Appointment Setting Pricing

How much does appointment setting cost?

Abstrakt programs are $5,000 a month for Foundation, $8,500 a month for Growth, and custom for Enterprise. Here is what each tier includes, how the rest of the market prices this work, and how to check the math against your own numbers.

The Short Answer

What does Abstrakt charge for appointment setting?

Abstrakt charges a flat monthly fee: Foundation is $5,000 a month, Growth is $8,500 a month, and Enterprise is priced to scope. The fee covers the SDR, the list, the data, the tools and the reporting, so the number on the invoice is the number you budget.

The right tier depends mostly on how much SDR capacity your territory needs and how many channels it takes to reach your buyers. The full breakdown lives on the pricing page; the table below is the summary.

TierMonthly priceBest forWhat it includes
Foundation$5,000$2M to $10M revenueA dedicated U.S.-based SDR at 50% capacity, a custom ICP and 1,500-account target list, email, phone and LinkedIn outreach, three-check qualification, the Results Portal and monthly performance reviews.
Growth$8,500$10M to $50M revenueA dedicated SDR at 100% capacity, everything in Foundation plus cold direct mail, intent and trigger data, bi-weekly reviews, quarterly strategy reviews, pipeline nurture for up to 18 months and A/B testing.
EnterpriseCustom$50M+ revenueA dedicated team of 2 to 6 specialists built for 25+ qualified meetings per month, multi-state and multi-vertical strategy, and a dedicated account director.

The pricing page also lists the terms: no setup fees, territory exclusivity, and a meeting or activity guarantee agreed in writing before launch. Ask any provider, including us, to put terms in the agreement.

Tier by Tier

Which tier fits your business?

Revenue bands are a starting point, not a rule. What decides the tier is how many accounts need working, how often, and through which channels.

Foundation: one territory, one closer

Foundation fits a company that sells in a single service territory and already has someone who can run a sales meeting and close. Half of a dedicated SDR's capacity is enough to work a 1,500-account list by phone, email and LinkedIn when the ICP is tight.

It is the wrong tier if your list is much bigger than that, or if your buyers only respond after months of follow-up. That is a capacity problem, and half a seat cannot solve it.

Growth: more ground, longer cycles

Growth gives you a full-time SDR, so the program can cover a larger territory, a second vertical or a new market. Direct mail and intent data help reach buyers who ignore cold email.

The part owners underrate is nurture. Commercial buyers often say "not now" because a contract runs another year. Growth keeps those accounts warm for up to 18 months, which is how deals like the $570K MSS HVAC agreement happen.

Enterprise: a team, not a seat

Enterprise is for multi-site operators, platforms and companies selling across several states or verticals at once. A team of 2 to 6 specialists works the program, with a dedicated account director and executive reviews.

Pricing is custom because the scope is: how many territories, how many programs, how much data integration. Expect a scoped proposal, not a rate card.

How the Market Prices It

How do appointment setting companies price their work?

Most providers use one of three models: a monthly retainer, a fee per appointment, or a hybrid of a smaller retainer plus a per-meeting fee. Each one moves risk to a different side of the table, and none of them is automatically cheaper. What matters is what you pay for each meeting that actually fits your business.

Monthly retainer

How it works. You pay a fixed fee for a defined amount of SDR time, data, tools and management. Abstrakt uses this model.

Where it helps. Predictable budgeting, and the provider has no reason to book weak meetings just to bill for them.

Where it hurts. You carry more of the risk in the first months while the program ramps. If the provider does not report activity and outcomes clearly, you can pay for months without knowing why meetings are light.

Pay per appointment

How it works. You pay only when a meeting is booked, sometimes only when it is held.

Where it helps. Low upfront commitment, and the cost per meeting is visible on every invoice.

Where it hurts. The provider is paid for volume, so the definition of a meeting becomes the whole contract. Expect disputes over who counts as a decision-maker, and expect hard, valuable accounts and year-long nurture to get skipped.

Hybrid

How it works. A lower base retainer plus a fee for each qualified meeting.

Where it helps. It shares risk, and it can work well when both sides agree on a tight, written qualification standard.

Where it hurts. It inherits the definition problem of pay-per-appointment and adds invoice complexity. Read the qualification and dispute clauses before you compare base fees.

Whatever the model, get the qualification standard in writing before you compare prices. A cheap meeting with someone who cannot sign, or with a company outside your service area, is not cheap. Our page on what counts as a qualified appointment lays out the standard we use and how to write your own.

Cost Drivers

What drives the cost of an appointment setting program?

Cost follows workload. The more accounts that need working, the more channels it takes to reach them, and the longer they take to buy, the more SDR capacity the program needs.

  • Territory size. A single metro with a 30-mile service radius is a different job from five states. More territory means more accounts, more research and usually more than one ICP.
  • List size and list quality. A 1,500-account list worked well beats a 15,000-row export worked badly. Verifying real decision-makers is labor, and it recurs because contacts change jobs.
  • Channels. Phone, email and LinkedIn are the core. Direct mail adds print, postage and coordination. Intent and trigger data add a data cost but help the SDR call the right account at the right time.
  • SDR capacity. This is the biggest lever. Half a seat, a full seat and a team of specialists produce different amounts of activity, and activity is what turns a list into conversations.
  • Deal complexity. A buyer who signs a recurring service agreement after one meeting needs less work than a buying committee with a property manager, an owner and a procurement team. Multi-threading accounts and nurturing them for a year takes time.

If a quote seems far below the others, ask which of these drivers it leaves out. It is usually the list work, the nurture or the management.

Build vs. Buy

What does an in-house SDR seat really cost?

An in-house SDR costs far more than the salary on the job post. Every category below is real money or real time, and several of them recur every time a rep leaves. Fill in your own figures; local pay and tool contracts vary too much for a single national number to be honest.

Cost categoryIn-house SDRAbstrakt programWhat to budget for
Salary and commissionYou payIncludedBase pay plus a variable plan tied to meetings or pipeline. Price it at your local market rate for an outbound rep, not an inside customer service rate.
Payroll taxesYou payIncludedEmployer-side payroll taxes and unemployment insurance on top of cash pay.
BenefitsYou payIncludedHealth coverage, retirement match, paid time off and the hours the seat is paid but not dialing.
RecruitingYou payIncludedJob ads, recruiter fees or the hours your managers spend screening and interviewing.
TrainingYou payIncludedTrade knowledge, call coaching, objection handling and your CRM process.
Management timeYou payReducedCall reviews, one-on-ones, list decisions and reporting. You still attend program reviews with us, but you are not running the floor.
Contact dataYou payIncludedCompany and contact data, verification and refreshes. Data decays, so this is an ongoing subscription.
DialerYou payIncludedA dialer license and phone numbers, kept from being flagged as spam.
CRMYou payIncludedSeat licenses and admin time. Abstrakt configures and manages the CRM for the program and integrates with yours.
Email infrastructureYou payIncludedSending domains, inbox warming, sequencing software and deliverability monitoring so outreach does not land in spam.
RampYou carrySharedMonths of paid time before a new rep produces steady meetings. A program also ramps: plan on the first months to build the list and messaging, with the meeting or activity guarantee agreed in writing before launch (pricing page).
TurnoverYou carryAbstrakt staffs the seatWhen a rep quits, you pay recruiting, training and ramp again, and the conversations in their head leave with them.

In fairness to building: an in-house SDR is yours, learns your business deeply and can grow into a closing role, and if you already have a strong sales manager and a working outbound process, hiring can make sense. Our post on in-house SDR vs. outsourced appointment setting walks through the decision, and the outsourced BDR and SDR page explains what you get when you buy the function instead.

When we hear the build-or-buy question from owners, it usually follows a rep leaving. That was the situation at Century Facility Services, which chose to outsource and went on to book 58 appointments and close 7 deals worth $415,000 in year one.

Return on Investment

How do you estimate ROI with your own numbers?

Work backward from revenue. Divide the new revenue you want by your average deal size to get the customers you need, divide that by your close rate to get the meetings you need, then compare the gross profit on those deals to the program cost. Use your numbers, not ours.

01

Customers needed

Customers needed = New revenue goal ÷ Average deal size. Use first-year contract value, or the lifetime value of a recurring agreement if you track it.

02

Meetings needed

Held meetings needed = Customers needed ÷ Close rate from held meetings. Booked meetings needed = Held meetings ÷ Your show rate.

03

Monthly target

Monthly meetings = Booked meetings needed ÷ Months in the plan. This is the number to discuss with any provider.

04

Gross profit

Gross profit from the program = Deals closed × Average deal size × Your gross margin. Revenue alone overstates the return.

05

Return

ROI = (Gross profit from the program − Program cost) ÷ Program cost. Program cost = Monthly fee × Months.

06

Payback

Break-even deals = Program cost ÷ (Average deal size × Gross margin). Know this number before you sign.

The growth calculator runs the first three steps for you, and the pipeline math guide has worksheets for the full chain from revenue goal to weekly activity.

Mind the timing. Commercial sales cycles are long, so the first months of a program build pipeline that closes later. Judge a program on qualified meetings held and pipeline created during the ramp, and on closed revenue over a full sales cycle. Sometimes one deal changes the whole calculation: a design-build GC landed a $900,000 project by month three, which by the client's math covered two years of program cost.

Before You Sign

What should you ask about pricing before you sign?

Ask what the fee buys, what counts as a qualified meeting, what you can see, and how you get out. If a provider answers any of these vaguely, treat it as an answer.

  • What exactly is included? SDR time, list building, data, dialer, email infrastructure, CRM, direct mail, reporting. Get the list in writing.
  • How much SDR capacity do I get? A dedicated rep, a share of one, or a pool. Capacity is the main thing you are paying for.
  • Who makes the calls, and where? Abstrakt's SDRs are U.S.-based. Ask any provider where theirs sit and whether they work only your account.
  • How is a qualified meeting defined? Ask for the written standard and how disputes are handled.
  • What will I see, and how often? Activity, conversations and meetings, live or in a weekly report. Abstrakt clients see every dial, email, conversation and booked meeting in the Results Portal.
  • Will you work for my competitor? Abstrakt runs one program per trade per market and will not run the same program for a direct competitor in your territory.
  • What are the terms? Setup fees, ramp commitment, notice period, and what happens to the list and the data if you leave.

For the full evaluation, including red flags and a scorecard, read how to choose an appointment setting company. To see what happens after you sign, start with our process or the appointment setting service page.

Want to see how specific providers line up against these criteria? Read our side-by-side look at appointment setting companies, built from each company's own published information.

Questions, Answered

Appointment Setting Cost FAQ

How much does appointment setting cost per month?+

Abstrakt programs are $5,000 a month for Foundation, $8,500 a month for Growth, and custom pricing for Enterprise. The flat fee covers the dedicated SDR, the target list, data, tools, qualification and reporting.

What is the difference between Foundation and Growth?+

Foundation gives you a dedicated U.S.-based SDR at 50% capacity working email, phone and LinkedIn against a 1,500-account list. Growth gives you the SDR at 100% capacity and adds cold direct mail, intent and trigger data, bi-weekly reviews, quarterly strategy, nurture for up to 18 months and A/B testing.

Who is the Enterprise tier for?+

Enterprise is built for companies around $50M in revenue and up, usually multi-site or multi-state, that need a team of 2 to 6 specialists and 25+ qualified meetings per month. Pricing is scoped to the program.

Are there setup fees?+

No. The pricing page lists no setup fees, no ramp fees and no CRM integration fees. Every program includes territory exclusivity and a meeting or activity guarantee agreed in writing before launch. If we miss the number, we keep working at no additional cost until we hit it.

Is pay-per-appointment cheaper than a retainer?+

Not necessarily. The per-meeting price can look lower, but the provider is paid for volume, so the qualification definition decides what you really get. Compare the cost of meetings that fit your business, not the cost of meetings booked.

Is outsourcing cheaper than hiring an SDR?+

It often is once you count every category: salary, payroll taxes, benefits, recruiting, training, management time, data, dialer, CRM, email infrastructure, ramp and turnover. Put your own figures against each line and compare them to a flat program fee.

How do I calculate ROI on appointment setting?+

Divide your revenue goal by your average deal size, then by your close rate and show rate to get the meetings you need. ROI is gross profit from closed deals minus program cost, divided by program cost. The growth calculator does the first part for you.

How long before a program pays for itself?+

It depends on your deal size, margin and sales cycle. Calculate break-even deals as program cost divided by gross profit per deal, and judge the program on a full sales cycle, not the first month.

Do you guarantee a number of appointments?+

Yes. Every program guarantees either the activity or the qualified-appointment number we agree on in writing before launch. If we miss it, we keep working at no additional cost until we hit it.

Ready to grow?

Let's build your pipeline.

Book a 30-minute strategy call. We will size your territory, show you which tier fits, and walk through the meeting math with your own deal size and close rate.