What is a sales cadence?
In short
A sales cadence is the planned sequence of contact attempts across channels and days that you use to reach one prospect.
On this page
The definition
A cadence specifies how many times you will attempt contact, on which days, through which channels, and what each message says. It exists so that follow-up happens by design rather than by memory.
The word is used interchangeably with sequence. There is no meaningful difference.
How long should it be
Long enough that you are not relying on one email arriving at a convenient moment, short enough that you stop before becoming a nuisance. Most working cadences run four to seven touches over two to three weeks.
The number matters less than the spacing. Touches bunched into three days read as automation; the same number spread over three weeks reads as persistence.
Mixing channels
Email and LinkedIn together outperform either alone, because a name that appears twice in different places reads as a person rather than a campaign.
Calls belong in the middle rather than the start, once there is a reason for the call to make sense.
When to stop
When the sequence ends, and permanently when someone asks. Continuing past a clear no costs more in reputation than the reply was worth.
A clean break-up message at the end recovers a surprising share of replies, because it removes the pressure to respond.
Frequently asked
What is a sales cadence?
How many touches should a cadence have?
Should a cadence include calls and LinkedIn?
Want the accounts behind these numbers?
Book a short strategy call. We will show you which employers in your region and role family are hiring right now, and what we would write to them.
Book a strategy call