Done-for-You AI Lead Generation: What It Is, What It Costs, Who Should Buy It
In short
Done-for-you AI lead generation is outbound run by a vendor on your behalf: list sourcing and verification, sequences written and sent, replies handled, interested people passed to your calendar. Published prices on 2026-10-14 run from $3,750 a month (11x, software with managed mailboxes) to $8,500 (MyNewStaff) and $2,500 a month after a $2,500 install at Paramount. Most vendors quote instead.
Done-for-you AI lead generation is outbound run by a vendor on your behalf: someone else sources and verifies the list, writes and sends the sequences, handles the replies and passes the interested people to your calendar, using AI for the research, the drafting and the first response. Published prices on 2026-10-14 run from $3,750 a month at 11x, which is software with vendor-managed mailboxes rather than a service, to $8,500 a month at MyNewStaff; most vendors in the category quote. I run Paramount Exposure, which has just added this line of work at $2,500 a month after a $2,500 install, has delivered it for no client yet, and says so here, so read this as a vendor's guide written against the vendor's interest wherever the two conflict.
The guides ranking for this query give price ranges with no source and no date, and none mentions the laws that govern every message the service sends.
What "done for you" actually includes
A full engagement has seven parts; price differences between vendors are mostly differences in how many are included.
- The ideal customer profile. A written definition of who gets contacted: industry, size, role, geography, exclusions. Two segments at most is a good sign.
- List sourcing and verification. Contacts pulled from a data provider, enriched, and verified before a single send. Verification is the step that protects your domains; ask what the bounce rate was on the vendor's last ten campaigns.
- Infrastructure. Secondary domains, mailboxes with SPF, DKIM and DMARC, warm-up, a phone number if calls are part of it. The question that matters most is whose name these are in.
- Copy. Sequences in your voice, usually three to five steps, sometimes with a short film in one step.
- Sending and dialing. Email from the warmed inboxes; calls and texts only where the law allows, which the section below defines.
- Reply handling. The part that decides whether any of this produced revenue: how fast an interested reply gets an answer, who writes it, and where the person is sent.
- Reporting. Delivered, bounced, complaints, unsubscribes, replies, positive replies, meetings held. A report showing only "leads" hides the denominator.
What "AI" adds: the research and first draft of every message, reply classification and the first response, enrichment at scale. What it does not add: the offer. If the offer is weak, the AI delivers it faster.
The criteria that separate a service from a subscription
Ownership. Domains, inboxes, phone numbers, lists, consent records, sequences and CRM records should be in your name from day one. If they are in the vendor's name, you are renting a pipeline and the warm-up restarts when you leave.
What a "lead" means in writing. A replied email is a lead to some vendors; a held meeting is a lead to the buyer. Get the definition into the contract before the first month, because every guarantee in this category rests on it.
Consent and compliance. Who scrubs the Do Not Call Registry, who holds the subscription, who stores consent records, and what the vendor refuses to do. A vendor that will "call anyone" is selling you the exposure.
Reply speed. Oldroyd, McElheran and Elkington in Harvard Business Review found firms that responded to an inbound lead within an hour were about seven times more likely to qualify it than firms that waited longer. Outbound replies decay the same way. Ask for the reply-time number.
Exit terms. Minimum term, notice period, and what happens to the assets. A three-month minimum with the assets handed over is reasonable; a twelve-month contract with the mailboxes in the vendor's name is not.
What it costs: the published prices
Prices checked 2026-10-14. Each figure is from the vendor's own page that day, linked in the row. "Quoted" means the page prints no number. The fuller write-ups are in MyNewStaff alternatives and 11x alternatives; the tools underneath are compared in best AI SDR software, and every head-to-head is on the comparisons hub. Rates change; confirm before you sign.
| # | Option | What you get | Published price (checked 2026-10-14) | Best for | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | MyNewStaff Growth Engine | Managed: 100+ content pieces, 10,000 scraped leads, outreach sequences, CRM, ad management, strategist | $8,500/mo; Franchise Scale from $25,000/mo; a free ScaleX diagnostic; "cancel anytime"; "100 qualified leads or we work free" is their claim, undefined on the page | Founders who want content, scraped leads, outreach and ads as one retainer | their pricing page |
| 2 | 11x Alice | Autonomous agent with 11x-managed mailboxes; 2,000 new prospects a month | Growth from $3,750/mo billed annually, no setup fee; Pro and Enterprise quoted | Mid-market teams that want an agent rather than a firm | 11x.ai Alice pricing |
| 3 | Artisan Ava | Autonomous agent; Team about 2,500 and Scale about 6,000 leads contacted a month | Not published; every tier "pricing scoped on your plan" | Teams that will take a sales call to learn the price | artisan.co/pricing |
| 4 | Instantly VIP | Managed setup and campaign launch on Instantly's sending platform, dedicated account manager | Not published; self-serve Outreach from $47/mo, Bundles from $94/mo | Teams that want the Instantly stack run by Instantly | instantly.ai/pricing |
| 5 | Smartlead SmartServices | Managed outbound on Smartlead; Growth 50,000 and Scale 100,000 emails a month | Not published; self-serve from $39/mo; mailboxes from $3.99/mo | Teams that want volume email run by the platform vendor | smartlead.ai/pricing |
| 6 | Setter AI done-for-you | Managed text follow-up for teams with over 500 leads a month | Not published; self-serve from $497/mo monthly or $397/mo yearly | Inbound-heavy teams whose leads already arrive | trysetter.com/pricing |
| 7 | Do it yourself | Apollo, Instantly or Smartlead, Clay, your own mailboxes | Apollo from $49 per seat per month annually; Instantly from $47/mo; Smartlead from $39/mo; Clay from $60/mo; mailboxes $3.99 to $9/mo each | Firms with a person who will build lists, write and read replies daily | apollo.io, instantly.ai, smartlead.ai, clay.com |
| 8 | Paramount Exposure, the company I run | Built in your accounts, run for you; email, consented SMS and AI voice to business landlines and consented numbers; replies answered in under 60 seconds and sent to your booking link | Outbound Install $2,500 once, 14 days; Engine Pilot $2,500/mo, Scale $5,000/mo; three-month minimum; usage rate card published | Firms that want outbound run consent-first and want to own everything. Limit: no outbound results history yet | paramountexposure.com/services/ai-sdr |
What we checked, and when
Eight rows, one of them mine. Four of the six vendors with a managed tier publish no price for it, which is the category's habit; the guides ranking for this query print retainer ranges with no source and no date, and I have not repeated them. MyNewStaff's page carries no as-of date on any price and a guarantee whose terms it does not define. 11x's card says $3,750 a month billed annually while its FAQ says "$36,000 per year"; the card figure is used. Paramount appears once, at its published prices.
Who should buy it
The service fits a firm with four things: an offer that already closes when a conversation happens, a deal size that carries the fee, somebody who will hold the meetings it produces, and a booking link. Professional firms, agencies, B2B software and services companies, and premium service businesses selling to other businesses are the usual buyers.
Who should not: a firm whose inquiries already arrive and go unanswered. If the website form waits until Monday, outbound adds leads to a leak. The $497 AI Lead Responder fixes that first: it answers website inquiries in under 60 seconds and sends people to your booking link. It never books. The free Intake Index scores which problem you have.
The arithmetic, with your own numbers: the monthly fee against the held meetings needed to break even at your close rate and deal value. At $2,500 a month and a $10,000 sale closing one in four, that is one meeting a month; at $8,500 a month on the same deal, between three and four. Nobody can tell you in advance how many meetings a campaign will hold; a vendor who does is making a claim the FTC requires a reasonable basis for before it is made (FTC substantiation policy). What a vendor can tell you is the price, the volume and the method.
The law every message in the service has to obey
Not legal advice; your counsel reviews the scripts. These rules bind the vendor and the client together, and the FTC is explicit that they cannot be contracted away: "both the company whose product is promoted in the message and the company that actually sends the message may be held legally responsible" (FTC CAN-SPAM guide).
Email in the US: CAN-SPAM. True headers, an honest subject line, the message identified as an ad, a valid postal address, a working opt-out honoured within ten business days, and "no exception for business-to-business email". Each non-compliant email carries a penalty of up to $53,088. Mailbox providers add gates: Google requires SPF, DKIM and DMARC for bulk senders, one-click unsubscribe, and a spam rate under 0.10% that never reaches 0.30% (Email sender guidelines).
Calls and texts: the TCPA. Since the FCC's February 2024 ruling an AI-generated voice is an "artificial or prerecorded voice" (FCC 24-17). Marketing calls or texts made with one to a cell phone need prior express written consent naming the seller (47 CFR 64.1200), with no B2B exception in the statute. A service that offers "AI cold calling" on a scraped list is offering a violation. Live human calls to businesses are lawful inside the Do Not Call, hours and identification rules; every seller needs its own registry subscription (FTC DNC Q&A). Opt-outs by any reasonable means are honoured within ten business days (FCC 24-24).
AI disclosure. Maine requires clear notice when an AI, by text or voice, could be mistaken for a person (10 M.R.S. 1500-DD); the FCC has proposed a federal at-call disclosure (FCC 24-84). The sensible default is to disclose on every AI call, first sentence, everywhere.
Abroad. UK email to sole traders needs consent (PECR regulation 22); automated marketing calls need consent even to businesses (regulation 19); every named person may object (GDPR Article 21) and must get privacy information at first contact (Article 14); the ICO expects a documented legitimate-interests assessment (ICO B2B guidance). Canada's CASL allows cold email only to conspicuously published addresses where the message is relevant to the recipient's role (CRTC FAQ). Any vendor sending abroad needs a country rule on every contact.
Claims and guarantees. A results claim needs a reasonable basis before it is made, and the FTC's guides say any ad that mentions a money-back or similar guarantee should disclose its material limitations and conditions clearly and prominently (16 CFR 239.3). Read any "or we work free" line for its definition of a lead, who decides "qualified", and what "free" means for how long.
What the contract should say
Ten clauses, drawn from the rules above. Roles: you are the seller, the vendor is the telemarketer, both liable. A consent warranty: any number supplied for automated contact carries written consent naming you, record available on request. Registry: you hold your own Do Not Call subscription and state registrations; the vendor holds its telemarketer registrations. Method: named channels, AI voice only to consented numbers and business landlines, the disclosure line fixed, no cloned voices. Opt-out propagation both ways within one business day. Data: processed on your instructions and deleted at exit except the records the law requires kept for five years (16 CFR 310.5). Claims: no published results without both parties' approval and a substantiation file. Ownership: every asset in your name. Audit and suspension on any complaint. And a plain statement that the service will not place AI-voice calls to unconsented numbers even if asked.
Where Paramount fits, honestly
Paramount Exposure is an AI development and software agency. Its version of this service is on the AI lead generation page, the AI SDR page and the AI appointment setting page, and it is shaped by the contract above because we wrote the contract first.
The Outbound Install is $2,500, delivered in 14 days from your completed onboarding form: a written ICP of at most two segments, the first 1,500 verified contacts, the compliance pack, three secondary domains and nine to ten inboxes in your name with authentication and warm-up started, one phone number with branded caller ID, four-step sequences per segment in your voice, the AI reply handler that answers interested replies in under 60 seconds and sends them to your booking link, and a 45-minute handover. Sending starts on day 15 at warm-up volume and ramps over weeks three to six; inboxes that send at full speed on day one get blocked.
The Outbound Engine runs it. Pilot, $2,500 a month: 1,500 new verified contacts scrubbed before every batch, about 6,000 email sends, up to 1,000 AI voice dials to business landlines and consented numbers with the disclosure first, up to 300 consented SMS, replies answered in under 60 seconds, a weekly report with every number above. Scale, $5,000 a month: 5,000 contacts, about 20,000 sends, up to 4,000 dials, two presenter-format films a month. Three-month minimum, then month to month; usage above the tier at the published rate card, $0.25 a voice minute, $40 per 1,000 contacts, $12 an inbox a month; a 45-day exit at which the third month is never billed and the assets hand over as built. The Install credits in full toward an AI Revenue System within 90 days.
What you own: everything. What we guarantee: the inputs, contacts verified to the count, emails delivered under the published complaint and bounce gates, dials and minutes as stated, replies under 60 seconds, scrubs logged, with any missed month credited. What we do not guarantee: meetings or revenue. AI voice calls go only to business landlines, after a wireless and Do Not Call scrub removes every cell number, and to people who gave prior express written consent; the agent says it is an AI in its first sentence. We have run this engine for no client yet; the first client will be Paramount itself, and the weekly numbers from our own campaign will be published, misses included, at /outbound/proof. Every tier is on the AI SDR service page; the responder is on the pricing page.
Frequently asked questions
What is done-for-you AI lead generation?
Outbound run by a vendor on your behalf: list sourcing and verification, infrastructure, sequences in your voice, sending and lawful calling, reply handling and hand-off to your calendar, with AI doing the research, drafting and first response. The buyer holds the meetings and, in a well-structured contract, owns every asset the vendor builds.
How much does done-for-you lead generation cost?
Published figures on 2026-10-14: MyNewStaff's Growth Engine $8,500 a month; 11x Alice from $3,750 a month billed annually; Paramount's Outbound Engine $2,500 or $5,000 a month after a $2,500 install. Artisan, Instantly VIP, Smartlead SmartServices and Setter AI's done-for-you tier publish no price. The self-serve tools underneath cost $39 to $119 a month.
Is done-for-you cold outreach legal?
Cold email to US business addresses is lawful under CAN-SPAM with a postal address, an ad identification and an opt-out honoured within ten business days; penalties run to $53,088 per email. Automated or AI-voice calls and marketing texts to cell phones need prior express written consent under the TCPA, with no B2B exception. The UK, EU and Canada are consent-first for individuals. The vendor and the client are both liable.
What should I own at the end of a done-for-you engagement?
The domains, mailboxes, phone numbers, lists, consent records, sequences, agent scripts, recordings and CRM data. If any of those stay in the vendor's name, you are renting the pipeline, and the reputation leaves when you do.