The models, from earliest to latest payment
| Model | You pay when | What you receive |
|---|---|---|
| Pay per lead | A contact or enquiry is delivered | A name, an email, sometimes a form fill |
| Pay per appointment | A meeting is booked | A calendar invite |
| Pay per attended meeting | The meeting happens | A conversation with a qualified buyer |
| Retainer | Every month, regardless | Time and activity |
The later in that list the payment falls, the more of the risk the supplier carries — and the more their incentives line up with yours.
Pay per lead: cheap units, expensive disputes
Pay per lead works in markets with high volume and simple products, where a form fill is close to a sale. In B2B, a lead is a long way from revenue. You still have to reach them, qualify them and get them to a meeting, and the supplier is paid whether or not any of that happens.
The incentive is volume, and the argument is always about quality: was that really a lead?
Pay per appointment: closer, but watch the no-shows
Paying per booked appointment moves the supplier much closer to what you want. The weak point is the gap between a booking and a meeting. If you pay on the booking, every no-show is money spent on nothing — and a supplier paid on bookings has little reason to prevent them.
Pay per attended meeting: the unit that matters
Paying only when a qualified meeting actually takes place closes that gap. The supplier has to confirm, remind and chase reschedules, because a no-show costs them, not you. It's the model we use — see pay-per-meeting lead generation and how the pricing works.
It has one requirement: a precise, written definition of what a qualified meeting is. Without that, you've swapped an argument about lead quality for an argument about meeting quality. Our guide on qualified sales meeting criteria covers how to write one.
Which model suits B2B?
If your sale is considered, your deals are large and your buyers are specific, pay per attended meeting is usually the best fit: you pay for the thing that starts a sale, and nothing before it. If you want activity you control — brand building, content, an embedded rep — a retainer can be right. We compare those two in detail in pay per meeting vs retainer.