Cold Calling Pricing
What cold calling actually costs in the UK in 2026 — our pricing, the models other agencies use, and how to work out the cost per meeting before you commit.
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Our pricing, without a form in front of it
Most UK agencies hide pricing behind a discovery call. We publish it, because the main reason to hide a price is that it is negotiable based on how much the buyer seems able to pay, and that is not a relationship worth starting.
We price by dedicated caller capacity on a monthly retainer. A caller unit covers the rep's dialling time plus the research, list building, compliance screening, dialler, recording, CRM integration and management layer that sit behind it. There is no separate setup fee and no data charge on top.
- Part-time capacity — suited to a narrow ICP or a single test segment. Entry-level engagements start around £2,400 per month.
- One full dedicated caller — the standard configuration for a first serious outbound programme.
- Multi-caller teams — for multiple segments, multiple territories, or a pipeline target that a single rep cannot physically produce.
Three-month initial term, then rolling with 30 days' notice. Exact figures for your configuration come back within a day of the first call, and they do not move based on your budget.
The three pricing models and what each one does to quality
Retainer per caller
You buy capacity. The agency's incentive is to keep you past month three, which means producing meetings your closers actually want. Predictable, and the model we use.
Per lead or per appointment
Superficially the safest — you pay only for output. In practice it quietly corrodes quality, because every ambiguous conversation gets counted as a lead when the month is short. It also pushes agencies toward broad, easy ICPs and away from the specialist markets where the money is. If you use this model, insist on a written qualification bar and a no-quibble rejection right.
Per hour or per dial
Cheapest headline rate, worst outcomes. Paying per dial makes dial volume the product, and dial volume is inversely correlated with research quality. This is where boiler-room behaviour comes from.
How to calculate your real cost per meeting
Ignore the monthly figure and work out cost per meeting, then cost per closed deal. The arithmetic is simple:
- Monthly retainer ÷ meetings per month = cost per meeting.
- Cost per meeting ÷ your meeting-to-close rate = cost per customer.
- Compare that to your average contract value and gross margin.
A worked example: a £3,000 monthly retainer producing 10 meetings is £300 per meeting. At a 20% close rate that is £1,500 per customer. On a £12,000 contract at 60% gross margin, the channel returns roughly £7,200 gross per customer for £1,500 of acquisition cost. That works comfortably.
Run the same maths on a £4,000 average contract and it stops working, which is why we tell companies below roughly £5,000 average contract value that phone-led outbound is the wrong channel for them. It is a short conversation but an honest one.
What should be included and often is not
- List building and data — should be in the retainer. A separate data charge usually means bought lists.
- TPS and CTPS screening — should be included and repeated every cycle, not once at kickoff.
- Dialler and call recording — should be included, not a platform seat you buy separately.
- CRM integration — should be included and should write to your CRM, not theirs.
- Script development and weekly iteration — should be included. A fixed script that never changes is a red flag.
- Setup fee — should not exist. Setup is the agency's cost of starting work.
Why cheap cold calling costs more
Offshore floors quoting a fraction of UK rates are genuinely cheaper per dial and usually far more expensive per meeting, because connect and conversion rates on a UK B2B decision maker collapse when the caller cannot handle a domain-specific objection. There is also brand damage, which never appears on the invoice: a badly executed campaign burns names in your addressable market permanently, and in a narrow ICP you may only get one attempt at each company.
The right comparison is not price per hour. It is cost per meeting your closers are pleased to attend.
FAQs
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Tell us your ICP, territory and target meeting volume and we will send a specific number, plus the honest view on whether the channel suits your contract values.
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Thirty minutes, a costed plan, no obligation.
Qualified meetings booked straight into your reps' calendars.
London-based callers working your target accounts across the capital.
Discovery calls with decision-makers who agreed to the meeting.
An outsourced telesales floor without the recruitment overhead.
Hand the dialling to a UK team that does it every day.
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