This is a free go-to-market strategy template for a B2B outbound plan in the UK, with the Australian rules alongside. The spreadsheet is free to download as an xlsx file, with no sign-up. It has one sheet per section: ideal customer, market size, the call list, legal calling, the call sequence, dead number checks, a 90-day timeline and weekly metrics. Below, I have filled it in for one made-up UK seller, so you can see what a finished version looks like. Where the UK and Australian rules differ, they sit side by side. The reasoning behind each step is in go-to-market strategy for the UK and go-to-market strategy for Australia. This is a plain-English summary, not legal advice.
What the template covers
The worked example is a made-up UK software company. It sells training-records software to electrical and plumbing contractors in England with 50 to 249 staff. Every figure in it is illustrative, not a benchmark. Each sheet except Legal calling has the same example in grey italic rows, with blank rows underneath for your own plan. The Legal calling sheet lists the rules themselves.
| Sheet | What you fill in |
|---|---|
| Ideal customer | Industry, size, region, the trigger to buy and who signs |
| Market size | Each segment's count, with its source and date |
| List | One row per number, with its legal form, screening result and dates |
| Legal calling | The UK and Australian rules, each with its source |
| Calling | The sequence by day and a five-line script outline |
| Dead numbers | Mobiles on the list, the cost of checking them, dials saved |
| 90 days | The work by week, an owner and a "done when" for each |
| Weekly metrics | Dials, connects, conversations, meetings and opt-outs, with the rates worked out for you |
Ideal customer and market size
Write the ideal customer as a short set of fields, then count it. If a field needs more than one line, the segment is too broad for a first quarter.
| Field | Worked example |
|---|---|
| Industry | Electrical installation; plumbing, heating and air conditioning (SIC 43210 and 43220, as part of the made-up example; check your own codes against the ONS SIC 2007 list) |
| Size band | 50 to 249 staff |
| Region | England |
| Trigger to buy now | Won a contract that asks for proof of staff training |
| Who signs | Operations director |
| Who uses it | Contracts manager |
| Problem solved | Training records live in spreadsheets and expire unnoticed |
| Addressable accounts | 1,500 (900 electrical, 600 plumbing and heating; illustrative) |
The Market size sheet keeps one row per segment, with the SIC codes, the size band, the count, where the count came from and the date you took it. Official counts by industry, size and region come from the ONS and the Department for Business and Trade; which tables to use, and the current totals, are in go-to-market strategy for the UK. Write the date down, so you know which release the count came from.
List building
The List sheet has one row per phone number, not per company, because each number gets its own screening result. Two numbers for each of the 1,500 accounts gives the example 3,000 numbers: 1,800 landlines and 1,200 mobiles.
| Company | Legal form | Number type | Source | TPS/CTPS result | Dead number result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Example Electrical Ltd | Limited company | Landline | Companies House | Clear, screened 2 Nov | Not checked (landline) |
| Example Electrical Ltd | Limited company | Mobile | Data vendor | Clear, screened 2 Nov | Live |
| Sample Heating Ltd | Limited company | Landline | Companies House | On the CTPS | Not checked (landline) |
| C. Demo, sole trader | Sole trader | Mobile | Inbound enquiry | Clear, screened 2 Nov | Dead |
The file has more columns than fit here: company number, contact, role, the number itself, the date added, the date of each check, a consent record, and for Australian numbers the DNCR result, the wash date and the contact's time zone.
Legal form is the column people skip, and it matters most. A limited company is a corporate subscriber under PECR regulation 2, so its numbers go to the CTPS. A sole trader is an individual subscriber, so the TPS applies, and so do stricter email rules. The edge cases, such as partnerships, are in sole traders and partnerships: TPS or CTPS.
Legal calling in the UK and Australia
This is the Legal calling sheet as it stands in the file. The UK column comes from the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (PECR). The Australian column comes from the Do Not Call Register Act 2006 and the Telecommunications (Telemarketing and Research Calls) Industry Standard 2017.
| Rule | UK | Australia |
|---|---|---|
| Which register | The register kept under reg 26(1), known as the TPS (individuals) and the CTPS (corporate subscribers). Corporate subscribers register in writing (reg 26(1A)) | The Do Not Call Register (s11(1)) |
| Who can be on it | Individuals, including sole traders, and companies | Numbers used mainly for private or domestic purposes, fax-only, government and emergency numbers (s14). Most business lines cannot be registered, but a sole trader's mobile can be, if it is used mainly for private purposes |
| The rule | No unsolicited marketing call to a registered number, or to anyone who has told you not to call (reg 21(1)) | No telemarketing call to a registered number unless it is a designated telemarketing call (s11(1)) |
| How fresh the check must be | A new registration counts once it has been listed for 28 days (reg 21(3)). PECR sets no screening frequency, so re-screen at least every 28 days | A clear wash result covers calls for 30 days (s11(3)). Re-wash before day 30 |
| Keep the evidence | Keep the screening result and its date on the record (good practice; reg 21 sets no record-keeping duty) | Keep the wash result and its date; you carry the burden of showing a defence applies (s11(5) and (6)) |
| Calling with consent | Only where the subscriber has told you they do not object to your calls for the time being, and they can withdraw that at any time (reg 21(4) and (5)). There is no soft opt-in for calls | Where the account-holder or their nominee consented to the call (s11(2)) |
| Your own do-not-call list | Never call anyone who has told you not to (reg 21(1)(a)). Check this list first | End the call at once when the person asks (Industry Standard s13(1)(b)), and add the number to your own list the same day |
| Calling hours | None set in PECR. Call in business hours | Weekdays 9am to 8pm and Saturdays 9am to 5pm, never on Sundays, listed national public holidays or a weekday holiday in lieu of one, in the account-holder's local time, unless they agreed in advance (Industry Standard s8) |
| Identification on the call | Give your company's name on every call, and an address or a free-to-call number if asked (reg 24(1)(b) and (2)) | At the start of the call: your given name, your employer's name, who the call is for and its purpose, with contact details if asked (Industry Standard s9(2), s9(4) and s11) |
| Caller ID | Show your own number, or another number you can be contacted on (reg 21(A1)) | Caller ID on, and the number shown must take return calls for at least 30 days (Industry Standard s14) |
| Outsourced calling | The rule covers anyone who uses or instigates the use of a phone service for the call, so an agency's calls for you are your risk too (reg 21(1)) | A partner's calls for you are taken to be caused by you (s11(9)). Put an express clause in the contract that they will comply with the Act (s12(1)(c)) |
| Follow-up email | Say who it is from and give a valid opt-out address (reg 23). A cold email to a limited company needs no consent; one to a sole trader needs prior consent or the soft opt-in (reg 22) | Every commercial email needs consent and an unsubscribe under the Spam Act 2003; see go-to-market strategy for Australia |
In the example, the Sample Heating Ltd landline is on the CTPS, so it comes off the calling list. The order of checks is your own do-not-call list first, then the TPS and CTPS. Why the re-check falls at 28 days, and how it differs from the 28-day rule in the DMA licence, is in the TPS 28-day rule. The UK position on calling times has its own guide in cold calling hours in the UK, and the Australian register in the Do Not Call Register for businesses.
One Australian point catches UK teams. The section 11(3) wash defence covers a list submitted by the person making the call. TPSClear washes on its own ACMA subscription, so with a TPSClear wash you rely on section 11(5), reasonable precautions and due diligence. If you hold your own subscription, ask us about washing through it. Australian washes are sold per 30 days, as set out on Australian pricing.
Calling effectively
The Calling sheet holds the sequence and a script outline. The example sequence is seven touches over 13 days, then it stops.
| Day | Touch | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Call | Reach the operations director with the script below |
| 1 | Email if no answer | Three lines: the reason, the proof, the ask |
| 3 | Call in the afternoon | Try a different time of day |
| 6 | A customer example from their trade | |
| 8 | Call | Ask for the meeting directly |
| 13 | Call, then a last email | Close the loop and stop |
The script outline is five lines. The first line also covers the UK duty to give your company's name on the call.
- Who you are: "Hi, it's Sam from Example Software, the training-records people."
- Why them: "I saw you won the hospital refit, and that contract asks for staff training records."
- One proof point: "A contractor your size cut its audit prep from two days to an hour with us."
- One question: "How do you keep track of who is in date on their tickets now?"
- The ask: "Worth 20 minutes next week to see if it fits?"
Full scripts, and what to say when the answer is no, are in cold calling scripts and rules of thumb. The metrics that tell you which part to fix are the connect rate, the conversation rate and the meeting rate, defined in how to cold call in the UK. The Weekly metrics sheet works out the connect and meeting rates for you.
Dead number checks once the list is at scale
Once a list runs to a few thousand records, or mobiles are a large share of it, check the mobiles before anyone dials them. A dead number check looks each mobile up on its network, and only mobiles are charged. It also works on Australian mobiles, priced in pounds, though some networks, Telstra among them, do not return a live status, so those come back undetermined. How the lookup works is in HLR lookups explained.
In the example, the list has 1,200 mobiles. At 1p a check, checking all of them costs £12. Say 1 in 10 turns out to be dead: that is 120 numbers, and at four call attempts each in the sequence, 480 dials nobody has to make. The Dead numbers sheet does that sum with your own figures. The prices are GBP ex VAT:
| Pack | Price | How it is bought |
|---|---|---|
| 100 checks | £1 | Self-serve |
| 250 checks | £2.50 | Self-serve |
| 500 checks | £5 | Self-serve |
| 1,000 checks | £10 | By invoice |
The Scale plan, at £795 a month, includes 5,000 dead number checks every 28 days. Each HubSpot account gets 5 trial checks. The full terms are under dead number checks on the pricing page.
A 90-day timeline
The 90 days sheet runs by week, with an owner and a "done when" line for each block of work. Two rows repeat: the UK re-screen every 28 days, and the Australian re-wash before any result is 30 days old.
| Weeks | Work | Owner | Done when |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 to 2 | Write the ideal customer, count the market, build the list of 1,500 accounts | Founder | List loaded, with legal form on every row |
| 1 to 2 | Screen every number against the TPS, the CTPS and your own list; check the mobiles | Sales ops | No unscreened number in a calling view |
| 3 to 4 | Run the sequence on the first 300 accounts | Caller | 300 accounts through day 13 |
| Every 28 days | Re-screen the whole list (UK) | Sales ops | Every number screened in the last 28 days |
| Before day 30 | Re-wash every Australian number (if you call Australia) | Sales ops | No wash result older than 30 days |
| 5 to 8 | The next 600 accounts; change one thing at a time, such as the opener or the call time | Caller | Weekly metrics filled in for every week |
| 9 to 13 | The last 600 accounts; keep, narrow or switch the segment; write the next quarter's plan | Founder | Plan written, with targets from your own weeks 3 to 12 |
Weekly metrics
The Weekly metrics sheet has one row per week. Fill in the counts, and the connect rate (connects divided by dials) and meeting rate (meetings booked divided by conversations) work themselves out. These two weeks from the example are illustrative only. Week 5 is when the first 28-day re-screen falls, so all 3,000 numbers are screened again that week.
| Measure | Week 4 | Week 5 |
|---|---|---|
| Numbers screened or washed | 0 | 3,000 |
| Numbers removed | 0 | 9 |
| Dials | 380 | 410 |
| Connects | 46 | 55 |
| Conversations | 25 | 31 |
| Meetings booked | 1 | 1 |
| Meetings held | 1 | 1 |
| Opt-outs | 2 | 3 |
| Connect rate | 12.1% | 13.4% |
| Meeting rate | 4.0% | 3.2% |
Opt-outs belong in the same sheet as meetings. Each one goes on your own do-not-call list that day, and a rising count is an early sign the list or the opener is off.
Download the template
Download the go-to-market template (xlsx). It opens in Excel, and in Google Sheets through File, then Import. Keep one copy per market, and update the List sheet each time a number is screened, washed or checked, so the dates in it stay true.