Done-for-You B2B Lead Generation: What Is Actually Included (and What to Check)
Almost every lead generation agency calls its service done for you, yet many stop at sending emails and forward the replies to your team. Here is what the full chain should include, from the target list to the meeting in your calendar, what breaks when a step is missing, how five models compare on cost, speed and risk, ten questions to ask before you sign, and when done-for-you is the wrong choice. With our own prices, because a guide like this should show its author's.
Kenneth Kather · Founder & CEO, KNK Outbound
Tools in this post
Key takeaways
- Done-for-you B2B lead generation should cover nine steps with one provider: target lists, data, sending domains and mailboxes, copy, sending on email and LinkedIn, every reply, calls to interested prospects, meetings booked into your calendar, and reporting.
- The steps most often left out are the valuable ones after a prospect says yes: reply handling, the follow-up call and the booking. Without them, positive replies sit for days and interest cools before anyone books a meeting.
- A real done-for-you outbound service typically costs 3,000 to 10,000 dollars or euros a month, and the only fair way to compare it with an in-house SDR, a call center or pay-per-lead is the cost per held, qualified meeting.
- Done for you is the wrong choice when your market has fewer than about 200 target companies, your offer is not proven, your deal value is below roughly 3,000 per customer, or you want to build your own sales team for the long term.
The short answer
Done-for-you B2B lead generation means one provider runs the whole chain from target list to booked meeting: lists and data, sending domains and mailboxes, the copy, sending on cold email and LinkedIn, handling every reply, calling interested prospects, booking qualified meetings into your calendar, and reporting on all of it. Your part is small but not zero: approve the message, give feedback on meetings within a day or two, and run the meetings well. If a provider stops at "we send the emails" or "we forward you the interested replies", it is not done for you, whatever the website says. Expect 3,000 to 10,000 dollars or euros a month for a real version of this, and check what sits inside the price before you compare.
Why the label needs checking
We hear it in first calls every week. A founder tells us they already outsourced lead generation and it did not work. When we look closer, the story is usually the same. The provider sent emails from a shared tool, forwarded positive replies to a sales inbox and left the rest to the client. Nobody called the interested people. Half the replies were answered two days later. On paper the service was done for you. In practice the most valuable steps, everything after "sounds interesting", sat with a team that had no time for them.
"Done for you" is not a protected term. It covers anything from a list export plus a sending tool to a full outbound team. The only way to compare offers is to walk through the chain step by step and ask who does each one.
The full chain, and what breaks when a step is missing
- Target market and account list. Who you sell to, which companies fit, and which buying signals give a reason to write now. Not included = the provider pulls a generic database filter by industry and job title, and your message reaches people with no reason to care.
- Data purchase and validation. Contacts bought, enriched and verified before anything is sent. Not included = bounce rates climb, the sending domains lose reputation in the first weeks, or a data invoice arrives on top of the fee.
- Sending domains and mailboxes, set up and warmed. Separate domains, authenticated and warmed for several weeks, so your main domain is never at risk. Not included = you buy and configure them yourself, the launch slips by weeks, or someone sends from your main domain. Set up properly, inbox placement above 95% is realistic. Set up badly, it is not.
- Message and offer. Research, copy, follow-ups, one version per segment, rewritten when the numbers say so. Not included = you write the copy yourself, or the provider runs the same template it uses for every client.
- Sending on email and LinkedIn, monitored daily. Volume paced per mailbox, LinkedIn connection requests and messages alongside, inbox placement checked continuously. Not included = only one channel runs, and nobody notices a mailbox landing in spam until the reply rate has already dropped.
- Every reply handled. Positive, negative, "not now", out of office, "talk to my colleague", unsubscribes. Not included = positive replies sit in a shared inbox for two days. That costs more than most buyers think. According to the 2011 Harvard Business Review study by Oldroyd, McElheran and Elkington, firms that tried to contact a lead within an hour were nearly seven times as likely to qualify it as firms that waited longer, and more than 60 times as likely as firms that waited 24 hours or more. That study looked at inbound web leads, not cold email replies, but in our experience interest cools just as fast.
- Interested prospects called. A short, warm call to the people who replied with interest, to clarify need and timing. Not included = "sounds interesting, send me more" turns into a PDF and silence instead of a meeting.
- Meetings booked into your calendar. A real slot, a calendar invite, a short brief on who is coming and why, and reminders. Not included = you receive a list of "warm leads" and spend your own week chasing time slots. Booked properly, show rates of 80 to 90% are realistic.
- Reporting. Sends, inbox placement, replies, positive replies, meetings booked and held, per segment, ideally on a live dashboard. Not included = you see "emails sent" and cannot tell whether the list, the copy or the follow-up is the weak spot.
The steps compound. On researched lists with a real reason to write, reply rates of 3 to 8% are realistic. Of 100 replies, typically 30 to 40 are positive, and about a third of those become a qualified meeting, so roughly 10 to 13. If steps 6 to 8 are missing, the same 100 replies produce far fewer meetings, because getting from "interested" to "booked" is exactly the work nobody is doing.
What you still do as the client
Done for you does not mean nothing for you. Three things stay on your side, and they decide a lot:
- Approve the message and the target list. One focused round of feedback in the first weeks. You know your customers better than any agency, and one sentence from you ("they never buy before budget season") can save a month.
- Give fast feedback on meetings. Within a day or two, say whether each meeting was a fit and why. That feedback is how the targeting gets sharper. Without it, a provider optimises for meetings, not for your pipeline.
- Take the meetings well. Show up prepared, follow up within a day, keep the next step concrete. A meeting that waits a week for a proposal is a wasted meeting, and no provider can fix that from the outside.
Plan for two to three hours a week from someone senior. If nobody has that time right now, start later.
Five models compared
| Model | Who does the work | Typical cost | Time to first meetings | Main risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Done-for-you agency | The agency runs the whole chain, you take the meetings | 3,000 to 10,000 a month, check whether tools and data are included | Often 4 to 8 weeks, once domains are warmed | Paying for a "done for you" label that stops at sending |
| Software plus your own SDR | You buy the tools, your SDR runs everything | SDR salary (90,000 to 130,000 dollars a year fully loaded in the US, around 60,000 to 80,000 euros in Germany) plus tools and data | 6 to 12 weeks with an experienced SDR, plus 3 to 6 months of ramp for a new hire | Nobody owns data and deliverability, results hang on one person |
| "We build, you run" hybrid | The provider sets up lists, domains, copy and tools, your team runs sending and replies | A one-off build fee plus the costs of the row above | 6 to 12 weeks, then it depends on your team's capacity | The setup decays once nobody with the skill maintains it |
| Phone appointment-setting call center | Callers work a list and book meetings by phone | 200 to 800 per held meeting, or a retainer | Often 2 to 4 weeks, phone needs no warm-up | Meetings booked to hit a quota, with people who do not fit |
| Pay-per-lead | A provider sells contacts or "interested" form fills | 30 to 300 per lead | Days | A lead is not a meeting, and the same lead is often sold to several buyers |
- Who does the work
- The agency runs the whole chain, you take the meetings
- Typical cost
- 3,000 to 10,000 a month, check whether tools and data are included
- Time to first meetings
- Often 4 to 8 weeks, once domains are warmed
- Main risk
- Paying for a "done for you" label that stops at sending
- Who does the work
- You buy the tools, your SDR runs everything
- Typical cost
- SDR salary (90,000 to 130,000 dollars a year fully loaded in the US, around 60,000 to 80,000 euros in Germany) plus tools and data
- Time to first meetings
- 6 to 12 weeks with an experienced SDR, plus 3 to 6 months of ramp for a new hire
- Main risk
- Nobody owns data and deliverability, results hang on one person
- Who does the work
- The provider sets up lists, domains, copy and tools, your team runs sending and replies
- Typical cost
- A one-off build fee plus the costs of the row above
- Time to first meetings
- 6 to 12 weeks, then it depends on your team's capacity
- Main risk
- The setup decays once nobody with the skill maintains it
- Who does the work
- Callers work a list and book meetings by phone
- Typical cost
- 200 to 800 per held meeting, or a retainer
- Time to first meetings
- Often 2 to 4 weeks, phone needs no warm-up
- Main risk
- Meetings booked to hit a quota, with people who do not fit
- Who does the work
- A provider sells contacts or "interested" form fills
- Typical cost
- 30 to 300 per lead
- Time to first meetings
- Days
- Main risk
- A lead is not a meeting, and the same lead is often sold to several buyers
Ranges are in dollars or euros, close enough for planning, and they match our overview of lead generation services. For the software route, a typical stack is Apollo or Clay for data, Instantly or Smartlead for sending, HeyReach for LinkedIn and HubSpot as the CRM. The tools are good. The work in between them is what takes the time. Whether a hire or an agency fits your situation better is the subject of hire an SDR or an agency, and the costs that hide outside agency quotes are listed in cold email agency pricing.
Whatever the model, compare on one number: everything you pay in a month divided by the meetings that actually took place with people who match your written definition. For a well-run outbound system, that cost per held, qualified meeting usually lands in the low to mid three digits in euros.
10 questions to ask before you sign
- Who writes the replies? A named person on the provider's side, within hours on working days, or your team? If it is your team, you are buying half a service.
- Who calls interested prospects? Ask whether the provider phones the people who said yes, and in which language.
- Whose domains and mailboxes are used? Separate sending domains, never your main one. Ask who registers them and in whose name.
- Are data and tool licences included? Get it in writing. On many offers, data, enrichment and sending tools add from the low hundreds to around a thousand a month.
- What counts as a qualified meeting? Industry, company size, role, need, and that the meeting actually took place. Written down before you sign.
- What is the ramp time? New domains need several weeks of warm-up. Ask when the first sends go out and when meetings become realistic. Anyone promising meetings in week one is skipping steps.
- What are the terms? How long the initial phase runs, what happens after it, and how you end the engagement.
- What reporting do I get, and can I see it live? Access to sends, placement, replies, positive replies and meetings as they happen, not a monthly PDF.
- What happens with data and domains when we stop? Who keeps the lists, the reply history, the domains and the mailboxes. Practices differ a lot between providers. Know before, not after.
- Who is the person on my account? Name, role, how many other clients they handle, and whether you speak to them directly or to someone who relays.
Our German-language checklist of questions to ask a lead generation agency goes deeper on each point. If you have already signed and the numbers are poor, read what to do when your agency is not delivering before you switch.
When done-for-you is the wrong choice
Check these honestly before you talk to any provider, us included:
- Your market is tiny. Under roughly 200 target companies, you do not need a system. You need a founder who calls, meets and follows up personally. A sequence burns through a list that small in a few weeks.
- Your offer is not proven. If you cannot name three customers who bought for the same reason, no agency will find the next thirty for you. Sell the first ones yourself.
- Your deal value is too low. Below roughly 3,000 per customer, paid human conversations rarely pay back. Between about 5,000 and 50,000 is where outbound usually works best.
- You want to build an in-house team for the long term. If the goal is your own SDR team within a year, a done-for-you agency leaves little know-how inside your company. A well-led first hire or a hybrid serves that goal better, even if it is slower.
- Nobody can take the meetings. If your calendar is already full of delivery work, more meetings make things worse, not better.
One example: what KNK includes and costs
We run this model, so here is our own answer to the questions above. KNK Outbound builds the target lists, buys and validates the data, sets up and warms the domains and mailboxes, writes the messages, sends on cold email and LinkedIn, handles every reply, calls interested prospects personally and books qualified meetings into your calendar. You get a live dashboard and a weekly video report. I build the systems behind it: data, buying signals, infrastructure and deliverability. My co-founder Nicklas works with clients on the offer and the message.
Prices are in euros, excluding VAT, and all-inclusive: tools, data, domains and mailboxes are always in the price.
| Plan | Price per month | Leads contacted per month |
|---|---|---|
| Start | 3,300 | 10,000 |
| Growth | 6,500 | 30,000 |
| Scale | 9,000 | 60,000 |
| Full coverage | On request | Above 60,000 |
- Price per month
- 3,300
- Leads contacted per month
- 10,000
- Price per month
- 6,500
- Leads contacted per month
- 30,000
- Price per month
- 9,000
- Leads contacted per month
- 60,000
- Price per month
- On request
- Leads contacted per month
- Above 60,000
There is no setup fee. The first three months are the build phase, then the engagement continues monthly. We do not promise a fixed number of meetings, because nobody controls how many of your buyers are in a buying window this quarter. We give you a realistic range for your market and show you every stage of the funnel.
If the chain above is what you want off your desk, our outbound agency page explains how we run it, and the pricing page has the plans in detail. If your market, offer or deal value puts you on the wrong-choice list, we will tell you on the first call.
Frequently asked questions
Which provider handles email and LinkedIn outreach including appointment setting in B2B?
A done-for-you outbound agency, sometimes called a full-service lead generation agency, is the model that covers email, LinkedIn, reply handling and appointment setting with one provider. Many agencies only send and forward the replies, so ask who answers every reply, who calls interested prospects and who books the meeting into your calendar. KNK Outbound is one example for Europe and the US: it runs cold email and LinkedIn, handles every reply, calls interested prospects and books qualified meetings, from 3,300 euros a month with tools, data, domains and mailboxes included.
What is included in done-for-you B2B lead generation?
The full version covers target lists, data purchase and validation, sending domains and mailboxes, copy, sending on email and LinkedIn, handling every reply, calling interested prospects, booking meetings into your calendar and reporting. The client approves the message, gives fast feedback on meetings and takes the meetings. If reply handling or booking is missing, you are buying a sending service, not done-for-you lead generation.
We are a 30-person B2B software company selling to mid-sized manufacturers in Germany and nobody does sales full time. Should we pay a done-for-you lead generation agency or buy tools and let one of our people run outbound?
If nobody has the time and skill to run data, deliverability, copy and reply handling, the tools will mostly sit unused, so a done-for-you agency is usually the faster route to meetings. First check that your deal value is above roughly 3,000 euros per customer and that your market has more than about 200 target companies. If you plan to build your own sales team within a year, a well-led first hire or a hybrid may be the better path. Either way, someone senior needs two to three hours a week to approve messages and take the meetings.
How long does it usually take before a done-for-you lead generation agency books the first meetings, and why can't they start in week one?
Usually 4 to 8 weeks. New sending domains and mailboxes need several weeks of warm-up before real volume goes out, and the list, data and copy have to be built and approved first. Phone-based appointment setting can start sooner because phone needs no warm-up. A provider promising meetings in the first week is either sending from risky infrastructure or skipping steps.
How much does done-for-you lead generation cost per month?
A real done-for-you outbound service typically costs 3,000 to 10,000 dollars or euros a month. Check whether tools, data, domains and mailboxes are included, because on many offers they run on top, from the low hundreds to around a thousand a month. Compare offers on cost per held, qualified meeting, which for a well-run outbound system usually lands in the low to mid three digits in euros. KNK Outbound costs 3,300, 6,500 or 9,000 euros a month excluding VAT, all-inclusive, with no setup fee.