A lead generation agency: what you hire, what it costs, and what ReplyLead runs

What you hire a lead generation agency to do

The agency's job is the part of the sale that happens before a conversation. It decides which companies are worth a meeting, finds the people at those companies, writes the outreach, sends it, and handles the replies until a meeting is on the calendar.

ReplyLead runs that job on two channels: cold email and LinkedIn. The meetings land on your calendar. The discovery call, the proposal, and the signature stay with your team. If you need someone to carry the deal past the first meeting, that is a different purchase, closer to sales outsourcing than to a lead generation agency.

• Targeting. Which companies, which titles, and which countries.
• Data and infrastructure. The list, the domains, and the mailboxes the email is sent from.
• Outreach. Cold email and LinkedIn, with reply handling.
• The meeting. A qualified meeting booked onto your calendar, not a spreadsheet of names.

A wider look at the service, including samples of the targeting, is on lead generation services. The channel-by-channel version is on outbound lead generation.

What is a lead generation company?

A lead generation company does the hire people also call a lead generation agency, a lead gen agency, or a lead gen company. The words change. The job does not. The firm finds the accounts, reaches the buyers, and books the meetings. ReplyLead is a lead generation company for B2B teams. The channels are cold email and LinkedIn. The close stays with the client.

Business lead generation companies and sales lead generation companies are the same search with a different adjective. They mean a firm that brings new business conversations to a sales team, not a sale to consumers and not a software login. If you want fourteen of those firms compared on published price and contract, that comparison is on B2B lead generation companies. This page is the definition of the hire, and the way ReplyLead does it.

What do lead generation services include?

Lead generation services are the tasks inside the hire. At ReplyLead they are: choosing the companies and the titles, building the list, writing the outreach, sending cold email, running LinkedIn, reading the replies, and booking a qualified meeting on your calendar. A lead generation service that stops at a spreadsheet has not finished the job. The meeting is the handoff.

Sales lead generation services are those same tasks aimed at a sales pipeline, not at a newsletter. Lead generation solutions is the vendor's word for the same bundle. Ask which tasks are in the price before you compare two quotes. A quote for a list and a quote for booked meetings are not the same lead generation service.

What a lead generation agency costs

ReplyLead's price has two parts. Infrastructure starts at $2,023 a month, set by send volume. On top of that is an agreed share of closed revenue. The share is set on a call, and it is not charged in a period where nothing closes. The infrastructure amount is still owed in that period.

Other agencies sell a different shape: a monthly retainer, a fee per meeting, or a quote you only see after a call. Published prices for 17 providers are on lead generation pricing. Read that before you compare a retainer with a revenue share. They are not the same purchase.

What is lead generation outsourcing?

Lead generation outsourcing, and outsource lead generation, mean you stop doing the pre-meeting work inside the company. An outside firm owns the list, the infrastructure, the copy, the sending, and the reply handling. You still take the sales call. That is the handoff ReplyLead sells.

It is not the same as handing over the whole sale. If the outside firm is supposed to negotiate and close, you are buying sales outsourcing, not lead generation outsourcing. The cost of the pre-meeting handoff, and what you still own, is set out on outsourced lead generation.

What is small business lead generation?

Small business lead generation is this same hire when the list is shorter and each new customer has to pay for the program. ReplyLead's infrastructure starts at $2,023 a month. That number has to be smaller than the gross profit of the customers the meetings can produce. A smaller firm that can take the calls, and that sells a deal large enough to carry the month, can use the same cold email and LinkedIn service. A firm with nobody to take the call cannot.

What is inbound lead generation?

Inbound lead generation is the buyer starting the conversation. They find you through search, a page, a referral, or an ad, and they raise a hand. A lead generation agency, as this page uses the term, works the other way: the firm chooses the companies and contacts them. ReplyLead runs that outbound work with cold email and LinkedIn.

The two can run together. They are not substitutes, and a quote for one does not describe the other. The difference between demand that already exists and demand you go and create is on demand generation vs lead generation.

Sending volume is a limit, not a plan

Google Workspace Admin Help documents a daily sending limit of 2,000 messages per user, and 3,000 external recipients, for a paid account. Microsoft Learn documents 10,000 recipients a day for an Exchange Online mailbox, plus a tenant-wide limit on external recipients. Those numbers are the providers' ceilings. They are not a recommendation for cold email.

ReplyLead's operating choice is separate from those ceilings. Google Workspace mailboxes send about 10 to 12 cold emails a day. Microsoft 365 mailboxes send about 1 to 2 a day. Sending at the provider's ceiling is not how the service is run. The full account of both numbers is on cold emails per day.

How to judge a lead generation agency

Ask six questions before you sign. The answers should be in the proposal, not in a slide.

• What event triggers the fee. A reply, a booked meeting, a held meeting, or revenue that closes. ReplyLead's variable fee is a share of closed revenue, not a fee per meeting.
• What you still pay if nothing closes. At ReplyLead, the infrastructure amount remains.
• Who owns the domains and the list. They should be yours.
• Who takes the sales call. At ReplyLead, you do.
• Which channels are in the price. ReplyLead includes cold email and LinkedIn. Phone calling is not included.
• The provider's ceiling versus the agency's pace. A documented mailbox limit is not the number of cold emails you should send.

When this does not apply

• You need the agency to close. ReplyLead books the meeting. Closing stays with you. Agencies whose sellers carry the deal further are a different scope.
• You want one fixed monthly number and nothing tied to revenue. A retainer is a different contract. Compare the shapes on lead generation pricing.
• Your deals are too small to carry the infrastructure. From $2,023 a month has to fit the value of a new customer.
• You have no one to take the call. A booked meeting with nobody to attend it is not a pipeline.
• You want phone-only appointment setting. That is not this service. See appointment setting companies.

How this page was put together

This page describes ReplyLead's own service. The price, the channels, and the split between infrastructure and revenue share are the same facts as on the pricing page and on how it works, checked against those pages on 7 October 2026. Google's 2,000 messages a day and Microsoft's recipient limits are quoted from those companies' own documentation, and they are kept separate from ReplyLead's sending pace. This page does not rank other agencies and it does not name a best overall lead generation agency. Comparisons live on the pages linked above.

Questions

What is a lead generation agency?

A lead generation agency finds companies for a sales team, reaches the people at those companies, and books meetings the sales team can run. ReplyLead does this with cold email and LinkedIn. Your team keeps the sales calls and the close.

What is a lead generation company?

A lead generation company is the same kind of firm. Buyers search agency, company, and service for one hire: someone who fills a calendar with meetings. ReplyLead is a lead generation company that runs cold email and LinkedIn, with infrastructure from $2,023 a month plus an agreed share of closed revenue.

How much do lead generation agencies charge?

ReplyLead charges infrastructure from $2,023 a month, plus an agreed share of closed revenue. The infrastructure amount is still owed in a month where nothing closes, and no revenue share is owed for that month. Other firms publish retainers, per-meeting fees, or no price at all. Those prices are collected on the lead generation pricing page.

What is lead generation outsourcing?

Lead generation outsourcing means the pre-meeting work sits with an outside firm: the list, the sending, the replies, and the booked meeting. You keep the sales calls. The cost breakdown of that handoff is on the outsourced lead generation page.

What is small business lead generation?

Small business lead generation is the same job with a smaller list and a price that has to fit a smaller deal. ReplyLead's infrastructure starts at $2,023 a month, so the value of one new customer has to carry that. A business that cannot take the sales call should not buy the meetings.

What is inbound lead generation?

Inbound lead generation starts when a buyer finds you, through search, content, or a referral. An agency hire is the other direction: you choose the companies and contact them. ReplyLead runs that outbound work by cold email and LinkedIn.

How many emails does ReplyLead send per mailbox?

Google documents a daily sending limit of 2,000 messages and 3,000 external recipients for a paid Google Workspace user. Microsoft documents 10,000 recipients a day for an Exchange Online mailbox, plus a tenant-wide external recipient limit. Those are the providers' ceilings, not a cold email plan. ReplyLead sends about 10 to 12 cold emails per Google Workspace mailbox a day, and about 1 to 2 per Microsoft 365 mailbox a day.

Sources

• ReplyLead pricing - infrastructure from $2,023 a month, plus an agreed revenue share. Checked 7 October 2026.
• ReplyLead, how it works - cold email and LinkedIn, meetings booked onto your calendar. Checked 7 October 2026.
• ReplyLead case studies - campaigns run on cold email and LinkedIn. Checked 7 October 2026.
• Cold emails per day - Google's documented limits beside ReplyLead's about 10 to 12 a day. Checked 7 October 2026.
• Google Workspace Admin Help, Gmail sending limits - 2,000 messages a day and 3,000 external recipients for a paid user. Checked 5 October 2026.
• Microsoft Learn, Exchange Online limits - 10,000 recipients a day per mailbox, plus a tenant external recipient limit. Checked 5 October 2026.

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If you want cold email and LinkedIn run for you, and you can take the sales calls, book a call. The infrastructure price starts at $2,023 a month. The revenue share is agreed there.

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