What does done-for-you lead generation mean at Startories?
It is the same acquisition engine customers run themselves, operated by our team on your behalf. You get the platform's signal detection, qualification, decision-maker search, writing and sending, plus people who decide what to target, write and adjust the campaigns and watch the numbers. It sits between buying software and hiring an agency: the work is done for you, and you can still see why every lead was picked.
The market sells this under many names: outsourced SDR, SDR as a service, managed outbound, outbound lead generation agency. The labels overlap. What actually differs between providers is where the leads come from, who owns the sending setup and what the provider is paid for, and those are the questions this page helps you answer.
There are two ways to buy it from us, depending on how much you want to hand over:
| Done-for-you setup | Fully managed acquisition | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $1,500 to $2,500, one time | From $1,999 per month |
| Who runs it after launch | You, on a Startories plan | Our team |
| What you have after a quarter | Working funnels and a team that knows how to operate them | Funnels tuned on real replies, and regular reports on meetings |
| Best for | Teams that want a strong start, then run it themselves | Teams with no one to own outbound |
What is included?
The setup covers everything needed to launch. Fully managed acquisition covers the same ground and then keeps running it, month after month.
- ICP research: who buys, at what size, with which problem, and who signs, ideally worked out from your best current customers.
- Intent strategy: which buying signals and sources fit your market, for example competitor complaints for a product that replaces a known tool, or hiring signals for an agency.
- First funnels: each one ties a signal to an ICP, an angle and a goal (a booked call, a demo or a signup).
- Copywriting: first emails and follow-ups written around each signal and reviewed with you before launch.
- Sending domains and inboxes: separate from your main domain and warmed up before they send.
- CRM setup: your CRM prepared to track the conversations that outbound creates.
- Launch: the first campaigns go live, with you approving the first emails.
Is it right for you, and which option fits?
Done-for-you outbound is built for B2B companies with a clear buyer, where one new client is worth the effort of a real conversation. Two questions follow: should you outsource at all, and if so, how much?
Who it is built for
- Founders who still sell and would rather spend their outbound hours on calls and product.
- Agencies and consultancies whose partners close deals but have no time to prospect: marketing agencies, web design agencies, consultants.
- B2B SaaS teams that tried outbound once, got poor results or a damaged domain, and want it built properly this time.
- Teams that want to test outbound before deciding whether to hire an SDR.
Setup or fully managed: four questions
- Can someone own outbound for three to five hours a week? Reviewing leads, approving emails and answering replies takes short, regular blocks of time. If a founder, marketer or salesperson can protect them, the setup is usually enough. If nobody can, choose fully managed.
- Do you want to learn the channel, or only the outcome? Teams that plan to hire a salesperson later often prefer the setup, because the knowledge stays in-house. Teams that see outbound as one input among many usually prefer to buy the result.
- How settled is your offer? If you are still testing who buys and why, the weekly adjustments of managed acquisition shorten that loop. If you already know your buyer well, a strong setup plus the Growth plan, which includes ongoing optimization by our team, may cover it.
- How many segments do you sell to? One market and one offer fit the setup and a Starter or Growth plan. Several segments with different messages need more funnels and more tuning, which is where managed acquisition earns its fee.
How do the first weeks go?
Kickoff
A call about your offer, your best customers, your deal size and the claims you can and cannot make. We leave with a draft ICP and a shortlist of signals.
Infrastructure
Sending domains and inboxes are created and start warming up. New inboxes need a gradual ramp before they can send at normal volume, which is why this starts first.
Funnels and copy
We build the first funnels and write the emails. You look at sample leads with their reasons and at the first messages, and tell us what is off.
Launch
Campaigns go live at conservative volumes. Replies are classified and routed to you with a suggested answer.
Adjust
Targeting and messaging are tuned from real replies. With fully managed acquisition, that loop keeps running and you get a report on replies and meetings.
What does your side of the work look like?
Done for you does not mean without you. Outbound works best when the client stays involved in a few specific, predictable ways, most of them in the first month.
Before the kickoff
- Your 10 best customers and, if you can, five deals you lost and why. These shape the ICP more than any persona document; our ICP template shows what to pull from them.
- The competitors prospects compare you with, and what you say when they do.
- The claims you can back up: case studies you may cite, numbers you can prove, guarantees you actually offer.
- Your average deal size and sales cycle, so targeting and follow-up timing match reality.
- A calendar link and the name of the person who takes the calls.
- Your CRM details, so new conversations land where your team already works.
Every week
- Take the calls. We fill the calendar; you or your sales lead run the conversations.
- Give feedback on leads. A quick "good fit" or "not for us" on sample leads is the fastest way to tighten the targeting.
- Answer what only you can answer. Product, pricing and technical questions that come up in replies.
When something changes
Tell us about a new offer, a price change, a market you no longer serve or a calendar that is already full. Emails written last month can become wrong overnight, and nobody outside your company will notice first.
Reach companies with a reason to buy this week
Startories finds the buying signal, verifies the decision-maker and runs the outreach until they book a call.
How does it compare to an agency, an outsourced SDR or a hire?
Each option can work. The right one depends on your channels, your budget and how much visibility you want into the targeting. A fair summary:
| Outbound agency | Outsourced SDR | In-house SDR | Startories managed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| How it works | A team builds lists and runs campaigns for several clients | A provider's rep works your accounts, often shared or part-time | Your employee, managed by you | Our team runs the Startories engine for you |
| Pricing model | Monthly retainer, pay per meeting, or both | Monthly fee per rep | Salary, commission, benefits and tools | Monthly fee from $1,999, scoped on the first call |
| Channels | Mostly email, sometimes LinkedIn | Email, phone, often LinkedIn | Any | |
| Where leads come from | Varies; often lead databases | Varies; often lead databases | Whatever you give them | Fresh public buying signals |
| Strengths | Experience across many campaigns | A human voice on the phone | Deep product knowledge, grows with you | Timing, written reasons per lead, runs every day |
| Watch out for | Generic lists, little visibility into targeting | Rep turnover and ramp-up time | Hiring time, ramp-up, management load | No calls or LinkedIn; needs a clear ICP |
What will it cost, and what does each pricing model reward?
If phone calls or LinkedIn are central to how your buyers buy, an outsourced SDR or a hire is the better choice, because Startories does not cover those channels. If email works in your market, managed outbound usually costs less than a person.
As a worked example with assumed numbers: a $60,000 base, $20,000 of commission, about 20% of the base for payroll taxes and benefits, and $500 a month of tools add up to roughly $98,000 a year, or about $8,200 a month, before recruiting and management time. Over a first quarter, with those assumptions and the midpoint of our setup range, the options compare like this:
| Option | Cash over months 1 to 3 | What you have at the end |
|---|---|---|
| Done-for-you setup + Growth plan | About $3,500 ($2,000 setup + 3 × $499) | Running funnels that your team operates |
| Fully managed acquisition | From about $6,000 (3 × $1,999), plus anything agreed on the first call | Funnels run and reported on by our team |
| In-house SDR | About $24,500, plus recruiting time | A person still ramping, who may grow with you |
| Agency or outsourced SDR | Varies widely by provider and model | Depends on who owns the lists, domains and copy |
What the table leaves out
Cash is only part of it. A new hire needs weeks to learn your product before producing much, and any email program needs a few weeks of warm-up and tuning before you can judge it fairly. Give whichever option you pick a full quarter. Our breakdown of what an SDR really costs and the comparison of AI SDR vs human SDR go deeper into the hire side.
What each pricing model rewards
Providers optimize for whatever they are paid for, so read the model before the number:
- Monthly retainer. A fixed fee for a scope of work. It rewards steady effort; watch for reports full of activity (emails sent, contacts added) rather than outcomes.
- Pay per meeting. A fee for each meeting booked. It rewards volume of bookings; read the definition of a qualified meeting, ask whether no-shows are billed, and ask how many emails go out under your name to get there.
- Outsourced SDR seat. A monthly fee per rep. It pays for a person's time; watch for shared reps, turnover and a fresh ramp-up after every change.
- Setup plus software. A one-time build, then a plan you run. It rewards a system that works without the provider, but you need someone to own it after launch.
- Managed engine. Our model: a monthly fee for our team to run the Startories engine, reported on replies and meetings. It covers email only and does not promise a number of meetings.
How do you vet a done-for-you lead generation provider?
Most outbound providers sound alike on a sales call. The differences show up in a few specific answers, so ask every provider the same questions and compare them side by side.
Questions to ask any provider, including us
- Where do the leads come from? A purchased database, scraped pages or public signals? Ask to see ten sample leads with the reason each one was chosen.
- Which domains send the email, and who controls them? Sending from your main domain puts your everyday email at risk. Ask who registers the sending domains and what happens to them if you leave.
- Do I approve the list and the copy? You should see sample leads and the first emails before anything goes out.
- What exactly do you report? Sends and opens are activity. Replies by type and meetings are outcomes.
- What counts as a qualified meeting? Get the definition in writing, especially on a pay-per-meeting contract.
- How are opt-outs handled? Unsubscribes should be suppressed across every campaign, and personal data deleted on request.
- What is the minimum term, and what do I keep when I leave? Ask about notice periods, the copy, the lead history and the domains.
Red flags
- A specific number of meetings promised before anyone has looked at your market.
- A plan to send from your company's main domain "because it builds trust".
- No way to see who will be contacted until after they have been emailed.
- Reports that lead with emails sent and open rates.
- A database of hundreds of millions of contacts presented as the main reason to buy.
- Vague answers about unsubscribes, data deletion or who is legally the sender.
How will you know it is working?
With fully managed acquisition, the team reports on replies and meetings, not on sends. Whoever runs your outbound, a useful report has these lines, and each line should trigger a decision:
| Report line | What it shows | What should happen next |
|---|---|---|
| Qualified leads per funnel | Whether each signal and ICP pair finds enough companies | Add a source or a signal when a funnel runs dry |
| Your feedback on leads | Whether the targeting matches your judgment | Tighten or widen the ICP where you disagree |
| Replies by type | Positive, interested, neutral, negative, out of office, unsubscribe | Rework the angle when negative replies and unsubscribes grow |
| Meetings booked | The outcome you are paying for | Move volume toward the funnels that book them |
| Sending health | Bounces and inbox status | Sending pauses automatically when bounces rise; find the cause before resuming |
| Changes and next tests | What was adjusted this period, and why | One clear test per funnel for the next period |
Three checkpoints
After the first weeks: do the sample leads look like your customers, and do the emails sound like you? After the first month of sending: are replies coming from the right kind of company, even if few are positive yet? After a quarter: are meetings arriving at a cost per meeting you can live with? Rework or stop any funnel that fails two checkpoints in a row, rather than adding volume to it.
How do you get started?
Start with a call: we look at your offer and your market, which signals we would start with, and which of the two services fits. You can book a call with the team or compare the self-serve plans on the pricing page.
Prefer to run it yourself? Read how outbound AI handles each stage of the pipeline, see why timing matters in signal-based outbound, or start with the AI SDR on a Starter plan with a 3-day full-access trial for $1.
Frequently asked questions
How much does done-for-you lead generation cost?
A done-for-you setup costs $1,500 to $2,500 once and covers ICP research, signal strategy, first funnels, copy, sending domains and inboxes, CRM setup and launch. Fully managed acquisition, where our team runs everything, starts at $1,999 per month.
What is the difference between the setup and fully managed acquisition?
With the setup, our team builds and launches your outbound, then you run it yourself on a Startories plan. With fully managed acquisition, the team keeps running targeting, copy, sending and replies and reports to you on meetings.
Is this the same as an outsourced SDR?
It covers similar ground: prospecting, first emails, follow-ups and replies. The difference is that leads come from fresh buying signals and the work runs on software, so it does not depend on one rep. It does not include phone calls or LinkedIn outreach.
Can you promise a number of meetings?
No, and be wary of anyone who does before knowing your market. Results depend on your offer, deal size and ICP. We report on replies and meetings rather than sends, so you can judge each funnel and stop what does not work.
What do I need to provide?
Time for the kickoff call, examples of your best customers, the claims you are allowed to make, quick feedback on sample leads and the first emails, and someone to take the calls. Our team handles the rest.
How long before outbound produces meetings?
Plan for a few weeks of setup and inbox warm-up before sending at normal volume, then a few more weeks of tuning on real replies. Judge each funnel over a full quarter rather than its first week, and stop the ones that keep missing.