Straight from the product's rate card and calling rules.
Why calls still work for small businesses.
Published cold calling statistics are grim: pickup rates around 6–9% and success rates that roughly halved between 2024 and 2026. Almost all of that describes calling individuals on their personal mobiles, where spam labels and screening do the damage.
A business’s listed number is a different instrument. It is published so customers can call, and it gets answered. The real constraint is the handoff: whoever picks up is often not the owner. What helps is timing, a specific reason for the call, and a message short enough to survive being passed on.
That is what Mantis’s agent is built around. Every lead it calls comes with the signal that made it a lead — no website, weak reviews, hiring, a new branch — so the opening line is a reason, not a script. And it speaks the way the person on the other end does. Read more in does cold calling still work.
How an AI call campaign runs.
- 1
Build a lead list
Find the businesses with Mantis — by trade, area and signal — or work a list you already built there.
- 2
Add a call step
The campaign planner drafts a sequence. Add a Call touch, pick its skill, and tell it what to offer and who follows up.
- 3
Test on your own phone
Ring yourself first. Up to three minutes, charged like any call, so you hear exactly what your leads will hear.
- 4
Approve and schedule
Calls go out one at a time within 10:00–19:30 IST, Mon–Sat. Calls due outside the window wait for the next slot.
- 5
Read the outcomes
Each answered call lands in the Inbox with a summary and outcome. A booked meeting stops that lead's sequence.
Skills: what each call is for.
Each call step follows one skill. The skill sets the goal; the agent handles the conversation.
Pitch
Pitch your offer in under a minute and book a short follow-up.
Sales
Qualify need, decision maker and timing; book a sales call if they fit.
Partnership
Explore a reseller, distributor or referral deal.
Collaboration
Propose a co-promotion, joint offer, event or content together.
Announcement
Share news or an offer in 30 seconds, no hard sell.
Vendor finding
You are the buyer: learn how to order, prices and terms; book a meeting.
Introduce
Say who you are, answer questions honestly, leave the door open.
AI caller versus the alternatives.
| Mantis AI voice agent | Human calling team | Generic AI calling platform | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Language | English, switching to Hindi or Hinglish | Whatever your callers speak | Often English-first; Indian languages vary |
| Lead list | Built in Mantis, each lead with a reason to call | Yours to source | Yours to source and import |
| Cost model | 30 credits per connected minute; unanswered calls free | Salaries, whether calls connect or not | Usually per minute plus a platform fee |
| Handling objections | Good at common ones; follows the skill | Best — people read nuance better | Depends on how much you configure |
| Volume | One call at a time per account, inside the window | Limited by headcount | Often high concurrency |
| Follow-up | Part of a sequence with email; booking stops the sequence | Manual, or a separate CRM | Usually a separate tool |
| India calling rules | Window, disclosure and DND guidance built in | Your responsibility | Your responsibility |
An experienced human closer will out-sell any AI agent on a hard conversation. The agent's job is the first conversation, at a volume and cost a person cannot match.
Who it is for.
Agencies selling to local businesses
Call the businesses with no website or weak reviews and book the ones who want to talk to you.
Distributors and suppliers
Use the vendor-finding or partnership skills to open conversations with retailers and resellers in a territory.
Founders without a sales team
Let the agent take first calls while you take the meetings it books.
Teams adding calls to email
Many small business owners never read cold email. A call step reaches the ones who answer the phone instead.
Limits, stated plainly.
Calls run sequentially per account, within the calling window. This is not a high-concurrency dialler.
A call is only placed if your balance covers 3 minutes; otherwise it waits until you top up.
Test calls work on free credits; launching bulk AI calls needs an active monthly plan.
Promotional calls in India need DLT registration, and DND numbers must not get them. Use the agent for genuine business conversations only.
What it costs.
A connected minute is 30 credits. With about 3 minutes per answered call, a call costs around 90 credits — roughly ₹90 on the Starter plan, where one credit is ₹1.00. Calls nobody answers cost nothing.
Once, at signup, with no card. Credits never expire. Finding leads and building or testing a campaign work on free credits; a paid plan is needed to launch campaigns.
A plan runs 30 days, never auto-renews, and unlocks bulk email campaigns, bulk AI voice calls and the campaign planner. Running short mid-month? Add funds from ₹50 at ₹1.25 a credit. No seats, no annual contract.
Full pricing and what each credit buys →AI cold calling questions.
What is AI cold calling?
An AI voice agent places outbound calls to a lead list, holds a natural spoken conversation, and works towards a goal you set: a pitch, a qualification, a booked meeting. In Mantis, the agent is part of a campaign: a call step sits in a sequence alongside emails, and every answered call comes back to your Inbox with a summary and an outcome.
Which languages does the AI caller speak?
English by default. It switches to Hindi or Hinglish when the person on the other end does, which is how most business calls in India already sound. Product words such as website, Google or WhatsApp stay in English; price, timing and benefit come across in Hindi.
How much does an AI cold call cost?
30 credits per connected minute, billed per started minute after the call ends. Unanswered, busy and failed calls are free. Campaign estimates assume about 3 minutes per answered call, so roughly 90 credits. On the Starter plan (₹1,999 for 2,000 credits) that is about ₹90 per answered call.
Is AI cold calling legal in India?
It is regulated. Promotional calls in India must come from a TRAI-registered 140-series number on the DLT platform, and numbers on the National Customer Preference Register (DND) must not receive promotional calls. Mantis keeps calls inside 10:00–19:30 IST, stricter than TRAI's 9:00–21:00, and the agent says who it is calling for and why. Use it for genuine business conversations with businesses you have a reason to contact, and only with lists you are allowed to call.
Can I hear it before I run a campaign?
Yes. Integrations, then Voice, lets you ring your own phone. The agent says it is a Mantis test call, chats and asks what you think. A test lasts up to three minutes and is charged like any call, so at most 90 credits.
Does the AI pretend to be a human?
No. It states who it is calling for and why, answers questions honestly, never invents facts about your business, and ends politely if the person is not interested.
What happens after the call?
The call's summary and outcome land in the Inbox. A meeting booked on a call stops that lead's sequence, so nobody gets a follow-up email after they have already said yes.
