Pay per meeting held
Pay per meeting held is a pricing model for outbound appointment setting in which the agency is paid only when a scheduled meeting actually takes place with a decision-maker at a business that matches the client’s ideal customer profile (ICP), as agreed in writing before launch. A calendar invite, a no-show or a call with a business you would never sell to costs the client nothing.
How does it work?
Before any outreach goes out, the agency and the client put three things in writing: which businesses count (industry, company size, service area and the disqualifiers), which people count (the owner, a managing partner or another contact both sides accept) and what “held” means (that person joins the scheduled call). The same document decides who gets contacted, which replies get booked and which meetings end up on the invoice.
Billing follows the meeting, not the booking. If the prospect doesn’t turn up, there is nothing to bill, and the agency’s job is to follow up and set a new time. If the call happens but the business or the person falls outside the written criteria, the client flags it, both sides check it against the document, and it comes off the bill. What counts as a qualified meeting walks through the three conditions one by one.
How is it different from pay per appointment and pay per show?
“Pay per appointment” is the family name. Inside it, contracts bill at different moments, and the label alone doesn’t tell you which one:
| Model | What triggers the bill | A no-show costs the client | A held call with the wrong business costs the client |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pay per booked appointment | An invite lands on the calendar | The full price | The full price |
| Pay per qualified appointment | An invite passes a screen, often checked after booking | Depends on the contract | Depends on how “qualified” is written |
| Pay per show (pay per attended appointment) | The prospect joins the call | Nothing | Usually the full price |
| Pay per meeting held | The right person at the right business joins the call | Nothing | Nothing |
Pay per show and pay per meeting held agree on the first condition: someone has to turn up. Pay per meeting held adds the other two, the business and the person, so a well-attended call with a shop that will never buy managed IT isn’t billed either. The four models side by side, with the questions to ask each agency, are in pay-per-appointment agencies for MSPs: what to compare.
What does it mean for an MSP?
An illustrative example. An MSP that serves law firms and accounting firms within an hour of its office signs criteria for 15 to 150 staff, no in-house IT team, and the owner or managing partner on the call. In one month the agency books six meetings. Five prospects show up. One of them runs a two-person bookkeeping practice, which the criteria rule out. On a pay-per-meeting-held contract the MSP is billed for four meetings. On a pay-per-booked-appointment contract the same month would have been billed as six.
That is the practical point for an MSP: the invoice moves with the pipeline. A slow month costs less, and the hours the owner or a salesperson spends on calls go to businesses that could actually sign a managed IT contract. The price itself is set against what a held meeting is worth to you; how pricing works shows the math.
What should the contract say?
- The ICP. Industry, company size, service area and the disqualifiers, signed before anything is sent.
- The right person. The titles that count as decision-makers, plus any other contact both sides accept.
- What “held” means. The person joins the scheduled call with you or whoever runs your sales calls.
- No-shows. Not billed, followed up and rebooked, and billable only once the rebooked call takes place.
- Disputes. How a meeting gets flagged, and that it is checked against the written criteria, not against someone’s memory of the call.
- The price. The price per meeting held, in writing, before you commit.
Reply handling and meeting booking covers what happens between a reply and a held meeting: qualification, the invite, the reminder and the brief.
Is pay per meeting held the same as pay per show?
Not quite. Pay per show bills once the prospect turns up. Pay per meeting held also requires the business to match your ICP and the person to be a decision-maker or an agreed contact, so neither a no-show nor a call with the wrong business is billed.
What happens if the prospect doesn’t show up?
Nothing is billed. The agency follows up to find a new time, and the rebooked meeting is billed only once it actually takes place.
Does Levante Leads charge per meeting held?
Yes. Levante Leads bills only for meetings held with an ICP decision-maker, measured against criteria signed before launch. There is no retainer, and the exact price per meeting comes in writing on the second call.
Related terms
- Pay per appointment: the umbrella model and its four billing points.
- Show rate: the share of booked meetings that actually take place.
- Appointment setting glossary for MSPs: every term in one place.