How to Build a Sales Cadence

A sales cadence is a structured sequence of outreach touchpoints — across email, phone, Linkedin, and other channels — designed to engage a specific prospect type in a specific context. It defines what contact is made, through which channel, in what order, at what intervals, and with what content at each step.

Without a cadence, outreach is inconsistent — some prospects get one email and are never contacted again, others get followed up with daily in a way that damages the relationship. A well-designed cadence ensures every prospect receives the right level of engagement, in the right sequence, without relying on individual rep discipline to remember who to contact and when.

The Anatomy of a Sales Cadence

Every cadence has five design dimensions:

How many touchpoints, over how many days? A cold outbound cadence for a mid-market prospect typically runs 12–16 steps over 20–30 days. An inbound lead cadence (prospect has shown intent) can be shorter and more aggressive — 6–8 steps over 10 days. An enterprise ABM cadence for a strategic account might run for 60+ days with more customised content at each step.

Which channels are included and in what proportion? A balanced mid-market cadence typically includes: email (50–60% of steps), phone calls (25–30%), and LinkedIn (15–20%). The channel mix should reflect your ICP's communication preferences — some personas respond to calls, others exclusively to email or LinkedIn messages.

The time between touchpoints. Early in a cadence, spacing should be shorter (1–2 days) to maintain momentum and context continuity. Later steps can space out (4–7 days) to avoid frequency fatigue. The cadence should feel persistent, not aggressive.

Each step should add value or change angle — not simply repeat the initial message with a "just following up" subject line. A well-constructed cadence progresses through: initial value proposition → social proof → specific trigger/observation → direct ask → peer reference → break-up.

How much personalisation is required at each step? Step 1 (initial email) should be highly personalised — specific to the prospect's company, role, and situation. Later steps can be templated with lighter personalisation. Steps that require heavy research per prospect are expensive to run at volume — design the personalisation requirement to match the prospect's priority tier.

A Proven Mid-Market Cold Outbound Cadence

Research-based opening line, relevant observation about the prospect's company or role, single relevant social proof point, one clear ask (20-minute call). Subject: specific trigger or direct question.

Connection request with a brief note referencing the email ("Sent you a note yesterday — thought connecting here made sense too"). No pitch in the connection request.

Voicemail if no answer: brief (20 seconds), reference the email, single sentence on why relevant, specific ask to reply to the email. No pitch in the voicemail.

Different value angle from Step 1 — if Step 1 led with a trigger, Step 4 leads with social proof. Or vice versa. A prospect who didn't open Step 1 might respond to a different frame.

Short, conversational message — not a pitch. Reference something relevant from their LinkedIn activity (a post they wrote, a company announcement) with a single follow-up question.

Second call attempt. Voicemail: reference the previous touchpoints, acknowledge you've reached out a few times, offer a specific reason to take the call now.

Reference a specific customer similar to their company. One sentence on what that customer was dealing with, one sentence on what changed. Ask if it resonates.

Third call. Short voicemail if no answer. No new pitch — brief reference to the thread.

Share a genuinely useful insight, piece of content, or benchmark relevant to their role. No pitch attached. Builds relationship credit whether or not they respond.

Check in on the LinkedIn connection with a direct question: "Is [specific problem] something that's on the agenda at [Company] right now?"

Fourth call. Final voicemail.

Final email. "Going to stop reaching out — clearly not the right time or the right fit. If that changes, I'm easy to find. Good luck with [relevant company context]." This email often generates the most replies of any step in the cadence.

Cadence Variants to Build

A single generic cadence is not a cadence strategy. Build variants for each distinct situation:

Higher urgency, faster step spacing (first 3 steps within 48 hours), tone acknowledges their inbound action ("saw you downloaded X").

For prospects who were previously engaged but went cold. Shorter (6–8 steps), acknowledges the gap, leads with something new (product update, relevant case study).

For contacts met at a conference or webinar. References the specific event and what was discussed. Shorter cycle, more conversational tone.

For existing customers being targeted for upsell or expansion. Entirely different tone — starts from relationship, not cold prospecting. References their current usage and success.

Not a prospecting cadence — a structured follow-up sequence for AEs after a first Discovery Call, ensuring every next step is executed and deal momentum is maintained.

Measuring Cadence Performance

Every cadence should be measured against three metrics:

A/B test individual steps — one variable at a time — with minimum 100 sends per variant before drawing conclusions. Optimise the lowest-performing step first; improving a 2% step to 4% has more impact than improving a 30% step to 35%.

How Brazn and Sales Engagement Tools Work Together

Brazn integrates with Salesloft, Outreach, and Apollo to connect cadence-generated pipeline with qualification intelligence. Knowing which cadence steps produced the prospects who became well-qualified opportunities — and which produced engaged-but-unqualified pipeline — enables smarter cadence design over time.

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About the Author

Alex Margarit, Sales AI Expert, SaaS Sales Leader, BMC, ServiceNow, Docusign — 25+ years in SaaS sales.