful day, finally, right? But I won't hold you up with the weather — I'm calling because we specialize in automating business processes. We save companies time on the things that get done over and over, and above all operating costs. And I'd like to ask you one single question to start.

Tell me two or three things that take up the most time for you or your people. Really — the first thing that comes to mind.

No need to think — first thing. What did you do today that made you say “what a chore”?

Then I have good news — both can be automated. The system can summarize your e-mails, draft replies, answer the routine ones itself. Inquiries the same — processing, offer, follow-up. Ninety percent of things like this can be automated today. Does that make sense to you, on first hearing?

I understand. May I ask — what exactly don't you trust about something that has firmly set rules, which you define yourself? It doesn't do whatever it feels like. It does exactly what you configure, and it never steps outside of that.

Completely understandable. But let's put it into numbers, if I may. Your assistant earns, say, six thousand francs gross — times thirteen salaries, plus contributions, she costs you as a company nearly a hundred thousand francs a year. And now: she has five weeks of vacation, a few sick days, every weekend off, and she works eight to five. Add it up, and out of the 8,760 hours of the year you pay for in full, she actually works about 1,800 — barely a fifth. Every hour she actually works costs you over fifty francs. And if you need something at nine in the evening, you'll hear back tomorrow. The system I'm talking about works 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and answers immediately. Does paying premium Swiss rates for that routine still feel like a good investment?

And note — I'm not saying fire your assistant. I'm saying: leave her the work where she's irreplaceable, and give the routine you're paying premium salaries for to a system. That's all.

Look, I won't twist your arm. I'll just tell you how I see it: it's exactly like when websites arrived at the turn of the millennium. Whoever was there first, won. Today you're one step from having that head start for a fraction of the future price. If you like, we can call each other in a year and compare notes. But it would be a shame if this was your missed chance. What do you say — shall we rather take those 15 minutes now?

Excellent — this will be a good conversation then. And what do you use it for the most? Is it already helping you at work?

Exactly. Now imagine one level up: all of that isn't you working with a chatbot — it runs autonomously. A system that knows your company, your price lists, your history — and within the guardrails you set, it actually handles those e-mails, processes the inquiries, sends the offers. You just approve. That's the difference between “I play with AI” and “AI works for me”.

And that's exactly why we don't do it as boxed software. We work with clients proactively — we won't hand you a raw service and disappear. We train you, we configure everything together around your processes, and the goal is for you to be self-sufficient. Really, we're not delivering an application — we're delivering a colleague. A colleague with fixed costs, who isn't paid out of your profit and evolves with you. Does that make sense to you?

And that's completely enough — the rest is what we're here for. Let me give you real examples of what we do: for a construction company we automated inquiry processing and e-mails — what used to take a person a whole morning is done in minutes. For a manager of a multinational we built a personal assistant that knows the entire company and helps him keep things running. And it works simply: you tell us what slows you down, we tell you what can be automated, and we set it up. You don't need to understand any of the technology.

You know what? That's exactly what we'll find out in a fifteen-minute meeting — completely without obligation. I'll be straight with you: even if no deal comes of it, you walk away with six years of our experience in this field for free, and you'll be ahead on information. This is the future — just like websites once were. The ones who had them first, won. Don't you want to at least be informed?

Perfect timing then. Tell me — how did you get into it? What led you to it?

Understood. Let me tell you how we're different, and you judge for yourself. We've been working with AI for six years — since before chatbots even existed. Our own internal systems run entirely on artificial intelligence — that's how one company competes in four completely different industries. And above all: we don't deliver a box. We come to you, walk through your processes, build it to fit and train your people. And if we see something at your company where automation doesn't make sense, we'll tell you straight, up front — we don't take projects that don't make sense even for us. Your results are our references.

You know what — I won't send you an offer without knowing your processes; that would be a number pulled out of a hat, and I'd be lying to you. Let's do it better: fifteen minutes online, you tell me what exactly you're solving, and I'll tell you on the spot what we can do, how, and what you'd get from us. Then an offer actually means something. Does Thursday morning suit you better, or Friday?

Here's what I suggest: I won't lecture you over the phone about things I can't know — I don't know your processes. Let's have an intro meeting, 15 minutes of your time, where we'll go through where you lose the most time and what would make sense to optimize. Does Tuesday suit you better, or Wednesday?

Great, I'm noting Wednesday 15:00. We'll confirm the meeting the day before, and 15 minutes ahead you'll get the video-call link. Which e-mail should I send it to?

And one last thing, if you'd be so kind — before the meeting, jot down three things: the biggest costs you have in the company, the processes that take the longest, and the three biggest weak spots you'd like to fix. I'll put it in the e-mail too, so you have it handy. That way we can get straight to the point. Thank you very much and have a great day, Mr. Weber!