how do you validate a b2b idea for car dealerships without it being awkward? (I will not promote)

So me and a friend have an idea for software for car dealerships and importers. Mostly smaller/medium ones (1-10 employees). We don’t want to spend months building something nobody wants, so we’re trying to figure out if it’s actually worth it first. His idea is to just call them. Pick up the phone, call a bunch of dealers, ask what their problems are and if they’d pay for something like what we’re thinking. I don’t know, it feels weird to me. Like why would a guy running a dealership stop what he’s doing to help two randoms figure out their business? He gets nothing out of it. I kind of picture most of them just saying “not interested” and hanging up. But tbh part of me thinks I’m just scared of cold calling and using that as an excuse not to do it. Has anyone actually done this? Did people talk to you or was it a waste of time? And if you did, how did you start the conversation so it didn’t sound like you were trying to sell something? Also open to other ways of validating this if calling isn’t the best move. And if anyone here has worked with dealerships before I’d love to hear what they’re like to deal with. thanks