How to Launch an Outbound AI Calling Agent in 15 Minutes

Takeaways:

• Sign up for ElevenLabs and Twilio in under five minutes with no upfront cost
• Build your agent with a natural voice, a detailed system prompt, and a short opening line
• Connect Twilio to ElevenLabs using your phone number, Account SID, and Auth Token
• Upload a CSV of leads with personalized fields the agent can reference mid-call
• Test on yourself first, then schedule calls or enable live transfers to catch hot leads in real time

Most sales teams spend hours dialing leads that never pick up. An outbound AI calling agent changes that by making real calls on your behalf while you focus on closing warm leads.

This guide walks through the full setup using ElevenLabs and Twilio. You will create an AI voice agent, connect it to a real phone number, and upload a list of contacts for it to call automatically. The whole process takes about 15 minutes and costs around a dollar to get started.

No coding is required. If you can copy and paste a few credentials and upload a CSV file, you can have a working outbound caller by the end of this tutorial.

What You Need Before You Start

Two platforms handle everything. Gather these accounts and credentials before you begin.

1. Sign up for ElevenLabs. This is where you build the AI agent, choose its voice, and schedule outbound calls. Create a free account here.
2. Sign up for Twilio. This provides your agent with a real phone number that can make outbound calls. Register at Twilio, and you will receive $15 in free credits on signup.
3. Buy a Twilio phone number. From the Twilio dashboard, purchase a number for $1.20. Your free credits cover this.
4. Copy your Twilio credentials. Once your number is active, grab these three items from the Twilio dashboard:
   • Phone number
   • Account SID
   • Auth Token

Keep all three handy. You will paste them into ElevenLabs in a later step.

How to Create Your AI Calling Agent in ElevenLabs

With your accounts ready, it is time to build the agent that will actually make your calls.

1. Log in to ElevenLabs and create a new agent. Navigate to the Agent section and click to start a new one. You will land on a configuration screen with voice settings on the right and a system prompt editor on the left.
2. Choose a voice. ElevenLabs offers a library of realistic voices. Pick one that fits the tone of your calls. For sales outreach, a smooth and confident voice like “Eric” works well. You can preview each option before committing.
3. Select a TTS model family. You will see a few choices in the voice panel:
   • Turbo prioritizes low latency and fast responses
   • V3 Conversational sounds more natural during back-and-forth dialogue
   • Flash is the fastest but less expressive

   For outbound sales, V3 Conversational is worth testing first. It handles pauses and interruptions more naturally than Turbo, which matters when a real person picks up.

4. Write your system prompt. This tells the agent who it is, what company it represents, and what the call should accomplish. Be specific. A vague prompt like “you are a sales assistant” will produce vague calls. A stronger version looks like this: “You are calling on behalf of [Company Name] to offer a free 15-minute consultation on [Service]. Your goal is to book a meeting. If the lead is interested, confirm their email and suggest two available times.” The more detail you pack in here, the fewer awkward silences your leads will hear.
5. Set the first message. This is the opening line the agent speaks when someone answers. Keep it short and conversational. Something like “Hi, this is Alex calling from [Company]. Do you have a quick moment?” works better than a scripted pitch right out of the gate.

How to Connect Twilio to ElevenLabs

Your agent has a voice and a script. Now it needs a phone line.

1. Open the Phone Numbers section in ElevenLabs. From your agent dashboard, navigate to the Phone Numbers tab and click “Create New.”
2. Paste your Twilio credentials. Enter the three items you saved earlier:
   • Your Twilio phone number
   • Your Account SID
   • Your Auth Token

   ElevenLabs will verify the connection. If anything fails, double-check that you copied the full SID and token without extra spaces.

3. Assign the number to your agent. Once connected, link the phone number to the agent you just built. This tells ElevenLabs which voice and prompt to use when a call goes out from that number.
4. Test with your own phone. Before dialing any leads, call yourself. Pick up and have a short conversation with the agent. Listen for:
   • Does the opening line sound natural?
   • Does the agent pause long enough for you to respond?
   • Does it stay on script when you ask an unexpected question?
   • Does it recover if you interrupt mid-sentence?

   If the agent stumbles, go back and tighten the system prompt. For example, if it freezes when someone says “I’m not interested,” add a line like “If the lead declines, thank them for their time and ask if there is a better time to call back.”

How to Upload Leads and Start Outbound Calls

The agent is built and connected. Now you feed it a list of people to call.

1. Go to the Outbound section in ElevenLabs. Click “Outbound” from your agent dashboard, then create a new batch. Set the channel to “Telephony.”
2. Download the CSV template. ElevenLabs provides a pre-formatted file so your columns match what the system expects. Download it and open it in Google Sheets or Excel.
3. Fill in your leads. At a minimum, each row needs a phone number. But the template also lets you add custom fields that the agent can reference during calls. A strong CSV might look like this:

   phone_number	first_name	company	pain_point
   +14155551234	Sarah	Bloom Marketing	low lead volume
   +17185559876	James	Redline Logistics	missed follow-ups
   +13105554567	Maria	Coastal Realty	slow response times

   If your system prompt includes variables like “Hi {{first_name}}, I’m reaching out because many teams in {{company}}’s space struggle with {{pain_point}}”, the agent will pull those values straight from the CSV. This turns a generic cold call into something that sounds researched and personal.

4. Upload the CSV. Drag the file back into ElevenLabs. The system will validate your data and flag any formatting errors before you commit.
5. Choose when to call. You have three options:
   • Call now to start the batch immediately
   • Test first to run a single call from the list and review the result
   • Schedule to pick a date and time window that fits your leads’ time zones

   Starting with a test call on your own number or a friendly contact is always worth the extra minute. Listen to the full conversation, check the pacing, and adjust the prompt if anything feels off.

6. Enable call transfers for hot leads. Go to your agent’s Tools tab and toggle on “Transfer to Number.” Enter your personal phone number or your closer’s line. When a lead says something like “Yes, I’d love to learn more,” the agent can patch them through to a real person in real time. This is where outbound AI calling pays for itself fast. The agent filters, qualifies, and only sends you the people who actually want to talk.

Get Your AI Agent on the Phone

The entire setup takes less time than most people spend writing a single cold email. With a free ElevenLabs account, a $1.20 Twilio number, and a CSV of leads, you can have an AI agent making real outbound calls by the end of the day.

Start with a small batch of 10 to 15 contacts, listen to the recordings, and tighten your system prompt based on what you hear.

Once the script is dialed in, scale the list and let the agent handle the top of the funnel while you focus on closing.