[ seven agencies checked august 2026 ]
B2B lead generation services: what outbound call center and appointment setting companies charge per booked meeting
Outbound agencies quote in four incompatible units: per rep per month, per four week cycle, per lead contacted, and per appointment promised. None of them converts to the others without a number the vendor leaves out. This page records who publishes a real rate, then does the conversion to one figure that survives comparison: cost per booked meeting.
Last updated August 2026 · Vendor pages cited · No affiliate placements
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the short answer
B2B lead generation services sell you outbound capacity: a rep, a dialer and a list, aimed at booking meetings. Published rates run $1,500 a month offshore to $6,500 a month for a senior US rep, plus a $2,000 monthly team fee and a $499 platform license on the one full rate card in this market. A single dedicated SDR engagement is published at $9,950 per four week cycle, and volume dialing at $3.50 to $7.50 per lead. Converted against published appointment volumes, that is roughly $270 to $1,300 per booked meeting. The number that decides the contract is not the rate, it is output: at 8.3 meetings a month a US seat costs $900 a meeting, and at 16.7 the same seat costs $450. Buy output, not hours.
01 / the four units
Four ways to price the same outbound rep
Every agency in this category sells roughly the same thing: someone who will call and email strangers on your behalf until a few of them agree to a meeting. What differs is the unit they bill it in, and each unit hides a different variable. Per rep hides output. Per lead hides conversion. Per appointment hides what counts as an appointment.
Per rep, per month
CIENCE, most SDR outsourcing
You rent a named rep, priced by seniority and where they sit. Predictable. You carry the risk that they book nothing.
Per four week cycle
SalesRoads
The same deal on a 4 week clock rather than a calendar month, which quietly means 13 bills a year instead of 12.
Per lead contacted
Upcall and volume dialing shops
You pay per record worked, not per outcome. Cheap looking, and only comparable once you divide by your own booking rate.
Per appointment promised
Belkins and retainer agencies
The plan names a yearly appointment count rather than a price. Output is explicit, cost is not.
The fourth unit is the interesting one, because it is the only one that names an outcome. An agency that publishes appointment counts is telling you what it thinks a rep can produce, and that number turns out to be the missing denominator for everybody else in the market. We use it below to price all four units in the same currency.
02 / published pricing
Which B2B lead generation companies publish a price
We opened the pricing page of seven agencies on 30 August 2026 and recorded what was on it, not what a directory claims. Three published real numbers, which makes this market noticeably more transparent than adjacent outsourcing categories. Two published a model or an output promise with no rate attached, and two pricing URLs returned a 404.
| Agency | Billing unit | Published price | Stated terms |
|---|---|---|---|
| CIENCE | Per rep, per month | $1,500 offshore, $2,500 Europe, $4,500 US at level 1, up to $6,500 senior US | $5,000 setup, $2,000 monthly team fee, $499 platform license, $1,000 onboarding per rep |
| SalesRoads | Per four week cycle | $9,950 for one SDR, $16,750 for two ($8,375 per rep) | Priced per 4 week engagement, no contract length or setup fee stated |
| Upcall | Per lead contacted | $3.50 to $5.00 up to 5 attempts, $3.50 to $7.50 for 5 to 10 attempts | Higher tiers quoted on request, volume based |
| Belkins | Per appointment promised | Not published | Plans named by output: 30+, 100+ and 200+ appointments a year |
| Martal Group | Flat monthly fee | Not published | 3 month pilot on outbound, 4 month on full sales, some tiers add sales commission |
| memoryBlue | Not stated | Not published, the pricing URL returned 404 | Custom quote only |
| Callbox | Not stated | Not published, the pricing URL returned 404 | Custom quote only |
Three cards in seven is a better result than we found auditing the inbound side, where only one provider in seven published a rate at all. If you want that comparison, the call center outsourcing pricing audit runs the same test on inbound and customer service providers. The plausible reason for the gap is that outbound is bought by sales leaders who model cost per opportunity, and a vendor that refuses to name a number cannot be modelled at all.
Belkins is worth separating out. It publishes no price, but it does publish something almost nobody else does: an expected appointment count per plan, at 30 or more, 100 or more, and 200 or more per year. That is an output commitment in public, and it is the number every other agency in the table leaves blank.
03 / the one full rate card
What a dedicated outbound rep costs by region and seniority
CIENCE is the only agency we found publishing a complete matrix, and it prices two things separately: where the rep sits, and how much judgment the rep is expected to exercise. A level one rep works a script. A level three is expected to rewrite it. The spread between cheapest and dearest seat on the same card is more than four to one.
| Rep level | Offshore | Europe | United States |
|---|---|---|---|
| Level 1, scripted | $1,500 / mo | $2,500 / mo | $4,500 / mo |
| Level 2, producer | $2,500 / mo | $3,500 / mo | $5,500 / mo |
| Level 3, optimizer | $3,500 / mo | $4,500 / mo | $6,500 / mo |
| Plus, on every seat | Team fee $2,000 / mo | Platform $499 / mo | Onboarding $1,000 once |
The seat price is the part buyers quote to each other and the smallest part of the bill in year one. A US level one rep is advertised at $4,500, but the running cost is $6,999 a month once the team fee and platform license are added, and $7,499 a month averaged across the first year once the $5,000 setup and $1,000 onboarding are amortized. That is a 67 percent uplift on the number in the headline. Offshore the same arithmetic takes $1,500 to $4,499.
04 / the only comparable unit
What each option actually costs per booked meeting
Here is the conversion nobody in this market publishes. Take the year one all in monthly cost from the cards above, and divide by the appointment volumes Belkins puts on its own plans: 8.3 meetings a month on its growth tier and 16.7 on its top tier. Those are the only public output numbers in the category, and they turn four incompatible price lists into one column.
| Option | Year one all in | At 8.3 meetings / mo | At 16.7 meetings / mo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Offshore rep, level 1 | $4,499 / mo | $540 per meeting | $270 per meeting |
| Europe rep, level 1 | $5,499 / mo | $660 per meeting | $330 per meeting |
| Offshore rep, level 3 | $6,499 / mo | $780 per meeting | $390 per meeting |
| US rep, level 1 | $7,499 / mo | $900 per meeting | $450 per meeting |
| US rep, level 3 | $9,499 / mo | $1,140 per meeting | $570 per meeting |
| Single dedicated SDR engagement | $10,779 / mo | $1,293 per meeting | $647 per meeting |
Read the two right hand columns as one finding: doubling output halves the cost per meeting, and no rate negotiation you will ever win moves the number that far. A US level one seat at high output ($450) beats an offshore seat at low output ($540). The seniority and geography arguments that dominate these sales conversations are worth a few hundred dollars a meeting. Output is worth double. Ask every agency what appointment volume it will commit to in writing before you ask what the seat costs.
One caveat on the bottom row, because it is easy to misread. Two reps at $16,750 per cycle is $8,375 each, cheaper per rep than one at $9,950, but it only lowers cost per meeting if the second rep books at the same rate as the first. Priced against a doubled 16.7 meetings, the two rep deal comes out at $1,089 a meeting; against a doubled 33.3, it is $544. Volume discounts on seats are not volume discounts on outcomes.
05 / the fine print
Three things the headline rate leaves out
The thirteenth bill
A price quoted per four weeks is not a monthly price. There are 13 four week cycles in a year, not 12, so $9,950 per cycle is $129,350 a year, or $10,779 a month. That is 8.3 percent more than the same figure would cost billed monthly, and it is the single most common misreading of an outbound quote.
The attached fees
On the one full rate card in this market the seat is roughly two thirds of the bill. A $4,500 US seat carries a $2,000 monthly team fee, a $499 platform license, a $1,000 onboarding charge and a $5,000 setup. Compare all in monthly numbers or you are comparing different things.
The ramp
Nobody bills for it, everybody pays it. Agencies typically need four to eight weeks before output is steady, and a per meeting cost calculated on month one will look catastrophic. Judge the arrangement on a quarter, and write the ramp period into the contract so you are not paying full rate for a warm up.
06 / per lead pricing
Why $5 a lead is not cheaper than $900 a meeting
Per lead pricing looks like it wins by two orders of magnitude, and it is the most common way buyers talk themselves into the wrong contract. A published card sells $3.50 to $5.00 a lead for up to five call attempts, and $3.50 to $7.50 for five to ten. What you are buying is attempts against a record. What you needed was a meeting.
| Price per lead | At a 2% booking rate | At a 5% booking rate |
|---|---|---|
| $3.50 | $175 per meeting | $70 per meeting |
| $5.00 | $250 per meeting | $100 per meeting |
| $7.50 | $375 per meeting | $150 per meeting |
The 2 and 5 percent figures above are illustrative, not vendor claims. Substitute your own, because that rate is the whole argument and it is the one thing a per lead vendor cannot promise you. The formula is simply cost per meeting = price per lead divided by your booking rate. Run it before signing, and notice what it implies: per lead dialing genuinely does beat a dedicated rep on price, but only if your offer converts cold traffic without a skilled human in the loop. If your product needs explaining, the cheap unit is a trap.
There is a second difference the price hides. A per lead shop optimizes for attempts made, because that is what it bills. A per appointment agency optimizes for meetings booked, which is closer to what you want but creates its own pressure to book meetings that should not have happened. Whichever unit you choose, agree in writing what a qualified meeting is, and who pays when one turns out not to be.
07 / build or buy
Is outsourcing cheaper than hiring an SDR?
Closer than the agencies imply, and closer than the in house camp admits. Reported US market data for 2026 puts SDR base salary around $55,000 to $60,000 with median on target earnings near $85,000, on a roughly 70 to 30 base to commission split. Most reps earn 60 to 80 percent of their variable, so plan on realistic cash comp near $76,750.
| Option | Monthly, fully loaded | Time to first meeting | What you are really buying |
|---|---|---|---|
| In house US SDR, at target | About $9,381 | 3 to 5 months including hiring | Product depth, retained knowledge, full control of the brand voice |
| In house US SDR, realistic comp | About $8,505 | 3 to 5 months including hiring | The same, at the pay most reps actually earn |
| Outsourced US rep, level 1 | $7,499 year one | 4 to 8 weeks | Speed, and a floor manager who has run this before |
| Outsourced offshore rep, level 1 | $4,499 year one | 4 to 8 weeks | Volume per dollar, at the cost of accent and timezone fit |
Fully loaded means cash compensation plus roughly 27.5 percent for employer payroll taxes and benefits, plus about $350 a month for the data, sequencing and dialer tooling a rep needs to do the job. On those assumptions an in house US SDR lands near $8,505 a month, against $7,499 for a published US agency seat and $4,499 offshore. Outsourcing wins on rate, but not by the margin the sales decks claim.
The decisive number is ramp, not rate. Three months of an in house rep before steady output is about $25,500 spent pre productivity, and that is before recruiting cost and before the risk that the hire does not work out. An agency bills from week two and replaces a weak rep at its own expense. That is the actual product: not cheaper labor, but a shorter distance between signing and the first meeting, and someone else carrying the hiring risk. Hire in house when outbound is a permanent function you want to own, and buy it when you are still proving the offer.
08 / when to walk away
When hiring an outbound agency is the wrong move
You have not closed one yourself
If nobody on your team has won a deal from a cold conversation, an agency cannot discover the pitch for you. Make ten calls yourself first. The script you write from those calls is the asset the agency needs.
Your ideal customer is still a guess
Outbound punishes a vague target list harder than any other channel. A rep dialing the wrong companies produces the same cost per meeting arithmetic with a zero in the numerator.
The market is 500 companies
A named account list that small does not need a volume machine. It needs one person who knows the space, and burning the list with a scripted rep is expensive and hard to undo.
The bottleneck is downstream
If meetings already sit unworked, or demos do not convert, more meetings make the problem worse. Fix the stage that is leaking before you buy volume into the top of it.
There is a fifth case worth naming, because it is the one most agencies will not raise. A large share of what a junior outbound rep does all day is research and list hygiene: finding the right contact, checking the company still fits, updating records after a call. That work is increasingly automatable, and paying a $4,500 US seat to do it is the most expensive way to buy it. Before you scale headcount, work out how much of the role is judgment and how much is data entry, then buy each part from the cheapest competent source.
09 / questions
Questions buyers ask before hiring a lead generation agency
How much does B2B lead generation cost?
Published rates start near $4,000 a month all in for an offshore SDR and run to about $9,500 a month for a senior US based rep, on rate cards that add a strategic team fee and a platform license on top of the seat. One agency publishes $9,950 per four week cycle for a single dedicated SDR. Per lead outbound calling is sold separately at $3.50 to $7.50 a lead.
What is B2B lead generation?
B2B lead generation is the work of finding companies that fit your ideal customer profile, reaching the right person there, and getting a qualified conversation booked for your sales team. Outsourced, it is usually sold as a dedicated sales development representative, as a per lead calling campaign, or as a retainer priced against a promised number of appointments per year.
How does B2B lead generation work?
The agency builds a target list against your criteria, then runs cold email, LinkedIn and phone sequences against it under your brand. Replies are qualified against rules you agree, and anything that passes is booked straight into your calendar. You supply the offer, the qualification criteria and a person to take the meeting. Ramp to steady output typically takes four to eight weeks.
What is an outbound call center?
An outbound call center places calls to prospects rather than receiving them. In a B2B context the work is cold calling, qualifying interest and booking meetings, sometimes alongside list research and follow up email. It is billed per agent per month, per agent hour, or per lead contacted, and it is a different product from an inbound answering service.
How much do outbound call center services cost?
On published cards, a dedicated outbound rep runs $1,500 a month offshore, $2,500 in Europe and $4,500 in the US at entry level, rising to $6,500 for a senior US rep, before a $2,000 monthly team fee and a $499 platform license. Volume dialing sold per lead runs $3.50 to $7.50 for five to ten call attempts per record.
Is it cheaper to outsource or hire an in house SDR?
Outsourcing a US based rep is close to a wash and offshore is roughly half price. A US SDR on a reported $85,000 median on target earnings costs about $8,500 a month fully loaded once payroll taxes, benefits and tooling are counted, against $7,499 for a published US agency seat and $4,499 offshore. The bigger gap is ramp, not rate.
How much should I pay per booked meeting?
Converting published rate cards against published appointment volumes gives a range of about $270 to $1,300 per booked meeting. Offshore reps at high output land near $270, a US senior rep at modest output near $1,140, and a single dedicated SDR engagement near $1,293. Anything quoted far under $270 is usually pricing a contacted lead, not a booked meeting.
Do B2B lead generation companies publish their prices?
More than in most outsourcing markets. Of seven agencies checked in August 2026, three published real numbers: a full per rep card by region and seniority, a per four week engagement price, and a per lead range. Two published a billing model or an output promise without a rate, and two pricing pages returned 404.
What is the difference between inbound and outbound call center services?
Inbound answers calls your customers place and is measured on speed to answer, so an outside team can deliver from day one on a script. Outbound places calls to strangers under your brand and is measured on conversion, which needs product knowledge that takes months to build. That is why inbound outsources cleanly and outbound often does not.
How many meetings should an SDR book per month?
One agency publishes its own targets as tiers: 30 or more appointments a year on a small business plan, 100 or more on its growth plan and 200 or more on its top plan. That works out to roughly 2.5, 8.3 and 16.7 booked meetings a month. Treat the middle figure as a realistic planning number for a dedicated rep.
What does a per lead price actually buy?
It buys call attempts against a record, not an outcome. One published card sells $3.50 to $5.00 a lead for up to five attempts and $3.50 to $7.50 for five to ten. A lead price only becomes comparable to a per meeting price after you divide it by your own booking rate, which is the number the vendor does not know and you must supply.
Are B2B lead generation agencies worth it?
They are worth it when you have a proven offer and no capacity to work it, and rarely worth it when you are still guessing who buys. An agency can dial a list far faster than you can hire, but it cannot discover your ideal customer profile for you. Test the offer with your own calls first, then buy volume.
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