Glossary: outreach
What is a sales cadence?
A sales cadence is a planned series of touches, such as emails, calls and social messages, sent to one prospect in a set order with set gaps between them. It runs until the prospect replies or the last step is reached.
The four parts of a sales cadence
Touches
How many attempts in total
Channels
Email, phone or social
Spacing
The days between touches
Exit
What ends it early
A sales cadence is defined by four choices.
Touches, channels, spacing and exit: change any one of the four and you have a different cadence. Writing them down is what makes a result repeatable.
Touches and channels set the effort.
Decide how many attempts in total each prospect gets and through which channels: email, phone or social. An email-only cadence is the simplest to run.
Spacing sets the rhythm.
Spacing is the days between touches. Gaps of a few days give the prospect time to answer without letting the thread go cold.
The exit rule sets the end.
The exit is what ends it early: a reply, a meeting booked or an opt-out stops the cadence at once. Otherwise it ends after the last touch.
Here is a five-email cadence for an invented company.
Imagine Pellowick, an invented company that sells compliance training. It plans five emails over 14 days. Day 1 is the first email. Day 3 is a short follow-up in the same thread. Day 6 offers a different angle. Day 10 shares a one-line example. Day 14 is a polite last note.
Pellowick sends the cadence to 300 prospects. Anyone who replies leaves it at once and gets a personal answer. By day 14 the cadence has finished for everyone, and Pellowick can see which of the five emails drew the most replies.
Pellowick's five emails over 14 days
- Day 1First email
- Day 3Short follow-up
- Day 6A different angle
- Day 10A one-line example
- Day 14A polite last note
Build a sales cadence in four steps.
A cadence is a plan you can test. Start simple and change one thing at a time.
The four steps in order
- 1Pick channels
- 2Write every step
- 3Set the gaps
- 4Read by step
- 1
Pick channels you can run well.
Start with the one channel you can do properly. Add another only when the first is working.
- 2
Write every step before you send the first.
Each one should stand on its own and add something new, not repeat the last.
- 3
Set the gaps between touches.
Start with short gaps and lengthen them. Keep sends to working days.
- 4
Read by step, not only in total.
See which touch earns replies and which is dead weight. Rewrite or remove the weak ones.
Prymatica writes personalized, multi-touch email sequences for you, sends them from warmed, authenticated domains and follows up automatically. See how Prymatica's cold email process works.
Teams make these mistakes with a sales cadence.
Every follow-up says the same thing.
"Just checking in" five times is one email sent five times. Give each touch its own reason.
The cadence keeps running after a reply.
An automated follow-up to someone who already answered looks careless. Replies must stop the sequence.
It stops after one or two touches.
Ending early leaves prospects who missed the first email with no second chance to answer.
These glossary terms sit next to sales cadence.
These Prymatica pages go deeper on sales cadence.
- 9 Cold Email Follow-Up Sequences That Doubled Our Reply Rate (Templates Inside)
- LinkedIn Outreach: How to Book B2B Meetings Without Getting Flagged
- Ringless Voicemail vs Cold Email: Which Channel Wins for B2B Outreach?
- How Prymatica's cold email process works
- Lead generation agencies compared with Prymatica
Questions
People ask these questions about sales cadence.
What is the difference between a sales cadence and an email sequence?
An email sequence is a series of emails only. A sales cadence is the wider plan, which can include emails, calls and social messages. An email-only cadence and an email sequence are the same thing.
How many touches should a sales cadence have?
Enough to give a busy person several chances to answer, and few enough that each touch still says something new. Decide the number from your own reply data by step.
How long should a sales cadence run?
Long enough to space the touches a few days apart. The five-email cadence in the example above takes 14 days. Longer cadences suit larger deals with slower decisions.
What ends a sales cadence?
A reply of any kind, a booked meeting, an opt-out or a bounced address should all stop it immediately. If none of those happen, it ends after the final planned touch.
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