# P13 — Sales Playbook (Pilot Phase)

**Updated:** 30 August 2026 · Audience: founder. Warm network only during P1–P8 — zero cold outreach. Every prospect is an existing ThemeTags client (restaurant system, CRM, marketing retainer) or a direct referral.

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## 1. The hook: the missed-call audit

Do this BEFORE the pitch meeting, for every prospect (task `F-03`):

1. Call their business **after closing time**. Record what happens (usually: endless ring, or a full/ignored voicemail box).
2. Call again at **lunch rush / prayer time**. Record.
3. In the meeting, play it: *"This was us, calling your business Tuesday at 9pm as a customer wanting a table for six. Listen."* … *"Now listen to what your callers could hear instead"* — play the demo assistant recording (`F-04`) booking that same table.

The audit converts an abstract technology pitch into their own lost customer. No slides.

## 2. The pitch (60 seconds, verbatim skeleton)

> "You know we already run your [system/CRM/ads]. We've added something new: a receptionist that answers your phone and WhatsApp 24 hours a day. Not a robot menu — it talks naturally, books appointments straight into your calendar, takes messages, and if the caller wants a human it passes them to you immediately. You keep your number; nothing changes for your customers except someone finally always answers. It's [$99–199] a month, everything included. We set it up in two weeks, you listen to it before it goes live, and if you don't like it we switch it off with one dial code and you owe nothing further. I'd like [business name] to be one of our first three."

Rules: never say "AI will replace your staff" (say "your staff stop being interrupted, night calls stop being lost"). Never promise "never misses a call" — say "answers 24/7". Always name the minute cap out loud.

## 3. Pricing talk track

- Anchor on their loss, not our cost: use their audit numbers with the missed-call math (`BUSINESS_PLAN.md` Part 2). "One saved booking a week pays for it" is usually literally true — check it against their ticket size first.
- Quote ONE tier, the right one for their volume (don't read a menu): salon → Starter $99, restaurant/clinic → Growth $149, real-estate/busy clinic → Pro $199.
- The cap, plainly: "That covers about [X] calls a day. If your phone rings more than that, it means the thing is working — we move you up a tier, you'll see it coming in your weekly report."
- Pilot terms: full price, month-to-month, first month refundable if they switch it off (O2 recommendation). We need retention **at full price** to mean something — discounts would poison our own success metric.

## 4. Objections and answers

| Objection | Answer |
|---|---|
| **"Customers hate robots."** | "They hate *bad* robots — the press-1 menus and the ones that talk over you. Ours you can interrupt mid-sentence like a person, and the moment someone says 'give me a human' or sounds annoyed, it transfers to your phone. And before we go live, you personally listen to test calls and approve the voice. If it embarrasses your business, it doesn't launch." (This is engineering fact: barge-in + escalation triggers are mandatory config — `SPEC.md` D8.) |
| "My cousin/staff answers the phone." | "During the day, great — nothing changes, we only take the calls they miss: after hours, both lines busy, lunch. The audit shows what's slipping past them right now." Position as *overflow + after-hours* first; full answering can come later. |
| "What if it books wrong / says something crazy?" | "It only books into slots your calendar shows free, and it can only say what we load into it — your menu, your hours, your prices. Anything outside that, it takes a message. We test it with 20 scripted calls before launch and review its calls every week. And you see every call as a transcript." |
| "Bangla / our accent?" | Honest per `COMPATIBILITY.md`: "English is excellent today. Bangla we're testing honestly — if it's not good enough, I'll tell you, and we start with [English/WhatsApp text] instead." Never promise an untested language. |
| "Too expensive." | Re-run their math. If genuinely price-blocked at $99, they're not a pilot fit — thank them and move to the next name. We do not discount below tier (only the refundable first month). |
| "Is recording legal? / privacy?" | "We follow the strictest rule in your market — the greeting discloses it where required, and in [UAE] we keep transcripts only, no audio. Here's the one-pager." (`SECURITY.md` §2.) |
| "What happens if it breaks?" | "Your old setup is one dial code away — that's rehearsed at go-live, and you can do it yourself from your handset. Worst case, callers get exactly what they get today." |
| "Can it take orders / payments?" | "Messages and bookings now; payments no — deliberately, for your security and ours. Order-taking to your staff WhatsApp, yes." |

## 5. The pilot close

Ask explicitly: *"I'm taking three businesses this quarter, hand-configured by me personally, at the normal price with the first month refundable. In return, if you're happy at the end, I want a testimonial and one referral. Shall I book your setup week?"* Scarcity is real (founder hours), the exchange is fair, and it pre-plants the P8 retention conversation.

## 6. The upsell script (margin-floor breach — `PRICING.md` §3)

> "Good news in your report: the receptionist handled [N] calls and [M] bookings this month — you're past the [250] minutes your plan includes. Two options: move to [$149] which covers you comfortably, or we can add tighter after-hours-only rules to stay in the plan. Most people move up — it's paying for itself [K] times over."

Never absorb a breach silently, never apologize for it — it is the success story.

## 7. What we never do (pilot phase)

Cold outreach · discounts below tier · custom feature builds ("that goes on the list for after the pilot") · promising human answering · outbound sales-call campaigns for clients · signing a client whose vertical has no template AND whose patience won't survive being template #1.