Is it really (worth it) to "target" and sell simple programs/scripts?

Question

Marketing

I wonder if anyone has experience selling simple, highly specialized software/scripts/information through specific lead generation and cold calling? How much does it make sense at the initial level of development?
I'll explain in more detail. I started learning to code after once again dealing with routine office tasks while working as a business development manager in a small office.
For example, one of the tasks is monitoring ongoing / past tenders and collecting information (then manually) into an excel file.
Or a set of contacts for sales - from open sources. The selection was quite relevant (90% of contacts needed a product), the base was of fairly good quality and very narrow.
Or before that - work as a recruiter (then I didn’t think about programming at all) in KA. 80% of the recruiter's working time was spent looking at various search results on hh.ru. Viewing and evaluating in that job is necessary and the search on hh was quite good. But a decent part of these 80% of the time was taken by copy-paste from the site to the internal database. It would seem - not essential, to spend a minute or two on copying (here I copied my full name, in another field - a resume, ticked the checkboxes in my database, set myself a task for calling). But when you look through a hundred or two resumes a day and put dozens on calls, you can save a lot on automating copy-paste.
In general, as it turned out, in the office-plankton life, tasks regularly arise that are not difficult to completely or automate. At the same time, they are usually not automated in any way, especially in small offices. Simply due to its specificity, there are no ready-made solutions, and people (managers and management) usually do not even suspect that it is possible to increase efficiency and automate routine in a very cheap way.
But is it realistic to sell such small solutions to the management of small firms, under the sauce "this program will free up 10-20% of your manager's working time, by automating routine actions"?
So far, I can imagine 2-3 cases and the functionality of simple, narrowly tailored programs that can really save 10-20-30-50% of the time of an ordinary manager. Just because he himself performed such functions.
But on the other hand, selling through the site and advertising, IMHO, in this case is pointless. The programs are highly specialized, and for each individually the audience is small (you need to write programs for specific requests). And no one will look for solutions to these problems.
This means that you need to look for potential customers yourself and offer them services that are objectively beneficial and useful to them, but which customers usually never thought about.

Answer 1

It is realistic to sit on custom developments according to acquaintances/recommendations. It is very difficult to find clients on your own.