Typical market ranges for every pricing model, what an in-house SDR really costs, and the one metric that tells you whether any of it is worth paying for.
Most B2B appointment setting services cost $3,000 to $12,000 per month on retainer, $150 to $1,000+ per booked meeting on pay-per-appointment plans, or $2,000 to $10,000 for a fixed-scope pilot of 60 to 90 days. These are typical market ranges, not AISH prices - your actual quote depends on deal size, list difficulty, and channels.
Within those ranges, most mid-market retainers cluster between $4,000 and $8,000 per month, and per-meeting prices climb toward the top of the range when the qualification bar is strict (right title, right company size, confirmed pain, meeting held rather than merely booked). Anyone quoting far below these ranges is usually cutting corners on data quality or blasting automated sequences - which is why the cheapest quote is rarely the cheapest program. Full B2B appointment setting services that include list building, copywriting, sending, and reply handling sit at the middle of the range or above, because a real human is doing the work.
There are three common pricing models: monthly retainers give you a dedicated ongoing program, pay-per-appointment shifts delivery risk to the vendor at a higher unit price, and pilots let you test fit with a capped budget. The right model depends on how much volume you need and how much risk you want to carry.
| Model | What you pay (typical market range) | What you get | Risk profile | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly retainer | $3,000-$12,000/month | Dedicated team, list building, copy, sending, reply handling, iteration | You carry ramp risk in months 1-2; cost per meeting drops as volume builds | Companies that want consistent pipeline, not a one-off batch of meetings |
| Pay per appointment | $150-$1,000+ per meeting | Meetings only; strategy and targeting stay with the vendor | Low financial risk, but incentive to book loosely qualified meetings | Simple offers with broad ICPs and short sales cycles |
| Hybrid (base + per meeting) | $1,500-$4,000 base plus $100-$400 per meeting | Shared risk; vendor covers costs, upside tied to delivery | Balanced, but read the qualification definition carefully | Buyers who want vendor skin in the game without pure per-meeting pricing |
| Pilot project | $2,000-$10,000 for 60-90 days | Fixed-scope test: one ICP, one or two channels, agreed targets | Capped downside; too short to judge long sales cycles | First-time outsourcers validating an agency before committing |
One honest caveat: pay-per-appointment looks safest on paper, but vendors paid only on volume tend to optimize for booked, not qualified. Whatever model you pick, define in writing what counts as a qualified meeting.
A single US-based SDR typically costs $110,000 to $140,000 per year all-in - these are typical market figures. That breaks down to a $50,000-$65,000 base salary ($75,000-$95,000 on-target earnings), 20-30% on top for benefits and payroll taxes, $8,000-$15,000 per year in tools and data, and 15-20% of a sales manager's time.
The tool stack alone adds up fast at typical market price points: a LinkedIn Sales Navigator seat runs about $1,200 per year, a sequencing platform $1,200-$5,000 per seat, and B2B contact data $5,000-$15,000 per year depending on volume. Then add the costs nobody budgets for: 3-6 months of ramp before full productivity, and SDR turnover that commonly runs 30-40% annually, which means you may pay for ramp twice in the same year.
Against that baseline, a $4,000-$8,000 monthly retainer ($48,000-$96,000 per year) buys a full team - researcher, copywriter, and outreach specialist - with no ramp salary, no turnover risk, and no management overhead. In-house wins when you need deep product knowledge on every call or plan to run 3+ reps permanently. Outsourcing wins on speed, flexibility, and total cost at low-to-mid volume.
Four variables move the price more than anything else: how hard your target list is to build, how large your deals are, how many channels the program runs, and how much personalization each message gets. Two companies buying the same service can reasonably pay double or half what the other pays.
Divide total fees by qualified meetings actually held - that is your cost per qualified meeting - then compare it to your average deal value and close rate. A $6,000 retainer producing 12 qualified meetings costs $500 per meeting; if you close 1 in 6 and deals are worth $25,000, that is $3,000 of fees per closed deal. Raw monthly fees tell you nothing without this math.
Real campaigns show why timing and iteration matter more than sticker price. AISH's MTestHub campaign produced just 5 appointments in its first 4 months - roughly 3,000 prospects contacted with weak conversion. After a 3-day messaging rebuild, the same market produced 54 appointments and 11 closed deals in the final two months. Judged at month four, the program looked expensive per meeting; judged at month six, the cost per closed deal was a fraction of one deal's value. Cutting a program before it iterates is how buyers pay full price for half the result.
Also count what sits behind the meetings. AISH's Hand In Hand campaign reached 4,595 decision-makers over 6 months and booked 61 meetings - roughly 1 meeting per 75 people reached, as a computed ratio - but it also generated 580 conversations and 213 warm leads that kept feeding pipeline after the engagement. A vendor that hands over that asset is worth more than one delivering meetings alone. More verified numbers are in our case studies.
AISH publishes current plans on the pricing page rather than burying them in a sales call, and every engagement is scoped to your list, deal size, and channels - so the honest answer is: it depends on those four variables above, and we will tell you the number before you commit.
What stays constant is the model: real people running research, writing, and outreach - no bots, no ad spend. Across 15 months that approach has booked 930+ qualified B2B appointments at a 14% average reply rate. If you want a quote against your actual ICP, or want us to sanity-check a competitor's proposal, contact us and we will walk through the math with you.
Tell us who you sell to - we will show you exactly how we would fill your calendar, backed by the same published numbers.
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