Outsourcing telemarketing: what does it cost in 2026?

The short answer

For business-to-business telemarketing in the Netherlands you usually pay between €50 and €75 per hour. For complex campaigns with experienced callers, rates go up to about €120 per hour. If you pay per appointment, expect roughly €80 to €250 per appointment.

These are indicative prices from public overviews published this year, not a fixed market rate. The sources are listed at the end of this article.

The four common pricing models

• Per hour: you pay for the time spent on your campaign. Predictable and easy to steer.
• Per appointment: you pay per booked appointment. Agree up front what counts as an appointment and what happens if it does not take place.
• Per lead or per call: a fixed amount per qualified contact or per conversation.
• Fixed campaign price: a package with a set number of hours for a set price, often including preparation.

Where the differences come from

• The audience: a managing director at a manufacturer is harder to reach than a shop owner.
• The call list: with your own up-to-date list, less time goes into searching.
• The goal: informing people is faster than booking a meeting with a decision maker.
• Preparation: script, briefing and training take time before the first call.
• Quality and reporting: listening in, recordings and an overview per contact.

Hire someone or outsource?

According to Mijnzzp.nl, an employed telemarketer in the Netherlands earns about €2,000 to €2,800 gross per month, plus employer costs, a workspace, software and the time spent recruiting and training. A self-employed caller charges around €40 per hour excluding VAT, but you then handle the list, script and supervision yourself.

Calling in-house suits you if you need many hours on a permanent basis and have time to coach someone. Outsourcing suits you if you want to test first, start quickly or have no time for recruiting and managing.

A worked example

Take our test campaign: €1,000 excluding VAT for 20 calling hours. If it produces 5 appointments, each costs €200. With 10 appointments, €100.

How many appointments you get depends on your offer, your audience and the call list. Nobody knows that for certain in advance. That is why starting small makes sense: after the test you work with real numbers instead of a promise.

Six questions for any calling agency

• What does a calling hour cost, and how many hours go into preparation?
• Who supplies the call list, and who owns the data afterwards?
• What counts as an appointment, and what happens if it does not take place?
• Will I get a weekly overview per contact?
• Am I tied to a contract or an automatic renewal?
• Can I listen in or listen back to calls?

What it costs at Velora Connect

We work with fixed packages: a test campaign of 20 calling hours for €1,000, and pilots of 40, 80 and 125 calling hours for €2,000 to €5,950. That is €50 to €47.60 per calling hour, excluding VAT. Intake, script, briefing and weekly report are included.

You pay half on approval and half halfway through. There is no automatic renewal.

Sources

• Humun, "Callcenter kosten 2026: wat betaal je werkelijk?" (July 2026): outbound and B2B €50 to €75 per hour.
• TeleSalesDirect, "Wat kost telemarketing uitbesteden?" (April 2026): B2B roughly €50 to €120 per hour.
• Searchlab, "Wat kost leadgeneratie uitbesteden" (March 2026): €80 to €250 per appointment.
• Mijnzzp.nl, telemarketer rates and salary: self-employed around €40 per hour, employed €2,000 to €2,800 gross per month.