Ultimate Guide to Sales Cadence: Best Practices & Examples

How you reach out to prospects significantly affects outbound sales. In fact, 37% of salespeople report that their biggest challenge is getting in touch with prospects. So, what can you do? A well-structured sales cadence can come to your rescue, but it requires careful construction.

It’s not enough to simply pick a few templates and start your sales outreach. To engage effectively with prospects, your sales cadence must be systematic and strategic. Once you establish an effective cadence, you’ll likely see an increase in responses and more prospects flowing into your sales funnel. That’s why we curated this post for you!

First, let’s explore what sales cadences are and why they are essential, followed by insights on how to build best sales cadences with practical examples. We’ll also cover sales cadence software and sales cadence best practices that can elevate your B2B sales cadence efforts.

What Is A Sales Cadence?

A sales cadence is simply a plan for how you reach out to prospects over time. It’s a mix of emails, phone calls, texts, and social media messages, spaced out strategically over a set number of days. This keeps your communication steady but not overwhelming, giving you the best chance to get noticed.

Think of it like the rhythm of a song—you can’t rely on just one note. In the same way, a good sales cadence uses different channels at the right times to create a natural flow of outreach. Instead of hammering prospects with one type of message, you reach them in ways they might actually prefer, whether that’s a quick email or a casual LinkedIn message.

Using sales cadence software makes it easier to manage this process, especially when you’re juggling a lot of leads. For B2B sales, this is particularly useful, as deals often take longer, and you need to keep prospects engaged over time.

Following sales cadence best practices will help you stay organized and consistent, leading to better connections and more responses. A thoughtfully crafted cadence can turn cold leads into warm opportunities, setting you up for success.

Benefit of Sales Cadence 

• Boost sales efficiency: A well-planned sales cadence helps you stay organized and avoid the chaos of random follow-ups. Instead of guessing when to reach out, you have a clear plan in place. This structure saves time, ensures you never miss a touchpoint, and helps you focus on the right prospects at the right time. With everything laid out, you can manage more leads without feeling overwhelmed.
• Improve conversions: By using a mix of emails, phone calls, and social media outreach in your cadence, you’re more likely to reach prospects where they’re most comfortable. Some people respond better to emails, while others prefer a quick LinkedIn message. A good cadence keeps your communication varied, increasing the chances of a response. Over time, this approach leads to better engagement and higher conversion rates.
• Scaleable: Once you’ve established a successful cadence, it’s easy to scale. Whether you’re handling 10 leads or more than this, a sales cadence ensures consistency. You can automate parts of it with sales cadence software, making it easy to expand without losing the personal touch that gets results.

Why You Need A Sales Cadence?

It is quite a valid question to ask. Why should we have a cadence in the first place? Can’t we reach out to prospects the way we wish to and take them further down in the sales funnel? 

Well, a cadence aims to bring in some diversity in your outreach by reaching out to prospects across different channels. Some people prefer being called over the phone, while others prefer emails, and that is the main reason why you need multi-channels to reach out to prospects. 

Implementing a sales cadence is the perfect way to boost your sales if you develop a well-structured one. Here are the benefits of having a thoughtfully-created cadence,

1. Targeted Outreach

When the outreach is unstructured, you might start with a phone call, then send a follow-up email right away. In another situation, you might give a long gap between emails or even forget to send one at all. Chances are also that you might send the same email to the prospect twice or call the one you just spoke to once again. Such incidents can get too embarrassing, which is why you need a cadence with a clear strategy. 

2. Easy Tracking

Your sales process becomes easier to track when you have a well-defined sales cadence. You can view the whole process in your sales CRM in one place to see your progress and where each prospect stands in the sales funnel. It will help let you know where in your sales process you lose touch with the potential customer. It will be helpful in planning and optimizing the strategy for future campaigns to get better outcomes.

3. Scalable

As a sales manager, when you have to handle many clients at a time and your team is expanding the scalability of your approach is a problem. Do you think it is possible to track where every prospect is in your sales process manually? As a human, you are likely to forget things which is why you need a structured approach. A sales cadence certainly makes it easier to organize and track where prospects are in the pipeline, and you can tag others along in your sales team to get the work done. Therefore, there is better scalability with a well-defined cadence that’s suitable for a growing sales team. 

Key Elements Of Sales Cadence

To make a sales cadence effective, you have to be mindful of its key elements, which are the following,

1. Understanding the target audience

Research is crucial. You need to know your prospects, where they are active, their pain points, and how your product or service solves their challenges. This understanding helps you craft personalized messages that resonate.

2. Timing

Timing is everything in a sales cadence. While you can’t predict a prospect’s day, you can analyze their online behavior to identify optimal times for contact. Experiment with different times and use the trial-and-error method to see what works best. Always consider the prospect’s location to avoid contacting them during inconvenient hours. Timing plays a crucial role in B2B sales cadences, where persistence is key.

3. Channel of outreach

There are primarily three outreach channels that are most widely used: email, phone, and social media. It would be best to try different channels to find out which one is the best. 

• Email: The least intrusive and often the first touchpoint. Personalization and a catchy subject line are critical for standing out.
• Phone: Direct calls help you connect personally. If the prospect doesn’t answer, leaving a voicemail increases the chances of future engagement.
• SMS: Useful but requires prior permission. Avoid using it as the first contact unless the lead has opted in.
• Social Media: Platforms like LinkedIn are highly effective for professional outreach. Engaging prospects on social media enhances your credibility.

A mix of these channels is the best way to engage leads effectively, with sales cadence software helping to streamline the process. 

4. Number of Touchpoints and Spacing

An ideal cadence includes 8–12 touchpoints. Ensure enough spacing (1-2 days) between interactions to avoid overwhelming the prospect. This is a key sales cadence best practice for maintaining engagement without annoying your leads.

5. Length of the Cadence

A cadence should typically last between 2 to 4 weeks, depending on how prospects engage with your outreach. A longer sales cadence works best for prospects who need more time to make decisions, especially in B2B sales cadences.

6. Segmentation of prospects

Segment your prospect list by industry, company size, and persona. Larger organizations may require more touchpoints, while smaller businesses might respond faster. Tailoring your cadence based on segmentation helps you deliver the best sales cadence for each group.

7. Quality of content

No matter how well-structured your cadence is, without high-quality content, it’s unlikely to succeed. Craft personalized, engaging messages that trigger curiosity and encourage responses.

The Framework To Build A Sales Cadence That Works

Following is the framework you can use to build a sales cadence that works. The framework has 3 main parts, namely research, planning, and automation. 

Research 

1. Define Your Cadence Objective

Begin by clarifying the objective of your sales cadence. Are you aiming to get prospects to schedule a demo, sign up for a free trial, or take another action that moves them further down the sales pipeline? It’s better not to aim for closing the deal right away. Instead, focus on moving prospects to the next step of the B2B sales cadence. Defining a clear goal helps you determine which outreach channels to use and guides the development of email copy, call scripts, and CTAs.

2. Evaluate Channels and Resources

When considering outreach, you have a range of channels: email, phone, SMS, social media, and even physical mail. It’s common for sales reps to rely mainly on email and phone, but while these channels generate a good number of leads, using only these can result in missed opportunities. Adding variety by incorporating other channels can increase engagement and differentiate you from competitors.

To determine the best channel for a prospect, assess their potential value. Higher-value prospects warrant more personalized and detailed outreach across multiple channels, while lower-value leads may require more scaled approaches using tools like sales cadence software. For example, for a high-value lead, you might craft a hyper-personalized email followed by social media engagement and phone calls. For lower-value prospects, automation can help you personalize at scale while keeping your outreach efficient.

3. Understand Your Prospects

Personalized outreach is far more effective than generic communication, so it’s essential to understand your prospects thoroughly. This includes researching their pain points, goals, industry, and company. However, personalizing outreach for each prospect individually can be time-consuming, especially when managing high volumes of leads.

A practical solution is to group prospects based on common characteristics, such as industry, location, or job title. This allows you to create tailored email templates that can be used for an entire segment, saving time while maintaining a personal touch. Organizing your outreach in batches will make your cadences sales more efficient without sacrificing personalization.

4. Identify Which Pain Points You Can Solve

To resonate with your prospects, you must clearly identify the specific problems your product or service can solve. Look at your existing customer base and find similarities between your current clients and your prospects. Understand what your customers appreciate about your product, the problems it solved, and the impact it had on their revenue or productivity.

Conducting surveys can be useful for gathering insights into the exact value your solution provides. Use these findings to craft your value proposition, which can be incorporated into your messages. This approach will make your outreach more relevant, allowing prospects to connect their pain points with the solutions you offer, increasing the likelihood of conversion.

5. Find Ways to Influence Prospects

Influencing your prospects is about offering value that nudges them closer to making a decision. You can do this by providing resources, sharing relevant case studies (social proof), or leveraging mutual connections to increase credibility. Tailoring your outreach with these persuasive elements ensures your sales cadence isn’t just about checking off touch points but about providing meaningful interactions that build trust.

Planning

6. Plan Your Sales Cadence

With the research complete, it’s time to design a clear plan for your sales cadence:

A. Determine the Number of Touches

Decide on the number of touches your cadence will include. On average, it takes between 8 to 10 touchpoints to engage a prospect effectively. Each touch should provide value whether through a resource, an insight, or a personalized message. Use the information gathered in the research stage to decide what to offer at each step.

B. Choose the Outreach Channels

Once you’ve set the number of touches, decide which communication channels to use for each. For example, you might start with a LinkedIn connection request or comment on a social post, followed by an email that references your interaction. A multi-channel approach combining emails, phone calls, SMS, and social media—maximizes your chances of engaging prospects. This diversification is a hallmark of sales cadence best practices.

C. Define the Purpose of Each Touch

Each touchpoint should have a clear purpose, whether it’s to introduce yourself, follow up on an earlier message, or offer a resource. The purpose should align with the cadence’s overall goal, and your CTA should match that purpose. This clarity ensures that each touch brings the prospect closer to entering your sales pipeline.

D. Time Intervals Between Touches

While persistence is key, being overly aggressive can drive prospects away. The timing between touches should be carefully considered. Early in the cadence, touches can be more frequent, but as time progresses, it’s best to space them out. A good rule of thumb is 8 to 10 touches spread over a month, with at least 1-2 days between each touch to avoid overwhelming the prospect.

E. Craft Engaging Email Copy

Once your cadence structure is in place, focus on creating email copy that captures attention and elicits a response. Your subject line, introduction, and value proposition are crucial to hooking the prospect. Personalization is vital here-prospects can easily spot generic emails, and they’re likely to disregard them. Focus on addressing their specific needs, referencing their pain points, and clearly explaining how your solution can help. If you optimize your copy, you can increase engagement and responses significantly, making it an essential component of the best sales cadence.

Automation

7. Using Automated Tools for Outreach

Executing a sales cadence manually can be overwhelming, especially when reaching out to a large number of prospects. If you have 100 prospects and 10 touchpoints, that’s 1,000 interactions to track! Automating the process through sales cadence software can significantly improve efficiency and consistency. Tools like SalesBlink enable you to schedule and automate follow-ups, while tracking each prospect’s engagement and response. When a prospect replies, the software cancels the rest of the sequence, ensuring no unnecessary follow-ups. This allows you to focus on personal interactions with engaged leads while automation handles the repetitive tasks.

By automating your outreach, you can scale your efforts while maintaining personalization and improving response rates. Sales cadence tools also help monitor the effectiveness of each cadence, giving you insights into what’s working and where adjustments are needed.

Sales Cadence Examples

Following are the best outbound sales cadence examples that will work for you,

1. B2B sales cadence

Let’s begin with a B2B sales cadence that uses email and phone as the main channels. The objective is to take the prospect to the next stage of the sales cycle.

Following is a cadence for B2B sales cadence,

Day 1 – Phone call

Day 2 – Email

Day 4 – Phone call + Voicemail

Day 11 – Email

Day 18 – Email

Day 32 – Phone call + Email

Day 62 – Email

After 30 days – Email

After 6 months – Phone Call

You can change the time of sending the email or making the call so that there are more chances of connecting with the prospect. Follow up till you get a definite response from the prospect. 

2. Outbound sales cadence

When you are trying to connect with someone who doesn’t know who you are, it is a good idea to stick to 6 touchpoints. Send the breakup email after you get no reply from their end, followed by sending an email once every quarter. The prospect may not have a need at present, but they may need what you have to offer later on. 

Day 1 – First Email

Day 2 – Email

Day 4 – Phone call + Voicemail

Day 7 – Email

Day 11 – Phone call

Day 14 – Breakup email

3. Inbound sales cadence when leads show interest 

You can follow up with more vigor with an inbound lead. If the lead is a qualified one, you can put more effort than usual to move them further down the sales funnel. If the lead doesn’t match your ideal buyer persona, you can reduce your efforts and also use automated email and SMS alone. 

Following is a cadence for the lead that matches your buyer persona,

Day 1 – Phone call

Day 2 – Email

Day 4 – Phone call + Voicemail

Day 6 – Email

Day 11 – Phone Call

Day 16 – SMS or LinkedIn Message

Day 20 – Phone call + Voicemail

Day 30 – Email + SMS

Day 60 – Phone call + Voicemail + Email

+30 days – Email

+6 months – Phone call

4. Sales cadence for leads who sign up for trials

With the new trial signup, the lead is closer to becoming a paying customer of a SaaS company. Your sales cadence has to be different because the lead uses your solution, and you have to make them stay back. It will most often involve emails and spaced out as per the length of your free trial.

Consider this example of a sales cadence for a 14-day free trial,

Day 1 – Email – welcome

Day 2 – Email – Encourage to do some activity

Day 4 – Email – Encourage to do some activity

Day 6 – Phone call

Day 9 – Email – Encourage to do some activity

Day 11 – Email to choose a paid plan

Day 15 – Email to intimate expiry of free trial with options to upgrade.

Day 17 – Phone call

Day 25 – Email 

+30 Days – Email

+90 Days – Phone call

At the beginning of the trial, the focus is to make the users perform activities in the app. As days progress and reach almost the end of the trial, the focus shifts to encouraging them to upgrade to a paid plan.  

5. Sales cadence for leads who don’t schedule a meeting

It is quite common for some leads to interact with the sales reps and even get a demo but never schedule a meeting to take the conversation ahead. That means you have to give them the nudge to book a meeting with you,

Day 1 – Email with calendar link + Phone call

Day 2 – Phone call

Day 3 – Email

Day 4 – Phone call + voicemail

Day 5 – Email + Phone call

Day 10 – Email

Day 20 – Phone call + InMail

Day 40 – Phone call & voicemail + Email

+30 Days – Email

+60 days – Phone call

6. Sales Cadence for enterprises

To sell to enterprises, you have to get approval from several stakeholders. Therefore, you have to sell to people across different hierarchies of the company. In addition, you have to find the decision-makers and the end-users who will use your product or service. 

Following is how an ideal cadence would look like,

• Day 1 – Email to high-level authority
• Day 6 – Email
• Day 14 – Email + Phone call
• Day 22 – Email
• Day 25 – Email to mid-level authority
• Day 27 – Phone call
• Day 34 – Phone call + Email
• Day 39 – Email to lower-level authority
• Day 41 – Email 
• Day 43 – Phone call + voicemail
• Day 44 – Email
• Day 48 – Phone call with voicemail + Email
• Day 50 – Phone call to the person who will use the product or service
• Day 52 – Email
• Day 55 – Email
• +30 Days – Email to lower-level authority
• +60 Days – Email to mid-level authority
• +90 days – Email to high-level authority

How To Build A Sales Cadence?

1. Set a Goal for Your Sales Cadence

Start by defining what you want to achieve with your sales cadence. Are you aiming to generate leads, close deals, or nurture existing relationships? A clear goal will help you measure success and refine your approach over time.

2. Figure Out the Target Audiences for Your Goal 

Identify who you’re trying to reach. Use SalesBlink’s built-in research tools to gather information on your target audience, such as industry, role, and pain points. Understanding your audience will guide your outreach efforts and increase engagement rates. 

3. Segment Leads Based on Personas  

Group your leads based on key personas. For example, you can segment by job title, company size, or industry. This ensures that your messaging resonates with each group’s unique needs. SalesBlink helps you import and manage segmented lists efficiently.

4. Decide on Communication Channels for Each Segment

Choose the right channels for each persona. Whether it’s cold emailing, LinkedIn outreach, or phone calls, SalesBlink allows you to mix multiple channels into a single cadence, ensuring well-rounded outreach.  

5. Build a Sales Cadence for Each Segment  

Use SalesBlink’s drag-and-drop interface to create a custom sequence for each segment. You can schedule when each touchpoint occurs (e.g., email on day 1, follow-up call on day 3, LinkedIn message on day 5), ensuring a consistent flow of communication.

6. Automate Where It Makes Sense

Automate repetitive tasks like sending emails and tracking responses. SalesBlink offers robust automation features, allowing you to pre-schedule follow-ups, track interactions, and set conditions for next steps based on lead behavior.

7. Add Value With Each Outreach

Ensure that every message you send provides value, whether it’s sharing relevant content, offering a solution to a problem, or highlighting how your product can meet their needs. SalesBlink provides templates and content suggestions to help you craft impactful outreach messages.

How To Measure And Track The Result Of Sales Cadence?

The clear answer to the above question would be automated tools. Most sales engagement tools help with tracking, and you can find out the number of clicks, opens, and also replies to your emails. There are specific metrics that will help you calculate the success of your campaign, and they include the following,

1. Open Rate

Open rates indicate how many prospects actually open your emails. This metric is crucial because it gives you insight into the effectiveness of your subject lines. If your open rates are high, it suggests that your subject lines are enticing enough to grab attention. However, if the open rates are low, it may signal that your subject lines need more work.

2. Conversion Rates

Conversion rates tell you how many prospects take the desired action outlined in your email or call-to-action (CTA). This could be anything from scheduling a demo, signing up for a free trial, or downloading a resource. A high conversion rate means your cadences sales are working and pushing prospects further down the sales funnel. If your conversion rates are low, it may indicate that you need to refine your messaging or provide a clearer value proposition. Monitoring conversion rates regularly is key to understanding how your cadence is impacting your bottom line.

3. Response Rate

Response rate measures how many prospects reply to your outreach, whether through email, phone, or social media messages. This metric is crucial because it reflects the level of engagement your sales cadence is driving. A high response rate suggests that your messaging, timing, and value propositions are resonating with prospects. It shows that the outreach is striking a chord, and your communication is worth their time. If your response rate is low, it can be a sign that something in your cadences sales strategy needs adjusting.

4. Meeting Booking Rate

This metric tracks how many of your outreach attempts result in booked meetings or demos. Meeting booking rates are a great indicator of how well your b2b sales cadence is performing in getting prospects to take the next step. A higher booking rate means your outreach is effective, and your sales team is connecting with the right prospects at the right time. If your meeting booking rate is low, you might need to adjust your follow-up strategy, or refine your CTAs to make them more compelling.

5. Feedback

While metrics like open rates and conversions provide quantitative data, qualitative feedback from prospects can offer invaluable insights. Direct feedback might come in the form of responses to your emails or even during phone calls. Whether it’s positive or constructive criticism, this feedback helps you understand how your cadence is perceived and can uncover areas for improvement. Sales teams should be open to adapting based on the feedback they receive, as it could highlight gaps in the approach or messaging.

6. A/B Testing

A/B testing involves sending two versions of an email, script, or CTA to a similar group of prospects to see which one performs better. You can experiment with different subject lines, email content, timings, or even the channel of outreach to discover what resonates best with your audience. Through regular A/B testing, you’ll be able to make data-driven decisions and continuously optimize your sales cadence. The more you test, the more refined and effective your cadence will become over time.

7. Generated Revenue

Ultimately, the success of any sales cadence boils down to how much revenue it helps generate. This is the most critical metric, as it shows the actual return on investment (ROI) of your sales efforts. It’s important to regularly assess how many closed deals and overall revenue your cadence is bringing in. Tracking generated revenue ensures that you’re not just reaching out for the sake of outreach but also driving real, impactful results that contribute to your company’s growth. If your cadence isn’t generating revenue, then no matter how good the open rates or response rates are, you need to revisit and adjust your approach.

Best Practices For Effective Sales Cadence

After the sales cadence examples, let’s look at a list of a few sales cadence best practices for team leaders to follow,

1. Create an ICP

You have to try reaching out to people who are more likely to purchase your product or service, and that will only happen if they have a need for it. So, before creating your cadence, you have to create your ideal customer profile. It will help you target only those who will find your offering relevant.

2. Choose your channels

Your sales cadence must use most of the popular outreach channels such as email, phone, text messages, and social media. Once you choose them, you can decide which of them you will use more. This mainly depends on your industry and the target audience. Before deciding the channel, do check your ideal customer profile. 

3. Focus on what you have for prospects

When a prospect interacts with you, their primary intent is to know what is in store for them. They want to know how your product or service can benefit them. So, you have to tell them that initially, or else they may lose interest in you. 

4. Reach out to the prospects at the right time

The best time to reach out to prospects over a phone call is between 10:30 and 12:30 pm and between 2 pm and 4 pm. Keep in mind who you are calling because the top and mid-level managers are available during the first half of the day. On the other hand, employees are more likely to be reachable after lunch and during the second half of the day.

5. Stop with 3 touchpoints a day

Don’t go overboard and annoy the prospect. Suppose you call and the prospect doesn’t answer, send them a voicemail and an email. However, don’t cross the line of 3 touchpoints at any cost.  

Also, learn about time management for sales reps.

6. Send a breakup email

While it is tough to hear a “No” from a prospect, the challenging part is when there is no reply from the prospect’s end. It usually means that they are interested but couldn’t respond or don’t want to take the conversation ahead. Here you can use the power of a breakup email. You can be courteous and at the same time mention that you are closing the file. However, you allow prospects to connect with you if they wish to in the future.  

7. Accept rejection

We know it is tough to face rejection, but take it with a good spirit and find out why the prospect is saying ‘No’. Maybe you can solve the issue with your product or service. Therefore, please take the rejection as a suggestion. 

8. Test and optimize your cadence

You will always be a student with sales cadences, so you always have to focus on testing and optimization. After you develop your cadence, you have to monitor its performance carefully. If at all there are hiccups, you can find out the reason and resolve the issue.  

If you ever feel low, turn to sales motivational quotes.

Get Ready With Your Sales Cadence!

As you have seen that it takes a lot of effort to build a sales cadence, are you convinced to automate the process? We saw earlier too that it is not humanly possible to track each email. An automated tool that supports multi-channel sales outreach would definitely help. That’s why we have SalesBlink. It is your answer as you can create outreach campaigns across multiple channels such as email, phone, and LinkedIn with ease. Follow-up sequences are easy to schedule, with the option of stopping them when you get a reply from the prospect.

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