What is a Sales Cadence?

A sales cadence, also referred to as a sales sequence, is a scheduled series of sales activities that follow a pre-determined order and agenda.

Cadences are typically oriented towards sales prospecting, and include a number of different activities, such as phone calls, text messages, emails, social media messages, voicemails, and even direct mail. These activities are scheduled in a specific sequence with a set period of time between each. Sales reps then follow the cadence and make attempts to contact or follow up with prospects within the sales cadence according to the schedule. Sales cadences are usually associated with campaigns, which determine which specific cadence prospects will receive.

For example, a sales cadence could appear as the following:

Day 1: Phone call + email
Day 2: Phone call + social message
Day 3: Nothing
Day 4: Phone call
Day 5: Email
Day 6: Nothing
Day 7: Phone call + SMS
Day 8: Email

Data shows that on average, a sales rep must make eight or more attempts to reach a prospect. However, the rep doesn’t necessarily know where the best place to reach them is. Furthermore, these touches need to occur at different times of the day, and in relation to activities that both the sales rep and prospect are already performing. Therefore, reps need a way to both schedule and manage their sales activities that allows them to organize their outreach so they can make contact with the right prospect, through the right channel, at the right time.

Sales cadences automate at least a portion of the sales rep’s job. A sales cadence tool will automatically schedule activities and remind reps when they need to be done, or even perform some outreach, such as a scheduled email, on the behalf of a sales rep.

Sales cadences create a standardized manner in which reps prospect, which means that sales managers can capture the data to use in reports in order to improve the performance of messaging, as well as the cadences themselves.