So you finally have leads flowing into your pipeline. Now what? Which leads do you contact first? How do you prioritize outreach and determine the right approach? Should you reach out via email, phone, or social media outreach? How many times should you contact a prospect? When should you place a call or send an email? If a prospect does X, should you do Y or Z? What do you do next?
If you haven’t fully answered all these questions or aren’t sure of your answers, chances are you need to develop a solid sales cadence for your sales team (or your current one needs some refining). The best sales cadences bring structure and order to how reps engage leads, improving productivity and performance.
In this post, we’ll explore sales examples that have already been shown to work, draw key lessons from each of these cases, and provide sales cadence best practices to implement these ideas.
- What is Sales Cadence
- Advantages of Sales Cadence
- 5 Sales Cadence Examples
- Sales Cadence Frequently Asked Questions
What is Sales Cadence?
A sales cadence is a timeline of sales activities and methods reps follow to engage leads. For example, if one of the starting points in your sales conversion funnel involves a lead filling out a form on your site, the steps you take to contact that prospect and get him to agree to a face-to-face meeting make up your sales cadence.
A well-defined sales cadence makes things in your sales process run more smoothly and efficiently. That’s because of a sales cadence:
- Maintains consistency by providing a set of specific and standard procedures for reps to follow;
- Keeps everything easy to monitor and measure, making managing and optimizing the sales process simpler.
- Speeds up conversions by removing potential choke points or leakages;
- Allows you to quickly scale things up (such as growing your team or doubling your pipeline).
You must have a few things on hand for a sales cadence to work as advertised. Many experts believe a modern sales cadence requires at least three channels (emails, phone calls, and social media) to make an impact.
Clearly, having a well-defined sales cadence makes things in your sales process run more smoothly and more efficiently. That’s because a sales cadence:
- Maintains consistency by providing a set of specific and common procedures for reps to follow;
- Keeps everything easy to monitor and measure, making managing and optimizing the sales process simpler;
- Speeds up conversions by removing potential choke points or leakages;
- Allows you to quickly scale things up (such as growing your team or doubling your pipeline).
There are a few things you need to have on hand for a sales cadence to work as advertised. Many experts believe that a modern sales cadence requires at least three channels (emails, phone calls, and social media) to really make an impact.
Sales cadences differ from one type of sales process to the next, but the basic idea remains the same: consistent, sequential touches. Complex sales processes often involve numerous touchpoints and a longer period for nurturing prospects (sometimes several months). In contrast, transactional sales cycles typically require fewer touches over a few days or weeks.
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Advantages of Sales Cadence
Did you know that implementing a well-defined sales cadence can significantly enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of your client prospecting process? So, whether you’re a solo marketer or part of a larger team, here are the key advantages of integrating sales cadence:
- Strategic focus
- Efficient and effortless tracking
- Facilitates refinement
- Enhanced scalability
- Structured communication
- Optimized resource utilization
- Simplified onboarding
Sales Cadence Examples
A well-structured sales cadence is crucial for engaging prospects effectively. Adapting and refining your outreach strategies is essential as communication channels and buyer behaviors evolve.
Here are five proven sales cadence examples, each offering unique insights to enhance your sales process.
Sales Cadence Example 1: The Balanced Multi-Channel Approach
Our first sales cadence example comes from Sales Hub CEO Max Altschuler. This widely cited sales cadence integrates various communication channels to maintain consistent engagement without overwhelming the prospect, making it an excellent starting reference.
This cadence integrates various communication channels to maintain consistent engagement without overwhelming the prospect.
- Day 1: Email/InMail
- Day 3: Email in the morning, Call in the afternoon
- Day 5: Call in the morning, Call with a voicemail in the afternoon
- Day 7: Email in the morning, Call in the afternoon with a voicemail
- Day 10: Email and call in the morning
As you can see, this sales cadence consists of 10 touchpoints spread over 10 days. Other than its simplicity, this sales cadence also:
- Uses all three key channels (email, phone, and social media).
- Leverages the law of immediacy (i.e., touches aren’t spaced too far apart).
- Uses both live phone calls and voicemails.
On the other hand, this sales cadence needs some improvement in the following areas:
- It uses too few touchpoints (remember that most studies say it may take up to 13 touches to generate a valid lead).
- Waits until day 3 to place a call (if this were an inbound lead, calling on day 1 would work well).
Take a look at Callbox’s Million-Dollar Sales Cadence for better prospecting.
Sales Cadences Example 2: The Long-Term Nurture Sequence
This second sales cadence example works well for lengthier sales processes.
- Day 1: Email 1
- Day 2: Call 1, Voice mail 1, Email 2
- Day 7: Call 2, Voice mail 2, Email 3
- Day 14: Call 3, Voice mail 3, Email 4
- Day 21: Call 4, Voice mail 4, Email 5
- Day 35: Call 5, Voice mail 5, Email 6
- Day 49: Call 6, Voice mail 6, Email 7
- Day 63: Call 7, Voice mail 7, Email 8
- Day 77: Call 8, Voice mail 8, Email 9
This sales cadence uses up to 25 touchpoints spread over 77 days (a little over two-and-a-half months). Its strengths include:
- Starts strong with an email on day 1 and follows it up with a call the next day
- Combines live phone conversations with voicemail messages
While this cadence fits in with an outbound sales strategy for longer sales cycles, it does have a couple of weaknesses that need attention:
- Lacks a social media component;
- Schedules successive touch points too far apart from each other;
- Relies on the repetitive and almost predictable mix of channels.
Strengthen your outbound lead generation strategy and connect with your new clients.
Sales Cadence Example #3: The 22-Day Consistent Outreach
Brandon Huang, an SDR at Yotpo, shares a 22-day sales cadence idea, which he says helps him produce consistent results.
- Day 1: Email
- Day 3: Phone
- Day 4: Email
- Day 7: Phone
- Day 7 Email
- Day 10: Phone
- Day 12: Email
- Day 14: Phone
- Day 16: Email
- Day 19: Phone
- Day 21: Phone and Email
- Day 22: Nurture or Repeat
Brandon Huang’s sales cadence consists of 13 touchpoints done over 22 days. Its main strengths include:
- Spreads touch points over a 3-week period.
- Leverages immediacy without being too aggressive.
However, this sales cadence contains some glaring flaws:
- Limits the channels used to phone and email only;
- Waits until two days before following up on the initial email with a call;
- Fails to maximize daily engagement (some days may have included both email and phone activities).
Sales Cadence Example #4: The Content-Driven Multi-Channel Strategy
Here’s a sales cadence example that delivered some impressive results. Carlos Montero, CEO of digital marketing consulting firm Biassa, says this sales cadence helped him book meetings with 11 of the biggest e-commerce companies:
- Day 1: Prospect Research
- Day 2: InMail
- Day 3: Follow-up InMail
- Day 4: Email
- Day 5: Follow-up Email
- Day 6: Phone
- Day 7: Social Media (share an article and tag the prospect)
- Day 8: Video Email
- Day 9: Social Media (engage the prospect on LinkedIn)
- Day 10: Voice Mail
- Day 11: Email
- Day 12: Phone or Email
Carlos Montero recommends setting aside as many as 22 days to carry out all these activities. From the outline, it’s clear that the sales cadence:
- Combines email, phone, and social;
- Uses a rich content strategy (by including articles and videos);
- Strikes a balance between persistence and disturbance.
But even with solid results behind this sales cadence, there are a couple of things you need to look out for, especially since it:
- Requires more research and personalization;
- Makes reaching out at scale a bit more challenging.
Related: Multichannel Lead Generation for B2B Marketing
Sales Cadence Example 5: The Spider-Man Cadence
Morgan J. Ingram, a LinkedIn Top Voice, referenced this last sales cadence example. According to Morgan, this is the best outbound sales cadence he has used. He called it the Spider-Man cadence, named after its versatility; this cadence uses a blend of phone, email, video, and social media touches across 20 days. It’s structured to create persistent yet respectful outreach.
- Day 1: Send a LinkedIn connection request (no message)
- Day 2: Tailored email with an interest-based CTA
- Day 3: Call with voicemail, followed by another email in the same thread
- Day 5: Call (no voicemail)
- Day 7: Call (no voicemail)
- Day 10: Email in a new thread
- Day 12: Tailored video email
- Day 15: Visual-based follow-up email
- Day 18: Call with voicemail
- Day 20: Final email
This cadence spans 11 touchpoints across various channels for approximately 3 – 4 weeks.
Sales Cadence FAQs
To help you navigate the essentials of sales cadences, we’ve compiled answers to some of the most common questions. These insights will guide you in designing effective outreach strategies tailored to your sales goals.
What’s the ideal length of a sales cadence?
It depends on your target industry and sales cycle. However, the standard ideal length for B2B sales is 2–4 weeks, with more touches spread out over time for longer cycles.
How many touchpoints should a cadence contain?
A strong sales cadence typically includes 8 to 12 touchpoints. This allows you to engage across different days, times, and channels without overwhelming your prospect.
What are the best channels to use in a sales cadence?
Email, phone, LinkedIn, voicemails, and social media are the top-performing channels. The best cadences mix these to meet prospects where they’re most responsive.
Should you have different cadences for different territories?
Absolutely. Buyer behavior varies by region, so tailoring cadences by territory helps you respect time zones, communication preferences, and cultural nuances.
How many cadences should your sales team use?
Ideally, have 3–5 cadences built around key variables, such as industry, persona, buying stage, or urgency. This gives reps flexibility while staying strategic.
The Takeaway
A sales cadence helps your team navigate the often choppy waters of revenue generation. It keeps your reps’ momentum more consistent and their performance more measurable. With these lessons and tips, it’s easier to develop or optimize your own sales cadence.
