Outsourcing Lead Follow-Up: Who to Hire and What It Costs

To outsource lead follow-up, hire for coverage first: a 38-hour roster is on shift for about 23% of the week’s 168 hours. In-house, working 300 enquiries a month takes about 90 hours, roughly $2,665 at the National Minimum Wage plus super before tools or management (our assumptions). Compare a DIY tool, a freelancer, a retainer agency and a pay-per-result service on that number.

At a glance: outsourcing lead follow-up in Australia

• The job you are handing over: first contact, repeat attempts across call, SMS and messaging, booking into your calendar, and reminders. The sales conversation usually stays with you.
• The hours: on our assumptions (6 attempts per lead, 2.5 minutes each, 30% reached for a 10-minute conversation), follow-up costs 18 minutes per lead: 45, 90 and 180 hours a month at 150, 300 and 600 enquiries.
• The wage floor: the National Minimum Wage is $26.44 an hour from 1 July 2026, and the super guarantee is 12%: $29.61 an hour before anything else.
• The rule you cannot outsource: the ACMA says businesses cannot outsource their obligations under the spam and telemarketing laws.
• Our checklist: the Five-Point Follow-Up Brief below, for any provider you consider.

What exactly are you handing over when you outsource lead follow-up?

Outsourced lead follow-up is the work between an enquiry arriving and a qualified person sitting in your calendar. It has four parts, and providers differ in which ones they actually do:

1. First touch. A call or SMS soon after the enquiry, including evenings and weekends when many ad leads arrive.
2. Persistence. Repeat attempts over days, across channels, until the lead answers or opts out.
3. Booking. Qualifying against your criteria and placing the appointment in your calendar.
4. Showing. Confirmations and reminders so the booked call actually happens.

A clinic, a trades business and a coaching program all lose leads in the same place: part 2. Most teams make one or two attempts and stop. For how the first touch is automated, see our guide to speed-to-lead automation in Australia; the tooling side is covered in lead follow-up automation.

The Five-Point Follow-Up Brief: what to check before you hire anyone

The Five-Point Follow-Up Brief: a follow-up provider is only worth hiring if it can state, in writing, its hours of cover, its attempt cadence, how it books, what it reports and whose consent records it relies on.

1. Hours of cover. Which hours and days does a new enquiry get a first touch? “Business hours” covers a minority of the week.
2. Attempt cadence. How many attempts, over how many days, on which channels, before a lead is closed off?
3. Booking. Does the provider book directly into your calendar, or pass you a “warm lead” to call yourself?
4. Reporting. Do you see booked and held calls per enquiry, not just calls made and messages sent?
5. Consent and exit. Whose consent records support the messages, how unsubscribes are honoured, and what notice ends the arrangement.

What does in-house lead follow-up really cost in hours?

In-house lead follow-up costs about 18 minutes of staff time per enquiry on our assumptions, which is the number to beat before you outsource. No public Australian benchmark exists for follow-up minutes per lead, so every input below is an assumption: replace each with your own.

Worked through for the middle column: 300 × 6 × 2.5 = 4,500 minutes, plus 300 × 0.30 × 10 = 900 minutes, is 5,400 minutes or 90 hours. At $26.44 × 1.12 = $29.61 an hour, that is $2,665.15 a month. The 38-hour week is the maximum under the National Employment Standards unless reasonable extra hours are worked.

The figure is a floor, not a quote. It leaves out award rates and penalty rates (which may be higher than the minimum), leave, payroll on-costs, software, a manager’s time, and the gap no wage closes: one 38-hour roster is on shift for 38 of the week’s 168 hours, about 23%.

DIY tool, freelancer, retainer agency or pay-per-result: who to hire

Four kinds of provider sell lead follow-up, and they differ most in what you pay for and who absorbs the unanswered attempts.

The comparison that matters is the last-but-one column. Every model except pay-per-result bills you, directly or through payroll, for attempt time, which on our assumptions is 15 of the 18 minutes per lead. How pay-per-lead and pay-per-appointment pricing differ in the Australian market is covered in pay-per-lead vs pay-per-appointment.

Which follow-up option suits which business?

This threshold table is our rule of thumb, built from the hours model above rather than measured across businesses. Use it as a starting point.

When should you outsource lead follow-up to a pay-per-result service?

Outsource to a pay-per-result service when your follow-up workload passes about half of one full-time person, enquiries keep arriving outside the hours anyone is rostered, and booked calls are going missing. In that situation a done-for-you service beats DIY because the provider, not your payroll, absorbs the unanswered attempts and the evening cover.

Keep it in-house instead if you are under about 150 enquiries a month and one person can call each one within minutes, or if a setter you already employ books well and you only need a tool to help them.

The LeadsNow facts, plainly: we book calls using AI calling, SMS and DM follow-up. You pay on results: a revenue share, a fee per appointment, or a mix of both, depending on your lead volume, what you sell and its price, the type of business, and which part (or all) of the sales funnel we run. No-shows aren’t charged. There is no retainer, and you can cancel any time with 14 days notice. Since 2017, LeadsNow has booked 50,769+ AI-booked sales appointments, and show rates vary by offer and reminder cadence, up to 93% on our best-performing accounts. The service is described on our AI appointment setting page.

Which Australian rules follow your leads to an outsourced provider?

Australian spam and telemarketing obligations stay with your business when a provider does the follow-up. The ACMA’s guidance on avoiding spam says that even if someone else sends your marketing messages, you must still have consent from each recipient, the message must identify you, and unsubscribe requests must be honoured within 5 working days. Once a home or personal mobile number has been on the Do Not Call Register for 30 days, telemarketers can only call it with consent or if they are exempt. For SMS, see our guide to SMS sender ID registration in Australia. This is general information, not legal advice.

Frequently asked questions about outsourcing lead follow-up

How much does it cost to outsource lead follow-up in Australia?

It depends on the pricing model more than the provider. Software such as HighLevel starts at US$97 a month but needs your staff time; freelancers and retainer agencies bill hours or months; a pay-per-result service bills on booked appointments or revenue. Compare each against your in-house floor: about $29.61 an hour at the National Minimum Wage plus 12% super.

Am I still responsible for spam compliance if someone else sends the messages?

Yes. The ACMA says businesses cannot outsource their obligations under the spam and telemarketing laws, and that ultimately the business is responsible. Ask any provider how consent is recorded and how unsubscribes reach your systems.

How many follow-up attempts should an outsourced provider make?

Agree a number in writing. Our hours model assumes six attempts per lead across call and SMS; whatever you choose, the brief should state attempts, days and channels, and when a lead is closed off.

Should I outsource follow-up for old leads as well as new ones?

Often, yes, if they gave consent and have not opted out. Dormant enquiries already cost you ad spend. Treat them as a separate campaign with its own messaging and reporting, rather than mixing them into new-lead follow-up.

Can a virtual assistant do lead follow-up?

Yes, for low volume during their rostered hours. The limit is coverage: a 38-hour roster is on shift for about 23% of the week, so evening and weekend enquiries wait until the next shift.