Kaseya's 2026 State of the MSP Report found that 71 percent of MSPs name acquiring new customers as their biggest challenge, and that most new clients are not new to managed services but are switching from another MSP. Kaseya's own reading of the data is that winning new business is now less about the volume of outreach and more about the quality of evidence, meaning verifiable proof that a provider can reduce risk and keep systems running. That framing matters for anyone thinking about outsourcing prospecting calls, because the job of an outbound caller at an MSP is not to dial as many numbers as possible. It is to start well-researched conversations with the right companies and hand the interested ones to someone who can sell.
This post covers what an offshore caller can own for an MSP, what should stay with the owner or a salesperson, how the time zones work for each of your markets, and what the calling rules in the United States, Canada, and Australia say about calls made on your behalf. The rules part is general information and not legal advice, and calling rules vary by call type, number type, and state or province, so check the details with counsel before you start.
What an Outbound Caller Is For
An offshore caller or appointment setter takes the repetitive front end of prospecting off the owner's calendar. That means building and cleaning target lists, confirming who the decision maker is at each company, researching each account so the first call is relevant, making the first-touch calls and follow-up emails, logging every contact in the CRM, and booking discovery meetings for the person who will run them. The test of success is qualified meetings held, not calls made.
The caller does not run discovery, quote, negotiate, or close. Those steps depend on judgment about the prospect's environment, your pricing discretion, and your capacity to deliver, and they belong with the owner or a salesperson. The role also does not replace the work of building evidence that a prospect can check: case studies, references, a clear niche, and a straightforward explanation of what you do. Kaseya's data suggests that work is where much of the competition is decided, and a caller with nothing credible to say will book few meetings whatever the call volume.
| Work | What the offshore caller does | What stays with the owner or salesperson |
|---|---|---|
| List building | Finds companies that match your target profile, verifies contacts, removes duplicates and numbers on your do not call list | Defining the target profile and the industries you will and will not serve |
| Account research | Notes company size, current IT setup where visible, recent news, and a relevant reason to call | Deciding which accounts deserve a personal approach |
| First-touch outreach | Makes calls from an approved script, sends follow-up emails, handles gatekeepers and basic objections | Writing the positioning and approving any change to the pitch |
| Qualification and booking | Confirms a short list of agreed criteria and books the meeting with a clear handoff note | Discovery calls, assessment of fit, pricing, proposals, and closing |
| CRM and reporting | Logs every call and outcome, maintains the do not call list, and produces a weekly activity summary | Interpreting results and deciding what to change |
Time Zones: Daytime for Australia, Nights for North America
The time zone arithmetic affects how you staff this role more than most. The Philippines is UTC+8 and does not observe daylight saving time. Australian east coast business hours fall in the Manila morning and afternoon: 9 a.m. AEST is 7 a.m. in Manila, and 6 p.m. AEST is 4 p.m., with an extra hour of difference while Australian daylight saving time applies. A caller working a normal day shift can cover Australian business hours with little strain.
North America is the opposite case. A 9 a.m. Eastern call is 9 p.m. in Manila during US daylight time and 10 p.m. during US standard time, and a 5 p.m. Eastern call lands at 5 a.m. the next morning in Manila during daylight time. Calling US or Canadian business hours therefore means a night shift for the caller, which is harder to staff and sustain, and you should ask candidates about it directly. One workable structure is to do list building, research, and email outreach during the Manila day and schedule a shorter block of live calls on a night shift, or to start with the Australian market where the schedules align. Konnect's calendar of Philippine holidays is worth checking when you plan call blocks, since a Philippine holiday removes a caller from a week's plan and Australian national public holidays remove the calling window on the other side.
What the Rules Say, Country by Country
The central principle across all three markets is that the business that benefits from the calls cannot outsource its way out of the rules. The details differ, and in each case a business-to-business call gets different treatment from a call to a consumer.
In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission's guide to the Telemarketing Sales Rule, last modified in October 2026, says most phone calls between a telemarketer and a business are exempt from the rule. The exceptions it names are business-to-business calls to induce the retail sale of nondurable office or cleaning supplies, and calls that solicit individual employees to buy for their own use, and it says software, computers, and similar durable goods are not nondurable supplies. The guide also says the prohibition on calling numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry does not apply to business-to-business calls. It states that it makes no difference whether calls are made from outside the United States, so long as they are made to consumers in the United States. Exemption from the rule does not end the analysis. The same guide notes that the Federal Communications Commission enforces the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which also regulates telemarketing, and that many states have their own telemarketing laws, so you should check those before calling.
In Canada, the CRTC's business guidance on telemarketing says business-to-business calls are exempt from the National Do Not Call List Rules but are regulated under the Telemarketing Rules and the rules on automatic dialing and announcing devices. It says that if you make telemarketing calls to businesses you must register with the National Do Not Call List, that you are responsible for not calling numbers on your own internal do not call list, and that every call must follow the rules, including identifying yourself and the purpose of the call at the beginning and respecting the time limits. On outsourcing, the CRTC says that if you use a third-party calling service or lead generator, you are the client of the person you hire, and the Telecommunications Act makes a person liable for violations committed by an employee or agent acting within their authority. The CRTC adds that a provider who tells you that you do not need to register and are working from their own list is not in compliance, and that you could be liable for violations that follow.
In Australia, the Do Not Call Register's industry standards page, published by the Australian Communications and Media Authority, says the Telecommunications (Telemarketing and Research Calls) Industry Standard 2017 applies to anyone who makes or arranges for telemarketing calls to Australian numbers, including numbers not on the register. It covers voice calls that offer, advertise, or promote goods or services, which describes a prospecting call from an MSP. The standard requires calling line identification to be enabled and return contact details to remain available for at least 30 days, with the caller's employer, the purpose of the call, and who caused it to be made available to anyone who calls back. Telemarketing calls are allowed on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. and on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and are not allowed on Sundays or on national public holidays. A caller must end a call immediately if asked to, and also if the time at the recipient's location is outside the permitted hours. The ACMA lists enforcement options up to penalties of $250,000, and its FAQ says that when calls are outsourced, both the person making the call and the business requiring the call to be made must comply.
| Country | B2B treatment | What still applies | If you outsource the calls |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | Most calls to businesses are exempt from the FTC rule, and the Registry prohibition does not apply to business-to-business calls | The FTC notes the TCPA and state laws, which need separate checking | The FTC rule applies to calls made from abroad to US consumers, and states and the FCC have their own rules |
| Canada | Exempt from the National Do Not Call List Rules but subject to the Telemarketing Rules | Registration with the National DNCL, an internal do not call list, identification and purpose at the start, and calling time limits | You are the client of the caller and can be liable for their violations |
| Australia | The 2017 Industry Standard applies to voice calls that promote goods or services, including those not on the register | Calling hours, caller line identification, ending the call on request, and required information | The caller and the business requiring the call must both comply |
Building a Compliant Calling Process
The common elements across the three sets of rules make a workable standard for your own process. Give the caller a script that states their name, your company name, and the reason for the call within the first few seconds. Make the caller end the call at once if the person asks, and record the request in an internal do not call list that every caller and every list-building task checks before dialing. Set the calling windows by the time at the number being called, and block Sundays and public holidays for Australian calls. Keep calling line identification enabled, with a return number that reaches someone who can tell the person who called and why.
Beyond that, put the standard in writing. Canada's CRTC lists several practices that support a due diligence defence, including written policies and procedures, ongoing training, a record of the process used to prevent calls to registered numbers, monitoring and enforcement of compliance, and, where a telemarketer calls on behalf of a client, an agreement requiring the telemarketer to comply with the rules. These practices are a sensible baseline for all three markets. Review a sample of calls each week, correct any deviation promptly, and keep your do not call list and call logs. If you record calls for quality, rules on recording consent vary by state and country, so check them before you begin.
Also keep the pitch honest. A caller should not describe a sales call as something else, make claims you cannot support, or imply relationships you do not have. Prospects will check what you say, and Kaseya's finding that buyers want proof they can verify applies to the first call as much as to the proposal.
Measuring Whether It Works
Set your own baseline rather than relying on industry averages, since results vary with your niche, list quality, and offer. Track the number of qualified meetings booked, the share of booked meetings that actually take place, the share that become real opportunities, and the cost per qualified meeting once you include the caller's cost, your tools, and the time you spend on handoffs. Review these weekly in the first two months. If meetings are booked but few take place or progress, the problem is usually qualification criteria or list quality, and both can be fixed. If few meetings are booked at all, look at the pitch and the list before you look at the caller. Konnect's piece on how small MSPs compete with enterprise providers using offshore leverage covers the wider growth picture.
Where This Does Not Fit
Outsourced calling is the wrong first move in several situations. If you have no clear niche, no references, and no case studies, a caller has nothing credible to say, and the effort is better spent on evidence first. If you cannot take meetings promptly, booked appointments will go stale. If your target market is North America and you cannot staff a night shift, the schedule will not work. If your prospects are in sectors with special rules about marketing calls, or you plan to call individuals on personal or mobile numbers, the exemptions described above may not apply, and you should take advice first. And if your best new clients come from referrals and existing relationships, a calling program may add less than a program that makes those easier to produce.
A Thirty-Day Pilot
In the first week, define your target profile, write the one-paragraph pitch and the qualification criteria, and decide which market you will test first. In the second week, write the calling standard, set up the internal do not call list and the call log, register where required, and agree the script and the handoff note. In the third week, run the first supervised calls, review a sample of every day's calls, and fix what you find. In the fourth week, review the booked meetings, the show rate, and what came out of them, and decide whether to extend, change the list or pitch, or stop. At the end of the month you should be able to say what each qualified meeting cost and whether the people booked were people you want to meet.
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If you are an MSP owner who makes your own outbound calls and is thinking about handing the first touch to an offshore sales support hire, bring your target list criteria and your current lead sources to the call, and we will go through the role scope, the schedule for your market, and the calling standard you would need to set.
About the Author
Vilbert Fermin is the founder of Konnect, a remote staffing company connecting North American and Australian businesses with top Filipino talent. With deep expertise in IT support and remote team management, Vilbert helps MSPs access skilled technical professionals without the overhead of full-time domestic IT staff. His mission is to showcase Filipino excellence while helping businesses stay protected, productive, and competitive through strategic remote staffing.
