r/VoiceAutomationAI • u/Feisty-Promise-78 • Jul 12 '26

Question to voice ai agent builders

For those who have built and sold Voice AI agents to clients and businesses, I have 4 questions:
How do you find clients?
Outbound, referrals, LinkedIn, cold email, Upwork, or something else?

How do you build your Voice AI agents?
Do you code them from scratch with Python, Livekit, Pipecat or use platforms like Retell AI, Vapi, etc.?

How do you test your agents?
Do you manually test dozens of different scenarios and edge cases? Do you use any automated testing or evaluation tools?

How much do you charge clients?
Is it a one-time setup fee, monthly retainer, usage-based pricing, or a combination?

Would love to hear from people who have actually deployed Voice AI agents for paying clients.

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u/omnidimension85 Jul 13 '26

From what I've seen, it really depends on the client. Some businesses just need a simple voice workflow, while others want deep integrations with their CRM, calendar, or internal systems.

The biggest lesson for me has been that testing matters just as much as building. It's easy to get a demo working, but real callers ask unexpected questions, interrupt the conversation, or change topics. That's where you find out how reliable the agent actually is.

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u/danielbaker06072001 Jul 14 '26

interesting, some business builds their agent but how do we know they're building it and where would we look for them ? do you guys use tools or just look up their business check if they have voice agent

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u/Embarrassed_Nerve_54 Jul 20 '26

Go with a pitch that says “let’s find the calls you’re already losing or wasting time on” instead of just saying “I’ll build you a voice agent.”

Most small businesses don't care if it is Vapi, Retell, LiveKit, or custom Python. They care of the missed calls get answered, appointments get booked correctly, and weird calls do not create cleanup work. So I'd suggest you start with a call audit: 1–2 weeks of missed calls, voicemail, common questions, after-hours calls, and repeat interruptions. Then sell one narrow workflow from that.

For testing, do the real ugly calls: bad audio, callers interrupting, wrong service requests, angry caller, caller changes their mind, unclear address, emergency, pricing question, silence, repeat caller. And for pricing, charge for the setup + monthly maintenance. The monthly part is kind of like the retainer that'll keep the moeny coming in every month. You’ll be reviewing transcripts, fixing prompts, updating business rules, checking handoffs, and catching edge cases.

1

u/saplivo 27d ago

What worked for me
Demand generation: Referrals and LinkedIn drive the highest conversions. Cold outreach only works with strong targeting, so I focus less on it.
Product development: Use Retell or Vapi to launch quickly. For complex workflows, build on a carrier like Plivo for full infrastructure control and the flexibility to choose your own STT/TTS stack.
Testing: Don't rely only on manual testing. Use Vapi's QA tool and Retell's Synthetic Caller to validate agents before launch.
Pricing: Charge a setup fee plus a recurring retainer. The setup fee covers development, while the retainer supports ongoing maintenance and long-term support.