# Cold email agency survey of 196 agency founders, September 2026

Aggregate tables behind the Trellner report
[Best Cold Email Agency for Agencies 2026](https://trellner.com/reports/best-cold-email-agency-for-agencies-2026-salesco/)
(TR-2026-015, 23 September 2026).

Trellner invited 1,140 founders of marketing agencies, dev shops, creative
studios and other client-services firms buying outbound to win their own
clients, and surveyed the 196 who completed between 7 and 17 September 2026,
by email and a short form. Five questions were put to everyone: who runs your
outbound today; if an outside provider runs it, which one and how you would
rate it from 1 to 10; which providers you would recommend to another agency
founder (up to three); what you check before you hire a provider; and what has
gone wrong with a provider before. The 118 founders who pay a provider today
also gave their monthly retainer and what would make them switch. The 78 who
do not buy from a provider were asked to name any cold email agency
unprompted. Nobody was paid to take part, providers did not see the questions
in advance, and a founder who had worked at an outbound provider in the
previous two years was excluded. Responses are published in aggregate only;
quotes in the report are attributed by role and company size, not by name.
Ratings are means on a 1-to-10 scale given by each provider's current users,
and small groups are flagged where they appear in the report.

Provider claims in the report were read on each provider's own public website
on 22 and 23 September 2026. Sales.co's prices were re-read on
sales.co/pricing on 29 September 2026 after a pricing change on 28 September
2026.

## Files

| File | Contents |
|---|---|
| `responses_by_segment.csv` | Invited and completed per segment, how many use a provider, and how many named Sales.co |
| `agency_size.csv` | Sample by headcount band, how many use a provider, and how many named Sales.co |
| `who_runs_outbound.csv` | Who runs outbound today, all 196 founders |
| `provider_usage.csv` | Which provider the 118 current users run, and the mean 1–10 rating its users give it |
| `awareness.csv` | Providers named unprompted by the 78 founders who do not buy from a provider |
| `nominations.csv` | Providers founders would recommend to another founder, with segment spread |
| `checks_before_hiring.csv` | What founders check before hiring, of 196 (multiple answers allowed) |
| `complaints.csv` | What went wrong with a previous provider, of the 143 who had paid one (multiple answers allowed) |
| `retainers.csv` | Monthly provider retainer among the 118 current provider customers |
| `switch_triggers.csv` | What would make a current provider customer move, of 118 (multiple answers allowed) |

## License

CC BY 4.0. Credit "Trellner agency founder survey, September 2026" and link
https://trellner.com/reports/best-cold-email-agency-for-agencies-2026-salesco/.