Sales playbook
Cold-approaching tradies in person. Openers, the demo, objections, the close.
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0The one rule
You are not selling an app. You are a bloke who built a thing asking a tradie if his paperwork sucks. Tradies get sold to constantly and can smell a pitch from the car park. Curiosity about their day is the whole trick. If you talk about Recpt in the first 30 seconds, you've lost.
The shape of every conversation
Open on their world → get them complaining about paperwork → "funny you say that, I built something for exactly that" → demo on THEIR receipt → install → get their number. Five steps, ten minutes max. If any step stalls, exit warm and move on.
1Where and when
- Servo, 6:30 to 8am. Tradies buying coffee and a pie before the first job. They're queuing, relaxed, not on the clock yet. Best window all day.
- Bunnings trade desk / trade drive-through, 7 to 9am. They're waiting for orders to get picked. Captive, bored, phone in hand.
- Cafe near an industrial estate, smoko (9:30 to 10:30). Sitting down, time to kill.
- Job sites near you. Only if they're clearly on a break. Never interrupt a bloke on the tools, it marks you as a time-waster.
- End of day is dead. After 3pm they want to go home, not talk software.
Look for the giveaways: ute with ABN signage on the door (sole trader, your exact buyer), one bloke not a crew (crews mean an office lady already does the books), hi-vis with their own name not a company logo.
2Scene 1 · The opener
Servo queue, 7:10am. Tradie in front of you buying a coffee and a sausage roll. Ute outside has "J. Smith Plumbing, lic 12345" on the door.
You
That your ute out there, the plumbing one?
Tradie
Yeah mate, why, you got a leak?
You
Nah nah. Quick one, you run that yourself? Like, you're the whole show, quotes, invoices, the lot?
Tradie
Yep. Me and the missus does the invoices Sunday nights.
You
Ha, the Sunday night shift. What do you do with all the receipts, servo, Reece, all that?
Tradie
Shoebox mate. Glovebox, then a shoebox, then the accountant yells at me in July.
You
Righto, so this is a weird coincidence. I build software for a living and I built an app for exactly that, snapping receipts and doing quotes and invoices for sole traders. Can I show you one thing? Takes 20 seconds, and it's your receipt, not a demo.
Why it works: you asked three questions before mentioning the app, so HE said the problem out loud first ("shoebox", "Sunday nights"). Now the pitch is a response to his complaint, not an interruption. And "20 seconds, your receipt" is a tiny yes, not a big one.
If he says "nah I'm right mate"
You
All good. It's called Recpt on the App Store if the shoebox ever wins. Have a good one.
Why: exit instantly and warm. No second push. He'll remember the bloke who didn't hassle him, and half of these come back later. Pushing twice burns the servo for you forever.
3Scene 2 · The demo the whole sale
The demo is one move: his receipt, through the scanner, in front of him. Not your seeded demo data. He's holding a servo receipt right now, that's the prop.
Same servo, 30 seconds later. He said yes. You have YOUR phone out with Recpt open on the capture screen already. Never fumble finding the app.
You
Grab your receipt a sec. Watch this.
Snap his receipt. Say nothing while it scans. Let the app do the talking. 3 to 5 seconds of silence is the peak of the demo, don't step on it.
You
Done. Vendor, amount, GST split, and it's filed it as a fuel expense under the right ATO category. That's the whole job. Shoebox retired.
Tradie
Huh. And that goes to the accountant how?
You
One button, exports the whole year as a PDF and spreadsheet, sorted by category with the GST already split. Accountants love it because they stop doing data entry. Some blokes' accountants charge less because of it.
Tradie
What else does it do?
You
Quotes and invoices from the ute. Job's done, two taps, invoice is in their inbox before you've left the driveway. It tracks who owes you what so nothing slips.
Why it works: demo ONE thing (the scan) and let him ask for the rest. Him asking "what else" flips the dynamic, now he's pulling instead of you pushing. Never tour every feature, it reads as desperate and doubles the time.
4Objections
Every objection below is real and fair. Never argue. Agree with the underlying point, then reframe.
"I've already got Xero" / "MYOB"
You
Yeah fair, what's that costing you? Thirty-five plus a month or so? Recpt's seven, and honestly if Xero's working, keep it. Where blokes switch is when they realise they're paying accountant-software prices to send five invoices a month. This is built for one-man bands, not bookkeepers.
Why: conceding "keep it" makes you the only software guy who's ever told him NOT to buy. That earns the price comparison a real hearing. $35+ vs $7 does the rest by itself.
"My accountant handles all that"
You
Perfect, this makes them cheaper. They charge you by the hour to sort that shoebox. Hand them a clean export instead and that's an hour or three they can't bill. The app pays for itself off the accountant's invoice alone.
"I just text me quotes" / "I do it in Notes"
You
Mate, half the tradies I talk to do exactly that. Question is, how many of those texted quotes ever get followed up? The app keeps a list of every quote that never turned into a job. First time blokes see that list it usually stings.
Why: loss framing on money he's ALREADY losing (dead quotes, faded receipts) beats any feature list. It has to be real, so ask, don't claim.
"No time to set anything up"
You
There's no setup. You saw it, I snapped a receipt and that was the whole thing. Sign in with your Apple ID and you're going. Your first quote can be out the door before your coffee's cold.
"How much?" (they always ask)
You
Free to start, properly free, no card. If it sticks it's seven bucks a month, or thirty-nine for the whole year. One drill bit a month, basically.
Why: anchor against something in HIS world (a drill bit, a coffee), never against other software. And lead with free, the decision he's making right now costs nothing.
"Is my stuff safe?" / ATO nerves
You
Your data sits encrypted in Australia, and it's a record-keeping tool, it keeps your evidence tidy for the accountant. It's not doing your tax return for you, that's still your accountant's job.
5The close
Interest is real. Close means: app installed on HIS phone before you part, and you have his number. Nothing else counts as a close.
You
Search "Recpt" on the App Store, R-E-C-P-T, like receipt with no vowels. Chuck it on now and snap that receipt in your hand, then it's done before it hits the glovebox.
Wait while he installs. Stand there. If you leave before it's installed, it never gets installed. Him snapping his own first receipt is the real close: it's HIS receipt in HIS app now, and deleting an app with your money in it feels like a loss.
You
I'm the developer so, dead serious, text me if anything's clunky and I'll fix it. What's your number, I'll flick you mine.
Why: "text the actual developer" is a founder-only superpower no Xero rep can offer. And the number matters more than the install, it's your follow-up channel and your future testimonial.
You
One more thing, I'm only doing this with the first ten blokes, use the code FOUNDER10 in the app and the paid tier's free for [period]. You're number [n].
Why: only say this if the pilot cap is genuinely running. Real scarcity closes, fake scarcity gets smelled and torches trust with the exact audience who talks to each other.
6Follow-up
- Same night: text him. "Good to meet ya John. Any dramas with the app just yell. Sam." Nothing else, no link, no pitch.
- Day 3: check admin, has he scanned anything since? If yes: "Saw you've been using it, legend. Anything annoying you yet?" If no: "That shoebox winning so far? What got in the way?" Answers here are product gold either way.
- Day 14: if he's active, the ask: "Know any other blokes drowning in receipts? Reckon they'd want a look?" One warm referral beats ten cold servo approaches.
- Log every approach in the distribution tracker (name, trade, where, outcome, follow-up date). Memory lies after ten conversations.
7Don'ts
Don't open with the app. Open with his ute, his trade, his morning.
Don't demo on seeded data when he's holding a real receipt.
Don't tour features. One scan, then let him pull.
Don't push after a "nah". One warm exit is worth more than one hard sell.
Don't interrupt a bloke on the tools. Breaks, queues and counters only.
Don't say "AI" first. Say "it reads the receipt and files it". If he asks how, then it's AI.
Do carry your phone with Recpt already open on capture. Fumbling kills the 20-second promise.
Do leave every conversation with either an install + number, or a clean warm exit. Nothing in between.