What Is Sales Cadence?

A sales cadence is the scheduled sequence of touchpoints a salesperson executes to engage a prospect: which channels to use, in what order, and with how many days between each touch. Where an email sequence usually means the automated email steps alone, a cadence spans channels — emails, phone calls, voicemails, LinkedIn connection requests, and social engagement — orchestrated as one plan. A typical outbound cadence runs 8 to 15 touches over two to four weeks: an email on day one, a LinkedIn connection on day two, a call on day four, a follow-up email on day six, and so on, ending with a breakup touch. Cadences exist because a single touch rarely lands — prospects are busy, and channels reach different people differently — and because giving SDRs a defined structure makes activity consistent, measurable, and improvable instead of ad hoc.

Sales Cadence in Practice

A working example over three weeks: day 1, personalized email; day 2, LinkedIn profile view and connection request; day 4, phone call with voicemail; day 6, follow-up email adding a new angle; day 9, second call, no voicemail; day 11, LinkedIn message if connected; day 14, email with a relevant proof point; day 18, breakup email. Every channel stops the moment the prospect replies anywhere — continuing an automated email after someone answered your call is how outreach reads as machinery. Practical rules: space email touches two to four days apart, front-load the channels where your market actually responds, and match send windows to the prospect's timezone and business hours. The common mistakes are hammering one channel eight times and calling it multichannel, running cadences with no breakup step so prospects drift in limbo indefinitely, and measuring completion (touches executed) instead of outcomes (replies and meetings per hundred prospects entering the cadence).